Mahmoud Bakr
RSS FeedWelcome to the home of my tech articles! Here, you'll discover in-depth guides, techniques, tips, tricks, and the latest news on Ruby on Rails. Whether you're looking to sharpen your skills or explore new ideas, I hope you enjoy your time here and find exactly what you need. If you don't, I’d love to hear from you—let me know what you're looking for, and I'll gladly add it to this growing collection for everyone to benefit. Thank you for visiting, and happy coding!
Featured
ACID in Databases: What PostgreSQL Guarantees and What It Doesn't
Published: at 08:00 AM (6 min read)PostgreSQL is fully ACID-compliant — but ACID is a shared responsibility, not a free guarantee. Here's what the database enforces on its own, what you have to ask for, and where the traps are in Rails.
Composite Indexes in PostgreSQL: The Small Change With a Big Impact
Published: at 08:00 AM (7 min read)Most developers add indexes and move on. But a single misunderstood rule about composite indexes leads to redundant indexes that silently cost you at write time, at query time, and at scale. Here's how to get them right — and how to add them safely in production.
Idempotency in Distributed Systems: 5 Patterns Every Backend Engineer Should Know
Published: at 08:00 AM (7 min read)Silent duplicates are the hardest bugs in distributed systems. This article breaks down five idempotency patterns — from optimistic locking to the transactional outbox — with practical Rails examples.
The Complete Software Architecture Walkthrough
Published: at 07:00 AM (18 min read)A complete walkthrough of software architecture design — from understanding requirements to mapping components — using Chatterly, a real-time messaging app, as the working example.
Recent Posts
Private vs Protected in Ruby: Who's Allowed to Be the Receiver?
Published: at 08:00 AM (3 min read)Ruby's private and protected keywords look like two flavors of the same idea, but the real distinction lives in one rule: who is allowed to be the receiver. Here's what that means, why it matters, and when to reach for each.
Webhooks: How External Systems Talk Back to Yours — Securely
Published: at 10:00 AM (7 min read)Webhooks are the mechanism that keeps your system's state consistent with a provider's — even when the synchronous flow fails. Here's how they work, how to secure them, and how to handle at-least-once delivery correctly.
When the Cloud Burns: Why RTO and RPO Aren't Just Buzzwords
Published: at 10:00 AM (7 min read)A reflection on what the March 2026 AWS Middle East outage reveals about RTO, RPO, and why non-functional requirements must be foundational — not optional.
Rails Active Support
Published: at 10:00 AM (3 min read)An exploration of Rails ActiveSupport framework components including Core Extensions, Concern, Inflector, TimeWithZone, Notifications, and Autoload.