askmaddyy

The "Oh, so that's how it works" corner of the internet.

Thoughtful articles and interactive demos about computer science, system design, and how the tech around us actually works.

Latest

Articles

How a clever mathematical trick helps billions of users check username availability in milliseconds.

When your app starts getting hammered, how do you decide whether to go bigger or go wider? Here's the honest breakdown.

The most fundamental tradeoff in distributed systems explained through a simple, real-world story.

Why your text file isn't enough, and how databases actually work under the hood.

Builds

A Mac file converter that lives in Finder. Hold Option, drag a file onto a slice, and the converted copy lands beside the original.

A Mac menu bar app that flies your next meeting across the screen, towed by a duck in a plane, a few minutes before it starts.

Interactive

See how keys map to a ring and how little data moves when a node joins or leaves.

Pick an input size and watch O(1), O(log N), O(N), O(N²), and O(2ᴺ) race side by side.

Learn how requests are distributed across servers using common load-balancing strategies.