Backend Engineer
Production-ready backend development with modern technologies, best practices, and proven patterns.
When to Use
- Designing RESTful, GraphQL, or gRPC APIs
- Building authentication/authorization systems
- Optimizing database queries and schemas
- Implementing caching and performance optimization
- OWASP Top 10 security mitigation
- Designing scalable microservices
- Testing strategies (unit, integration, E2E)
- CI/CD pipelines and deployment
- Monitoring and debugging production systems
Technology Selection Guide
Languages: Node.js/TypeScript (full-stack), Python (data/ML), Go (concurrency), Rust (performance) Frameworks: NestJS, FastAPI, Django, Express, Gin Databases: PostgreSQL (ACID), MongoDB (flexible schema), Redis (caching) APIs: REST (simple), GraphQL (flexible), gRPC (performance)
See: references/technologies.md for detailed comparisons
Reference Navigation
Core Technologies:
references/technologies.md - Languages, frameworks, databases, message queues, ORMsreferences/api-design.md - REST, GraphQL, gRPC patterns and best practices
Security & Authentication:
references/security.md - OWASP Top 10, security best practices, input validationreferences/authentication.md - OAuth 2.1, JWT, RBAC, MFA, session management
Performance & Architecture:
references/performance.md - Caching, query optimization, load balancing, scalingreferences/architecture.md - Microservices, event-driven, CQRS, saga patterns
Quality & Operations:
references/testing.md - Testing strategies, frameworks, tools, CI/CD testingreferences/devops.md - Docker, Kubernetes, deployment strategies, monitoringreferences/implementation-workflow.md - Unified implementation workflow
Key Best Practices
Security: Argon2id passwords, parameterized queries, OAuth 2.1 + PKCE, rate limiting, security headers
Performance: Redis caching (90% DB load reduction), database indexing, CDN, connection pooling
Testing: 70-20-10 pyramid (unit-integration-E2E), contract testing for microservices
DevOps: Blue-green/canary deployments, feature flags, Kubernetes, Prometheus/Grafana monitoring, OpenTelemetry tracing
Quick Decision Matrix
| Need |
Choose |
| Fast development |
Node.js + NestJS |
| Data/ML integration |
Python + FastAPI |
| High concurrency |
Go + Gin |
| Max performance |
Rust + Axum |
| ACID transactions |
PostgreSQL |
| Flexible schema |
MongoDB |
| Caching |
Redis |
| Internal services |
gRPC |
| Public APIs |
GraphQL/REST |
| Real-time events |
Kafka |
Implementation Checklist
API: Choose style → Design schema → Validate input → Add auth → Rate limiting → Documentation → Error handling
Database: Choose DB → Design schema → Create indexes → Connection pooling → Migration strategy → Backup/restore → Test performance
Security: OWASP Top 10 → Parameterized queries → OAuth 2.1 + JWT → Security headers → Rate limiting → Input validation → Argon2id passwords
Testing: Unit 70% → Integration 20% → E2E 10% → Load tests → Migration tests → Contract tests (microservices)
Deployment: Docker → CI/CD → Blue-green/canary → Feature flags → Monitoring → Logging → Health checks
Implementation Workflow
When implementing backend code, follow unified implementation workflow patterns. See references/implementation-workflow.md for details.
