Toptal Engineering Blog

In this article, Toptal Freelance Software Engineer Silvestar Bistrovic explains the process of migrating a WordPress blog to a static site generator using Hexo, outlining the pros and cons of the approach.

In this article, I will talk about how object and variable references are controlled in memory, since this is an issue that can generate discussion and differing opinions. One question to ponder is: “By default, are objects passed by reference or by copy in PHP?” I’m going to talk first about what references aren’t in PHP; second, I’ll discuss what they are, and finally, I will examine how the garbage collector works in PHP.

Elasticsearch is one of the most powerful full-text search engine solutions out there. Using the NEST package, you can easily leverage the power of Elasticsearch in your .NET projects.

In this article, Toptal Freelance Software Engineer Ivan Cesar shows how Elasticsearch can solve real-world full-text search problems in your .NET projects.

Out of the box, Angular provides two different change detection strategies: Default and OnPush. Each strategy has its own advantages, but sometimes it is easy to miss a nifty optimization opportunity if you stick to the default strategy.

In this article, Toptal Freelance Software Engineer Ahmet Shapiro-Erciyas walks us through the available change detection strategies and shows how to use them in any Angular project.

In this article, Toptal Freelance Software Engineer Konrad Gadzinowski dissects trunk-based development and Git flow, listing the pros and cons for various use cases.

In this article, Toptal Freelance Developer Roman Stetsenko explains what it takes to create a pixel-perfect iOS interface from the ground up and why it matters.

Do you think testing your iOS or Android apps manually is faster than writing automated tests for them? Calabash, the cross-platform acceptance framework, busts that myth once and for all.

In this article, Toptal Freelance Software Engineer Alexander Gedevanishvili shows how Calabash, with its support for Cucumber, makes writing automated UI tests as simple as writing instructions in plain English.

Complex, tightly-coupled, and fragile interdependent code. We’ve all written it. The kind of code where fixing one bug creates seven more. Have you ever wondered how to create independent modular code?

In this article, Toptal Freelance Software Engineer Konrad Gadzinowski walks us through the different types of architectural paradigms you can adhere to and how to write modular and decoupled code where changes to one module have minimal impact on the overall application.

In this article, Toptal Freelance Developer Adam Wasserman explains what software entropy is, what causes it and how it manifests itself, and what can be done to prevent it or mitigate its effects.

Validating user inputs is an essential part of any robust web application. Angular 4 makes it especially easy for both template-driven and reactive forms.

In this article, Toptal Freelance Angular Developer Igor Geshoski walks us through the different approaches in Angular 4 form validation and shows how even complex form validation can be done easily.

No single front-end framework will fit every web project. Compare React, Vue.js, Angular, and Ember.js so you can choose the best one for your needs.

Serverless computing is an architecture style in which the code is executed in a cloud platform where we don’t need to worry about the hardware and software setup, security, performance, and CPU idle time costs. It’s an advancement of cloud computing that goes beyond infrastructure that abstracts the software environment as well. It means no configuration is required to run the code.

This article will help you identify and address various communication issues that can plague off-site professionals. Whether you’re a full-stack developer, a UI designer, or a content creator, these easy to memorize tips will help you hone your communication skills.

The Aho-Corasick algorithm can be used to efficiently search for multiple patterns in a large blob of text, making it a really useful algorithm in data science and many other areas.

In this article, Toptal Freelance Software Engineer Roman Vashchegin shows how the Aho-Corasick algorithm uses a trie data structure to efficiently match a dictionary of words against any text.

The goal of this article is to introduce you to the underlying principles of accessibility and help you flawlessly implement web accessibility guidelines and standards on your next project. Even minor improvements can help your content rank better, reach more people, and improve the overall user experience.

The Hungarian graph algorithm solves the linear assignment problem in polynomial time. By modeling resources (e.g., contractors and available contracts) as a graph, the Hungarian algorithm can be used to efficiently determine an optimum way of allocating resources.