Featured
Life at MasteringBackend
9 min read
How We Rebuilt Masteringbackend in 2026
What we decided at the start of 2026, what shipped in what order, and what each decision cost us.
SO
Solomon Eseme
8/18/2026
Welcome to Masteringbackend
The Backend Chronicles
Mastering the art of server-side engineering. Deep dives into system design, databases, and scalable architecture.
Featured Stories
Featured
Life at MasteringBackend
15 min read
How We Decide What Ships on Masteringbackend
We get more feature ideas than we can build, so we wrote down 6 standards and check everything against them before it ships. This post walks through all 6, with a real example of each and the cost of keeping it.
SO
Solomon Eseme
8/18/2026
Latest Articles
Database
13 min read
How to Make a Slow PostgreSQL Query Fast at 1 Million Rows
Your query is not slow. It has just never met enough data to be slow. Here is how to take a query from 28 ms to 0.075 ms on a table of 1 million rows, using EXPLAIN ANALYZE, one composite index, and keyset pagination, with every number reproduced on a real database.
SO
Solomon Eseme
8/27/2026
Backend
12 min read
What Does a Backend Engineer Do? A Realistic Look at the Job
A backend engineer builds and runs the part of a product users never see: the APIs, the data model, the background jobs and the infrastructure decisions that decide whether the thing stays up. Here is what the job actually involves, including the parts nobody puts in a job advert.
SO
Solomon Eseme
8/27/2026
Backend
14 min read
Why Is My API Slow? 9 Causes and How to Diagnose Each
A slow API almost always has one of nine causes, and guessing which is a waste of an afternoon. Work through them in order of how often they are the culprit: measure first, then check the database, then the network, then the code.
SO
Solomon Eseme
8/24/2026
Django
10 min read
Django vs React: They Solve Different Problems
Django and React are not competitors. One runs on a server and owns your data, the other runs in a browser and owns what the user sees. Here is what each actually does, why the comparison keeps getting made, and which one your project needs.
SO
Solomon Eseme
8/20/2026
Changelog
3 min read
Changelog: July 2026
Certificates anyone can verify without an account, free practice runs, and points for the things that are actually hard.
SO
Solomon Eseme
8/18/2026
Changelog
5 min read
Changelog: June 2026
The largest month of engineering in the platform's history, spent on one idea: the platform decides whether work is finished, not the person who did it.
SO
Solomon Eseme
8/18/2026
Changelog
3 min read
Changelog: May 2026
Learning schedules, Paystack payments, and a path you can move through in whatever order suits you.
SO
Solomon Eseme
8/18/2026
Changelog
3 min read
Changelog: April 2026
Roadmaps make way for paths, courses open to the public, and code starts running on our servers.
SO
Solomon Eseme
8/18/2026
Changelog
3 min read
Changelog: March 2026
Learning paths arrive: one ordered route through a discipline, mixing seven kinds of work in a single timeline.
SO
Solomon Eseme
8/18/2026
Changelog
4 min read
Changelog: February 2026
Leaderboards, a rebuilt onboarding that asks what you want to work in, global search, portfolios and streaks.
SO
Solomon Eseme
8/18/2026
Changelog
3 min read
Changelog: January 2026
Mock interviews arrive, bootcamps get week-by-week navigation, and courses start tracking real progress.
SO
Solomon Eseme
8/18/2026
Life at MasteringBackend
9 min read
How We Rebuilt Masteringbackend in 2026
What we decided at the start of 2026, what shipped in what order, and what each decision cost us.
SO
Solomon Eseme
8/18/2026
Stay Ahead of the Curve
Get the latest backend engineering articles, system design tutorials, and industry insights delivered to your inbox weekly.
Join 15,000+ backend engineers. Unsubscribe at any time.