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⚙️Backend Dev

Backend engineering, APIs, and databases

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Test yourself: Top 30 intermediate Backend Dev interview questionsMultiple choice, with the correct answer and why it is correct on every question. Free, no sign-in.

Intermediate everything in Backend Dev, page 9

intermediate1 min read

Go interfaces versus Rust traits and macros at scale

Go uses reflection over interface{} (e.g. encoding/json) for runtime flexibility; Rust uses traits plus derive/proc macros (e.g. serde) for compile-time, zero-cost code generation.

intermediate2 min read

Go's mandatory runtime versus Rust's minimal runtime

Go ships a GC and goroutine scheduler in every binary, ideal for services; Rust has only a tiny runtime and no GC, enabling embedded, kernels, and WASM.

intermediate1 min read

Go interface-constraint generics versus Rust trait bounds

Go constrains type parameters with interfaces and may use dictionaries/shape stenciling; Rust uses trait bounds with full monomorphization for zero-cost specialization.

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Go (T, error) versus Rust Result for error handling

Go returns a separate error value you may ignore; Rust wraps success or error in one Result enum the compiler forces you to handle. Go favors simplicity, Rust favors compile-enforced safety.

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Goroutines and channels versus ownership-based concurrency

Go uses cheap goroutines and CSP-style channels to coordinate by communication; Rust uses ownership plus Send/Sync to make data races a compile error.

intermediate1 min read

Structural Go interfaces versus nominal Rust traits

Go interfaces are satisfied implicitly by method shape (structural); Rust traits must be explicitly implemented (nominal).

intermediate1 min read

Criterion: the standard Rust benchmarking library

Criterion runs on stable Rust, collects many samples, applies statistical analysis with confidence intervals, and compares against saved baselines to detect regressions.

intermediate2 min read

Rust lifetimes versus Go garbage-collected lifetimes

A lifetime is a compile-time region a reference is valid for; annotations like 'a relate input and output reference durations; Go instead uses garbage collection and escape analysis.

intermediate1 min read

Fearless concurrency: Rust compile-time vs Go runtime

Rust uses ownership plus Send/Sync to reject data races at compile time; Go encourages channels but still allows races, with the runtime race detector catching them at test…

intermediate1 min read

Rust Send and Sync marker traits explained

Send means a value can move across threads, Sync means a reference can be shared; Rc uses non-atomic refcounts, Arc uses atomic ones.

intermediate2 min read

Using context.Context across microservice calls in Go

Context carries cancellation, deadlines, and values; pass ctx as first arg, set one WithTimeout at the edge, attach a request ID via WithValue, thread it through downstream calls so all cancel…

intermediate2 min read

Static dispatch over Write with generics in Rust

Write generically over the std::io::Write trait with a type parameter W: Write, letting the compiler monomorphize and inline per concrete type, avoiding the vtable indirection of Box<dyn Write>.

intermediate1 min read

Logging middleware wrapping an http.Handler in Go

Middleware has signature func(http.Handler) http.Handler, records start time, calls next.ServeHTTP, then logs method, URL, and elapsed duration; chaining works because the wrapper is itself a…

intermediate2 min read

Passing Go/Rust callbacks to a C library

C needs a plain function pointer; in Go use //export with cgo, in Rust an extern "C" fn; carry state via a void* user-data param.

intermediate1 min read

Rust references vs raw pointers

References are borrow-checked, always valid, aliasing-controlled, non-null; raw pointers carry no guarantees, can be null, dangling, or aliased, and dereferencing needs unsafe.

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Concurrent TCP server: Go goroutines vs Rust std::thread

Both accept in a loop; Go spawns a goroutine per connection (go handle(conn)); Rust spawns an OS thread (thread::spawn moving the stream).

intermediate1 min read

Rust async/await vs Go goroutines

Go schedules goroutines on a built-in runtime transparently; Rust futures are inert until polled by an external runtime like Tokio, and async colors functions.

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Sharing mutable state: Go mutex vs Rust Arc Mutex

Go uses sync.Mutex by convention; Rust wraps data in Arc<Mutex<T>> so locking is mandatory, enforced by Send/Sync and the borrow checker.

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Value versus pointer receivers and interface satisfaction

Value-receiver methods belong to both T and *T, but pointer-receiver methods belong only to *T, so a value of T may not satisfy an interface.

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Rust borrow rules versus Go race prevention

Rust's aliasing-XOR-mutability rule plus Send and Sync make races a compile error; Go prevents them at runtime via channels, mutexes and the race detector.

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