EM and the High-Performer / High-Difficulty Problem
3 min read The most common difficult-EM scenario in interviews: a productive engineer is also creating problems for the team. They ship the […] Read article
Engineering Manager
Engineering Manager
Growing Junior Managers: From New EM to Effective Leader
3 min read If you manage managers, growing them is one of your highest-leverage activities. A strong senior EM can grow 4–8 new Read article
Mobile System Design, System Design
Design a Mobile Read-It-Later App
2 min read Read-it-later apps (Pocket, Instapaper, Matter, Readwise Reader) save articles for later consumption — stripped of ads, formatted for reading, available Read article
Mobile System Design, System Design
Design a Mobile Plant / Pet Care App
2 min read Plant care apps (PictureThis, Planta, Greg) and pet care apps (11pets, Pawtrack) seem niche but pop up frequently in mobile Read article
Mobile System Design, System Design
Design a Mobile TV Remote / Smart Home Controller App
2 min read Mobile remote controller apps (Apple TV Remote, Sonos, Logitech Harmony, smart-home remotes) are tiny apps with surprising depth. Real-time low-latency Read article
Mobile System Design, System Design
Design a Mobile Smart Lock and Access App
2 min read Smart lock apps (August, Schlage, Yale, Latch, Airbnb) combine mobile, IoT, and security in a high-stakes UX. Forget your password? Read article
Mobile System Design, System Design
Design a Mobile Restaurant Reservation App
2 min read Restaurant reservation apps (OpenTable, Resy, Tock) are surprisingly rich system design topics. Inventory management at sub-hour granularity, time-zone awareness, no-show Read article
Mobile System Design, System Design
Design a Mobile Group Expense Splitter (Splitwise-Style)
2 min read Group expense apps (Splitwise, Tricount, SettleUp) sit at the intersection of social and financial. The interview tests whether you understand Read article
Frontend Engineering
Progressive Web Apps: Manifest, Install, and Offline-First
3 min read Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) hit their decade mark in 2025. The 2026 reality: PWAs are real, useful, and underused. The Read article
Frontend Engineering
Frontend Caching Strategies: HTTP, Memory, IndexedDB
3 min read Caching is one of the most effective ways to make a frontend feel fast. It is also one of the Read article
Frontend Engineering
Web Workers and Service Workers: When and How
3 min read Web Workers and Service Workers are two confusingly-named browser APIs with very different purposes. Senior frontend interviews probe whether you Read article
Frontend Engineering
Frontend Error Handling: Boundaries, Logging, and Recovery
3 min read Most frontend code assumes happy paths. Production reality is messier — APIs fail, networks drop, user devices crash, browsers behave Read article
Frontend Engineering
Build an Image Gallery with Lightbox
2 min read An image gallery with lightbox (thumbnails grid + tap-to-zoom modal) appears in many products. The interview tests virtualization, accessibility, gesture Read article
Frontend Engineering
Build a Modal Dialog: Focus, ARIA, and Animation
3 min read “Build a modal” is one of the most common frontend interview questions. It looks simple. It is not. The interview Read article
Mobile System Design, System Design
Design Mobile Push Notification Personalization at Scale
2 min read Personalized push notifications are an entire engineering discipline. The wrong notification produces uninstalls; the right one produces engagement. Companies like Read article