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Toptal Engineering Blog
The Toptal Engineering Blog is a hub for in-depth development tutorials and new technology announcements created by professional software engineers in the Toptal network.
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Flexible A/B Testing with AWS Lambda@Edge
One of the new possibilities offered by Lambda@Edge is the ability to implement server-side A/B testing using Lambdas on CloudFront’s edge servers.
In this article, Toptal Full-stack Developer Georgios Boutsioukis guides you through the process and outlines the pros and cons of A/B testing with Lambda@Edge.

Georgios Boutsioukis
Georgios is a full-stack developer with more than eight years of experience. He worked at CERN and as a member of the mobile API team at Booking.com.
Stars Realigned: Improving the IMDb Rating System
IMDb ratings have genre bias: For example, dramas tend to score higher. Removing common feature bias and keeping unique characteristics, it’s possible to create a new, refined score based on IMDb information.

Juan Manuel Ortiz de Zarate
Juan (MSc, computer science) is a data science/AI PhD student. As a senior web developer, his main expertise includes R, Python, and PHP.
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Stork, Part 4: Implementing Statements and Wrapping Up
The development of our lightweight programming language created in C++ is nearing completion and we can finally see it in action.
In the final part of our Stork series, Toptal Full-stack Developer Jakisa Tomic explains how to implement statements, tuples, and modules.

Jakiša Tomić
Jakisa has 15+ years of experience developing various apps on multiple platforms. Most of his technical expertise is in C++ development.
Stork, Part 3: Implementing Expressions and Variables
Developing a new programming language from scratch tends to create unique challenges, followed by unconventional solutions that may go against some programming dogmas.
In Part 3 of our Stork series, Toptal Full-stack Developer Jakisa Tomic elaborates on how C++ macros can help and why expression implementation might not be as straightforward as expected.

Jakiša Tomić
Jakisa has 15+ years of experience developing various apps on multiple platforms. Most of his technical expertise is in C++ development.
The Need for Speed: A Toptal JavaScript Coding Challenge Retrospective
Toptal’s JavaScript Speed Coding Challenge invited creative solutions from the beginning. As the week played out, competitors got closer and closer to the maximum theoretical score. Then something unexpected happened…

Eva Bojorges Rodriguez
Toptal’s Latin America Community leader, Eva specializes in AI and speaks at events worldwide about game theory and data science.
Stork, Part 2: Creating an Expression Parser
Would you rather develop a statically or dynamically typed programming language? How would you devise your expression parser?
In the second part of our Stork series, Toptal Full-stack Developer Jakisa Tomic outlines his preferred approach and demonstrates how you can create a functional expression parser.

Jakiša Tomić
Jakisa has 15+ years of experience developing various apps on multiple platforms. Most of his technical expertise is in C++ development.
Stork: How to Make a Programming Language in C++
Did you ever consider creating your very own programming language, either as a result of necessity or professional curiosity?
In part one of our series, Toptal Full-stack Developer Jakisa Tomic takes the first steps toward creating a lightweight scripting language written in C++.

Jakiša Tomić
Jakisa has 15+ years of experience developing various apps on multiple platforms. Most of his technical expertise is in C++ development.
Do Your Homework: 7 AWS Certified Solutions Architect Exam Tips
Cloud architects with the AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate qualification are in high demand, with good reason—the AWS exam sets the bar high. What’s the best way to prepare for it?

Ross Bowman
As a Deloitte alumnus and AWS Certified Solutions Architect, Ross loves helping companies use innovative technologies to solve problems.
Timestamp Truncation: A Ruby on Rails ActiveRecord Tale
Tests should keep apps from being flaky. But tests themselves can become flaky—even the most straightforward ones. Here’s how we dove into a problematic test on a PostgreSQL-backed Rails app, and what we uncovered.

Maciek Rząsa
A knowledge-sharing advocate, engineer, and Scrum Master, Maciek’s into distributed systems, NLP, and writing software that matters.
Semi-supervised Image Classification With Unlabeled Data
Supervised learning is the key to computer vision and deep learning. However, what happens when you don’t have access to large, human-labeled datasets?
In this article, Toptal Computer Vision Developer Urwa Muaz demonstrates the potential of semi-supervised image classification using unlabeled datasets.

Urwa Muaz
Urwa is a Fulbright scholar and data science graduate from NYU. He loves leveraging machine learning to solve practical problems.
Stale-While-Revalidate Data Fetching With React Hooks: A Guide
Inspired by stale-while-revalidate cache control logic, modern sites implement stale-while-refresh logic on the UI side. Thankfully, React Hooks make this logic painlessly reusable across components.

Avi Aryan
Avi is a full-stack developer skilled with Python, JavaScript, and Go and is also a multiple-time Google Summer of Code participant.
Write Once, Deploy Everywhere: When to Go Native?
Writing multiple native applications for different mobile platforms can be a daunting task, but taking a non-native approach comes with pitfalls of its own.
In this article, Toptal Mobile Developer Joel Frank outlines the concept of Write Once, Deploy Everywhere (WODE) and explains how to choose the right development path for your project.

Joel Frank
Joel is a software engineer with 15+ years of experience. He brings application writing experience from Ipsy, Raytheon, and multiple independent ventures.
Language Server Protocol Tutorial: From VSCode to Vim
The main artifact of all your work is most likely plain text files. So why don’t you use Notepad to create them? Find out how the Language Server Protocol can transform text editors into code editors, without coupling.

Jeremy Greer
An active open source contributor, Jeremy specializes in advanced JavaScript. He believes in clean code, testing, and reading the manual.
Pay in, Pay out: How to Create a Marketplace
Shopping online is more convenient than ever, so how do you create an online marketplace tailored to cater to your specific needs?
In this article, Toptal JavaScript Developer Konrad Gadzinowski explores marketplace business models and payment methods for both regional and global services.

Konrad Gadzinowski
Konrad is a skilled software engineer who has delivered many web and mobile applications. He is a full-stack developer focusing on JavaScript.
Keep It Encrypted, Keep It Safe: Working with ESNI, DoH, and DoT
Internet privacy’s cutting-edge technology includes encrypted server name indication (ESNI) and encrypted DNS in the form of DNS over HTTPS (DoH). Find out what they are, why they exist, and how they work.

Brian Wojtczak
Brian was a system administrator and network engineer before turning to software development in an effort to automate himself out of a job.
MCMC Methods: Metropolis-Hastings and Bayesian Inference
Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods let us compute samples from a distribution even though we can’t do this relying on traditional methods.
In this article, Toptal Data Scientist Divyanshu Kalra will introduce you to Bayesian methods and Metropolis-Hastings, demonstrating their potential in the field of probabilistic programming.

Divyanshu Kalra
Divyanshu is a data scientist and full-stack developer versed in various languages. He has published three research papers in this field.
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