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.

authors are vetted experts in their fields and write on topics in which they have demonstrated experience. All of our content is peer reviewed and validated by Toptal experts in the same field.

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authors are vetted experts in their fields and write on topics in which they have demonstrated experience. All of our content is peer reviewed and validated by Toptal experts in the same field.

Advancing AI Image Labeling and Semantic Metadata Collection

Image labeling can be a tedious, time-consuming task, compounded by the sheer volume of data needed to train deep neural networks. This article breaks down large data set processing and explains how a new SaaS product can help automate image labeling.

13-minute readContinue Reading

Neven Pičuljan

Neven is an artificial intelligence engineer with extensive experience in machine learning, computer vision, algorithms, and a range of AI-related technologies. Prior to founding an AI R&D consulting company, Neven helped create and train cutting-edge computer vision models used by healthcare, e-commerce, real estate, and financial services companies across the globe.

Apache Spark Optimization Techniques for High-performance Data Processing

Apache Spark is an analytics engine that can handle very large data sets. This guide reveals strategies to optimize its performance using PySpark.

11-minute readContinue Reading

Necati Demir, PhD

Necati is a software engineer specializing in data science, machine learning, back-end development, and DevOps. He is an AWS Certified Solutions Architect and AWS Certified Machine Learning Specialist with a doctorate in computer engineering. Necati serves as Chief AI Officer and CTO of Datagran, a machine learning automation company that he co-founded.

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WordPress-powered Angular: JWT Authentication Using GraphQL

Setting up authentication in an app with a disparate front end and back end is tricky. This tutorial proposes an innovative solution using JWT and GraphQL.

15-minute readContinue Reading

Sajjad Hossain Sagor

Sajjad is a WordPress developer who specializes in developing themes, plugins, and WooCommerce add-ons. He has led high-budget projects for companies around the world and set up the back end for a WordPress website with more than 200,000 active users and millions of YouTube subscribers. He is also a core contributor to the WordPress community.

Next.js Rendering Techniques: How to Optimize Page Speed

Next.js is best known for server-side rendering, but these innovative strategies can help developers configure web apps for more speed, reduced server load, improved SEO, and much more.

14-minute readContinue Reading

Subhakar Tikkireddy

Subhakar is a front-end developer with extensive experience using React, Next.js, and TypeScript. He specializes in creating MVPs for startups and has worked on projects ranging from cross-platform progressive web and React Native apps to AI-powered browser extensions and a crypto web app used by more than 10,000 investors.

In this ask-me-anything-style Q&A, leading Toptal cybersecurity expert Ilia Tivin responds to colleagues’ questions on AI in cybersecurity and provides data and network protection tips and best practices.

5-minute readContinue Reading

Ilia Tivin

Ilia is a cybersecurity professional and developer with wide-ranging experience in the government, defense, manufacturing, and finance sectors. A former cloud security architect at Hewlett Packard Enterprise, he now advises executive clients on planning, prioritizing, and executing strategic security initiatives.

5 Pillars of Responsible Generative AI: A Code of Ethics for the Future

Generative AI advances raise new questions around data ownership, content integrity, algorithmic bias, and more. Here, three experts at the forefront of NLP present recommendations for developing ethical generative AI solutions.

12-minute readContinue Reading

Madelyn Douglas

Madelyn is the Lead Editor of Engineering at Toptal and a former software engineer at Meta. She has more than six years of experience researching, writing, and editing for engineering publications, specializing in emerging technologies and AI. She previously served as an editor at USC’s Viterbi School of Engineering and her research on engineering ethics was published at IEEE’s NER 2021 conference.

Computer Vision Pipeline Architecture: A Tutorial

Build a simple, reusable foundation for your video processing apps and alleviate the common challenges of video manipulation.

10-minute readContinue Reading

Nathan Babcock

Nathan is a front-end developer and video processing expert. He developed Hypetrigger, an open-source computer vision tool for use with streaming services. Nathan also spent five years as a full-stack engineer at Motorola Solutions, where he worked with React, Angular, Svelte, and native web components, and led the development of the company’s internal design system.

Toptal Engineering Expert

Gabriel Courtemanche

Gabriel is a highly efficient and reliable professional who possesses a broad skill set for web application development. He's been working on a range of products and clients—from working on scalability problems in production engineering teams at Shopify and Autodesk to launching new applications for startups. Most of his work consists of leading technical teams, by creating an easy development environment, fixing technical debts, providing best practices code examples, and mentoring devs.