Toptal Blog
The Toptal Blog is the top hub for developers, designers, finance experts, executives, and entrepreneurs, featuring key technology updates, tutorials, freelancer resources, and management insights.
Featured in
World-class articles, delivered weekly.
HTTP Request Testing: A Developer's Survival Tool
It’s tragically common for developers to come into a project where proper automated testing has been and will continue to be overlooked. It’s a situation Freelance Developer Bhushan Lodha has found himself in all too often; fortunately, he’s found a solution. In this article, he briefly covers the reasons why testing is overlooked and ultimately explains his “coding life hack” to ensure quality control even when he can’t introduce a testing framework.
Bhushan Lodha
Bhushan is a Hacker School alum and a developer proficient Ruby, Rails, and Backbone.js. He has a knack for design and UX.
Express, Koa, Meteor, Sails.js: A Node.js Framework Comparison
Some platforms have an overwhelming number of options for web frameworks. Node.js, the event-driven server-side JavaScript environment, is one such platform. Whether it’s the minimalist Express or the full-blown MVC web framework Sails.js, Node.js seems to have it all.
In this article, Toptal Freelance Software Engineer Chuoxian Yang explores four of the most popular Node.js web frameworks and discusses how each framework stands out from the rest of the crowd in Node.js.
Chuoxian Yang
Chuoxian is a full-stack developer and tech company founder who has built multiple large-scale projects from blueprint to launch.
Declarative Programming: Is It A Real Thing?
In a nutshell, declarative programming consists of instructing a program on what needs to be done, instead of telling it how to do it. This approach involves providing a domain-specific language (DSL) for expressing what the user wants. This DSL shields users from messy low-level constructs while still achieving the desired end-state.
While declarative programming offers advantages over the imperative approach it replaces, it’s not as straightforward as it may seem. In this comprehensive article, Toptal Freelance Software Engineer Federico Pereiro outlines his experience with declarative tools and explains how you can make declarative programming work for you.
Federico Pereiro
Maker of minimalist software. Designs, writes, tests, deploys and maintains real systems solving real (if boring) problems.
Using Scala.js With NPM And Browserify
Today, writing applications in languages that compile to JavaScript is a very common practice. Scala developers, for example, can use Scala.js and have the same language for both the server and the client. That said, Scala’s compiler and standard dependency management tools are too limiting in the modern JavaScript world.
In this article, Toptal Freelance Software Engineer Michele Sciabarra shows us how to integrate Scala.js with the plethora of JavaScript modules available on NPM, using tools like Browserify, and explains how to do this without even having to install Node.js.
Michele Sciabarra
Michele is a system architect with over 20 years of experience. He is a polyglote developer but his specialty is Scala and DevOps.
Introduction to Concurrent Programming: A Beginner’s Guide
Concurrency allows programs to deal with a lot of tasks at once. But writing concurrent programs isn’t a particularly easy feat. Dealing with constructs such as threads and locks and avoiding issues like race conditions and deadlocks can be quite cumbersome, making concurrent programs difficult to write.
In this article, Toptal Freelance Software Engineer Marko Dvečko gives us an overview of some concurrent programming models. He explains how each of these models gives structure to the programs we write and shows how to avoid certain concurrency issues that can come with these models.
Marko Dvečko
Marko has 12+ years of experience. He holds four Salesforce.com certificates, and his interests are in math and functional programming.
Programming Visually with Node-RED: Wiring Up the Internet of Things with Ease
Node-RED, built on Node.js, is a tool designed for programming visually without having to write any code. It comes equipped with a browser-based flow editor that allows hardware devices and APIs to be connected with each other easily, making it an ideal tool for rapidly developing programs for IoT devices.
In this article, Toptal freelance software engineer Jesús Darío Rivera walks us through the process of building a simple program using Node-RED and Netbeast along with a virtual light bulb plugin that mimics the capabilities of a real smart bulb.
Jesus Dario
Jesus is the co-founder of Netbeast.co. He has two years of experience as a full-stack developer and one year as CTO.
Introduction to BEM Methodology
When building smaller websites, the way developers structure their CSS code is usually not a big issue. However, when it comes to larger, more complex projects, code organization becomes crucial.
In this article, Toptal Freelance Software Engineer Tomislav Matijević introduces us to BEM methodology and explains how this CSS practice can massively improve code maintainability, speed up the development process, and streamline the teamwork of developers by arranging CSS classes into independent modules.
Tomislav Matijević
Tomislav is a software engineer well versed in front-end technologies, particularly in vanilla JavaScript and React.js.
Encouraging Action And Timeliness In A Remote Workplace
Synchronizing productivity for interdependent team tasks can be a hassle even in the best traditional workplace environments. Add in the inherent challenges of a remote team, and the hassle becomes two-fold. But it doesn’t have to be.
Toptal’s Technical Editor Kate Scheer takes us along on her journey to inspire timely content from her remote authors, and her communication recommendations cross into other realms of remote work.
Kate Scheer
A true multipotentialite, Kate has worked as a video game artist, full-stack developer, movie script author, tech editor, and animal vet.
Gulp Under the Hood: Building a Stream-based Task Automation Tool
Streams are a powerful construct in Node.js and in I/O driven programming in general. Gulp, a tool for task automation, leverages streams in elegant ways to allow developers to enhance their build workflow.
In this article, Toptal engineer Mikhail Angelov gives us some insight into how Gulp works with streams by showing us step-by-step how to build a Gulp-like build automation tool.
Mikhail Angelov
Mikhail holds a Master’s in Physics. He’s run the gamut with Node.js, Go, JavaScript SPAs, React.js, Flux/Redux, RIOT.js, and AngularJS.
Most-read Articles
An Angular 5 Tutorial: Step by Step Guide to Your First Angular 5 App
Adobe XD vs. Sketch – Which UX Tool Is Right for You?
The History of Remote Work, 1560-Present (with Infographic) (Updated)
World-class articles, delivered weekly.
Toptal Developers
- Algorithm Developers
- Angular Developers
- AWS Developers
- Azure Developers
- Big Data Architects
- Blockchain Developers
- Business Intelligence Developers
- C Developers
- Computer Vision Developers
- Django Developers
- Docker Developers
- Elixir Developers
- Go Engineers
- GraphQL Developers
- Jenkins Developers
- Kotlin Developers
- Kubernetes Experts
- Machine Learning Engineers
- Magento Developers
- .NET Developers
- R Developers
- React Native Developers
- Ruby on Rails Developers
- Salesforce Developers
- SQL Developers
- Sys Admins
- Tableau Developers
- Unreal Engine Developers
- Xamarin Developers
- View More Freelance Developers
Toptal Designers
- Adobe Creative Suite Experts
- Agile Designers
- AI Designers
- Art Direction Experts
- Augmented Reality Designers
- Axure Experts
- Brand Designers
- Creative Directors
- Dashboard Designers
- Digital Product Designers
- E-commerce Website Designers
- Full-Stack Designers
- Information Architecture Experts
- Interactive Designers
- Mobile App Designers
- Mockup Designers
- Presentation Designers
- Prototype Designers
- SaaS Designers
- Sketch Experts
- Squarespace Designers
- User Flow Designers
- User Research Designers
- Virtual Reality Designers
- Visual Designers
- Wireframing Experts
- View More Freelance Designers
Toptal Finance Experts
- Blockchain Consultants
- Business Management Consultants
- Business Plan Consultants
- Business Process Optimization Consultants
- Certified Public Accountants (CPA)
- Economic Development Consultants
- Equity Research Analysts
- Excel Experts
- Financial Benchmarking Consultants
- Financial Forecasting Experts
- Financial Modeling Consultants
- Financial Writers
- Fintech Consultants
- FP&A Consultants
- Fractional CFOs
- Fundraising Consultants
- FX Consultants
- Growth Strategy Consultants
- Integrated Business Planning Consultants
- Interim CFOs
- Investment Managers
- Investment Thesis Consultants
- Investor Relations Consultants
- M&A Consultants
- Market Sizing Experts
- Pitch Deck Consultants
- Private Equity Consultants
- Procurement Consultants
- Profitability Analysis Experts
- Real Estate Experts
- Restructuring Consultants
- Risk Management Consultants
- Small Business Consultants
- Supply Chain Management Consultants
- Valuation Specialists
- Venture Capital Consultants
- Virtual CFOs
- Xero Experts
- View More Freelance Finance Experts
Toptal Project Managers
- Asana Experts
- Blockchain Project Managers
- Business Delivery Managers
- Business Transformation Program Managers
- Client Delivery Managers
- Digital Project Managers
- Digital Delivery Managers
- Digital Transformation Program Managers
- eCommerce Project Managers
- Enterprise Coaches
- Jira Administrators
- Kanban Project Managers
- Lean Project Managers
- Learning Management System Administrators
- Mobile Project Managers
- PMI Project Managers
- PMO Specialists
- PMP Project Managers
- Prince2 Experts
- Program Managers
- Scrum Project Managers
- Scrum Coaches
- Scrum Masters
- Software Project Managers
- Software Development Project Managers
- Technical Business Analysts
- Transformation Project Managers
- Waterfall Project Managers
- Web Project Managers
- View More Freelance Project Managers
Toptal Product Managers
- Artificial Intelligence Product Managers
- Blockchain Product Managers
- Business Systems Analysts
- Cloud Product Managers
- Data Science Product Managers
- Digital Marketing Product Managers
- Digital Product Managers
- Directors of Product
- eCommerce Product Managers
- Enterprise Product Managers
- Enterprise Resource Planning Product Managers
- Freelance Product Managers
- Interim CPOs
- Jira Product Managers
- Kanban Product Managers
- Lean Product Managers
- Mobile Product Managers
- Product Consultants
- Product Development Managers
- Product Owners
- Product Portfolio Managers
- Product Strategy Consultants
- Product Tour Consultants
- Robotic Process Automation Product Managers
- Robotics Product Managers
- SaaS Product Managers
- Salesforce Product Managers
- Scrum Product Owner Contractors
- Web Product Managers
- View More Freelance Product Managers
Join the Toptal® community.