Toptal Blog

The Toptal Blog is the top hub for developers, designers, management consultants, executives, and entrepreneurs, featuring key technology updates, tutorials, freelancer resources, and management insights.

Toptal core team members share their experience, expertise, and perspectives on the Toptal Edge Blog

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PageSpeed Insights Best Practices: Acing Google’s Assessment

Page speed is an important ranking attribute for search engines, making performance optimization a prerequisite for successful sites. Here’s how Google PageSpeed Insights can help identify and rectify performance issues.

11-minute readContinue Reading

Timofey Bugaevsky

Timofey is a CTO and veteran full-stack engineer with over 18 years of experience developing new products and sustaining existing ones. He holds an Engineer’s Degree in Robotics and an MBA.

Bots for Finance: How to Increase Back-office Efficiency Through Automation

Automating basic financial functions can save your company time and money and free your employees from tedious rote tasks. Toptal management consultant Miklos Lukacs explains how building a simple Python bot can streamline your business.

10-minute readContinue Reading

Miklos Lukacs, CFA

Miklos is highly experienced in finance processes, fintech, and Python programming. In addition to being a Toptal management consultant and software developer, he is the director of the structured finance consulting company Pylink Ltd.

A Day in the Life of an Engineering Manager

Engineering managers tend to have a wide range of responsibilities. In this article, Karl Hughes, founder of Draft.dev, shares what a typical day in the life of an engineering manager looks like.

7-minute readContinue Reading

Karl Hughes

Karl is a former software engineering manager and CTO turned writer. He’s currently the founder of Draft.dev.

Is the Citizen Developer the New Face of Agility?

In an era of talent shortages and fast delivery, the low-code market is taking off. Citizen development on a low-code platform may be the solution your organization needs.

9-minute readContinue Reading

Bryan Bates

Bryan has more than 20 years of experience managing projects in Agile, Waterfall, and hybrid environments. He holds a PMP certification and the Microsoft Power Platform Functional Consultant credential. Bryan uses his low-code expertise to assist new users in the Microsoft Power Apps Community forum.

Working With TypeScript and Jest Support: An AWS SAM Tutorial

JavaScript boilerplate is easy enough to come by, but there’s a bit more to starting AWS SAM projects with TypeScript. Here’s how to create an AWS SAM TypeScript project from scratch with Jest support.

10-minute readContinue Reading

Mohammad Faisal

Mohammad is a full-stack developer who has architected several applications on AWS using Lambda, NoSQL, and Node.js. He has extensive experience in optimizing AWS infrastructure for midsized companies.

The Future of User Interface Design: Next-generation UI Tools

The next wave of UI design tools will fully integrate design and code to provide a seamless experience for designers and developers.

10-minute readContinue Reading

Damir Kotorić

Damir is a digital designer who has created payments systems at Booking.com, open-data portals for Australian state governments, and the search experience at Envato Market. He has also facilitated design sprint workshops at Harvard University, been a lead UX instructor at General Assembly, and led AR/VR design at Archimedes Digital.

The Evolution of Venture Capital: Investing in Global Talent

By adopting a global talent acquisition strategy, venture capital not only extends the opportunities of entrepreneurship across the world, it helps startups reduce churn and break even faster.

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Erik Stettler

Erik is a co-founder of a global venture capital fund that has invested in 50 startups (raising more than $500 million) and has realized six exits. He holds an MBA from Harvard and serves as Toptal’s Chief Economist.

C# vs. C++: What’s at the Core?

C# and C++ share a similar syntax but cater to different requirements, so which should you focus on? This article examines each language’s features and weighs the pros and cons.

7-minute readContinue Reading

Jakiša Tomić

Jakiša is a veteran full-stack developer with more than 15 years of experience creating C# and C++ apps on multiple platforms. His portfolio includes work with the Windows API, embedded programming, distributed systems, mixed reality, and DevOps. Jakiša has a master’s degree in mathematics and computer science from the University of Zagreb.

How to Reduce UX Friction in Secure Product Development

Prioritizing data security often comes at the expense of a good UX. To balance client needs with user preferences, product managers must use research, constant calibration, and a dose of creativity.

10-minute readContinue Reading

Leor Hurwitz

Leor is a veteran product manager specializing in fintech, fraud, and cybersecurity. He has led product development in both startups and large corporations, including IBM and Microsoft. Under his leadership, his teams nearly eliminated fraud for one client, protecting systems that process $230 million per year.