Writing about development and technology.
MCP lets AI read files, query databases, and call APIs through a standardized protocol. Think of it as USB for AI tool connections.
ChatGPT answers questions. AI Agents plan, use tools, and complete tasks autonomously. Understanding this difference changes how you build with AI.
Asking AI to 'make a login page' gives garbage. Structured prompts with context, constraints, and examples produce production-ready code.
I actually used all three AI coding tools for real projects. Here's an honest comparison of Copilot, Claude Code, and Cursor.
10MB images upload fine but 2GB videos timeout. Chunked uploads, presigned URLs, and retry logic for robust file upload systems.
Sending one notification is easy. As notifications scale up, preventing duplicates, respecting preferences, and handling retries becomes a completely different engineering problem.
Started with SQL LIKE, hit its limits, moved to Elasticsearch, and got shocked by operational costs. The real trade-offs of search systems.
Integrating a payment API is just the beginning. Idempotency, refund flows, and double-charge prevention make payment systems genuinely hard.
Building a feed like Instagram sounds simple until a user with 1M followers posts. Understanding push vs pull models and fan-out strategies.
1:1 chat is straightforward, but group chat, read receipts, and offline messages turn it into a completely different beast.
A URL shortener sounds trivial until you face hash collisions, expiration policies, and redirect latency. A microcosm of system design.
Optimizing by gut feeling made my app slower. Learn to use Performance profiler to find real bottlenecks and fix what matters.
Your app starts fast but slows to a crawl after 10 minutes. Learn to find and fix memory leaks using Chrome DevTools Memory tab.
Your app works perfectly on localhost but crashes in production. Set up Sentry and error tracking to catch bugs before users complain.
That wall of red text in your console isn't random noise. Learn to read stack traces and find bugs in seconds, not hours.
Stop guessing why your React app is slow. React DevTools Profiler shows exactly which components re-render and why.
When your API returns unexpected data, the Network tab is your best friend. Learn to inspect requests, responses, headers, and timing.
You don't need 100 console.logs to find a bug. Learn to use browser debugger, breakpoints, and watch expressions effectively.
Stop firing API calls on every keystroke and scroll event. A practical guide to debounce and throttle with real-world examples.
Editing a modal inside a dashboard requires 5 clicks to see changes? Isolate your UI with Storybook and develop components 10x faster.
