Podcast · 45 episodes
The Pragmatic Engineer
by Gergely Orosz · English
Software engineering at Big Tech and startups, from the inside. Deepdives with experienced engineers and tech professionals who share their hard-earned lessons, interesting stories and advice they have on building software. Especially relevant for software engineers and engineering leaders: useful for those working in tech. newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com
Latest episodes
Distributed databases with Peter MattisDistributed databases and storage systems, centered on why B-trees matter, plus Peter Mattis’s career history (GIMP, Gmail storage/indexing, Google build systems, GFS/Colossus) and his views on…30 Sep 2026 · 1 h 42 min
Design Engineering with Maggie AppletonDesign engineering for software teams—what it is, why design/engineering tension exists, and how engineers can improve design thinking, especially as agents and AI-generated prototypes change…23 Sep 2026 · 1 h 27 min
AI Skills with Matt PocockMatt Pocock explains how AI “skills” (slash-command workflows for agents) can improve software engineering decisions, and how AI changes what educators should teach (syntax vs wisdom).17 Sep 2026 · 1 h 36 min
All episodes
Distributed databases with Peter MattisDistributed databases and storage systems, centered on why B-trees matter, plus Peter Mattis’s career history (GIMP, Gmail storage/indexing, Google build systems, GFS/Colossus) and his views on…30 Sep 2026 · 1 h 42 min · 44 chapters
Design Engineering with Maggie AppletonDesign engineering for software teams—what it is, why design/engineering tension exists, and how engineers can improve design thinking, especially as agents and AI-generated prototypes change…23 Sep 2026 · 1 h 27 min · 35 chapters
AI Skills with Matt PocockMatt Pocock explains how AI “skills” (slash-command workflows for agents) can improve software engineering decisions, and how AI changes what educators should teach (syntax vs wisdom).17 Sep 2026 · 1 h 36 min · 42 chapters
Building Codex with Tibo SottiauxHow Codex began and evolved into a Rust-based, open-source coding agent; how OpenAI teams plan and ship software; and engineering tradeoffs around reliability, maintenance, and execution (local vs…9 Sep 2026 · 1 h 13 min · 30 chapters
Why performant code matters (but gets widely ignored), with Casey MuratoriWhy most software is far slower than it needs to be, why performance gets ignored (especially in enterprise/monopoly contexts), and what engineers should do instead: plan for performance, understand…26 Aug 2026 · 1 h 53 min · 45 chapters
From Chrome DevTools to AI Engineering, with Addy OsmaniAddy Osmani (ex-Google, Chrome/DevTools) discusses how Chrome DevTools evolved into an “IDE-like” debugging environment, what’s still hard (especially memory debugging), and how Core Web Vitals and…19 Aug 2026 · 1 h 32 min · 35 chapters
Stop being skeptical about AI for development with Charity MajorsThe episode argues that AI will change software development from “don’t ship unread code” to “ship unread code when it’s proven,” shifting trust from human reading to Ops/QA-style validation.12 Aug 2026 · 1 h 26 min · 32 chapters
Formal methods with Hillel WayneFormal methods for software correctness, especially for distributed systems and AI-written code; argues against full formal verification for everything, but supports “lightweight” approaches and…29 Jul 2026 · 1 h 24 min · 34 chapters
Context engineering with Dex HorthyContext engineering for LLM coding agents, including “context window physics,” the “dump zone,” and loop engineering (e.g., slow/iterated loops).15 Jul 2026 · 1 h 32 min · 32 chapters
The Pragmatic Engineer AMAAn AMA with Volodymyr “Giggs” Giginiak (CTO at Wortsmith, a legal AI startup) asking the Pragmatic Engineer (host/investor) questions about AI in software engineering, hiring, and business strategy;…8 Jul 2026 · 1 h 18 min · 34 chapters
How Kent Beck shapes the software engineering industryKent Beck’s life story and how his work shaped modern software engineering, from early computer fascination to TDD, Extreme Programming (XP), and the Agile Manifesto; plus his views on trust, coding…1 Jul 2026 · 2 h 27 min · 60 chapters
Tech interviews with NeetCodeNeetCode founder Navdeep Singh (“NEAT”) discusses why data structures/algorithms (DSA) coding interviews remain “sticky” despite AI-assisted coding, what interview prep teaches that transfers to real…24 Jun 2026 · 1 h 29 min · 31 chapters
CI/CD with Robert ErezCI/CD at scale and progressive delivery, including canary and blue-green deployments, feature toggles, GitOps (and why it’s not “everything in Git”), rollbacks vs roll-forwards, Kubernetes and…17 Jun 2026 · 1 h 15 min · 25 chapters
Kubernetes and retiring at the top with Kelsey HightowerKelsey Hightower’s unconventional path into tech and how he built momentum through automation, high-performance operations, and community influence—leading to Kubernetes.3 Jun 2026 · 2 h 51 min · 79 chapters
Building OpenCode with Dax RaadOpenCode’s rapid growth and what it reveals about AI coding agents, engineering productivity, feature/quality tradeoffs, and the economics/constraints of inference (GPU supply).27 May 2026 · 1 h 20 min · 31 chapters
Why Rust is different, with Alice RyhlWhy Rust is different—its reliability and safety model—and how its ecosystem and governance work.20 May 2026 · 1 h 5 min · 38 chapters
TypeScript, C# and Turbo Pascal with Anders HejlsbergAnders Hejlsberg’s behind-the-scenes history of Turbo Pascal, Delphi, C#, and TypeScript, plus how language design choices (interactive tooling, open source, gradual typing, async/await) shaped…13 May 2026 · 1 h 15 min · 32 chapters
Building Pi, and what makes self-modifying software so fascinatingMario Zechner (Pi) and Armin Ronacher (Flask) discuss Pi’s origin as a minimalist self-modifying coding agent, why self-modifying software is easier with AI agents, and what they learned from…29 Apr 2026 · 1 h 33 min · 28 chapters
Designing Data-intensive Applications with Martin KleppmannMartin Kleppmann discusses what’s new in the second edition of Designing Data-intensive Applications, how his Kafka work at LinkedIn shaped the first edition, and how cloud-native primitives change…22 Apr 2026 · 1 h 25 min · 34 chapters
DHH’s new way of writing codeDavid Heinemeier Hansson (DHH) discusses how 37signals is shifting to “agent-first” software development, why Ruby on Rails and Linux fit AI agent workflows, and how design/craft and aesthetics…8 Apr 2026 · 1 h 46 min · 43 chapters
Scaling Uber with Thuan Pham (Uber’s first CTO)Thuan Pham, Uber’s first CTO, explains how Uber scaled engineering under extreme growth: rewriting dispatch before it hit a “brick wall,” repeatedly refactoring core systems, launching China in five…1 Apr 2026 · 1 h 39 min · 41 chapters
Building WhatsApp with Jean LeeJean Lee, WhatsApp engineer #19, explains how a ~30-person team built and scaled WhatsApp to 450M monthly active users, supporting eight client platforms with an Erlang backend, while using minimal…18 Mar 2026 · 1 h 11 min · 37 chapters
From IDEs to AI Agents with Steve YeggeSteve Yegge discusses “8 levels of AI adoption” for engineers, why many remain stuck at low levels, and how AI agents (including his open-source Gastown orchestrator) will change day-to-day software…11 Mar 2026 · 1 h 31 min · 49 chapters
Building Claude Code with Boris ChernyBoris Cherny (Anthropic) explains how Claude Code/“CloudCode” evolved from a personal terminal chatbot into a fast-growing developer tool, and how AI-written code changes engineering…4 Mar 2026 · 1 h 37 min · 39 chapters