Shallow vs Deep Copy in JavaScript: A Production Issue

While revising my Javascript concepts, I remembered a production issue regarding shallow vs deep copy. We were logging incoming request data for metrics and debugging. Later, we added normalization logic to update a few fields before processing. Unexpectedly, our logs started showing updated values instead of the original request. The reason? We were mutating a shallow copy of the request payload, and the logger was holding a shared reference. This caused: - Incorrect logs - New keys appearing in metrics - Inaccurate reporting The fix was simple: - Treat incoming requests as read-only. - Deep-clone the payload before making changes A small change — but it’s the basic concepts that save you in production. All the fancy stuff comes later. #javascript #nodejs #backend #immutability #engineering

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