Beyond CRUD: What Great Backend Engineers Really Focus On

If you’re serious about backend development and want to move beyond just building APIs, this is where you should invest your time and energy. Here’s what separates average devs from solid backend engineers.

You Should Know:

1. Security Matters

• Auth vs. AuthZ:

  Example JWT generation (Linux) 
  openssl rand -hex 32  Generate secret key 
  

• OWASP Top 10:

  Scan for vulnerabilities using OWASP ZAP (Linux) 
  zap-cli quick-scan -o -r http://example.com 
  

• Cryptography:

  Encrypt a file with OpenSSL (AES-256) 
  openssl enc -aes-256-cbc -salt -in file.txt -out file.enc 
  

2. Performance Optimization

• Redis Caching:

  Install Redis on Linux 
  sudo apt install redis-server 
  redis-cli ping  Verify installation 
  

• Load Balancing (Nginx):

  Example Nginx config for load balancing 
  upstream backend { 
  server 10.0.0.1; 
  server 10.0.0.2; 
  } 
  

3. Database Engineering

• SQL Optimization:

  EXPLAIN ANALYZE SELECT  FROM users WHERE email = '[email protected]'; 
  

• NoSQL (MongoDB Indexing):

  mongosh --eval "db.users.createIndex({ email: 1 })" 
  

4. API Design Skills

• OpenAPI Spec:

  Generate OpenAPI docs (Linux) 
  swagger-cli generate -i api.yaml -o docs/ 
  

5. System Architecture

• Docker for Microservices:

  docker-compose up -d  Deploy microservices 
  

6. Distributed Systems

• gRPC Setup:

  Generate gRPC code (Linux) 
  protoc --go_out=. --go-grpc_out=. service.proto 
  

7. DevOps Awareness

• CI/CD (GitHub Actions):

  Example workflow for backend 
  jobs: 
  build: 
  runs-on: ubuntu-latest 
  steps: </li>
  <li>uses: actions/checkout@v2 
  

8. Observability

• Prometheus Monitoring:

  Start Prometheus (Linux) 
  ./prometheus --config.file=prometheus.yml 
  

What Undercode Say:

Mastering backend engineering requires hands-on practice with security, performance, and scalability. Use Linux commands like openssl, redis-cli, and `docker` to implement these concepts. Focus on real-world scenarios—encrypting data, optimizing queries, and deploying scalable systems.

Expected Output:

A backend engineer who understands:

• Security: JWT, OAuth, encryption.
• Performance: Caching, load balancing.
• Databases: SQL/NoSQL optimization.
• DevOps: CI/CD, containerization.
• Observability: Logging, monitoring.

Relevant URLs:

• OWASP Top 10
• Redis Documentation
• Docker Docs
• Prometheus

References:

Reported By: Akashsinnghh Beyond – Hackers Feeds
Extra Hub: Undercode MoN
Basic Verification: Pass ✅

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