Learn from First Principles Build Understanding Ground Up
Deep dive tutorials on trading infrastructure, Linux kernel optimization, and DeFi security.
📚 Fundamentals
2 lessons
Core computer science concepts that underpin all systems engineering.
Fundamentals
2 lessonsCore computer science concepts that underpin all systems engineering.
How Computers Actually Work: Complete Guide
beginnerFrom electrons to applications. Understand the CPU, memory, and fetch-decode-execute cycle that powers every program you'll ever write.
The Physics of Time: Concurrency, Parallelism & Amdahl's Law
intermediateWhy adding threads can make your code slower. The physics of Context Switching, Cache Thrashing, and the mathematical limit of parallel speedup (Amdahl's Law).
🐧 Linux Fundamentals
15 lessons
Master the operating system that powers servers, containers, and trading systems.
Linux Fundamentals
15 lessonsMaster the operating system that powers servers, containers, and trading systems.
The Physics of the Kernel: Ring 0, Traps & Syscalls
beginnerWhy 'User Space' is a lie. The physics of CPU Privilege Levels (Ring 0 vs 3), the Interrupt Descriptor Table (IDT), and the cost of crossing the border.
The Physics of Networking: From NIC to Socket
intermediateWhy your ping is 0.1ms but your app is 10ms. The physics of DMA, Ring Buffers, SoftIRQs (NET_RX), and the Socket Buffer (sk_buff).
The Physics of Processes: Life, Death, and Zombies
intermediateWhy fork() is fast (COW), why Context Switching is slow (TLB Flush), and how the Kernel manages the illusion of multitasking.
The Physics of Interrupts: Top Half, Bottom Half & Latency
beginnerWhy the CPU stops everything when you type a key. The physics of Pipeline Flushes, the IDT (Interrupt Descriptor Table), and the 'Top Half' constraint.
The Physics of Files: Structs, Inodes & VFS
intermediateWhy 'Everything is a File' is the most powerful abstraction in history. The physics of the FD Table, VFS function pointers, and the O(1) magic of Epoll.
The Physics of Signals: Stack Injection & Re-entrancy
beginnerWhy `printf` inside a signal handler causes deadlocks. The physics of Userspace Stack Injection, the Trampoline, and Async-Signal-Safety.
Linux Memory: The Physics of RAM
beginnerWhy access to RAM is slow (TLB Misses), how the Kernel cheats with Slab Allocators, and the math behind the OOM Killer.
The Physics of Scheduling: Time Dilation in the Kernel
intermediateWhy 'Nice' is actually Time Dilation. Red-Black Trees, O(log N) physics, and why Real-Time processes are dangerous.
The Physics of Cgroups: Resource Controllers & OOM
beginnerHow Docker limits RAM. The physics of the CFS Scheduler, Hierarchical Token Buckets, and the OOM Killer's linear search.
The Physics of Namespaces: nsproxy, clone() & Isolation
intermediateHow Docker tricks processes into thinking they are alone. The physics of `nsproxy`, the `clone()` bitmask, and Virtual Ethernet pairs.
The Physics of Containers: Layers, OverlayFS & Chroot
intermediateA container is not a Virtual Machine. It is a process with a mask. The physics of Copy-on-Write (CoW), Union Filesystems, and manual container assembly.
The Physics of Systemd: Dependency DAGs & Socket Activation
beginnerWhy Linux boots in 2 seconds. The physics of parallel execution graphs, lazy socket activation, and the `sd_notify` heartbeat protocol.
The Physics of Permissions: Inodes, Capabilities & ACLs
intermediateWhy 'chmod 777' is amateur. The physics of Inode Bitmasks, Capability Sets (CAP_NET_ADMIN), and Access Control Lists.
The Physics of Secrets: mlock(), Vault & Memory Forensics
beginnerWhy environment variables are unsafe. The physics of Swap Memory, Core Dumps, `mlock()`, and HashiCorp Vault's Shamir's Secret Sharing.
The Physics of Observability: Auditd, eBPF & Merkle Trees
intermediateWhy standard logging is blind. The physics of Kernel Auditing, eBPF Tracing, and constructing tamper-proof log chains with Merkle Trees.
⚡ Linux Performance
5 lessons
Kernel tuning, CPU isolation, and memory optimization for low-latency workloads.
Linux Performance
5 lessonsKernel tuning, CPU isolation, and memory optimization for low-latency workloads.
The Physics of CPU Latency: Caches, Context Switches & Isolation
intermediateWhy your code is slow. The physics of CPU Caches (L1/L2/L3), the 4µs cost of a Context Switch, and the `isolcpus` kernel boot parameter.
The Physics of Memory: TLB, HugePages & page_fault_latency
intermediateVirtual Memory is an illusion. The physics of the Translation Lookaside Buffer (TLB), why 4KB pages are too small for HFT, and the cost of a Page Table Walk.
The Physics of Data: Kernel Bypass, SoftIRQs & Ring Buffers
intermediateWhy the Linux Kernel is too slow for 10Gbps. The physics of DMA Ring Buffers, SoftIRQ Latency, and bypassing the OS with AF_XDP.
The Physics of Storage: NVMe Queues & io_uring
intermediateWhy `write()` is a lie. The physics of NVMe Submission Queues, the Doorbell Register, and why `io_uring` beats `libaio`.
The Physics of Jitter: SMIs, C-States & Turbo Boost
intermediateWhy your P99 latency is terrible. The physics of System Management Interrupts (SMI), CPU C-States Wakeup Latency, and Turbo Boost frequency jitter.
🔒 Security Fundamentals
14 lessons
Authentication, authorization, supply chain security, and threat modeling.
Security Fundamentals
14 lessonsAuthentication, authorization, supply chain security, and threat modeling.
Cryptography: Physics of Secrets
beginnerWhy AES-256 is unbreakable by physics. The mechanics of RSA (Prime Factoring), ECC (Discrete Logs), and Hash Collisions.
OWASP Top 10: The Physics of Vulnerability
intermediateWhy SQL Injection is actually a Compiler Error. Deconstructing the mechanics of Broken Access Control, XSS, and SSRF.
The Physics of TLS: Handshakes & Secrecy
intermediateHow to agree on a secret code in a crowded room. Diffie-Hellman, Forward Secrecy, and why TLS 1.3 is faster.
The Physics of Wallets: Curves, Keys & Entropy
intermediateWhy your money is a large integer. The physics of Elliptic Curve Cryptography ($d \times G = Q$), Hierarchical Deterministic (HD) Derivation, and Entropy Math.
Network Security: The Physics of Attack
beginnerHow to drop 100Gbps of traffic without crashing. Understanding DDoS physics, ARP Spoofing, and Kernel-level filtering.
Security Architecture for Trading Firms
intermediateDefense in depth for trading infrastructure. Network segmentation, key management, and incident response.
Insider Threat: Order Flow Security
intermediateProtecting order flow from internal threats. Separation of duties, monitoring, and secure execution paths.
Security Incident Response: Complete Guide
intermediateWhen things go wrong. Learn how to detect, contain, and recover from security incidents.
Supply Chain Security: The Physics of Trust
intermediateWhy your code is only 1% of your application. Dependency Confusion, Typosquatting, and how to survive the SolarWinds of tomorrow.
Zero Trust Wallets: Air-Gaps & Faraday Cages
intermediateWhy USB cables are attack vectors. The physics of Air-Gapping, PSBT (Partially Signed Bitcoin Transactions), and Acoustic Side-Channels.
Penetration Testing Introduction: Complete Guide
beginnerEthical hacking basics. Learn how security professionals find vulnerabilities before attackers do.
The Physics of Identity: Entropy, Hashing & Graph Theory
intermediateAuth is math. The physics of Password Entropy, why Argon2 defeats GPUs, and Graph Theory for RBAC vs ABAC authorization.
Trusted Execution Environments (TEE)
advancedRunning code that even sysadmins can't see. SGX enclaves, remote attestation, and the cryptographic primitives powering confidential computing.
The Physics of Zero Trust: mTLS, JWTs & Network Micro-Segmentation
beginnerWhy VPNs are dead. The physics of Cryptographic Identity (mTLS), Token Propagation (JWT), and the mathematics of Blast Radius Reduction.
🏗️ System Design
7 lessons
Architecture patterns for distributed systems, databases, and infrastructure.
System Design
7 lessonsArchitecture patterns for distributed systems, databases, and infrastructure.
Networking: The Physics of Packets
beginnerWhy 'fast' internet feels slow. A deep dive into TCP Congestion Control, Head-of-Line Blocking, and the BGP map of the world.
Load Balancing: The Physics of Queues
beginnerWhy adding servers doesn't always make things faster. Little's Law, the Thundering Herd, and Layer 7 Traffic Shaping.
Observability: The Physics of Seeing
beginnerWhy you can't debug what you can't see. Metrics, Logs, Traces, and the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle of monitoring.
Distributed Systems: The Physics of Information
beginnerWhy 'now' doesn't exist. Coping with the speed of light, network partitions, and the CAP Theorem.
The Physics of Caching: Locality, Coherence & Thundering Herds
intermediateWhy accessing RAM is 100x slower than L1. The physics of Temporal vs Spatial Locality, Cache Coherence problems, and the mathematics of the Thundering Herd.
The Physics of APIs: Idempotency, Rate Limits & State Machines
beginnerREST is not just CRUD. The physics of Idempotency (f(x) = f(f(x))), Leaky Bucket Rate Limiting, and why HATEOAS is a State Machine.
The Physics of Data: B-Trees, LSM-Trees & WAL
beginnerDatabases are not magic boxes. The integrity physics of Write Ahead Logs (WAL), Read vs Write optimization (B-Tree vs LSM), and ACID atomicity.
📈 Trading Infrastructure
22 lessons
Low-latency systems, matching engines, and market microstructure.
Trading Infrastructure
22 lessonsLow-latency systems, matching engines, and market microstructure.
First Principles of Trading Infrastructure
intermediateWhy N+1 Redundancy kills your PnL. The physics of Amdahl's Law, Capacity Planning (Microbursts), and the Buy vs Build Matrix.
The Physics of Latency: Jitter & Coordinated Omission
beginnerWhy your benchmarks are lying. Open Loop vs Closed Loop testing, System Management Interrupts (SMIs), and the physics of P99.
HFT: The Physics of Nanoseconds
beginnerWhy light is too slow. Microwave networks, Kernel Bypass (Solarflare), and why Fiber Optic cables are obsolete for price discovery.
How This Site Measures Latency
intermediateA deep dive into real-time latency measurement using the Performance API, Vercel Edge, and trading-grade observability techniques.
The Physics of the Order Book: L2, L3, and Sequence Gaps
beginnerWhy 'Price' is an aggregation of intent. Understanding Level 2 vs Level 3 data, UDP Sequence Gaps, and the Crossed Book phenomenon.
The Physics of Data Feeds: Multicast & Arbitration
intermediateWhy TCP is too slow. The physics of UDP Multicast, A/B Arbitration, and Zero-Copy Serialization (SBE).
The Physics of Matching Engines: Speed & Determinism
intermediateWhy the fastest engines in the world are Single-Threaded. Ring Buffers, CPU Cache alignment, and the LMAX Disruptor.
The Physics of FPGA: Hardware Acceleration
beginnerWhy Software is too slow. The physics of Tick-to-Trade, Logic Gates, and Pipeline Determinism.
Order Types: The Physics of Execution
intermediateWhy a 'Market Order' is an algorithm, not a request. Price-Time Priority, Slippage Physics, and why IOC is the HFT weapon of choice.
The Physics of Market Making: Inventory & Risk
beginnerWhy the 'Spread' is not profit-it is insurance premium. Avellaneda-Stoikov math, Toxic Flow, and the physics of getting run over.
The Physics of Colocation: Speed of Light & Fiber
intermediateWhy light is too slow for trading. The physics of Refractive Index (n=1.5), Hollow Core Fiber, and Microwave Networks (Goex).
Order Book Reconstruction in Sub-Millisecond
intermediateHow to build and maintain order books from L2/L3 feeds. Sequence numbers, gap detection, and snapshot recovery.
Trading Risk Management: Complete Guide
intermediatePosition sizing, stop losses, and risk limits. Learn how professional traders protect capital.
Physics of Market Data: Ticker Plants & Books
intermediateWhy normalization costs 5 microseconds. The physics of Book Building (Deltas vs Snapshots) and Time Series Databases (KDB+/q).
PTP Time Synchronization: Sub-Microsecond Accuracy
intermediateWhy NTP is broken for HFT compliance and how IEEE 1588 PTPv2 with hardware timestamping achieves sub-100ns accuracy.
eBPF Profiling Without the Observer Effect
intermediateHow to measure latency at nanosecond precision without slowing down your application. eBPF, bpftrace, and kernel tracing.
Trading System Metrics That Actually Matter
intermediateFill latency, position drift, market data staleness. The SLOs that prevent losses-not just track uptime.
Kubernetes StatefulSets for Trading Systems
intermediateStatefulSets vs Deployments, pod identity, PersistentVolumes, and graceful shutdown patterns for trading infrastructure.
The Nanosecond Economy: Physics of Winning
intermediateWhy 2nd place is 1st loser. The physics of Winner-Takes-All, Adverse Selection (Toxic Flow), and Jitter (Tail Latency).
The Sub-50µs Cloud Lie
intermediateWhy cloud vendors' latency claims don't match reality for trading. Real measurements and the hard limits of cloud infrastructure.
Crypto Exchange Architecture on AWS
intermediateBuilding a crypto exchange infrastructure on AWS. VPC design, security groups, HSM integration, and disaster recovery.
Antifragile MEV Infrastructure
intermediateBuilding MEV systems that strengthen under attack. Redundancy, graceful degradation, and chaos engineering.
⛓️ Blockchain Fundamentals
15 lessons
Consensus, transactions, smart contracts, and node architecture.
Blockchain Fundamentals
15 lessonsConsensus, transactions, smart contracts, and node architecture.
What Is a Blockchain? The Complete Guide
beginnerMaster blockchain technology from first principles. From cryptographic foundations to consensus mechanisms, understand how distributed ledgers actually work.
The Physics of Ethereum: State, Tries, and Gas
beginnerForget 'World Computer.' Ethereum is a deterministic state machine secured by a Merkle Patricia Trie. Learn how it actually works.
The Physics of Nodes: State Tries & Pruning
intermediateWhy Archive Nodes are 15TB. The physics of Merkle Patricia Tries, State Pruning, and how Light Clients verify data without storing it.
Smart Contracts: Immutability, Storage Slots, and the ABI
beginnerIt's not 'Code is Law.' It's 'Code is Compiled Bytecode.' Deep dive into EVM storage layout, Function Selectors, and ABI encoding.
The Anatomy of a Transaction: Nonces, Gas, and RLP
intermediateIt's not just 'sending money.' A deep dive into RLP encoding, the EIP-1559 fee market, and why Nonce gaps cause stuck transactions.
The Physics of Gas: EIP-1559 and Blob Markets
intermediateWhy does a transaction cost $50? Understanding the algorithmic control theory behind EIP-1559 and the new multi-dimensional Blob Gas market.
Blockchain Bridges Explained
intermediateHow cross-chain bridges work, their security models, and the risks of moving assets between blockchains.
The Physics of Consensus: PoW, PoS, and Sybil Resistance
intermediateWhy blockchains don't need a CEO. A deep engineering dive into Sybil Resistance, Difficulty Adjustment Algorithms, and the implementation of Slashing.
Layer 2 Solutions Explained: Complete Guide
intermediateRollups, sidechains, and the quest for scale. Learn how Ethereum extends without sacrificing security.
The Physics of Oracles: Bringing Truth On-Chain
intermediateWhy blockchains are autistic. The Oracle Problem, Sybil Resistance, and why Chainlink aggregation is a Schelling Point.
Bridge Security & Mechanics: Moving Assets Across Chains
intermediateFrom trusted multi-sigs to trustless light clients. A technical deep dive into how bridges lock, mint, and verify state-and why they are the #1 target for hackers.
DeFi Governance Explained
intermediateToken voting, delegation, timelocks. How DeFi protocols make decisions on-chain.
DeFi Risk Management
intermediateManaging risk in DeFi: position sizing, protocol risk assessment, and portfolio construction.
DeFi Protocol Security and Reliability
intermediateBuilding and evaluating secure DeFi protocols. Common vulnerabilities, defense patterns, and security best practices.
The Physics of Execution: EVM & Opcodes
intermediateWhy the Ethereum Virtual Machine is 100x slower than Native Code. The physics of Stack Machines, Gas Metering, and I/O Bottlenecks.
🔥 DeFi & MEV
15 lessons
AMMs, lending protocols, MEV, and advanced on-chain execution.
DeFi & MEV
15 lessonsAMMs, lending protocols, MEV, and advanced on-chain execution.
What Is DeFi? Complete Guide
beginnerDecentralized Finance explained. From first principles to protocols, understand how finance is being rebuilt without intermediaries.
Stablecoins Explained: Complete Guide
beginnerUSDC, USDT, DAI-how do they maintain their peg? Understand the backbone of DeFi.
Usage of AMMs Explained: Automated Market Makers
intermediateUniswap, Curve, and x*y=k. Learn how decentralized exchanges work without order books, from the constant product formula to impermanent loss mechanics.
Flash Loans: The Physics of Atomic Credit
intermediateBorrowing $1 Billion for 12 seconds. How atomic transactions enable uncollateralized lending and why if you fail, it never happened.
The Physics of Liquidity Pools: x*y=k and LVR
intermediateWhy 'Impermanent Loss' is actually 'Permanent Arbitrage'. The Conservation Law of AMMs, Convexity, and why Uniswap V3 is a leveraged bet.
The Physics of Yield Farming: Leverage & Loops
beginnerHow to turn $1 into $10 of TVL. Recursive Lending (Looping), Risk Stacking, and the dangerous physics of 'Money Legos'.
Lending Protocols: Aave Architecture & Flash Loans
intermediateHow Aave V3 optimizes capital efficiency. Isolation Mode, Efficiency Mode (eMode), and the physics of Atomic Flash Loans.
The Physics of Governance: Bribes & Timelocks
intermediateWhy 'Decentralized Governance' is actually 'Plutocratic Warfare'. The physics of Vote Buying (Curve Wars), Time-Locks, and Governance Extractable Value (GEV).
DeFi Oracles: V3 TWAPs, Pyth & Optimism
intermediateWhy Spot Prices are dangerous. The physics of Geometric Mean TWAPs (Uniswap V3), Confidence Intervals (Pyth), and Optimistic Oracles (UMA).
The Physics of MEV: The Blockspace Auction
beginnerWhy your transaction is being watched. A deep analysis of the Dark Forest, Proposer-Builder Separation (PBS), and the industrialization of arbitrage.
The Physics of Lending: Health Factors & Liquidations
intermediateWhy interest rates behave like asymptotes. The math of Health Factors, Liquidation Thresholds, and the 'Kink' in the Utilization Curve.
MEV-Boost & Relay Architecture
intermediateThe trusted middleware in Ethereum's trustless system. Deep dive into the getHeader/getPayload flow, relay security, and the infrastructure that powers PBS.
Liquidity Mining: The Physics of Inflation
intermediateWhy Farm Tokens always go to zero. The mechanics of MasterChef contracts, Vampire Attacks, and the 'Mercenary Capital' problem.
The 100ms Tax: Block Builders and MEV
intermediateHow block builders extract value and why your transactions might be slower than they need to be.
SUAVE: Decentralized Block Building
advancedThe future of MEV. How Flashbots is decentralizing block building with encrypted mempools, TEEs, and a dedicated chain for transaction ordering.
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