#system-design

#system-design

Most blogs about switching jobs in tech talk about grinding harder. More LeetCode.More applications.More hustle. But when I switched from SDE-1 to SDE-2 in just 1.5 years and doubled my CTC, I realized something uncomfortable: 👉 Effort was never the bottleneck. Direction was. This post is for backend engineers who already work hard - but want clarity on what actually moves the needle in SDE-2 interviews.

A few years ago, engineering inside a company meant this:solve the problem that exists here. Even if the same problem had been solved elsewhere, we often didn't know.We didn't have access to that knowledge.We didn't have the tools.So we engineered our way through it. Engineering is always defined by the tools available and the impact they allow. And that's exactly why Generative AI changes things so fundamentally.

I've learned which skill sets software engineers need to land a job offer in the AI era. Tech companies agree that AI makes engineers more productive, so engineers are expected to use it to build things more quickly and reliably. I personally make heavy use of AI to help me with boilerplate stuff so that I can concentrate on the hard stuff, like system design and complex business logic.

We're going to see some amazing things, but our hunger for more functionality, more apps, more ecosystems is just gonna get higher, and higher, and higher,

If you're considering using a ground source heat pump to heat your home, you could be wondering what type of ground source heat pump problems you may encounter. Or, perhaps you have one and have a few niggles you can't ignore. It's not unsurprising that with the installation process involving pipework being buried deep underground, finding the root of any problems may seem like a daunting prospect and one you're keen to avoid.

"Five or 10 years ago, security experts were saying the user is the weakest link, that users are stupid. Thankfully, I don't really hear that any more."

Complex systems emerge from simple parts, revealing that modular, loosely coupled approaches in technology lead to scalable and more reliable systems.