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.

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.

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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

Browser console logging is a hassle. Discover how React Developer Tools and third-party libraries make inspecting components, states, and props and tracking rendering and performance so much easier.

11 minute readContinue Reading

Teimur Gasanov

Teimur is a senior front-end engineer and React expert with wide-ranging web development experience at companies including Klarna and Clubhouse (now Shortcut).

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

Gabriel Gircenko

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.

How to Deploy Django on Heroku: A Pydantic Tutorial, Part 3

Heroku makes deployment—and redeployment—incredibly simple. Explore Heroku’s Django hosting in this tutorial, and see for yourself.

9 minute readContinue Reading

Arjaan Buijk

Arjaan is a senior engineer and data scientist who creates mission-critical, Python-based cloud solutions focused on Rasa for international banks and insurance companies. He architects and teaches large-scale Kubernetes solutions.

Investing in Unit Testing: Benefits and Approaches

Stakeholders demand quick fixes for a buggy app release. Such patching is costly, and does not always offer a complete solution. Break the cycle with unit testing, a worthwhile investment in project quality.

10 minute readContinue Reading

Dacian Florea

Dacian is a senior full-stack mobile applications developer and a contributor to the Flutter framework. He specializes in rigorous testing solutions that help companies around the world design and deliver quality software applications.

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.