About Devgo

Devgo is a living reference of how real large systems are built. Every technical term is a first-class page and an inline popover. The goal: look up a term in under 30 seconds, compare your options, and leave with a stack choice — not just a definition.

What's inside

• 203 terms across 13 categories, each with definition, why it exists, how it works, scaling limits, cost shape, when to use / not to, alternatives, and failure modes.
• 8 case studies — YouTube, Netflix, Twitter/X, Uber, Instagram, WhatsApp, Stripe, Discord — with constraints, diagram, request path, data model, choices, scaling levers, and copy-vs-skip guidance.
• 5 comparisons on cost, scale, consistency, and when each option wins.
• 4 guided paths for interview prep, greenfield backends, data-heavy, and realtime systems.

Editorial principles

• Decision-oriented, not blog fluff. Every page ends with when to use and when not to.
• Sourced. Case studies cite public engineering blogs, papers, and docs. No invented metrics, vendor prices, or internal architecture.
• Mark uncertain claims. Where the public record is unclear, we say so.
• Internal links only to pages that exist. No broken links.

How to use

• Press ⌘K / Ctrl-K to search anywhere.
• Click or tap any underlined term in a case study to open a popover (bottom sheet on mobile).
• Dark mode is default; toggle in the header. Your preference is remembered.

Stack

Next.js App Router, TypeScript, React Server Components, Tailwind CSS, Radix UI for popovers, FlexSearch for client-side search, Zod-validated content, self-hosted fonts, deployed to Vercel.