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.

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

Featured in

World-class articles, delivered weekly.

Subscription implies consent to our privacy policy

Working With Static Patterns: A Swift MVVM Tutorial

Real-time data-driven apps create new challenges in the way we structure our programs, especially on mobile. In this article, Toptal Freelance iOS Developer Lucas van Dongen implements an iOS chat app, comparing the classic MVC approach with a static immutable MVVM pattern.

21 minute readContinue Reading
Lucas van Dongen

Lucas van Dongen

A mobile developer and teacher, Lucas has built not only iOS apps but also back-end APIs using Swift, Objective-C, Python, Elixir, and C#.

Sound Advice: A Quick Guide to Designing UX Sounds

Sound can be easily overlooked in UX design, but it’s an essential element in building impactful user interactions, such as providing feedback for user’s actions and building brand recognition.

8 minute readContinue Reading
Leo Foureaux

Leo Foureaux

Leo is a product designer who uses empathy and research to craft valuable, multi-sensory digital products that make businesses thrive.

Terraform AWS Cloud: Sane Infrastructure Management

Writing an application is only part of the story. In order for it to be of value, it needs deploying somewhere it can scale; it has to run with high availability, have backups, and so on. Deployment and infrastructure management isn’t a simple process. And Terraform does nothing to hide the complexity. However, it does make your infrastructure declarative and reproducible, like your code.

In this article, Toptal Freelance DevOps Engineer Radosław Szalski teaches us what Terraform is, how its components work, and how to configure an entire AWS Cloud solution in minutes using its configuration language.

24 minute readContinue Reading
Radosław Szalski

Radosław Szalski

Radosław is a Python enthusiast and full-stack developer with over half a decade of professional experience engineering web apps.

AI Investment Primer: A Practical Guide to Appraising Artificial Intelligence Dealflow (Part II)

In part I of this two-part series, Toptal Finance Expert Carolyn Deng provided an overview of the world of AI aimed at investors, with a focus on understanding what factors make for a great AI company. In this follow-up post, she outlines five practical steps investors should follow when diligencing a potential AI investment.

11 minute readContinue Reading
Carolyn Deng, CFA

Carolyn Deng, CFA

A Wharton MBA and CFA, Carolyn has executed 20+ VC/PE deals, managed a $700M portfolio and is a fundraising, growth and M&A specialist.

The Practical Guide to Building Online Communities

Online communities shape the relationship between a company and its distributed workforce. They also foster connections between workers, enriching both their professional and personal lives. In this article, David Abramovich, the Online Community Leader at Toptal, shares fundamental steps to successfully cultivate this critical ingredient that increasingly impacts the future of work.

6 minute readContinue Reading
David Abramovich

David Abramovich

David Abramovich is the Online Community Leader at Toptal, with over 8 years of experience through WeWork, Remote Year, and more.

Is It Time to Use Node 8?

Node 8 has brought significant performance and feature upgrades. Should you use it on new projects? Is it worth upgrading existing codebases? In this article, Toptal Freelance JavaScript Developer Youssef Sherif gives a tour of Node 8’s biggest changes and what they mean for your project.

13 minute readContinue Reading
Youssef Sherif

Youssef Sherif

Youssef has utilized React, Angular, NodeJS, and Python to build sophisticated web apps, API services, and machine learning applications.

First Impressions: A Guide to Onboarding UX

Nearly one in four users will abandon a mobile app after using it just once. Good onboarding makes a great first impression, gives users a guided introduction, and can significantly improve user retention.

10 minute readContinue Reading
Bree Chapin

Bree Chapin

Bree’s a passionate designer and problem-solver with 10+ years experience in product and UXUI design for web and native mobile applications.

A Deep Dive Into Entity Framework Performance When Using “Contains”

Entity Framework is a great tool, but in some cases its performance is slow. One such case arises when complex queries use “Contains.”

Join Toptal .​NET Developer Anton Shkuratov in exploring how performance issues can be mitigated and finding the best approach to this type of complex queries.

8 minute readContinue Reading
Anton Shkuratov

Anton Shkuratov

Anton is a software developer and technical consultant with 10+ years of experience in desktop-distributed applications.

Words Matter: The True Value of UX Copy

Well-crafted words improve UX and provide people with decision-making clarity. We explore the true value of UX copy and provide sensible writing tips for greater user engagement.

8 minute readContinue Reading
Micah Bowers

Micah Bowers

Micah helps businesses craft meaningful engagement through branding, illustration, and design.

Most-read Articles

World-class articles, delivered weekly.

Subscription implies consent to our privacy policy

Join the Toptal® community.