Things Every Engineer Should Know: SQL Execution Order. Most engineers read SQL top-down, but that only explains intent. Performance requires a second pass that follows execution order. A SQL query…


LinkedIn Content Strategy & Writing Style
Eng Manager | ex-Canva | 400k+ audience | Helping you become a great engineer and leader
1 person tracking this creator on Viral Brain
Nikki Siapno positions herself as a high-authority bridge between technical execution and engineering leadership, leveraging her ex-Canva pedigree to mentor a massive global audience. Her content strategy centers on "de-obfuscating" complex infrastructure, using recurring "System Design 101" frameworks and mental models to help engineers move from writing code to architecting systems. She is notable for her ability to transform dry technical documentation into highly shareable, visual-first educational assets that prioritize performance and scalability tradeoffs. An interesting intersection in her work is the marriage of traditional SDLC principles with emerging AI agent architectures, where she treats modern tooling not as a replacement for engineering rigor, but as a new layer of system design to be mastered.
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Things Every Engineer Should Know: SQL Execution Order. Most engineers read SQL top-down, but that only explains intent. Performance requires a second pass that follows execution order. A SQL query…

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If you want to grow as a software engineer, try these newsletters (all free): 1. System Design ➟ https://lnkd.in/gDCD8gaq 2. Engineering Leadership ➟ https://lnkd.in/g3wQkZX9 3. Insider Knowledge B…

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5.6 posts/week
Posts / Week
1.7 days
Days Between Posts
2
Total Posts Analyzed
HIGH
Posting Frequency
484.5%
Avg Engagement Rate
STABLE
Performance Trend
320
Avg Length (Words)
HIGH
Depth Level
ADVANCED
Expertise Level
0.77/10
Uniqueness Score
YES
Question Usage
0.2%
Response Rate
Writing style breakdown
<start of post>
Monolith vs Microservices vs Serverless.
Most developers view these as a linear progression of "better" tech, but they are actually just different ways to manage complexity and state.
Monolith = Simplicity of deployment
↳ Single codebase. Unified database. Easy to test.
↳ Optimized for small teams and rapid initial velocity.
↳ Risk: Becomes a "big ball of mud" as the team scales.
Microservices = Scalability of teams
↳ Decoupled logic. Independent deployments. Polyglot stacks.
↳ Great for large organizations with complex domains.
↳ Risk: Operational complexity and network latency.
Serverless = Efficiency of resources
↳ No infrastructure management. Pay-per-use. Auto-scaling.
↳ Ideal for event-driven tasks and unpredictable workloads.
↳ Risk: Vendor lock-in and cold start issues.
So the real question isn’t “which is the most modern?”
It’s which tradeoff your team is equipped to handle.
A modular monolith to start
Extracting microservices only when the pain of the monolith exceeds the pain of the network
One repo.
Clear boundaries.
Strategic extraction.
The shift isn’t “moving to the cloud.”
It’s moving toward the right boundaries.
What else would you add?
--
🔖 Save for later.
♻️ Repost to help others learn system design.
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<end of post>
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