Dates Are Not Data, They Are Context
Why dates and timestamps are commonly misunderstood in software development, how timezone mismatches lead to reporting bugs, and why calendar dates are context rather than plain data.
Writing
Notes, deep-dives, and reflections on backend systems, databases, architecture, and engineering decisions.
Why dates and timestamps are commonly misunderstood in software development, how timezone mismatches lead to reporting bugs, and why calendar dates are context rather than plain data.
A practical guide on how to use tools like Requestly and ngrok to redirect browser requests from a production frontend to your local backend, making debugging multi-step workflows significantly easier.
Exploring the concept of 'slop debt' - poorly architected software created by AI agents that lacks clear ownership and creates unexpected maintenance challenges.
Why HTTP-only refresh token cookies work in Postman but fail in browsers due to cookie Path scoping mismatches, and how to debug authentication issues.
A real-world experience integrating a third-party API that lacked a sandbox environment and charged per call, requiring mock implementations and offline testing.
TOTP (Time-based One-Time Password) enables two-factor authentication without internet connectivity by combining a shared secret key and 30-second time windows.
A backend production incident where an appointment endpoint caused 4-second response times due to an N+1 query problem with 6,000+ DB calls, and how we solved it with query batching and projections.
A physics student with no programming background shares their overwhelming first experience with Python in a college computer lab, facing terminal panic and indentation errors.