Abdul Aleem

APIs don’t break because of bad code. They break because of time. 1. We ship v1. It works. Clients integrate. 2. Product evolves. Requirements change. 3. Suddenly, the API becomes a negotiation between past decisions and future ambition. I just published a new article on: Practical API Versioning Strategies — Keeping APIs Evergreen Without Chaos https://lnkd.in/gQv7VSnZ A few things I’ve learned building APIs for distributed teams: - Versioning is not about URLs. It’s about managing breaking change. - Additive evolution should always be your first instinct. - Every new version you publish is operational debt. - SDKs are not optional — they are your shock absorbers. - Deprecation without observability is guesswork. We often treat versioning as a routing problem (/v1, /v2). But it’s really a product governance decision. The goal isn’t to avoid change. The goal is to allow innovation without fragmenting your ecosystem. If you’re working with: - Headless WordPress - Microservices - Public APIs - Internal platform teams This becomes a strategic conversation, not a technical one. #API #APIDesign #Microservices #SoftwareArchitecture #HeadlessWordPress #DeveloperExperience

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"I'm fascinated by this level of existential crisis developers seem to be going through. The uncomfortable truth is nobody needs you to be an artisan coder. Nobody cares about how you coded your app, or whether you feel an emotional attachment to your craft. You were always code monkey with a high enough salary to believe that your individualist craftsmanship matters to anyone. It doesn't matter to anyone but you. Not your employer, not your customer. Nobody cares about how you made the product. Nobody cares about your attachment to your process. You're experiencing the same as countless other artisans have experienced in the last century. I'm happy for you. You were starting to believe that you're a demigod amongst mortals. You're not. A machine is better than you. Now you're free." https://lnkd.in/ebWi96Mx https://lnkd.in/eytsUZK4

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Designing a Rate Limiter: System Design Interview - Part 1 This topic frequently appears in 40% of FAANG interviews. Here’s an effective approach to tackle it: What is a Rate Limiter? It controls the traffic rate from clients. Examples include: - Twitter: 300 tweets per 3 hours - Google Docs: 300 reads/user/60 seconds - Stripe: Utilizes a token bucket for APIs Why do companies need rate limiters? - Prevent DoS attacks - Reduce costs (fewer servers, less API calls) - Prevent server overload **STEP 1: Ask Requirements (5 min)** Consider these key questions: - Is it client-side or server-side? - Should it throttle by IP, user ID, or both? - What is the scale? (1K vs 10M DAU) - Is it a distributed environment? - Should throttled users be notified? **STEP 2: High-Level Design (10 min)** Determine the placement of the rate limiter: - Client-side: Easily forged (not recommended) - API Gateway: The best option, as it handles authentication, SSL, and rate limiting. **Basic Architecture:** Client → API Gateway (Rate Limiter) → Redis → API Servers Why use Redis? It is in-memory, providing fast access with INCR/EXPIRE commands, making it 100x faster than a database. **STEP 3: Choose Algorithm (15 min)** 1. **Token Bucket** (Used by Amazon, Stripe) - Tokens refill at a preset rate - Each request consumes 1 token - Pros: Allows bursts, memory efficient - Cons: Tuning bucket size can be tricky 2. **Leaky Bucket** (Used by Shopify) - FIFO queue with a fixed processing rate - Pros: Stable outflow - Cons: Old requests can block new ones 3. **Fixed Window Counter** -Simple counter per time window -Pros: Easy to implement Cons: Edge burst problem (2x requests at boundaries) 4. **Sliding Window Log** -Tracks all timestamps -Pros: Most accurate Cons: High memory (stores everything) 5. **Sliding Window Counter ⭐⭐ (BEST)** -Hybrid approach -Formula: Current + (Previous × overlap%) Pros: Memory efficient, accurate (0.003% error - Cloudflare) Cons: Slight approximation What Interviewers Want: ✓ Compare 2-3 algorithms ✓ Justify your choice ✓ Mention real examples (Stripe, Shopify) ✓ Explain Redis over database Coming in Part 2: → Distributed systems (race conditions!) → Scaling to 1M+ req/sec → Monitoring & optimization Pro Tip: Always start with Token Bucket or Sliding Window Counter. They handle 90% of real cases #SystemDesign #TechInterviews #FAANG #RateLimiter #Redis

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MVVM Is Asked Wrong In Most Interviews Most Android interviews don’t fail you on syntax. They fail you on thinking. And MVVM is the biggest trap. Here’s the real MVVM concept interviewers are testing 👇 Shocking Truth Most candidates explain MVVM like this: “Model = data, View = UI, ViewModel = logic.” That answer sounds correct. But it never gets selected. The Reality Interviewers Want MVVM is not an architecture diagram. MVVM is about state ownership and UI survival. The real rule is: 👉 ViewModel owns the UI state, not the Activity/Fragment. Why this matters in interviews: • Screen rotation • Process death • Background → foreground • Configuration changes If your Activity holds state → ❌ If your ViewModel holds state → ✅ That’s why ViewModel: Survives configuration changes Is lifecycle-aware Doesn’t know about Views Interview-winning line: “ViewModel is a state holder that survives configuration changes and exposes observable data to the View.” Say this calmly. Interviewers immediately notice the difference. Better Way to Explain MVVM

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Hiring one mid-level engineer in the U.S. under H-1B rules can cost ~$307,000 in the first year. In Pakistan, a comparable remote engineer costs $20,000–$35,000 per year. That’s a 10–15× saving. For the cost of one H-1B engineer in the U.S., a company could instead outsource an entire remote team in Pakistan including 1 Product Manager 3 Software Engineers 1 QA Tester 1 UI/UX Designer and still spend less than half of the U.S. cost. This allows startups and enterprises alike to deliver full projects offshore at a fraction of the budget. If even 5–10% of U.S. H-1B demand shifts offshore, Pakistan’s IT export revenues (currently ~$3.5–4B annually) could increase by $1–2B in 3 years. The disruption to Indian IT firms opens the door for Pakistan to capture more contracts, especially in software development, fintech, and product outsourcing. Pakistan’s cost advantage makes it attractive for outsourcing, but long-term success depends on more than low prices. To become a true strategic partner, the workforce must strengthen soft skills, business understanding, and professional setups like reliable internet, modern offices, and time-zone alignment.

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Stop treating iOS and Android as separate projects. This mindset is costing you weeks of development time. I made this mistake for several years. Despite using React Native, I was still thinking in platform silos - separate build processes, separate testing, separate deployment schedules. I'd fix a bug on iOS, then remember I needed to check if it affected Android too. The breakthrough came when I realised React Native isn't just shared code - it's one product with two interfaces. When you embrace true cross-platform thinking, everything changes: → Shared CI/CD pipelines → Unified testing strategies → Simultaneous releases → One bug fix = both platforms covered The mental shift that changed everything: Stop thinking "iOS app + Android app." Start thinking "mobile app with two interfaces." Build one pipeline, one dashboard, one release process. Your development velocity will double overnight. The teams that get this ship faster, debug quicker, and maintain better code quality. The teams that don't... well, they're still debugging iOS while their Android users wait. Follow me for more React Native insights from 10+ years of mobile development.

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📉 3 months ago I stopped applying for jobs After 150+ rejections in 12 months. 10+ years of Android. Led teams. Apps with millions of users. And I just… stopped. Not because I gave up. Because I realized I was selling the wrong thing. Every application said the same thing: "Experienced Android developer. Kotlin. KMP. Clean architecture" And every rejection said the same thing back: Silence 150 times Then I had a conversation that changed everything A founder told me: "I don't need an Android developer. I need someone who can tell me why our app is bleeding users and what to do about it" Same skills I've always had. But he wasn't buying skills. He was buying a diagnosis. That's when I realized: The market didn't reject ME It rejected the way I was packaging myself. "I know Kotlin and Compose" = one of 10,000 devs "I find why your mobile app is losing money" = one of maybe 50 Same person. Same 10 years of experience. Completely different response. So I stopped applying. And started doing something terrifying instead: I rebuilt everything from scratch. New positioning. New way of talking about what I do. Not "I build features." But "I diagnose why mobile products fail - and fix the architecture so they don't." It's been 3 months. I won't lie - it's brutal. Some weeks I feel like I cracked the code. Other weeks I stare at the ceiling at 2 AM wondering if I made a mistake. But here's what I know for sure: Going back to mass-applying for $120K Android roles while AI eats that market alive is not a plan. It's a slow death. The hardest part isn't learning new skills. It's killing your old identity. For 10 years I was "the Android guy." Now I'm becoming something that doesn't have a clean title yet. And that terrifies me. But it terrifies me less than being invisible for another year. If you're an engineer right now choosing between "stay comfortable" and "burn it down and rebuild" — I can't tell you it gets easier. But I can tell you that staying still is the most dangerous option. The market isn't waiting for us to be ready. 💬 Have you ever killed a professional identity that no longer worked - even though it felt like cutting off a part of yourself? What happened next? 🔁 Repost if someone in your network is stuck between who they were and who they need to become. #CareerPivot #TechCareers #AI2026 #SoftwareEngineering #RealTalk #FutureOfWork

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The best software engineers I know aren't great because they know C#, Python, Java, or any other language. They're great because they can solve hard problems using any tool. Remember, a language is just a tool to solve problems. It's your ability to solve problems that's really important. --- ➕ Follow Abdirahman Jama for software engineering tips

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Looks perfect. Feels broken That’s the difference between building a website and building an experience. Behind every smooth animation, fast load, and stable feature there’s code that’s clean, efficient, and intentional. I’ve learned this the hard way messy code might work today, but it always comes back to break something later. Now, every time I build or optimize a site, I focus on one thing: Making sure the code performs as good as the design looks. Because in the end, users don’t see your code they feel its impact. #WebDevelopment #WordPress #ReactJS #FullStack #CleanCode #WebPerformance

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