Question Bank

What is inside

Every section, and every one of them opens in the browser. Nothing here is hidden: if a section you need is not in this list, the notebook is not the right one and you should not spend a week on it.

1. How to use this book
2. 1Opening
3. 2Framing the problem
4. 3Ingestion, getting the bytes in
5. 4The handoff
6. 5The queue
7. 6Processing
8. 7State and visibility
9. 8Senior concerns
10. 9The interview itself
11. 10Final review
12. 11Opening
13. 12The naive design, and the seven ways it dies
14. 13Three kinds of storage
15. 14Anatomy of an object
16. 15Inside the system
17. 16Getting the bytes in
18. 17Large files
19. 18Getting the bytes out
20. 19Final review
21. 20Opening
22. 21How to review code out loud
23. 22The Node.js runtime
24. 23Express and the HTTP boundary
25. 24The client: React and Redux
26. 25PostgreSQL
27. 26MongoDB
28. 27Kafka
29. 28Twenty-four more drills
30. 29Delivery
31. 30Opening
32. 31Why a database at all
33. 32Types are the first constraint
34. 33Designing the schema
35. 34Querying for an API
36. 35Making it fast
37. 36Correctness under concurrency
38. 37Final review
39. 38Opening
40. 39Injection
41. 40Authentication
42. 41Authorization
43. 42The browser is a boundary too
44. 43Final review
45. 44What "fast" means
46. 45Finding the bottleneck
47. 46The database
48. 47Caching
49. 48More machines
50. 49The stateful part
51. 50Moving work in space and time
52. 51Architecture decisions
53. 52The interview
54. 53Final review
55. 54Opening
56. 55The client always spoke first
57. 56Server-sent events: the response that never ends
58. 57WebSocket: leaving HTTP behind
59. 58How many connections fit on one machine
60. 59The connection is state
61. 60Delivery: gaps, storms and fan-out
62. 61The parts the lecture left out
63. 62Final review
64. 63Opening
65. 64The standard exists so you do not have to negotiate
66. 65Resources, and the URL that names them
67. 66The method is a promise about repeating
68. 67The response is the other half of the interface
69. 68The list endpoint is where APIs go wrong
70. 69When CRUD runs out
71. 70Consistency is the whole product
72. 71The interview itself
73. 72Final review
74. 73Opening
75. 74The words that came before the acronym
76. 75The five
77. 76Using them without being used by them
78. 77The interview itself
79. 78Opening
80. 79Caching is a bet about staleness
81. 80Where caches live
82. 81The strategies
83. 82Invalidation
84. 83The failure modes
85. 84Telling someone else's cache what to do
86. 85Redis in practice
87. 86The interview itself
88. 87Final review
89. 88Answers, Notebook 01
90. 89Answers, Notebook 02
91. 90Answers, Notebook 03
92. 91Answers, Notebook 04
93. 92Answers, Notebook 05
94. 93Answers, Notebook 06
95. 94Answers, Notebook 07
96. 95Answers, Notebook 08
97. 96Answers, Notebook 09
98. 97Answers, Notebook 10

How to read it

Read with a pen. Every notebook opens with a question to answer before you start and asks you to redo the answer at the end, and the margin in the Print edition exists so you have somewhere to be wrong first. The Tablet edition is 16:9 with vector text, so note apps draw on it rather than treating it as a photograph.