Fast, observable and reliable

Before you start

• You can build and deploy a basic API
• Backend foundations, or the equivalent

What you will cover

• Caching strategies
• Queues and background jobs
• Observability
• Distributed systems patterns

The curriculum

1. Caching and Performance

   • Caching Fundamentals
   • Caching Strategies
   • Cache Eviction and Invalidation
   • Multi-Level Caching
   • Caching for Web Apps and Databases
   • Performance Bottlenecks and Identifying Them
   • Scaling Strategies and Batch Processing
   • Concurrency and Parallelism
   • Profiling and Performance Testing
   • Capstone Project — Caching and Performance

2. Background Processing and Realtime

   • Task Queues Fundamentals
   • Task Dependencies and Groups
   • Retries, Prioritization, and Rate Limiting in Queues
   • Scheduling Recurring Jobs
   • Transactional Emails
   • Webhooks Fundamentals
   • Webhooks Security and Reliability
   • WebSockets and Server-Sent Events
   • Pub/Sub Architecture
   • Message Brokers — RabbitMQ
   • Message Brokers — Kafka
   • Mobile Push Notifications
   • Payment Processing in Practice
   • Batch ETL Pipeline Orchestration
   • Object Storage and Large Files
   • Capstone Project — Background Processing and Realtime

3. Observability and Operational Readiness

   • Error Handling Strategies
   • Global Error Handlers and User-Facing Errors
   • Config Management Fundamentals
   • Config Sources and Secrets
   • Logging Fundamentals
   • Centralized Logging and Best Practices
   • Monitoring and Metrics
   • The Three Pillars of Observability
   • Alerting Without Fatigue
   • Graceful Shutdown
   • The 12-Factor App
   • Capstone Project — Observability and Operational Readiness

4. Distributed Systems Patterns

   • Idempotency in Practice
   • Distributed Locking
   • Distributed Transactions and Two-Phase Commit
   • The Saga Pattern
   • CQRS
   • Event Sourcing
   • Consensus and Coordination
   • Durable Workflow Orchestration
   • Capstone Project — Distributed Systems Patterns