localfirst.fm #23 – Sujay Jayakar: Dropbox, Convex
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Apr 15, 2025 Sujay Jayakar, co-founder of Convex and an early engineer at Dropbox, shares fascinating insights on building and redesigning Dropbox's sync engine. He delves into the technical challenges of ensuring data integrity and the emotional rollercoaster of transitioning to cloud solutions. Sujay discusses enhancing sync performance through rigorous testing and the move from a Python system to a sleek Rust-based engine. He also explores the design philosophy behind Convex, emphasizing robust state management for local-first applications.
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Reverse-Engineering Finder
- Early Dropbox engineers reverse-engineered Finder to achieve a native user experience.
- They injected code into Finder to create overlays, a technique even Apple engineers inquired about.
Dropbox and User Trust
- Dropbox prioritized user trust by ensuring data safety.
- They emphasized making users feel confident their files would persist even in extreme scenarios.
Scaling Beyond Technical Challenges
- Scaling challenges at Dropbox weren't solely technical but included debugging diverse user scenarios.
- The team realized they couldn't keep up with debugging every possible edge case.