Toptal Engineering Blog

The ELK stack boasts a range of impressive capabilities, but in some scenarios, it can be difficult to configure and maintain.

In this article, Toptal DevOps Engineer Fabrice Triboix explains why he decided to shift to a serverless solution that requires less maintenance and allows for superior scaling.

Are Vue.js, React, and Angular actually delivering a good developer and user experience, or are they used simply because they’re the current de facto standard? Discover some exciting approaches to web development.

In Part 1 and 2, we took a closer look at the evolution of the web, how XML and JSON arose, and the differences between the two standards.

In this final part of our series on JSON vs. XML, Toptal Freelance Full-stack Developer Seva Safris looks at XML as a data interchange format and how well it supports complex requirements. And finally, he will discuss the future of JSON as well as explore solutions that bring the strengths of XML to JSON.

Nearly all computer applications rely on either JSON or XML. Today, JSON has overtaken XML, but is it better? In part 1 of this series on JSON vs. XML, we take a closer look at the history of the web to uncover the original purpose of XML and JSON and analyze how JSON became the popular choice.

Nearly all computer applications rely on one of two principal message standards: JSON and XML. Today, JSON is the most widely used format, having overtaken XML within the last 5 years, but is JSON better than XML?

In part 1 of this multi-part series on JSON vs. XML, Toptal Freelance Full-stack Developer Seva Safris will take a closer look at the history of the web to uncover the original purpose of XML and JSON, and analyze the software trends in recent years that lead to JSON becoming more popular than XML.

Rails 6 is finally here, featuring major improvements and clever new features that should make development easier and faster than ever.

In this article, Toptal Ruby on Rails Developer Avant Mittal dives into the Rails 6 changelog to introduce you to these new features and explain how you will be using them in your next Rails project.

Test automation engineers continuously research the latest tools and techniques to ensure that their test automation framework stays fast, stable, and easy to use.

In this article, Toptal Freelance Java Developer Simon Stratton will take a look at some tips that you can use to update your framework for 2019 by improving your use of Selenium Grid, Java’s wait function, and Chrome DevTools.

Chatbots are revolutionizing the way people interact with technology. In recent years, their simplicity and low cost have helped drive adoption across various fields and industries.

In this article, Toptal Natural Language Processing Developer Ali Abdel Aal demonstrates how you can create and deploy a Telegram chatbot in a matter of hours.

Natural language processing (NLP) has become one of the most researched subjects in the field of AI. This interest is driven by applications that have been brought to market in recent years.

In this article, Toptal Deep Learning Developer Maximilian Hopf introduces you to Google Natural Language API and Google AutoML Natural Language.

It’s no secret that the WordPress codebase is a mess. Many developers use its legacy code as an excuse for writing sloppy code themselves, even if its newer additions follow best practices. If this is you, it’s time to level up your skills!

In the past few years, we’ve seen the introduction of a lot of new technologies in JavaScript, but we needed time to see how the market was going to adopt them.

In this article, Toptal Freelance JavaScript Developer Alejandro Hernandez takes a look at how popular JavaScript is becoming and the factors that may have affected this popularity, and he tries to predict what the future of JavaScript will look like.

Commercial solvers such as Gurobi are playing an increasingly important role in optimization, and they tend to boast more features than open-source solutions.

In this article, Toptal Python Developer Sean Wang explains how you can integrate the HorusLP package with Gurobi’s API to harness its most advanced features.

SQL window functions extend aggregate logic by operating across rows without grouping them. Learn how they work, when to use them, and how to apply them in real-world queries.

Unit testing sometimes sounds like an unnecessary expense, but it is a powerful, yet simple tool. Unit tests allow you to identify and rectify weaknesses with relatively little effort. In this article, Toptal Software Engineer Nickolas Fisher takes you on a quick tour of unit testing and explains why you can’t have too many unit tests.

A functional specification is a high-level design document created before implementation and serves as a true plan for the team.

In this article, Toptal Freelance Ruby Developer Alec Ten Harmsel walks us through prototyping an algorithm and creating a functional specification with the help of AsciiDoc and R for a Ruby on Rails project.

What do you do when you come across a dataset that’s simply too big to allow fast queries? Google BigQuery could be part of the solution, though it’s no silver bullet.

In this article, Toptal Java Developer Maksym Goroshkevych explains how BigQuery can drastically improve query performance, and when you should and should not use it.