𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗕𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗘𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗕𝗹𝗼𝗴𝘀 𝗧𝗼 𝗙𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄 𝗶𝗻 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲
I learn more from reading how Netflix, Uber, and Stripe build their systems than from any course or textbook.
Here are 10 engineering blogs I keep coming back to and specific articles worth reading from each:
𝟭. 𝗡𝗲𝘁𝗳𝗹𝗶𝘅 𝗧𝗲𝗰𝗵 𝗕𝗹𝗼𝗴 (
netflixtechblog.com)
Microservices, resilience patterns, and video streaming at 230M subscribers.
- Netflix Conductor: A Microservices Orchestrator
- Keeping Netflix Reliable Using Prioritized Load Shedding
- High Quality Video Encoding at Scale
𝟮. 𝗘𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝘁 𝗠𝗲𝘁𝗮 (
engineering.fb.com)
Distributed systems and data platforms serving billions of users.
- How Meta Built the Infrastructure for Threads
- Scaling Memcache at Facebook
𝟯. 𝗨𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝗘𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 (
uber.com/blog/engineering)
Real-time push platforms, multi-tenancy, and API gateway architecture.
- Service-Oriented Architecture at Uber
- Uber's Real-Time Push Platform
𝟰. 𝗖𝗹𝗼𝘂𝗱𝗳𝗹𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗕𝗹𝗼𝗴 (
blog.cloudflare.com)
Networking internals, DNS, DDoS mitigation, and edge computing.
- How We Built Pingora, the Proxy That Connects Cloudflare to the Internet
- Using DNS to Estimate the Worldwide State of IPv6 Adoption
𝟱. 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗽𝗲 𝗕𝗹𝗼𝗴 (
stripe.com/blog)
Payment infrastructure, API versioning, and idempotency in distributed systems.
- Designing Robust and Predictable APIs with Idempotency
- Online Migrations at Scale
𝟲. 𝗗𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗱 𝗕𝗹𝗼𝗴 (
discord.com/blog)
Real-time messaging and data processing at a trillion-message scale.
- How Discord Indexes Trillions of Messages
- How Discord Resizes 150 Million Images Every Day with Go and C
𝟳. 𝗔𝗶𝗿𝗯𝗻𝗯 𝗧𝗲𝗰𝗵 (
medium.com/airbnb-engineerin…)
Distributed payments, search infrastructure, and knowledge systems.
- Avoiding Double Payments in a Distributed Payments System
- Scaling Knowledge Access and Retrieval at Airbnb
𝟴. 𝗗𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗯𝗼𝘅 𝗧𝗲𝗰𝗵 (
dropbox.tech)
Storage infrastructure and performance at 700M registered users.
- Cross-Shard Transactions at 10 Million Requests per Second
- Intelligent DNS-Based Load Balancing at Dropbox
𝟵. 𝗦𝗽𝗼𝘁𝗶𝗳𝘆 𝗘𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 (
engineering.atspotify.com)
Event-driven architecture, ML recommendations, and developer experience.
- Software Visualization: Challenge, Accepted
- How Spotify Achieves Consensus in 350 Microservices
𝟭𝟬. 𝗚𝗶𝘁𝗛𝘂𝗯 𝗘𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 (
github.blog/engineering)
Git internals, CI/CD at scale, and developer tooling.
- How GitHub Processes Millions of Webhook Deliveries
These blogs have taught me more about building systems at scale than any course I've taken. I read them weekly.