50 field notes · backend · cloud
Cheatsheets, roadmaps and explainers from building backend and cloud systems, written to be kept open in a second tab.
Start with these
Roadmaps
Node.js Backend Roadmap: Zero to Production
The part of an app you never see: code on a server that stores data, checks who you are and answers the app's requests, written in JavaScript.
Queries & Explanations
Backend Caching Strategies: From Zero to Production
Keeping a copy of an answer close by, so you don't have to work it out again every time someone asks the same question.
Queries & Explanations
Agent Stack: A LangChain, LangGraph and CrewAI Cheatsheet
An AI that doesn't stop at answering. It decides to look something up, reads what comes back, and keeps going until the job is done.
What's inside
Pick one to see every note that covers it.
Fresh off the desk
Roadmaps
A desk at home set up so a full day of remote work is as easy as an office: enough screens to see everything at once, one cable to switch machines, and sound and power that simply work.
16 minBeginner
What's new
systemd is the part of Linux that starts programs when the server boots and starts them again if they crash. Hand it your app, put Nginx at the front door, and the server looks after the app on its own.
10 minIntermediate
How it works
An SSD keeps your files as tiny trapped charges in millions of memory cells, with no moving parts. A small computer inside the drive decides where every piece goes, so the cells wear out evenly and the drive stays fast.
11 minBeginner
How it works
When you open a page, your phone cuts the request into small numbered envelopes and sends them through towers, cables and routers to a server, which sends the answer back the same way. It all takes less than a blink.
10 minBeginner
What's new
When a server misbehaves, guessing wastes hours. This is a checklist you walk in order: say what is wrong, read what the system wrote down, then check each part until one of them is clearly the problem.
9 minIntermediate
Roadmaps
Your app works on your laptop. Deploying is moving it onto a computer that stays on, that strangers can reach safely, and that you can update without knocking it over.
35 minBeginner
Collection · 5 notes
What excites me most right now, ranked, with the reason for each. Opinion, not page views.
Queries & Explanations
An AI that doesn't stop at answering. It decides to look something up, reads what comes back, and keeps going until the job is done.
Pick #1. Agents are where backend work is changing fastest, and this is how I'd learn them again.
21 minIntermediate
Queries & Explanations
Keeping a copy of an answer close by, so you don't have to work it out again every time someone asks the same question.
Pick #2. Caching is the fix I reach for most, and the one most often done wrong.
43 minIntermediate
What's new
A new way for an app to ask a server a complicated question. It can carry a long list of details like POST does, but it's safe to repeat like GET.
Pick #3. New HTTP methods are rare. This one closes a real gap between GET and POST.
6 minIntermediate
Collection · 10 notes
The long ones, 20 minutes and up. Best with a coffee and a second monitor.
Roadmaps
A website is three layers working together: HTML is the skeleton that holds the content, CSS is the skin that makes it look right, and JavaScript is the nervous system that makes it react when you click, type or scroll.
55 minBeginner
Roadmaps
NestJS gives a Node.js server a fixed floor plan. Every feature gets its own room, and the framework wires the rooms together, so a big backend stays easy to find your way around.
52 minBeginner
Roadmaps
One computer can serve a few thousand people. System design is planning how many machines share the work for millions, where the data lives, and what keeps running when one of them breaks.
50 minIntermediate
Collection · 23 notes
Beginner-friendly notes that assume nothing and build up from the first step.
Roadmaps
A desk at home set up so a full day of remote work is as easy as an office: enough screens to see everything at once, one cable to switch machines, and sound and power that simply work.
16 minBeginner
How it works
An SSD keeps your files as tiny trapped charges in millions of memory cells, with no moving parts. A small computer inside the drive decides where every piece goes, so the cells wear out evenly and the drive stays fast.
11 minBeginner
How it works
When you open a page, your phone cuts the request into small numbered envelopes and sends them through towers, cables and routers to a server, which sends the answer back the same way. It all takes less than a blink.
10 minBeginner
The shelves
Staged paths through a whole subject, from the first step to production.
One question at a time, answered properly, with the reasoning left in.
Everyday machines taken apart, from a flash chip to a cable under the sea.
Dense reference pages to keep open in a second tab while you work.
Fresh releases and specs, and what they change for code you already have.
How the tools underneath actually work, so you can use them on purpose.
Cloud Backend Engineer
Who writes this
Cloud Backend Engineer. Distributed systems, Node.js and the cloud underneath them. These are the notes I wish I had found the first time: what to learn, in what order, and what breaks in production.
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