The Pragmatic Engineer

DECEMBER 21, 2023

2023 was the second full year of The Pragmatic Engineer Newsletter , and this newsletter is now almost two and a half years old; the first issue came out on 26 August 2021. Thank you for being a reader, I greatly value your support. This year, 102 newsletter issues were published, and this is number 103. You received a deepdive issue on Tuesdays, and every Thursday it was  “The Pulse”  – formerly The Scoop.

Engineering 173

Engineering Software Engineer Software Engineering Project 173

The Pragmatic Engineer

DECEMBER 18, 2023

I get asked every now and then if I offer 1:1 mentoring for either software engineers or engineering managers or leaders. While I used to do this in the past, I don't offer this any more. I collected much of the advice I have to offer for software engineers in The Software Engineer's Guidebook. I also write The Pragmatic Engineer Newsletter where I do cover topics like what it means to be a senior engineer at various companies , how to deal with a low-quality engineering culture , and

Software Engineer 192

Software Engineer Software Engineering Engineering Management 192

The Pragmatic Engineer

DECEMBER 2, 2023

For 3 years straight, the DevTernity conference listed non-existent Coinbase employees as featured speakers. When were they added and what could have the motivation been? Three featured speakers listed at DevTernity 2021, 2022 and 2023, and JDKon 2024. These people do not exist. A year ago, I spent months doing an investigative report on how UK events tech company Pollen had its staff work for free, as it had run out of money but still kept operating.

Software Engineer 301

Software Engineer Software Engineering Insurance Coding 301

The Pragmatic Engineer

NOVEMBER 21, 2023

👋 Hi, this is Gergely with a bonus, free issue of the Pragmatic Engineer Newsletter. In every issue, I cover topics related to Big Tech and startups through the lens of engineering managers and senior engineers. In this article, we cover thee out of nine topics from today’s subscriber-only issue: The Past and Future of Modern Backend Practices.

Engineering 281

Engineering Bytes Cloud Computing AWS 281

The Pragmatic Engineer

NOVEMBER 9, 2023

The below topic was sent out to full subscribers of The Pragmatic Engineer , three weeks ago, in The Pulse #66. I have received several messages from people asking if they can pay to “unlock” this information for others, given how vital it is for software engineers. It is vital, and so I’m sharing this with all readers, without a paywall.

Software Engineer 210

Software Engineer Software Engineering Engineering Coding 210

The Pragmatic Engineer

OCTOBER 31, 2023

👋 Hi, this is Gergely with a bonus, free issue of the Pragmatic Engineer Newsletter. In every issue, I cover topics related to Big Tech and startups through the lens of engineering managers and senior engineers. In this article, we cover three out of seven topics from today’s subscriber-only issue Three Cloud Providers, Three Outages: Three Different Responses.

AWS 213

AWS Google Cloud Cloud Food 213

The Pragmatic Engineer

OCTOBER 24, 2023

👋 Hi, this is Gergely with a bonus, free issue of the Pragmatic Engineer Newsletter. In every issue, I cover topics related to Big Tech and startups through the lens of engineering managers and senior engineers. In this article, we cover two out of seven topics from today’s full issue on The Man Behind the Big Tech Comics. To get full issues twice a week, subscribe here.

Coding 174

Coding Software Engineer Software Engineering Media 174

The Pragmatic Engineer

OCTOBER 10, 2023

👋 Hi, this is Gergely with a bonus, free issue of the Pragmatic Engineer Newsletter. In every issue, I cover topics related to Big Tech and startups through the lens of engineering managers and senior engineers. In this article, we cover three out of eight topics from today’s deepdive into tech scaleup Chronosphere. To get full issues twice a week, subscribe here.

Software Engineer 247

Software Engineer Software Engineering Architecture Media 247

The Pragmatic Engineer

SEPTEMBER 28, 2023

👋 Hi, this is Gergely with a bonus, free issue of the Pragmatic Engineer Newsletter. We cover one out of four topics in today’s subscriber-only The Pulse issue. To get full newsletters twice a week, subscribe here. Willem Spruijt is a software engineer whom I worked on the same team with at Uber in Amsterdam, building payments systems.

Software Engineer 232

Software Engineer Software Engineering Engineering Building 232

The Pragmatic Engineer

SEPTEMBER 26, 2023

👋 Hi, this is Gergely with a bonus, free issue of the Pragmatic Engineer Newsletter. In every issue, I cover topics related to Big Tech and startups through the lens of engineering managers and senior engineers. In this article, we cover a fresh industry trends: Cloud Developent Environments — which is analysis full subscribers have received 3 weeks ago.

Cloud 238

Cloud Software Engineer Software Engineering Cloud Computing 238

The Pragmatic Engineer

SEPTEMBER 22, 2023

👋 Hi, this is Gergely with a bonus, free issue of the Pragmatic Engineer Newsletter. We cover one out of four topics in yesterday’s subscriber-only The Pulse issue. To get full newsletters twice a week, subscribe here. Two weeks ago, a JavaScript runtime and toolkit called Bun was released and took the Node.js world by storm. Bun was mostly built by Jared Sumner , a former Stripe engineer, and recipient of the Thiel Fellowship (a grant of $100,000 for young people to drop out of s

Programming Language 235

Programming Language Coding Project Engineering 235

The Pragmatic Engineer

SEPTEMBER 19, 2023

👋 Hi, this is Gergely with a bonus, free issue of the Pragmatic Engineer Newsletter. In every issue, I cover topics related to Big Tech and startups through the lens of engineering managers and senior engineers. In this article, we cover one out of seven topics from today’s subscriber-only issue on How Big Tech does QA. To get full issues twice a week, subscribe here.

Software Engineer 281

Software Engineer Software Engineering Coding Engineering 281

The Pragmatic Engineer

AUGUST 22, 2023

👋 Hi, this is Gergely with a bonus, free issue of the Pragmatic Engineer Newsletter. In every issue, I cover topics related to Big Tech and startups through the lens of engineering managers and senior engineers. In this article, we cover one out of for topics from the past newsletter issue Game Development Basics. To get the full issues, twice a week, subscribe here.

Software Engineer 198

Software Engineer Software Engineering Consulting Entertainment 198

The Pragmatic Engineer

AUGUST 10, 2023

👋 Hi, this is Gergely with a bonus, free issue of the Pragmatic Engineer Newsletter. In every issue, I cover topics related to Big Tech and startups through the lens of engineering managers and senior engineers. In this article, we cover one out of five topics from today’s subscriber-only The Pulse issue. To get full issues twice a week, subscribe here.

Retail 169

Retail Utilities Software Engineer Software Engineering 169

The Pragmatic Engineer

AUGUST 10, 2023

👋 Hi, this is Gergely with a bonus, free issue of the Pragmatic Engineer Newsletter. In every issue, I cover topics related to Big Tech and startups through the lens of engineering managers and senior engineers. In this article, we cover one out of five topics from today’s subscriber-only The Pulse issue. To get full issues twice a week, subscribe here.

Engineering 187

Engineering Recruitment Retail Software Engineer 187

The Pragmatic Engineer

AUGUST 3, 2023

👋 Hi, this is Gergely with a free issue of the Pragmatic Engineer Newsletter. We cover one out of five topics in today’s subscriber-only The Pulse issue. If you’re not yet a full subscriber, you missed this week’s deepdive: The 2023 tech market, as seen by hiring managers. To get full newsletters twice a week, subscribe here.

Metadata 157

Metadata Engineering Building Technology 157

The Pragmatic Engineer

AUGUST 1, 2023

👋 Hi, this is Gergely with a bonus, free issue of the Pragmatic Engineer Newsletter. In every issue, I cover topics related to Big Tech and startups through the lens of engineering managers and senior engineers. To get full issues twice a week, subscribe here. The past month, we’ve done deepdives in the newsletter on what a senior software engineer is at Big Tech , and at scaleups.

Software Engineer 243

Software Engineer Software Engineering Engineering Designing 243

The Pragmatic Engineer

JULY 20, 2023

👋 Hi, this is Gergely with a bonus, free issue of the Pragmatic Engineer Newsletter. In every issue, I cover topics related to Big Tech and startups through the lens of engineering managers and senior engineers. In this article, we cover one out of five topics from today’s subscriber-only deepdive on Advice on how to sell a startup. To get full issues twice a week, subscribe here.

Building 198

Building Programming Language Programming Python 198

The Pragmatic Engineer

JULY 13, 2023

👋 Hi, this is Gergely with a bonus, free issue of the Pragmatic Engineer Newsletter. We cover one out of six topics in today’s subscriber-only The Pulse issue. If you’re not yet a full subscriber, you missed this week’s deep-dive on Software architect archetypes. To get the full issues, twice a week, subscribe here. Before we start, a small change.

Google Cloud 151

Google Cloud Retail Manufacturing Cloud 151

The Pragmatic Engineer

JULY 6, 2023

Originally published 6 July 2023 👋 Hi, this is Gergely with a bonus, free issue of the Pragmatic Engineer Newsletter. We cover one out of six topics in today’s subscriber-only The Scoop issue. If you’re not yet a full subscriber, you missed this week’s deep-dive on What a senior engineer is at Big Tech. To get the full issues twice a week, subscribe here.

Google Cloud 223

Google Cloud Media Cloud Utilities 223

The Pragmatic Engineer

JUNE 29, 2023

👋 Hi, this is Gergely with a bonus, free issue of the Pragmatic Engineer Newsletter. In every issue, I cover topics related to Big Tech and startups through the lens of engineering managers and senior engineers. In this article, we cover one out of four topics from today’s subscriber-only The Scoop issue. To get full issues twice a week, subscribe here.

AWS 57

AWS Software Engineer Software Engineering Cloud 57

The Pragmatic Engineer

JUNE 22, 2023

👋 Hi, this is Gergely with a bonus, free issue of the Pragmatic Engineer Newsletter. In every issue, I cover topics related to Big Tech and startups through the lens of engineering managers and senior engineers. In this article, we cover one out of five topics from today’s subscriber-only The Scoop issue. To get full issues twice a week, subscribe here.

Google Cloud 232

Google Cloud Media Cloud Engineering 232

The Pragmatic Engineer

JUNE 15, 2023

GitHub surveyed 500 developers in the US for a sense of how they use AI coding tools. I examine the results and add context on how the survey was conducted.

Software Engineer 178

Software Engineer Software Engineering Coding Engineering 178

The Pragmatic Engineer

JUNE 13, 2023

👋 Hi, this is Gergely with the monthly, free issue of the Pragmatic Engineer Newsletter. In every issue, I cover challenges at Big Tech and startups through the lens of engineering managers and senior engineers. If you’re not a subscriber, you missed the issue on Shopify’s leveling split and a few others. Subscribe to get two full issues every week.

Cloud 189

Cloud Utilities Database BI 189

The Pragmatic Engineer

JUNE 8, 2023

👋 Hi, this is Gergely with a bonus, free issue of the Pragmatic Engineer Newsletter. In every issue, I cover topics related to Big Tech and high-growth startups through the lens of engineering managers and senior engineers. In this article, we cover one out of four topics from today’s subscriber-only The Scoop issue. If you’re not a full subscriber yet, you missed this week’s deep-dive on Shopify’s leveling split.

Software Engineer 149

Software Engineer Software Engineering Media Engineering 149

The Pragmatic Engineer

JUNE 1, 2023

👋 Hi, this is Gergely with a bonus, free issue of the Pragmatic Engineer Newsletter. We cover one out of four topics in today’s subscriber-only The Scoop issue. If you’re not yet a full subscriber, you missed this week’s deep-dive on Agoda’s private cloud setup. To get the full issues, twice a week, subscribe here.

Education 363

Education Project PostgreSQL Software Engineer 363

The Pragmatic Engineer

MAY 25, 2023

👋 Hi, this is Gergely with a bonus, free issue of the Pragmatic Engineer Newsletter. In every issue, I cover topics related to Big Tech and high-growth startups through the lens of engineering managers and senior engineers. In this issue, we cover one out of six topics from today’s subscriber-only The Scoop issue. To get full articles twice a week, subscribe here.

Software Engineer 295

Software Engineer Software Engineering AWS Engineering 295

The Pragmatic Engineer

MAY 16, 2023

There are a growing number of AI coding tools that are alternatives to Copilot. A list of other popular, promising options.

Coding 306

Coding Computer Science Machine Learning Technology 306

The Pragmatic Engineer

MAY 12, 2023

This is a response to a tweet asking: "Why is there no competition to PagerDuty/Opsgenie? People in my team say it’s “just connecting to the Twilio API” but if it were that easy, there’d probably be a ton of competition." PagerDuty is the market-leading incident alerting tool. OpsGenie is Atlassian's incident management tool, which is widespread thanks to distribution.

Systems 214

Systems Management Engineering IT 214

The Pragmatic Engineer

MAY 11, 2023

The internet has been speculating the past few days on which crypto company spent $65M on Datadog in 2022. I confirmed it was Coinbase, and here are the details of what happened. Originally published on 11 May 2023. 👋 Hi, this is Gergely with a bonus, free issue of the Pragmatic Engineer Newsletter. We cover one out of six topics in today’s subscriber-only The Scoop issue.

AWS 303

AWS Software Engineer Software Engineering Google Cloud 303

The Pragmatic Engineer

MAY 9, 2023

Insights from 50 publicly traded tech companies, and a list of those paying the most and the least in median total compensation. 👋 Hi, this is Gergely with a bonus, free issue of the Pragmatic Engineer Newsletter. We cover two out of seven topics from today’s subscriber-only deep-dive on Compensation at publicly traded tech companies.

Software Engineer 263

Software Engineer Software Engineering Engineering Media 263

The Pragmatic Engineer

APRIL 20, 2023

👋 Hi, this is Gergely with a bonus, free issue of the Pragmatic Engineer Newsletter. We cover one out of five topics in today’s subscriber-only The Scoop issue. To get full newsletters twice a week, subscribe here. This is a bit of a ‘late scoop,’ which I initially missed when it happened. Better late than never! Until early 2022, the software engineering levels at Uber were: Engineering levels at Uber, 2014-2022 Back when I was at Uber in around 2020, I saw statisti

Engineering 176

Engineering Software Engineer Software Engineering Media 176

The Pragmatic Engineer

APRIL 19, 2023

When I think back on the software engineers I looked up to, they all shared this trait where they never took anything at face value. They regularly questioned statements that did not make sense to them, no matter how small the topic was: even if it involved admitting they did not understand a concept. After a while, I started adopting this approach.

Software Engineer 274

Software Engineer Software Engineering Engineering Media 274

The Pragmatic Engineer

APRIL 13, 2023

👋 Hi, this is Gergely with a bonus, free issue of the Pragmatic Engineer Newsletter. We cover one out of six topics in today’s subscriber-only The Scoop issue. To get full newsletters twice a week, subscribe here. A recent report in Carta’s newsletter caught my eye: The state of angel investing, as reported by Carta. Source: Carta’s The Data Minute newsletter Angel rounds – or pre-seed rounds – usually total less than $1M in funding raised.

Finance 183

Finance Media Software Engineer Software Engineering 183

The Pragmatic Engineer

APRIL 6, 2023

👋 Hi, this is Gergely with a bonus, free issue of the Pragmatic Engineer Newsletter. We cover one out of five topics in today’s subscriber-only The Scoop issue. If you’re not yet a full subscriber, you missed this week’s deep-dive into Figma’s engineering culture. To get full newsletters twice a week, subscribe here.

Software Engineer 184

Software Engineer Software Engineering Datasets Database 184

The Pragmatic Engineer

MARCH 30, 2023

Originally published on 30 March 2023. 👋 Hi, this is Gergely with a bonus, free issue of the Pragmatic Engineer Newsletter. We cover one out of five topics in today’s subscriber-only The Scoop issue. To get full issues twice a week, subscribe here. Disclaimer: I worked at Uber, Lyft's US competitor, between 2016-2020. As always, I aim to remain independent in my analysis: I hold no positions in any of the companies mentioned in this article, and have not been paid to write ab

Software Engineer 285

Software Engineer Software Engineering Retail Media 285

The Pragmatic Engineer

MARCH 23, 2023

👋 Hi, this is Gergely with a bonus, free issue of the Pragmatic Engineer Newsletter. We cover one out of five topics in today’s subscriber-only The Scoop issue. To get full issues twice a week, subscribe here. There’s plenty of news and anecdotal evidence suggesting the jobs market for software engineers is cooling. In October 2022, I wrote about the start of a Big Tech hiring slowdown.

Software Engineer 202

Software Engineer Software Engineering Engineering Recruitment 202