Building Our Platform: A Technical Deep Dive

Project Overview

This post documents the technical journey of building our platform from scratch, covering architecture decisions, challenges faced, and lessons learned.

Technical Stack

• Frontend: Next.js with TypeScript
• Backend: Node.js with Express
• Database: PostgreSQL
• Infrastructure: AWS (ECS, RDS)

Implementation Journey

1. Initial Architecture Design

Our primary goals were:

• Scalability from day one
• Maintainable codebase
• Developer experience
• Performance optimization

2. Key Challenges Faced

Database Schema Evolution

// Early schema iterations showed limitations
interface InitialSchema {
  // Simple but not scalable
}

// Final implementation
interface ImprovedSchema {
  // Added flexibility for future features
}

Performance Bottlenecks

• N+1 query issues in REST endpoints
• Large payload sizes affecting client performance
• Solution: Implemented GraphQL with DataLoader

3. Technical Decisions

Improvements & Future Plans

1. Current Pain Points

   • CI/CD pipeline speed
   • Test coverage gaps
   • Monitoring granularity

2. Planned Enhancements

   • Migration to Kubernetes
   • Implementation of event-driven architecture
   • Enhanced logging and monitoring

Lessons Learned

• Start with monolith, split only when necessary
• Invest in developer tooling early
• Documentation is crucial for team scaling

Conclusion

While we've made significant progress, there's always room for improvement. Our next focus areas are:

1. Performance optimization
2. Developer experience
3. System reliability

Resources

• Architecture Diagram
• API Documentation
• Performance Metrics

Last Updated: 2025-03-20