Sports Tech for 200M+ Distributed Systems, React Native | Amit Sharma, CTO Dream11 | SCALER POD 20
Feb 24, 2024
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Amit Sharma, CTO of Dream11, shares insights on building 200M+ distributed systems, transitioning to React Native, and overcoming challenges at Dream11 and Netflix. Topics include scaling for IPL events, team building strategies, and the impact of performance optimization on user experience.
Transition from Native to React Native improved deployment speed and efficiency.
Importance of performance tuning and tooling in optimizing React Native apps.
Strategies for managing large-scale app performance with React Native.
Deep dives
Shifting to React Native and Code Push for App Development
The podcast guest details the shift from native app development to React Native, highlighting the benefits of using React Native and Code Push for faster deployment and efficient updates. The discussion focuses on the challenges faced during the transition, such as performance issues and the need for extensive performance testing to ensure optimal user experience.
Challenges with React Native Implementation and Performance Tuning
The episode delves into the challenges encountered during the implementation of React Native, emphasizing the importance of performance tuning and tooling to address issues like startup times and app performance. The guest shares the team's journey in optimizing React Native apps, including building tooling for data-driven decisions and overcoming limitations in RN for specific features like chat functionality.
Managing Large-Scale App Performance with React Native
The conversation highlights the strategies employed in managing large-scale app performance with React Native, focusing on data obsession, ownership, and perseverance as key values in the development process. The guest discusses the significance of building performant React Native apps, showcasing the team's commitment to continuous improvement and user-first approach in delivering optimal experiences.
Lessons Learned from Failed React Native Implementation and Success
The podcast episode delves into the lessons learned from a failed React Native implementation and subsequent success in optimizing app performance. The guest shares insights on the importance of adapting and persevering through setbacks, highlighting the team's journey in achieving superior performance and efficiency with React Native for app development.
Importance of Performance in Business Metrics
The podcast episode highlights the critical impact of page load times on user satisfaction and business outcomes. Through experimentation using their in-house system, a 200 to 300 milliseconds difference in page loading directly influenced business metrics positively. The speaker emphasizes the importance of performance in driving business results, citing examples where enhancements in performance led to tangible business improvements and user satisfaction.
Building Comprehensive Solutions for Sports Fans
Another key point discussed in the podcast is the strategy of expanding services to cater to the diverse needs of sports fans. The episode focuses on the development of a holistic ecosystem under Dream Sports umbrella, offering services like live streaming, sports merchandise, sports travel, and mobile games. By creating a wide array of offerings including fantasy sports contests and personalized experiences, the platform aims to enhance user engagement and cater to different tiers of sports fans, ultimately striving to provide a complete sports entertainment experience.
In this episode of Scaler Pod, we have Amit Sharma, CTO, Dream Sports & @Dream11 .
With over a decade’s experience across tech giants like Netflix and Yahoo!, Amit is an expert in building complex large-scale resilient distributed systems. In his current role as the CTO at Dream Sports he is responsible for steering India’s largest scalable sports platform that supports peak concurrency of 11.52 M+ for a user base of 200 million+ and growing.
In this insightful podcast, he shares the unique challenges behind Dream11’s development, the company’s transition from monolith to 100+ micro-services, and the game-changing migration of the front-end app from Native to React Native, directly impacting productivity and business metrics. Amit also walks us through his early days at Netflix, where as a part of the core-engineering team, he witnessed the transition from DVD by mail to streaming. Amit also emphasises the importance of planning dedicated work days to make individual contributions while managing business responsibilities.
Timestamps
00:00 - Introduction
02:00 - Day in the life of Dream11 CTO
05:00 - Amit's tech journey and past lives
06:00 - Netflix, DVD renting and digital transformation
10:00 - Key to Netflix's culture, success and tech innovations
13:00 - Joining Dream11, Scaling up for IPLs
18:00 - What happens when millions of users open the app?
21:30 - Culture of building the team at Dream11
25:30 - Challenges of Infra scaling
35:00 - Moving to "just in time" team creation - concurrency challenges
43:00 - Mobile Engineering - Native to React Native migration
57:00 - Do Dream11 engineers need deep context of sports ?
01:00:00 - Multiple Dream Sports platforms coming up
01:03:00 - GenAI, Transformers and LLMs being used anytime soon?
01:06:00 - Using Data-Platform knowledge and experience in building Dream11
01:15:00 - Advice to new software engineers in the industry
01:17:00 How Dream11 hires engineers
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