Performance Articles | Backend Study Lab

Java Aug 19, 2026 5 min read

G1 Garbage Collector Diagnosis and Tuning

Diagnose Java 25 G1 young, marking, mixed, evacuation, and humongous-object behavior before making minimal evidence-backed tuning changes.

Java Aug 19, 2026 5 min read

Production JVM Performance Diagnostics Explained

Diagnose production JVM performance from user impact through CPU, garbage collection, memory, threads, containers, and durable outcomes.

Java Aug 18, 2026 4 min read

CompletableFuture Composition, Errors, and Timeouts

Compose Java CompletableFuture stages deliberately across executors, failures, timeouts, cancellation, context, and external side-effect boundaries.

Java Aug 18, 2026 5 min read

Java Concurrency for Backend Systems Explained

Build a practical model of tasks, threads, shared state, race conditions, thread safety, and bounded concurrency in Java backend services.

Java Aug 18, 2026 6 min read

Java Concurrency Budget Lab: Queues, Virtual Threads, and Cancellation

Run six deterministic Java concurrency scenarios to compare fixed pools, virtual threads, resource guards, deadlines, and cooperative cancellation.

Java Aug 18, 2026 4 min read

ExecutorService, Thread Pools, and Work Queues in Java

Design Java executors around admission, worker, queue, rejection, shutdown, and downstream capacity instead of treating threads as free throughput.

Java Aug 18, 2026 4 min read

Java Interruption, Cancellation, and Deadlines Explained

Propagate Java interruption and request deadlines cooperatively across executors, blocking calls, cleanup, Spring boundaries, and durable effects.

Java Aug 18, 2026 4 min read

Java Memory Model, Visibility, and Happens-Before Explained

Understand atomicity, visibility, ordering, data races, volatile fields, safe publication, and happens-before reasoning in Java backend code.

Java Aug 18, 2026 4 min read

Scoped Values and Structured Concurrency in Modern Java

Separate Java 25 Scoped Values from JDK 26 preview Structured Concurrency and reason about bounded context, task lifetime, failure, and cancellation.

Java Aug 18, 2026 5 min read

synchronized, Locks, and Atomic Variables in Java

Compare Java monitors, ReentrantLock, CAS, atomic variables, lock scope, fairness, and compound invariants through backend examples.

Backend Aug 5, 2026 11 min read

Spring Data JPA Query Performance Explained

Diagnose Spring Data JPA performance with query, SQL, plan, row, pool-wait, and user-latency evidence instead of relying on fetch-strategy folklore.

System Design Aug 4, 2026 10 min read

Composite, Covering, and Partial Indexes Explained

Learn to design composite, covering, and partial PostgreSQL indexes from real query predicates, ordering, projections, selectivity, and write-cost evidence.

System Design Aug 4, 2026 11 min read

Database Query Performance for Backend Systems Explained

Learn how to diagnose database query performance using user impact, execution plans, planner estimates, I/O, locks, MVCC, connection pools, and safe production validation.

System Design Aug 4, 2026 10 min read

MVCC, VACUUM, and Table Bloat Explained

Learn how PostgreSQL MVCC, snapshots, dead tuples, autovacuum, visibility maps, freezing, HOT updates, and table or index bloat affect backend performance.

System Design Aug 4, 2026 10 min read

PostgreSQL EXPLAIN and Query Plans Explained

Learn to read PostgreSQL EXPLAIN plans safely, including costs, estimated and actual rows, loops, scans, joins, sorts, buffers, WAL, and production boundaries.

System Design Aug 4, 2026 10 min read

Query Planner Statistics and Cardinality Estimation Explained

Learn how query planners estimate rows using statistics, selectivity, histograms, most-common values, correlation, extended statistics, and production validation.

System Design Aug 4, 2026 10 min read

Table Partitioning and Partition Pruning Explained

Learn PostgreSQL table partitioning, partition keys, pruning, lifecycle maintenance, indexes, constraints, prepared queries, and production validation.

System Design Aug 2, 2026 10 min read

Load Shedding and Adaptive Concurrency Limits Explained

Protect backend latency and useful throughput with explicit admission, deliberate load shedding, and evidence-tuned concurrency limits.

System Design Aug 2, 2026 11 min read

RED, USE, and Golden Signals Explained

Use RED, USE, and the four golden signals to diagnose request and resource failures with PromQL, safe labels, histograms, and exemplars.

API Design Jul 26, 2026 10 min read

HTTP Cache Headers Explained

Understand Cache-Control, Age, Expires, Vary, freshness, validation, and browser versus shared cache behavior with Java and Node.js examples.

API Design Jul 18, 2026 7 min read

Cursor Pagination Examples for REST APIs

Build cursor pagination with stable sorting, keyset SQL, opaque signed tokens, filter binding, error handling, and Java and Node.js implementations.

System Design Jul 1, 2026 8 min read

Database Connection Pooling Explained

Learn database connection pooling for backend systems, including pool size, timeouts, leaks, max connections, queues, monitoring, and common mistakes.

Java Jul 1, 2026 5 min read

HashMap Collision Handling Explained

Learn how HashMap collision handling works in Java, including buckets, hashCode, equals, tree bins, load factor, bad keys, and performance.

System Design Jul 1, 2026 6 min read

N+1 Query Problem Explained

Learn the N+1 query problem in backend apps, including ORM loading, SQL examples, eager loading, batching, joins, query counts, and fixes.

Java Jun 30, 2026 4 min read

HashSet vs TreeSet in Java

Compare HashSet and TreeSet in Java by ordering, uniqueness, contains performance, null handling, memory cost, and practical backend use cases.

Java Jun 30, 2026 4 min read

TreeMap vs HashMap in Java

Compare TreeMap and HashMap in Java by key ordering, lookup complexity, range queries, null handling, memory overhead, and backend use cases.

System Design Jun 29, 2026 5 min read

Caching Strategies Explained

Learn common backend caching strategies, including cache-aside, write-through, write-behind, TTLs, invalidation, and cache stampede risks.

System Design Jun 28, 2026 5 min read

Database Indexes Explained

Learn how database indexes work, why they speed up reads, when they slow down writes, and how backend developers should choose indexes.

Java May 10, 2026 6 min read

Time Complexity of Java Collections

A practical reference for Java collection time complexity, including ArrayList, LinkedList, HashMap, TreeMap, HashSet, and PriorityQueue.

API Design Apr 5, 2026 5 min read

Pagination Strategies for REST APIs

Compare offset, cursor, and keyset pagination for REST APIs, including tradeoffs, response shapes, sorting, and backend performance.

Java Mar 8, 2026 4 min read

HashMap Load Factor Explained

Learn what HashMap load factor means in Java, how it affects resizing, memory usage, collision risk, and lookup performance.