The Backend Engineering Show with Hussein Nasser
Welcome to the Backend Engineering Show podcast with your host Hussein Nasser. If you like software engineering you’ve come to the right place. I discuss all sorts of software engineering technologies and news with specific focus on the backend. All opinions are my own.
Most of my content in the podcast is an audio version of videos I post on my youtube channel here http://www.youtube.com/c/HusseinNasser-software-engineering
Buy me a coffee
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/hnasr
🧑🏫 Courses I Teach
https://husseinnasser.com/courses
Latest episodes
May 9, 2025 • 10min
The beauty of the CPU
If you are bored of contemporary topics of AI and need a breather, I invite you to join me to explore a mundane, fundamental and earthy topic.The CPU.A reading of my substack article https://hnasr.substack.com/p/the-beauty-of-the-cpu
Apr 18, 2025 • 28min
Sequential Scans in Postgres just got faster
This new PostgreSQL 17 feature is game changer. They know can combine IOs when performing sequential scan. Grab my database coursehttps://courses.husseinnasser.com
Apr 11, 2025 • 10min
Does discipline work?
No technical video today, just talking about the idea of discipline and consistency.
Apr 4, 2025 • 31min
Socket management and Kernel Data structures
Fundamentals of Operating Systems Course This video is an overview of how the operating system kernel does socket management and the different data structures it utilizes to achieve that.timestamps0:00 Intro1:38 Socket vs Connections7:50 SYN and Accept Queue18:56 Socket Sharding23:14 Receive and Send buffers27:00 Summary
Dec 6, 2024 • 29min
The genius of long polling
Discover the fascinating world of long polling and its role in backend efficiency. Explore how it improves upon traditional polling, reducing latency and resource consumption. Delve into its benefits for scalable database management, emphasizing efficient data sorting and predictable system behavior. Learn about request resumption and how to harness the full potential of long polling to enhance your applications. This insightful discussion uncovers the genius behind a seemingly simple yet powerful design pattern.
Nov 1, 2024 • 39min
Six stages of a good software engineer
Explore the six stages of becoming a better software engineer. Discover how deep understanding transforms your relationship with technology. Learn the art of articulating technical concepts without jargon. Delve into the emotional journey of facing inherent limitations in technology. Gain insights into software efficiency through the lens of operating systems. Ultimately, appreciate the beauty in both the flaws and strengths of technology as you navigate your path in engineering.
Oct 25, 2024 • 18min
This new Linux patch can speed up Reading Requests
A new Linux kernel patch promises to enhance network performance by implementing zero-copy techniques. Instead of the traditional method, this update turns data reading into a notification process, allowing userspace to directly access the data's location. The conversation dives into the intricacies of memory management and how this innovation could revolutionize data transmission efficiency in operating systems. Curious about its impact on performance? They break down the benefits and implications of this groundbreaking approach.
Oct 18, 2024 • 1h 2min
Cloudflare's 150ms global cache purge | Deep Dive
Discover how Cloudflare revolutionized its CDN caching with a global cache purge that executes in under 150 ms. The shift from a centralized lazy purge to a decentralized active system showcases remarkable engineering feats. Explore the intricacies of RockDB, peer-to-peer data structures, and how these innovations address previous limitations. Delve into the performance implications of LSM versus BTree and unpack the benefits of immediate purge requests. This deep dive reveals the complexities and clever strategies behind cutting-edge backend engineering.
Sep 28, 2024 • 29min
MySQL is having a bumpy journey
Fundamentals of Database Engineering udemy course https://databases.win
MySQL has been having bumpy journey since 2018 with the release of the version 8.0. Critical crashes that made to the final product, significant performance regressions, and tons of stability and bugs issues. In this video I explore what happened to MySql, are these issues getting fixed? And what is the current state of MySQL at the end of 2024.
0:00 Intro
2:00 MySQL 8.0 vs 5.7 Performance
11:00 Critical Crash in 8.0.38, 8.4.1 and 9.0.0
15:40 Is 8.4 better than 8.0.36?
16:30 More Features = More Bugs
22:30 Summary and my thoughts
resources
https://x.com/MarkCallaghanDB/status/1786428909376164263
https://www.percona.com/blog/do-not-upgrade-to-any-version-of-mysql-after-8-0-37/
http://smalldatum.blogspot.com/2024/09/mysql-innodb-vs-sysbench-on-large-server.html
https://www.percona.com/blog/mysql-8-0-vs-5-7-are-the-newer-versions-more-problematic/
Sep 20, 2024 • 21min
How many kernel calls in NodeJS vs Bun vs Python vs native C
Fundamentals of Operating Systems Course
https://oscourse.win
In this video I use strace a performance tool that measures how many system calls does a process makes. We compare a simple task of reading from a file, and we run the program in different runtimes, namely nodejs, buns , python and native C.
We discuss the cost of kernel mode switches, system calls and pe
0:00 Intro
5:00 Code Explanation
6:30 Python
9:30 NodeJS
12:30 BunJS
13:12 C
16:00 Summary
