Introduction to The Unspoken Rules of Coding for Both Novice and Sage Developers
Just blew £200K on a security breach because of rushed code. Here’s the raw truth about the unspoken rules of coding for both novice and sage developers that nobody’s talking about – straight from someone who learned it the expensive way.
The £200K Security Lesson
Lost a major client last year. The reason? A junior pushed straight to production.
The Real Security Rules
- One compromised API key costs more than a month of code reviews
- Never store secrets in code – learned this after our AWS keys got scraped
- Check your dependencies weekly – got burned by a corrupt npm package
- Run security scans like your business depends on it
- Keep access tokens rotating – saved us during a breach attempt
The Trading Platform Meltdown
Built a forex trading platform. It crashed on day one. Here’s what stuck:
Money-Critical Code Practices
- Every millisecond costs real money in trading
- Race conditions will find you at the worst moment
- Your error handling is probably not good enough
- Test with actual market data or pay later
- Logs are your only friend when things go wrong
The Scaling Nightmare
Our user base grew 10x in a week. The lessons were painful:
Growth-Ready Code Principles
- Cache before you need it
- Your database will break at 3 AM
- Microservices aren’t always the answer – learned after splitting too early
- Measure everything twice
- Plan for 100x load, not just 2x
The Memory Leak Mysteries
Spent three weeks hunting a memory leak in production:
Memory Management Truths
- Memory leaks show up on Friday nights
- Your tools lie sometimes
- Background jobs need timeouts
- Watch your event listeners
- Clean up after yourself – always
The API Disaster Recovery Plan
APIs break in creative ways. Here’s the survival guide:
API Wisdom
- Version from day one
- Never trust external services
- Rate limits save lives
- Keep backwards compatibility longer than you think
- Document the weird edge cases
The Mobile App Mess
Released a broken app update to 100K users. Never again.
Mobile-First Code Rules
- Test on real devices
- Network conditions vary wildly
- Battery life matters more than clean code
- Offline support isn’t optional
- Error messages must make sense to humans
The DevOps Drama
Server crashed during an investor demo. Changed everything about our process:
Real DevOps Lessons
- Automate your pain points first
- Monitor the business metrics, not just tech ones
- Keep deploy scripts simple
- Rollbacks need testing too
- Document your infrastructure
The Code Review Revolution
Fixed our review process after a payment processing bug:
New Review Standards
- Check for business logic first
- Look for missing error cases
- Security review every payment flow
- Test edge cases with real data
- Review databases changes twice
The Frontend Fiascos
Lost users because of bad UX decisions:
Frontend Facts
- Loading states matter more than clean code
- Error messages make or break user trust
- Accessibility isn’t optional – got legal threats
- Test on slow connections
- Mobile users don’t read instructions
The Database Debacles
Dropped a production table. Changed how we handle data forever:
Database Defence Tactics
- Backup before every migration
- Script all changes
- Never trust the ORM completely
- Keep old data longer than you think
- Version your schema changes
FAQs From The Trenches
Q: How do you balance technical debt with rapid growth? A: Fix debt that slows feature development. Ignore the rest until it hurts.
Q: What’s the most expensive mistake to fix? A: Bad data models. They poison everything downstream.
Q: How do you handle emergency production issues? A: Have a checklist, follow it blindly, even if you think you know the cause.
The Startup Survival Guide
Burned through three senior devs in six months. The fix:
Team Sanity Rules
- Code reviews are therapy sessions
- Document decisions, not just code
- Share context, not just tasks
- Celebrate fixed bugs
- Learn from near misses
The Money Matters
Lost deals because of tech decisions:
Business Impact Rules
- Every bug costs customer trust
- Performance impacts revenue directly
- Security breaches kill startups
- Technical debt compounds like credit card interest
- Good monitoring saves jobs
The unspoken rules of coding for both novice and sage developers aren’t just about clean code – they’re about keeping your business alive and your team sane. Everything else is just syntax.
Remember: The most expensive code is the code you have to write twice because you rushed it the first time.