Toptal Blog

The de facto standard for web application security is the Open Web Application Security Project’s Top 10 Project. It lists the ten most prevalent security threats based on an extensive amount of data and community feedback and was updated in late 2017.

In this article, Toptal Freelance Full-stack and System Security Developer Hrvoje Gazibara discusses the changes to the OWASP Top 10’s most recent revision by illustrating new vulnerabilities, and even some that were removed.

Anyone vaguely familiar with the venture capital industry knows that down rounds are bad news. But what exactly are they, and why do they occur? What alternatives do founders have to avoid a down round? Toptal Finance Expert Natasha Ketabchi draws on her experience in the VC industry to run through the mechanics of a down round, its implications and effects, and concludes by offering some vital advice for founders and investors keen to avoid the dreaded down round.

This week’s guest on Toptal Design Talks is Nick Disabato who discusses value-based design, an expansion of the design process that focuses on specific business needs.

All growing teams reach a point when they need to split to stay effective. The inflection point can be recognized early on to avoid ineffective productivity periods for the team.

Intuition and experience without UX data lead to a dangerous assumption: Designer knows best. We’re drawing a line in the sand: If it’s not based on user research, it’s not UX design.

In recent years, React has established itself as the most popular library in the JavaScript universe. However, rather than rest on its laurels, the React team is still working hard to make it better.

In the second part of our React tutorial series, Toptal JavaScript Developer Kamil Jakubczak takes a closer look at some of its features, including hooks, the latest addition to React.

While infinite scroll has become a popular and common design pattern, there are some potential pitfalls UI designers should watch out for when designing a site that uses long scrolling.

A monorepository is a code management and architectural concept whereby you keep all your isolated bits of code in one super repository instead of managing multiple smaller repositories—like a single repository for your website and mobile apps.

In this article, Toptal Freelance Front-end Developer Alexander Noel attempts to gather and explain as much information as possible about how and when to use monorepos.

Business intelligence has been evolving for 150 years. The history of BI provides a fascinating look at how the adoption of computers played a critical role in the usage of BI tools and how mathematics became cool again in the 21st century.

Over the last few years, crowdfunding has imposed itself as a viable alternative financing route for small and medium-sized businesses globally. In this article, Toptal Finance Expert Bechara Kara runs through the market’s recent milestones, highlighting some of the shortcomings that can potentially threaten crowdfunding as a tool for democratizing finance, concluding with suggestions for a balanced approach in promoting its evolution.

Improving workflow and maintaining consistent design standards throughout a product can be achieved using Sketch and Atomic Design.

It’s easy to start working with a spreadsheet, but it also takes time to master your skills to use all the powerful features it provides. When you start feeling comfortable with formulas, functions, pivot tables, etc., there is still one more level which allows you to achieve even more—custom extensions.

In this article, I’m going to focus on extending Google Spreadsheets with a Google Apps Script that validates European Union VAT IDs via API calls.

REST APIs are used in every language and on every platform. Building a secure REST API is a must-have tool in every developer’s arsenal.

In this article, Toptal Freelance Java Developer Sergio Moretti shows how to secure a REST API using Spring Boot.

Design education is often accused of being costly and irrelevant. But with a shift in perspective, universities don’t simply prepare students for a job, they cultivate innovation and ambition.

With both expected to go public in 2019, we look at Lyft vs Uber and how they would be valued on the public markets. This analysis also comprises an overview of their respective business models, finances, and expansion strategies.

Smart software pricing strategies can make or break success. Pricing impacts design decisions and should be reviewed with the long term in mind.

Stay competitive and agile with pricing to keep ahead of the competition. A well-designed pricing architecture will simplify contract negotiations and new product introductions.

Revenue-based financing allows an entrepreneur to repay an investment over time, to retake ownership of their business, and give a capped return to investors. With founders increasingly rejecting the scale-at-all-costs mentality, this article investigates the math of revenue-based investing and whether in VC it is possible to play averages over home runs.

For decades, a design diploma was the golden ticket to career opportunity. As this path now faces scrutiny, we examine the issues plaguing design institutions and offer radical solutions for change.

Bulletproof data validation is fundamental to implementing a back-end API. Find out how datalize, a Node.js library, makes this easy—and formats your data nicely, too.

The React Context API was been around as an experimental feature for a while now but finally became safe to use in production last year, solving one major problem React problem — prop drilling.

In this article, Toptal Freelance Javascript Developer Boris Yordanov will introduce us to the API and illustrate it with two basic web store apps, one built with the Context API and one without it.

Over the last few decades, the role of the CFO has undergone a profound shift. The historical tasks of the finance function such as books and records, financial reporting, and statutory compliance continue to be important but are now taken for granted by CEOs. The CFO of today and tomorrow must be able to take financial data and use it to influence operational decision making and strategy. But how?

In this article, Toptal Finance Expert Paul Ainsworth draws on his experience over his 30+ year career as a CFO at large, multinational companies across different geographies to outline the changing role of the CFO and the necessary skillset required to fulfill the growing expectations.