The most valuable piece of advice I received early in my programming career: write unit tests. For many inexperienced developers, the requirement to write them causes procrastination or boredom. I still get lazy sometimes, but I still do it. And here I am not talking about the fact that in Avito for a backend developer, writing units for your logic is considered in most cases a necessary requirement for your pull request to be approved, but more about the fact that I really understand the value of this.➤ Read more...

I’ve given this topic a lot of thought. In the past, I used to believe that a Senior specialist writes “otherworldly” code and does it quickly. They could solve any complex task and had answers to every question in their field. Of course, this was an exaggeration, but that’s the direction my thoughts leaned toward. Over time, as I interacted more with engineers at this level (and even higher), I realized they often write code as slowly as juniors.➤ Read more...

How do you kill any desire to review your pull request? Here’s a great example from the open-source project PocketBase: the pull request in question. This is, of course, hyperbole—but extremes make it easier to illustrate a point. Here’s what we’re dealing with: 147 files changed, 1 commit. The project author’s response is hardly surprising: “Thank you for spending your time on this, but this type of changes are not really welcomed as I don’t really see much point of reviewing 140+ files.➤ Read more...

Yesterday marked exactly two years since I started working at Avito. During this time, I’ve significantly grown as a professional. I have an excellent team that supports one another, helps achieve results, and is always ready to share leisure time. Of course, there’s a sense that not everyone is as fortunate with their colleagues, and situations can vary. But this is precisely why the final interview (or fit interview) exists; I had three of them when I was hired.➤ Read more...

One of the key competencies looked at during potential grade reviews is “engineering culture.” At Avito, the signs of reaching level E5 (Senior) are defined as: Improving the overall engineering tools of the company. Testing complex corner cases. Designing testable systems and fixing those that are hard to test. Identifying inefficiencies in code/architecture/test models and adding to the team’s technical backlog. Establishing and testing non-functional requirements or engaging experts for this purpose.➤ Read more...