Articles on backend engineering, system design, and software craft by Hashir Ali.https://hashir.xyz/https://hashir.xyz/blog/building-resilient-backend-systems/https://hashir.xyz/blog/building-resilient-backend-systems/Lessons from a decade of designing systems that fail gracefully under pressure — circuit breakers, retries, and the art of degradation.Mon, 15 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://hashir.xyz/blog/why-i-stopped-chasing-new-frameworks/https://hashir.xyz/blog/why-i-stopped-chasing-new-frameworks/After years of jumping between tools, I found more value in depth than breadth. Here's what changed my perspective.Wed, 22 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://hashir.xyz/blog/infrastructure-as-code-lessons/https://hashir.xyz/blog/infrastructure-as-code-lessons/Hard-won lessons from years of managing infrastructure with Terraform, including state management, module design, and team workflows.Sun, 10 Aug 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://hashir.xyz/blog/the-art-of-code-review/https://hashir.xyz/blog/the-art-of-code-review/Code review is one of the highest-leverage activities on a team. Here's how to do it well — both as a reviewer and as an author.Thu, 05 Jun 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://hashir.xyz/blog/database-migrations-without-downtime/https://hashir.xyz/blog/database-migrations-without-downtime/A practical guide to evolving your database schema in production without maintenance windows, using expand-and-contract patterns.Fri, 18 Apr 2025 00:00:00 GMT