💛 feat: Update blog posts on General Software engineering skills

hugo-blog/content/docs/roadmap/general-software-engineering-skills/caching/_index.md

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 # Caching
+
 # Accelerating Web Performance
 
-As web applications grow more complex and user expectations for speed and responsiveness rise, understanding the principles of caching is essential for developers. Caching is a technique that stores copies of files in a temporary storage location so they can be accessed more quickly. Mastering caching strategies can significantly improve the performance of web applications by reducing the load on the server and decreasing the latency of data retrieval. This blog explores the impact of learning caching techniques and how they can transform web development.
+## Introduction
+
+**Caching** is a technique used in computing to store data for future use. It helps increase the speed of data retrieval, reduce latency, and improve system performance.
+
+## How Caching Works
+
+Caching works on the principle of storing a copy of the data in a cache (a temporary storage area). When a user requests data, the system first checks the cache. If the data is found, it is a 'cache hit'. If not, it is a 'cache miss', and the data is fetched from the original source and stored in the cache for future use.
+
+## Types of Caching
 
-## What is Caching?
+There are several types of caching, including:
 
-Caching is the process of storing resources from one request and reusing those resources in subsequent requests. This technique can be implemented in various layers of technology including the browser, network, and server. By using caching, web applications can dramatically reduce the amount of data that travels over the network, lower server processing time, and provide faster access to frequently requested data.
+1. **Memory Cache**: This is the fastest type of cache and is stored directly on the CPU. It's typically smaller due to cost and speed considerations.
 
-### Why Caching?
+2. **Disk Cache**: This is stored on the disk drive and is slower but larger.
 
-1. **Enhanced Performance**: Caching reduces the time it takes to load frequently accessed data, thereby improving the speed of application performance.
-2. **Reduced Latency**: For distributed systems, caching is crucial in minimizing the delay before a transfer of data begins following an instruction for its transfer.
-3. **Scalability**: Effective caching reduces the load on your backend servers and database, thus enhancing the scalability of applications as user base grows.
-4. **Cost Efficiency**: Less data retrieval from the server means fewer server resources are used, which can translate into lower operating costs.
+3. **Database Caching**: Frequently accessed database queries are stored to speed up data retrieval.
 
-## The Impact of Learning Caching
+4. **Web Caching**: Web pages are stored to reduce server load, bandwidth usage, and perceived lag.
 
-Developers who understand and implement effective caching strategies can build web applications that are not only faster and more responsive but also more scalable and cost-effective. 
+## Benefits of Caching
 
-### Improved User Experience
+Caching offers several benefits:
 
-Users expect quick interactions with web pages. Caching improves content delivery speed, which is a key factor in enhancing user satisfaction and retention.
+- **Improved Performance**: Caching can significantly speed up data access and improve application performance.
 
-### Decreased Server Load
+- **Reduced Network Costs**: By serving cached data, we can reduce the load on the network.
 
-Caching reduces the number of calls made to your server for data, decreasing overall server load and improving application stability and reliability.
+- **Scalability**: Caching helps applications scale to serve a larger number of requests.
 
-### Eco-Friendly Programming
+## Conclusion
 
-By optimizing resource usage through caching, developers contribute to less energy consumption in data centers, aligning with green computing principles.
+**Caching** is a critical aspect of computer systems, impacting performance, cost, and scalability. However, it's important to manage cache effectively to ensure data consistency and accuracy.
 
 ## Learning Resources
 

hugo-blog/content/docs/roadmap/general-software-engineering-skills/graphql/_index.md

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 # GraphQL 
 
-# Unlocking the Potential of APIs with GraphQL
+# Revolutionizing Data Fetching for Efficient Web Applications
 
-In the ever-evolving landscape of web development, GraphQL has emerged as a revolutionary technology that reshapes how developers interact with APIs. Unlike traditional REST APIs, GraphQL offers more efficiency and flexibility, allowing developers to specifically query only the data they need. This blog post explores the importance of learning GraphQL and how it can significantly enhance the development process by providing powerful and precise API interactions.
+## Introduction
+GraphQL is a **data query and manipulation language** for APIs, and a runtime for executing those queries with your existing data. It was developed by Facebook in 2012 and was open-sourced in 2015.
 
-## What is GraphQL?
+## Why GraphQL?
+Traditional REST APIs require loading from multiple URLs as data requirements and models evolve. GraphQL APIs, on the other hand, get all the data your app needs in a single request by allowing the client to specify exactly what it needs.
 
-GraphQL is a query language for APIs and a runtime for executing those queries by using a type system you define for your data. Developed by Facebook in 2012 and released publicly in 2015, GraphQL provides a more efficient, powerful, and flexible alternative to the traditional REST API. It allows clients to request exactly what they need, making it easier to evolve APIs over time, and enables powerful developer tools.
+## How does GraphQL work?
+In GraphQL, you'll define a **schema** that represents all the possible data you can query on your service. Then clients will query against the schema to get only what they need, and in the exact format they need it.
 
-### Why GraphQL?
+## Benefits of GraphQL
+1. **Efficient Data Loading**: With GraphQL, no more over-fetching or under-fetching of data. This can significantly improve the performance of your web applications.
+2. **Strong Type System**: GraphQL APIs are organized in terms of types and fields, not endpoints. This makes the API self-documenting.
+3. **Real-time Updates with Subscriptions**: GraphQL includes built-in support for real-time updates with its **subscription** system.
 
-1. **Efficient Data Loading**: Unlike REST, where you might need to make several round-trips to fetch required data, GraphQL lets you fetch all related data in a single query.
-2. **Strongly Typed**: Every GraphQL service defines a set of types which completely describe the set of possible data you can query on that service. This type system is used to ensure only feasible queries are made, improving reliability.
-3. **Rapid Feature Development**: GraphQL APIs are organized in terms of types and fields, not endpoints. This directly allows front-end developers to make changes and ask for exactly what they need without relying on backend changes.
+## Conclusion
+GraphQL represents a powerful alternative to REST and offers significant benefits in both flexibility and efficiency. It's definitely worth considering for your next API design.
 
-## The Impact of Learning GraphQL
-
-Adopting GraphQL can dramatically improve the productivity of developers and the performance of applications. It simplifies data fetching and manipulation, which allows developers to focus more on the user experience rather than data handling intricacies.
-
-### Streamlined Development Process
-
-Developers can drastically reduce the complexity of juggling multiple REST calls and handling the overhead associated with those calls. GraphQL enables a streamlined process to develop features faster and more efficiently.
-
-### Enhanced Performance
-
-Applications become faster and more stable as GraphQL minimizes the amount of data transferred over the network and reduces server load.
-
-### Forward Compatibility
-
-GraphQL's ability to fetch new data without impacting existing queries simplifies future enhancements without breaking existing functionality.
 
 ## Learning Resources
 

hugo-blog/content/docs/roadmap/general-software-engineering-skills/grpc/_index.md

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 # Enhancing Microservices Communication with gRPC
 
-In today’s world of microservices and distributed architectures, efficient communication between services is crucial. gRPC, a high-performance, open-source universal RPC framework developed by Google, has become a popular choice among developers for enabling this communication. This blog post discusses the importance of learning gRPC and how it can impact your development work, particularly when building scalable microservices.
+## Introduction
 
-## What is gRPC?
+**gRPC** (Google Remote Procedure Call) is a high-performance, open-source framework developed by Google. It uses **Protocol Buffers** (protobuf) as its interface definition language, allowing for easy definition of services and message types.
 
-gRPC is a modern open source high performance Remote Procedure Call (RPC) framework that can run in any environment. It uses HTTP/2 for transport, Protocol Buffers as the interface description language, and provides features such as authentication, load balancing, and more. gRPC is designed to connect services in and across data centers with pluggable support for load balancing, tracing, health checking, and authentication.
+## How gRPC Works
 
-### Why gRPC?
+gRPC allows a client application to directly call a method on a server application as if it were a local object, making it easier for you to create distributed applications and services.
 
-1. **Performance**: gRPC is built on HTTP/2, which supports multiplexing and allows several requests to be sent over a single connection, greatly improving the speed and efficiency of server communication.
-2. **Language Agnosticism**: It supports multiple languages, making it an ideal choice for multi-language environments.
-3. **Strong Typing**: Using Protocol Buffers by default, gRPC brings robust and efficient serialization and provides a contract-first API development approach, using proto files.
+## Key Features of gRPC
 
-## The Impact of Learning gRPC
+1. **Language Interoperability**: gRPC offers high language interoperability as it supports several programming languages.
 
-Understanding and implementing gRPC can greatly enhance your capabilities in developing and managing inter-service communications, particularly in environments where performance and scalability are critical.
+2. **Protobuf**: gRPC uses Protobuf, a mechanism for serializing structured data, as its interface definition language. This leads to smaller payloads and better performance.
 
-### Streamlined Service Communication
+3. **HTTP/2**: gRPC uses HTTP/2 as its transfer protocol, which provides significant performance benefits over HTTP/1.x such as header compression and multiplexing requests over a single TCP connection.
 
-gRPC simplifies the process of connecting services. Its use of HTTP/2 enables a more efficient connection process, reducing latency and resource consumption.
+4. **Bi-Directional Streaming**: gRPC supports four types of service methods, including a bidirectional streaming RPC where both sides send a sequence of messages using a read-write stream.
 
-### Multi-Language Support
+## Conclusion
 
-With its multi-language stub support, gRPC allows you to create systems that interact seamlessly regardless of the programming languages involved, facilitating more flexible development and integration.
-
-### Improved Efficiency
-
-The lightweight nature of gRPC messages (thanks to Protocol Buffers) enhances the overall efficiency of network communication, which is crucial for high-load systems.
+**gRPC** is a powerful, efficient, and scalable framework that can handle a wide range of communication requirements. It's particularly suited for creating microservices and other distributed systems.
 
 ## Learning Resources
 

hugo-blog/content/docs/roadmap/general-software-engineering-skills/jwt/_index.md

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 # JTW
-# The Key to Secure and Efficient Web Applications
 
-In the landscape of modern web development, security and efficient handling of user sessions are paramount. JSON Web Tokens (JWT) have emerged as a pivotal technology in addressing these needs, providing a compact and self-contained way for securely transmitting information between parties as a JSON object. This blog post explores the impact of learning JWT and how it can significantly enhance your web applications.
+# The Key to Secure and Efficient Web Applications
 
-## What is JWT?
+## Introduction
 
-JWT, or JSON Web Token, is an open standard (RFC 7519) that defines a compact and self-contained method for securely transmitting information between parties as a JSON object. This information can be verified and trusted because it is digitally signed. JWTs can be signed using a secret (with the HMAC algorithm) or a public/private key pair using RSA or ECDSA.
+**JSON Web Tokens (JWT)** are an open standard (RFC 7519) that define a compact and self-contained way for securely transmitting information between parties as a JSON object. This information can be verified and trusted because it is digitally signed.
 
-### Why JWT?
+## How JWT Works
 
-1. **Simplicity and Compactness**: JWTs are encoded in Base64, allowing them to be sent through URLs, POST parameters, or inside HTTP headers. Additionally, their compact structure is ideal for limited bandwidth scenarios.
-2. **Security**: JWT ensures that the tokens are authenticated and validated, as the signature is calculated using the header and payload along with a secret that is known only to the sender and the receiver.
-3. **Flexibility**: JWT supports various signing algorithms, which enhances its flexibility, making it adaptable to different needs of security.
+When a user logs in, the server creates a **JWT** with a secret and sends the JWT to the client. The client stores the JWT (usually in local storage) and includes JWT in the header with every request. The server would then validate the JWT with every request from the client and sends a response.
 
-## The Impact of Learning JWT
+## Structure of JWT
 
-Learning JWT equips developers with the skills needed to implement authentication and authorization in modern applications efficiently. This knowledge not only expands one's toolkit but also opens up opportunities in developing secure applications that are scalable and maintainable.
+A JWT typically looks like `xxxxx.yyyyy.zzzzz` and is composed of three parts separated by dots:
 
-### Improved Application Security
+1. **Header**: The header typically consists of two parts: the type of the token, which is JWT, and the signing algorithm being used, such as HMAC SHA256 or RSA.
 
-Understanding JWT and its implementation enhances the security of applications by ensuring that the tokens exchanged between clients and servers are validated and trusted. This is crucial for preventing unauthorized access and breaches.
+2. **Payload**: The second part of the token is the payload, which contains the claims or the pieces of information being passed about the user and any additional data.
 
-### Statelessness and Scalability
+3. **Signature**: To create the signature part, you have to take the encoded header, the encoded payload, a secret, the algorithm specified in the header, and sign that.
 
-With JWT, the need for storing sessions on the server is eliminated, as the token itself contains all the necessary information. This statelessness leads to better scalability as load balancers do not need to maintain session states across different servers.
+## Conclusion
 
-### Faster Development Cycles
+**JWTs** are a stateless, compact, and secure way of handling user authentication and maintaining sessions. They are self-contained, easily transmitted, and require no server-side storage making them an excellent choice for RESTful APIs.
 
-Implementing authentication with JWT is quicker compared to traditional session-based management. It reduces the server load, simplifies the backend design, and accelerates the development process by reducing the need for frequent security patches associated with session management.
 
 ## Learning Resources
 

hugo-blog/content/docs/roadmap/general-software-engineering-skills/oauth/_index.md

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 # OAuth
+
 # The Gateway to Secure Authorization
 
-In the digital age, security and privacy are paramount, and understanding OAuth is critical for developers who aim to build secure and reliable systems. OAuth (Open Authorization) is an open standard for access delegation commonly used as a way for Internet users to grant websites or applications access to their information on other websites without exposing their passwords. This post delves into the benefits of learning OAuth and its impact on web and application development.
 
-## What is OAuth?
+## Introduction
 
-OAuth is an authorization framework that enables applications to obtain limited access to user accounts on an HTTP service, such as Facebook, GitHub, or Google. It works by allowing the issuance of tokens to third-party applications by an HTTP service, with the approval of the resource owner. The third party can then use the token to access the resources hosted by the HTTP service on behalf of the owner.
+**OAuth** (Open Authorization) is an open standard for token-based authentication and authorization on the Internet. It allows an end user's account information to be used by third-party services, such as Facebook, without exposing the user's password.
 
-### Why OAuth?
+## How OAuth Works
 
-1. **Enhanced Security**: OAuth allows users to approve interaction with a third-party application without needing to reveal their password. It reduces the risk posed by sharing credentials.
-2. **Scalability and Responsiveness**: OAuth tokens can be scoped and limited to particular types of data, which allows for scalable and efficient data access control.
-3. **Standardization**: As an open standard supported by numerous large companies and services, OAuth simplifies the implementation of secure, authorized access across multiple platforms.
+OAuth works by delegating user authentication to the service that hosts the user account and authorizing third-party applications to access the user account. OAuth wraps up all security details into a single token, allowing the client to share its user resources without sharing all of its data and privileges.
 
-## The Impact of Learning OAuth
+## OAuth Flows
 
-For developers, mastering OAuth is not just about adding a skill to their repertoire—it's about ensuring applications can interact safely and efficiently with other services. It is an essential component of modern web development that enhances user experience and security.
+OAuth has several different "flows" for different types of applications:
 
-### Secure User Data
+1. **Authorization Code Flow**: This is the most common flow, typically used by server-side applications.
 
-By implementing OAuth, developers can provide users with the assurance that their data is handled securely, fostering trust and improving user engagement.
+2. **Implicit Flow**: This is used by applications that are unable to securely store the client secret.
 
-### Broad Adoption
+3. **Password Flow**: This is used by trusted applications, such as those owned by the service itself.
 
-Given its wide support among major web services, understanding OAuth is crucial for integrating with platforms like Google, Facebook, and Twitter—vital for social media strategies and third-party access.
+4. **Client Credentials Flow**: This is used when the client itself is the resource owner.
 
-### Career Opportunities
+## Conclusion
 
-Proficiency in OAuth is a valuable asset, opening up advanced career opportunities in areas requiring robust security measures and third-party service integration.
+**OAuth** is a powerful protocol for authorizing APIs, enabling more diverse services to interact securely. However, it's important to ensure that it's correctly implemented to protect the security of your user's data.
 
 ## Learning Resources