Tech News

Canva recently shared how it implemented real-time mouse pointers for collaborative whiteboarding. Canva chose a WebRTC-based solution to improve scalability, reduce latency, and lower backend load. Since WebRTC uses peer-to-peer communication, Canva can provide users with a smoother, more performant real-time experience than a traditional backend-based WebSocket and Redis solution. Read more on InfoQ

Lyft recently published how it built the Glow emblem, its newest Internet-of-Things (IoT) device. The Glow is actively rolling out in markets across the US, with over 30,000 live devices. Its architecture addresses many challenges in previous iterations, including a unified IoT middleware framework, robust provisioning and authentication mechanisms and advanced device control. Read more on…

Raphaël Tahar, staff engineer at Decathlon, recently published his insights from co-leading an architecture process at scale. In a 4-part blog post series, Tahar depicts how, by combining methodologies like architecture committees, the C4 model, and System Thinking and emphasizing the importance of ADRs and centralized documentation, Decathlon ensures its teams are well-equipped to make informed,…

Slack’s engineering team recently published how it used a large language model (LLM) to automatically convert 15,000 unit and integration tests from Enzyme to React Testing Library (RTL). By combining Abstract Syntax Tree (AST) transformations and AI-powered automation, Slack’s innovative approach resulted in an 80% conversion success rate, significantly reducing the manual effort required and showcasing the potential of AI…

Recently, Microsoft engineers officially unveiled TypeSpec, a new language tailored for API-centric development that addresses the complex needs of modern API design. TypeSpec is an open-source, extensible language inspired by TypeScript and C#. It supports various protocols and serialization formats, enabling developers to use a single tool to manage multiple API specifications. Read more on InfoQ

Netflix engineers recently published how they use Elasticsearch Percolate Queries to “reverse search” entities in a connected graph. Reverse search means that instead of searching for documents that match a query, they search for queries that match a document, powering dynamic subscription scenarios where there is no direct association between the subscriber and the subscribed…

Netflix recently published how its Machine Learning Platform (MLP) team provides an ecosystem around Metaflow, an open-source machine learning infrastructure framework. By creating various integrations for Metaflow, Netflix is able to support hundreds of Metaflow projects maintained by multiple engineering teams. Read more on InfoQ

Uber developed an innovative caching solution, CacheFront, for its in-house distributed database, Docstore. CacheFront enables over 40M reads per second from online storage and achieves substantial performance improvements, including a 75% reduction in P75 latency and over 67% reduction in P99.9 latency, demonstrating its effectiveness in enhancing system efficiency and scalability. Read more on InfoQ

In a recent move, DoorDash has significantly optimized its cloud infrastructure costs. The company faced increased cross-AZ data transfer costs when transitioning to a microservices architecture. To substantially reduce this cost, DoorDash implemented zone-aware routing with its Envoy-based service mesh, taking advantage of its Cell-Based Architecture. Read more on InfoQ

DoorDash recently published how it proactively embeds privacy into its products. It explains the importance of Privacy Engineering, an often overlooked software architecture practice, and provides an example of geomasking users’ address data to protect their privacy better. Read more on InfoQ

Auth0 recently published an in-depth explanation of Verifiable Credentials (VCs). The article emphasizes the potential of VCs to transform how identities are managed online. It highlights the limitations of current identity systems and how VCs can address these gaps, particularly in allowing identity claims to be disclosed without issuers knowing, thereby enhancing privacy and control…

Reddit’s Safety Engineering team recently published how it modernised its Rule-Execution system, which detects and acts on policy-violating content in real time. The new architecture includes improvements like transitioning from legacy EC2-based systems to Kubernetes, better rule version control with Github and S3 storage, and the capability to scale more efficiently with Flink Stateful Functions. Read…