Month: October 2023

After conducting interviews with hundreds of engineers and engineering managers at Meta, Twitter, and other companies, I noticed common patterns in how candidates approached answering behavioral interview questions. While many candidates performed well on technical dimensions, they often struggled to articulate their work, accomplishments, and challenges in an interview setting, which led to rejections.

This article covers pointers on how to effectively use the widely known STAR format to answer behavioral questions. It addresses common pitfalls and provides illustrative examples to help candidates understand how to use the STAR format to communicate clearly and stand out. This is the framework that has helped me successfully clear Engineering leadership interviews at Databricks, Twitter, Airbnb, Plaid, Notion, Uber, and other companies.

Businesses often struggle to ensure smooth database connections during scaling and upgrades. Frustrations can surface from underused instances after scaling out, disruptions when scaling in, and potential disconnections during upgrades.

While connection pools and long-lived connections offer stability, they can cause issues in fluid environments where databases need to adapt quickly. This leads to increased overhead, wasted resources, and dissatisfied customers.

In our rapidly evolving digital age where technology underpins almost every facet of our lives, cybersecurity has never been more critical. As the world becomes increasingly interconnected with personal devices and social networks to critical infrastructure and global business operations, the digital landscape has expanded and diversified, presenting new opportunities and unknown threats, bringing cybersecurity to the forefront of the global stage. Today, data is the lifeblood of our modern society, and it flows ceaselessly through the veins of the digital realm. It's the engine that powers our businesses, our governments, and our personal lives. We entrust it with our most sensitive information, from financial records to healthcare data and private conversations. 

The interconnected world has created unparalleled convenience but has also introduced unprecedented risk. The digital realm has become a battleground where malicious actors, from cyber criminals to nation-states, continually seek to exploit vulnerabilities, steal sensitive information, disrupt critical services, and sow chaos. The consequences of a cybersecurity breach are far-reaching and can include financial loss, reputation damage, and even threats to national security. Cyber threats’ sheer volume and sophistication continue to increase daily, necessitating a proactive and comprehensive approach to safety. "Zero Trust Security" has become an effective strategy to safeguard our interconnected world. 

The rapidly evolving world of technology demands constant creativity, innovation, and adaptation from professionals in the field. At Oktane 2023, Okta's user conference, world-renowned chef and humanitarian Jose Andres delivered an inspirational keynote speech highlighting valuable lessons for developers, engineers, and architects on driving innovation in their work.

Andres is an award-winning chef and restaurateur known for his creative cuisine and trailblazing restaurants. But beyond his culinary fame, Andres is also a prominent humanitarian and founder of the non-profit World Central Kitchen, which provides nourishing meals to communities in need after disasters around the world.

It’s All About the Performance

SQL database cannot handle only one incoming connection at a time because it would be devastating for the performance of the system. We expect the database to accept many callers in parallel and execute their requests as fast as possible. It is rather clear how to do that when these callers ask for different data, i.e., the first caller reads from Table 1 while the second caller reads from Table 2. However, very often, different callers want to read from and write to the same table. How should we handle these queries? What should be the order of operations and the final result? This is where a transaction isolation level comes into play.

A transaction is a set of queries (like SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE) sent to the database to execute, which should be completed as a unit of work. This means that they either need to be executed or none of them should be executed. It takes time to execute transactions. For instance, a single UPDATE statement may modify multiple rows. The database system needs to modify every row, and this takes time. While performing an update, another transaction may begin and try to read the rows that are currently being modified. The question we may ask here is — should the other transaction read new values of rows (despite not all of them being already updated), old values of rows (despite some of them being already updated), or maybe should it wait? And what if the first transaction needs to be canceled later for any reason? What should happen to the other transaction?

In today's interconnected digital age, embedded systems are ubiquitous, from household appliances to sophisticated industrial machines and medical devices. As these systems increasingly impact our daily lives and critical infrastructures, ensuring their safety and security has become paramount. In this article, we'll delve into the importance of safety and security in embedded systems, identify common threats, and provide measures to mitigate risks.

Safety vs. Security: Understanding the Difference

While often used interchangeably, safety and security in the context of embedded systems serve distinct roles:

Current artificial intelligence (AI) research focuses on how generative AI capabilities can be improved across various sectors and use cases. The power of generative AI lies in the ability to create various ad copy variations, generate lifelike images, improve low-quality visuals, and more. Generative AI is primarily driven by diffusion models, which push the limits of AI innovation. In this article, we'll learn what diffusion models are and explore their benefits, challenges, and possible solutions.

Diffusion Models: An Overview

A diffusion model is a parameterized probabilistic framework, which produces entirely new data by drawing from its training dataset. In other words, if the model is trained on images of existing global landmarks, it can generate images of architectural marvels and monuments that are purely imaginative. Leading AI tools like DALL-E and Midjourney harness the power of diffusion models, particularly the stable diffusion variant, to create images entirely from scratch.

Ransomware continues to pose a serious and growing threat to organizations of all sizes and across all industries. According to a new research report from Zerto and Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG), nearly two-thirds of IT and cybersecurity professionals view ransomware as one of the top three most serious threats to the viability of their organization. With AI-driven attacks becoming more frequent and sophisticated, organizations must take action now to improve ransomware preparedness and mitigate risks.

Ransomware Prevalence and Impacts

The ESG survey of 600 IT and cybersecurity professionals reveals troubling statistics about the prevalence of ransomware and its impacts. 

In the realm of digital transformation, data has taken center stage as the key driver of innovation, operational efficiencies, and business success. But data's value is intrinsically linked to its quality. A single erroneous data entry can cascade into costly mistakes, erode customer trust, and even result in regulatory penalties. The repercussions are particularly severe in industries like healthcare and finance, where data errors can literally mean life or death situations or have significant economic impacts. Amidst the evolving complexities of data types and sources, data quality can no longer be assured through ad-hoc checks or siloed initiatives. This elevates the need for a comprehensive, organization-wide framework for Data Quality Assurance.

This blog aims to serve as a comprehensive guide to conceptualizing and implementing a robust Data Quality Assurance framework. We will traverse through its multifaceted components—starting from the theoretical underpinnings of what constitutes 'quality' in data to the tactical elements of governance, processes, and technologies that act as the pillars of assurance.

Whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur or an established venture, having an online presence is the key to growing your business digitally and getting more eyeballs.

Having a website generates more traction for you and makes it easier to connect with the right audience.