Illustration of developers collaborating during a code review to share knowledge and improve quality

Code Reviews That Grow Developers

TL;DR Code reviews should teach, not just catch bugs. Stop nitpicking syntax and start building autonomous developers. Focus on architectural patterns, ask guiding questions instead of giving orders, and eliminate multi-team approval bottlenecks that delay delivery. Good reviews create learning opportunities that scale your team’s expertise. Code reviews shouldn’t be about catching syntax errors or enforcing personal preferences. They’re your best tool for spreading architectural knowledge and building stronger development teams. But most teams get this wrong, creating bureaucratic bottlenecks instead of learning opportunities. ...

September 16, 2025 · Last modified: November 12, 2025 · 8 min

ASP.NET Core: Auth with Middleware or Filters?

Discover how using custom middleware for authentication in ASP.NET Core SaaS APIs leads to cleaner, faster, and more maintainable code compared to traditional authorization filters.

September 12, 2025 · Last modified: September 19, 2025 · 3 min

12 SOLID Interview Questions for Experienced Developers

Master SOLID principles with real C# examples, interview questions, common pitfalls, and clean architecture tips for maintainable, testable code.

September 8, 2025 · Last modified: September 19, 2025 · 31 min

JS Closures: Real Production Use Cases Beyond Interviews

TL;DR: Most developers only encounter closures during interview prep or basic counter examples. This post dives into how closures power real-world frontend scenarios: event listeners, encapsulation, memoization, and reactive programming. Walk away with patterns you can use today. Every JavaScript developer has seen the classic closure examples: counters that increment, multiplier functions that return other functions. These textbook cases teach the concept but leave you wondering when you’d actually reach for closures in real frontend work. ...

September 5, 2025 · 6 min

From Code Contributor to System Thinker: The Senior Developer’s Shift

A senior developer’s perspective on writing less code, focusing on architecture, mentorship, and team productivity.

August 30, 2025 · 7 min

Why Middleware Beats DI for SaaS Extension Points

In multi-tenant SaaS applications, custom middleware gives you the earliest hook in the request pipeline, even before dependency injection kicks in. Middleware runs at the very beginning of your pipeline, providing access to raw request data before any transformations occur.

August 24, 2025 · Last modified: August 28, 2025 · 9 min

3 Signs Your Code Needs Middleware

TL;DR Repeating logic across controllers (like logging or header checks)? Move it to middleware. Modifying requests/responses in controllers? Middleware handles that cleanly and early. Your services use HttpContext? Extract that logic into middleware for cleaner, testable code. If your services are bloated or you’re duplicating logic across controllers, middleware might be the extension point you actually need. Many developers reach for filters or services first, when middleware would’ve been faster, simpler, and more maintainable. ...

August 21, 2025 · 2 min

Why Constructor Injection Matters in Clean Architecture

Constructor injection is your first clean architecture decision. Learn how to write testable, decoupled ASP.NET Core code using built-in DI, scoped lifetimes, and mocking techniques.

August 18, 2025 · Last modified: September 19, 2025 · 8 min
Diagram showing the five SOLID principles. Each letter represents a principle: S for Single Responsibility, O for Open/Closed, L for Liskov Substitution, I for Interface Segregation, and D for Dependency Inversion.

SOLID Principles Cheatsheet

Want the PDF version? Click here to download S: Single Responsibility Principle (SRP) Real Meaning: One reason to change, not one “thing” it does. Why It Matters: Avoids “God classes” that block clean PRs & slow refactoring. Personal Analogy: “If you can’t give a clean commit message for the change, it’s violating SRP.” Code Smell: Method/class summary has multiple and/or. Actionable: Before adding a method, ask: “Is this a different concern?” Read more on SRP Short link: bytecrafted.dev/solid-srp O: Open/Closed Principle (OCP) Real Meaning: Add features by extension, not by editing old code. Why It Matters: Keeps legacy code stable; new business rules plug in cleanly. Personal Analogy: “If a new requirement means touching brittle switch statements, you’re not OCP.” Code Smell: Growing switch/if chains for types or behaviors. Actionable: When adding a rule, prefer new handler/class over changing the old one. Read more on OCP Short link: bytecrafted.dev/solid-ocp L: Liskov Substitution Principle (LSP) Real Meaning: Subtypes must behave as expected, no surprises for callers. Why It Matters: Swapping implementations shouldn’t break existing tests or runtime logic. Personal Analogy: “If a subclass throws where the base returns null, that’s an LSP landmine.” Code Smell: Derived classes override with different exceptions, parameters, or semantics. Actionable: Run parent class tests on every subclass; look for broken guarantees. Read more on LSP Short link: bytecrafted.dev/solid-lsp I: Interface Segregation Principle (ISP) Real Meaning: Small, client-focused interfaces, never force unused methods. Why It Matters: Reduces coupling, makes mocks/tests trivial, avoids NotSupportedException landmines. Personal Analogy: “If your interface summary needs bullet points, it’s already too fat.” Code Smell: Implementations with empty or throw NotSupportedException methods. Actionable: Extract groups of related methods into separate interfaces as soon as a client skips one. Read more on ISP Short link: bytecrafted.dev/solid-isp D: Dependency Inversion Principle (DIP) Real Meaning: Depend on abstractions, not concrete implementations, flip the usual control. Why It Matters: Makes business logic testable, swappable, and free of infrastructure glue. Personal Analogy: “If you see new SqlRepo() in a service, that’s DIP going up in flames.” Code Smell: Direct instantiation of dependencies inside business logic. Actionable: Use constructor injection for every external dependency; mock in tests, swap in production. Read more on DIP Short link: bytecrafted.dev/solid-dip Read full series: bytecrafted.dev/series/solid. ...

August 12, 2025 · Last modified: November 12, 2025 · 3 min

Applying OOP in ASP.NET Core

This post explores the four pillars of OOP in ASP.NET Core: encapsulation, abstraction, inheritance, and polymorphism. It provides practical examples and explains how these principles improve code maintainability, testability, and architecture in modern C# web APIs.

August 10, 2025 · Last modified: September 3, 2025 · 8 min
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