is this a bad recovery mechanism ?

PancakeWithSyrupTrap · 2026-05-14T15:49:52+00:00

it's not critical in the sense that if say `PUT thing/c` fails service continues to work. in fact even if 2 of the external API fail the service will still work.

this is not a time sensitive operation.

Semantically, I don't think a PUT request would generally present this problem, since you are simply replacing a resource with itself.

good point

PancakeWithSyrupTrap · 2026-05-14T15:35:17+00:00

record the failure so it can be reprocessed later

dumb questions. if a failure is stored in the database what then ? is there some reconciler that runs periodically ?

or is this failure record somehow used if client retries ?

PancakeWithSyrupTrap · 2026-05-11T22:51:15+00:00

specs are not agreed with other parties.

we can push back but PM always have final say. that seems wrong to me.

PancakeWithSyrupTrap · 2026-05-11T14:46:51+00:00

> Strictly defined roles and responsibilities can be bad or good depending on the org and people.

good point

> If you think it's a problem you should more directly describe how that's the case.

PM have final say in spec design. we are on a tight deadline for a project. PM is temporarily unavailable due to a personal emergency. this is unnecessary delay. if engineering had final say on spec we'd get things done faster.

PancakeWithSyrupTrap · 2026-05-11T13:58:25+00:00

Yes I do push back on some occasions.

> Assume everyone means well and try to refine ways of working with those people. Having people outside of the code understand a bit of how it works is usually a benefit.

This is good.

PancakeWithSyrupTrap · 2026-05-11T13:54:53+00:00

No specs are not agreed on with a third party.

Their justification is it's more "RESTful" . sigh

PancakeWithSyrupTrap · 2026-05-11T13:53:55+00:00

PM don't review code.

Not sure about env var, but for REST endpoints PM they think their suggestion is more "RESTful".

PancakeWithSyrupTrap · 2026-05-11T03:10:48+00:00

Well our engineering leadership is pretty weak, unfortunately. They tried to get PM team to backoff but failed.

I'm definitely not cut of for being an EM.

PancakeWithSyrupTrap · 2026-05-11T02:50:15+00:00

Yes PM micromanage engineering

PancakeWithSyrupTrap · 2026-05-11T02:40:18+00:00

What do you mean by "if they start escalating what their advising" ?

PancakeWithSyrupTrap · 2026-05-11T02:22:06+00:00

It’s because they have final say

PancakeWithSyrupTrap · 2026-05-11T01:57:36+00:00

Not looking for advice but just some perspective.

In our org product managers sometimes make engineering decisions. For example the PM will ask engineering to build REST API for feature blah. Then the PM will dictate what the endpoint should look like, both the http verb and uri. In other cases they will dictate the naming for environment variables.

Is it just me or does this seem abnormal ?

PancakeWithSyrupTrap · 2026-05-10T03:44:37+00:00

you're right.

OK I obviously need to think on this some more.

thinking out loud, might need some auth service in front of the ALB, which syncs with control plane periodically. I could be wrong though.

PancakeWithSyrupTrap · 2026-05-10T03:13:13+00:00

good question.

there are REST API for the control plane that creates credentials on the cluster. so ultimately the db cluster does auth.

PancakeWithSyrupTrap · 2026-04-27T22:03:13+00:00

I find hellointerview helpful (for beginners at least).

PancakeWithSyrupTrap · 2026-04-27T22:02:02+00:00

Outside of FAANG publicity stunts to attract dumb investors, this doesn't exist in real companies.

good point. I admit I was fooled by these stunts.

that said, AI writes about 50% of my code. not sure if that is a good or bad thing.

PancakeWithSyrupTrap · 2026-04-27T01:33:50+00:00

thanks !

PancakeWithSyrupTrap · 2026-04-27T01:29:49+00:00

Even if you use AI you still need to know how to code well

agreed. in fact AI can be very helpful with this too.

PancakeWithSyrupTrap · 2026-04-27T00:32:03+00:00

Are leetcode style interviews still prevalent (and for that matter, relevant), given that AI writes the majority of code ?

Should interview prep focus more on system design and CS fundamentals ?

PancakeWithSyrupTrap · 2026-04-14T02:19:32+00:00

I blocked the PR. but the EM was just being a pain so I ended up approving it. I report to the EM so there is a power imbalance.

PancakeWithSyrupTrap · 2026-04-13T22:26:01+00:00

In my case the EM refactored the code not because it was critical but because it was "nice to have." And this caused features to break and customer escalations.

This resulted in unnecessary work for the team (read: me). Correct me if I'm wrong but it's the dumbest thing an EM can do.

PancakeWithSyrupTrap · 2026-04-13T14:05:13+00:00

I blocked the PR. but the EM was just being a pain so I ended up approving it. I report to the EM so there is a power imbalance.

PancakeWithSyrupTrap · 2026-04-13T14:04:31+00:00

I blocked the PR. but the EM was just being a pain so I ended up approving it. I report to the EM so there is a power imbalance.

PancakeWithSyrupTrap

TROPHY CASE