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.

In this ask-me-anything-style Q&A, leading Toptal AI developer Joao Diogo de Oliveira fields questions from fellow engineers about resources for pivoting to ML, approaches to large language models, and the most critical future applications of AI.

6-minute readContinue Reading

Joao Diogo de Oliveira

Joao is an AI developer with more than 10 years of experience at Fortune 100 companies like Procter & Gamble and startups in the healthcare, energy, and finance industries. Joao holds a master’s degree in computer science from the University of Porto and has multiple certifications in ML and deep learning.

Advantages of AI: Using GPT and Diffusion Models for Image Generation

Generative AI is taking the world by storm, with potentially profound impacts on the content we create. Learn the basics of AI image generation and produce sophisticated artistic renderings with this tutorial.

7-minute readContinue Reading

Juan Manuel Ortiz de Zarate

Juan is a developer, data scientist, and doctoral researcher at the University of Buenos Aires where he studies social networks, AI, and NLP. Juan has more than a decade of data science experience and has published papers at ML conferences including SPIRE and ICCS.

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Ask an NLP Engineer: From GPT Models to the Ethics of AI

Want to expand your skills amid the current surge of revolutionary language models like GPT-4? In this ask-me-anything-style tutorial, Toptal data scientist and AI engineer Daniel Pérez Rubio fields questions from fellow programmers on a wide range of machine learning, natural language processing, and artificial intelligence topics.

10-minute readContinue Reading

Daniel Pérez Rubio

Daniel is a data scientist, developer, and former CTO who has specialized in NLP for more than six years, most recently focusing on large language models (LLMs). His experience includes being a senior data scientist at BASF and Daimler.

The Benefits of Formosa Crypto Wallet Management

Formosa enhances crypto wallet management by leveraging easy-to-remember, themed security sentences rather than traditional and disparate recovery keywords. Formosa is secure, intuitive, and efficient.

10-minute readContinue Reading

Yuri da Silva Villas Boas

Yuri is a security engineer and the creator of the password format Formosa and SRVB, an asymmetric cryptosystem. An expert in the design and verification of protocols and cryptography, his background spans statistics, physics, and mathematics. Yuri has a master’s degree in computer science from Brazil’s Federal University of Santa Catarina.

Next.js vs. React: A Comparative Tutorial

Discover the differences between React and Next.js, a framework used by companies like TikTok, Hulu, and Nike to supercharge their web apps. Plus: Learn when and how to use Next.js, including rendering, routing, page, and navigation tips.

9-minute readContinue Reading

Ayyaz Ali

Ayyaz is a full-stack developer, founder, and CTO with eight years of experience in a variety of React and JavaScript frameworks. He has deep expertise in handling product builds, and developed an online education platform that has served more than a million students around the world.

How to Use JWT and Node.js for Better App Security

To protect client data, your system must identify and block uninvited visitors. Create a REST API using Node.js, TypeScript, and Express, enhanced with JWT support.

26-minute readContinue Reading

Gonzalo Hirsch

Gonzalo is a full-stack developer and expert in secure implementations focused on JavaScript and Node.js. He specializes in solutions for startup companies in finance and education, and has a master’s degree in software engineering from the Instituto Tecnológico de Buenos Aires.

Reusable State Management With RxJS, React, and Custom Libraries

Discover a powerful RxJS and React approach that adds state management to single-page applications. RxJS provides an elegant, succinct, and comfortable implementation for developers that becomes more effective with custom libraries.

15-minute readContinue Reading

Mark Evans

Mark is a full-stack software engineer who has written applications for major service companies including Intel, Disney, Sky, and Vodafone. He has led React and RxJS teams from prototype through commercial release, and holds master’s degrees in physics from Oxford University and King’s College.

Security in Django Applications: A Pydantic Tutorial, Part 4

Django’s built-in security checker identifies vulnerabilities with ease. Here’s how you can enforce HTTPS redirects to tighten security on your web applications.

8-minute readContinue Reading

Arjaan Buijk

Arjaan is a software engineer and data scientist who creates mission-critical, Python-based cloud solutions focused on Rasa for international banks and insurance companies. He also architects and teaches large-scale Kubernetes solutions. Arjaan founded a company for the resale of manufacturing simulation software that he co-developed.

The Secret Behind Steady App Performance: Asynchronous JavaScript

JavaScript’s default synchronous methods can freeze an application, scaring off end users. Here’s how you can leverage asynchronous JavaScript techniques to increase control over front-end responsiveness.

7-minute readContinue Reading

Muhammad Ammar Ilyas

Muhammad is a full-stack developer with more than a decade of experience delivering web and mobile applications for various companies, including Scopic, Microblink, and Resulta. He has JavaScript expertise ranging across Node.js, Next.js, React, React Native, and headless WordPress solutions.

How C++ Competitive Programming Can Help Hiring Managers and Developers Alike

Programmers gain valuable real-world skills from algorithm competitions that can boost their job prospects—and contest ratings make it easier for hiring managers to find top talent. Explore competitive C++ with a programmer whose scores got them recruited by Google.

9-minute readContinue Reading

Anitet Wheeler-Rose

Anitet is a full-stack engineer and CTO with expertise in C++, JavaScript, and DevOps. A former site reliability and software engineer at Google, Anitet was recruited after achieving an 85th to 90th percentile ranking at algorithm programming competition events.

An Expert Workaround for Executing Complex Entity Framework Core Stored Procedures

Microsoft’s Entity Framework Core is a popular object-relational mapper, but it doesn’t support the return of complex type results from stored procedures. A clever bit of code gets us around this limitation, returning non-database entities with ease.

5-minute readContinue Reading

Pankaj Kansodariya

Pankaj is a back-end developer and Microsoft Certified Professional with more than 18 years of experience within the Microsoft ecosystem, including C#, VB.NET, SQL Server, and cloud computing with Microsoft Azure. He has worked as a .NET developer at companies including Granicus, Gartner, and Jacobs.

Streamline Event-driven Microservices With Kafka and Python

With the rise of big data, cloud, and streaming platforms, monolithic apps just won’t do. Here’s a blueprint for an adaptable and scalable event-driven microservices project using Kafka and Python.

9-minute readContinue Reading

Dmitry Shurov

Dmitry is a software developer and Python expert. He has eight years of experience at companies such as Kaspersky and FABLEfx, and has developed multiple microservices systems across the globe using Kafka and Python.

SolidJS vs. React: The Go-to Guide

SolidJS is a blazing-fast framework that dodges virtual DOM manipulation. Let’s see how it compares to React, the industry standard, when it comes to components, performance, and developer productivity.

7-minute readContinue Reading

Nathan Babcock

Nathan is a senior React engineer and an expert in streamlining UI/UX with React. As the lead design engineer at Motorola Solutions, he marshaled a product combining React, Angular, and Svelte to company-wide deployment, garnering more than 100,000 downloads. Nathan also developed Hypetrigger, a popular machine vision system for use with streaming services and that is built with React and SolidJS for the front end.

Big Data Architecture for the Masses: A ksqlDB and Kubernetes Tutorial

Today’s cloud building blocks empower any size team—even a lone engineer—to build big data solutions. Learn how to use open-source tools to create scalable architecture for your next project.

14-minute readContinue Reading

Dmitrii Bolotov

Dmitrii is a solution architect and developer with more than 11 years of experience and expertise in SQL, NoSQL, and Kubernetes. He built big data architecture at Videoland, founded and acted as CTO for Deetask, a Vietnamese marketplace app similar to Thumbtack, and holds a master’s degree in computer science from Izhevsk State Technical University.

Demystifying Debugging With React Developer Tools

Bugs are often buried deep within the code and software developers spend a great deal of time hunting them down. Many software developers debug front-end code using the browser’s console logging, but this is cumbersome and inefficient. Discover how React Developer Tools can speed up the debugging process by providing powerful tools to inspect components, monitor state and props, and track rendering and performance.

11-minute readContinue Reading

Teimur Gasanov

Teimur is a software developer specializing in web application development. He has extensive experience developing with front-end technologies, such as React, TypeScript, and JavaScript, and has implemented applications for innovative companies such as Klarna, where he designed interfaces for interacting with digital wallets from Apple, Google, and Samsung.

Kotlin vs. Java: All-purpose Uses and Android Apps

Kotlin and Java are two powerful general-purpose languages popular for Android and beyond. We’ll discuss their top features and differences, then focus on how to smoothly transition between the two.

13-minute readContinue Reading

Gabe Giro

Gabriel is a senior Android engineer with eight years of experience building apps from scratch in Kotlin and Java, and facilitating conversions between the two languages. Gabriel has worked on multimillion-dollar apps and has industry experience at companies like HBO and Yahoo.

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.