Topics

Backend Engineering
│
├── Fundamentals
│   ├── Computer Networking
│   ├── Computer Systems
│   └── Distributed Systems
│
├── Software
│   ├── Software Engineering
│   │   ├── API Design
│   │   ├── Testing
│   │   └── CI/CD
│   │
│   ├── Software Architecture
│   │   └── Microservices
│   │
│   ├── Backend Ecosystems
│   │   ├── JVM Ecosystem
│   │   │   ├── Java
│   │   │   └── Spring
│   │   ├── Node.js Ecosystem
│   │   ├── Python Ecosystem
│   │   ├── .NET Ecosystem
│   │   └── Go Ecosystem
│   │
│   └── Data
│       ├── Database
│       ├── ORM
│       ├── Cache
│       ├── Messaging / Streaming
│       └── Search
│
├── Production
│   ├── Reliability
│   ├── Observability
│   ├── Performance
│   ├── Security
│   └── Experimentation
│       └── A/B Testing
│
└── Infrastructure
    ├── AWS
    └── Kubernetes

Resources

Fundamentals

Computer Networking

• Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach, 9th Edition — Kurose & Ross
• MDN Web Docs — HTTP
• RFC 9110 / 9111 / 9112

Computer Systems

• Computer Systems: A Programmer's Perspective (CSAPP), 3rd Edition

Distributed Systems

• Designing Data-Intensive Applications (DDIA), 2nd Edition — Kleppmann & Riccomini
• Raft / Dynamo / Spanner Papers

Software

Software Engineering

• A Philosophy of Software Design, 2nd Edition
• Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code, 2nd Edition — Martin Fowler

API Design

• API Design Patterns — JJ Geewax

Testing

• Martin Fowler — Testing Articles
• JUnit User Guide
• Testcontainers Documentation
• Mockito Documentation

CI/CD

• Continuous Delivery — Humble & Farley
• Martin Fowler — Continuous Integration / Delivery
• LaunchDarkly Documentation — Feature Flags / Progressive Delivery

Software Architecture

• Fundamentals of Software Architecture, 2nd Edition — Richards & Ford

Microservices

• Building Microservices, 2nd Edition — Sam Newman
• microservices.io — Chris Richardson

JVM Ecosystem

• Java Performance, 2nd Edition — Scott Oaks
• Java Virtual Machine Specification (JVMS)
• OpenJDK Documentation

Java

• Effective Java, 3rd Edition
• dev.java — Learn Java
• Java Language Specification (JLS)

Spring

• Spring Start Here — Laurentiu Spilca
• Spring Framework / Spring Boot Documentation
• Spring MVC Documentation
• Spring WebFlux Documentation
• Project Reactor Reference Guide
• Apache Tomcat Documentation
• Netty Documentation

Data

• Designing Data-Intensive Applications (DDIA), 2nd Edition — Kleppmann & Riccomini

Database

• PostgreSQL Documentation — Transactions / MVCC / Locking / Indexes / EXPLAIN
• HikariCP Documentation

ORM

• Hibernate ORM User Guide
• Jakarta Persistence Specification
• Spring Data JPA Documentation
• High-Performance Java Persistence

Cache

• Redis Documentation

Messaging / Streaming

• Apache Kafka Documentation

Search

• OpenSearch / Elasticsearch Documentation

Production

Reliability

• Site Reliability Engineering — Google

Observability

• Observability Engineering, 2nd Edition — Majors, Fong-Jones & Miranda
• OpenTelemetry Documentation

Performance

• Systems Performance: Enterprise and the Cloud, 2nd Edition — Brendan Gregg

Security

• OWASP Top 10:2025
• OWASP Cheat Sheet Series
• OWASP ASVS

Experimentation

• Trustworthy Online Controlled Experiments — Kohavi, Tang & Xu

Infrastructure

AWS

• Adrian Cantrill — AWS SAA → SAP
• AWS Documentation
• AWS Well-Architected Framework
• Amazon Builders' Library

Kubernetes

• Kubernetes Documentation — Basics / Concepts
• Kubernetes Tasks / Reference / API Documentation