Articles

Bugs are part of the job. Whether you lose an afternoon or fix it in five minutes often comes down to how you hunt. We’ll stick to habits and techniques that work in any language: reproduce first, form a hypothesis, then verify with minimal checks. That’s how you fix root causes instead of playing whack-a-mole.

Consistent formatting doesn’t change what the code does, but it makes it easier to read and review. We'll go over practical rules and how to enforce them automatically. One style, one formatter, and suddenly merge conflicts and style debates drop. Pick a formatter, wire it into your workflow, and dodge the usual pitfalls.

Base64 turns binary data into text that can be sent in JSON, URLs, or email. You’ll see it in API tokens, data URLs, and config. Quick rundown: what it is and when to reach for it.

Hashing turns input of any size into a fixed-size fingerprint. It’s used for checksums, deduplication, and password storage (with the right algorithm). Here's the idea and how it's used in practice. Choosing the right algorithm matters: use SHA-256 or SHA-3 for integrity and fingerprinting, and a dedicated password hashing function (bcrypt, Argon2) with a salt for passwords. We'll spell out the difference and how to use hashes without shooting yourself in the foot.

Web security is about protecting data and users: confidentiality, integrity, and availability. We’ll stick to foundational practices that apply to most web apps—no attack deep dives. A few habits (HTTPS everywhere, hashed passwords, parameterized queries, secrets out of code) wipe out most common risks. Here’s the checklist; we’ll point you where to go deeper.

“Frontend” and “backend” describe where code runs and who it serves. Here we clarify the split and how the two sides work together. Knowing where logic and data live helps you debug (Network tab vs server logs), scale (cache on the client, scale the backend), and secure the app (never trust the client for auth or sensitive rules). Draw the boundary once and stick to it.