Intermediate terms
Dependency Management Philosophy
PHP 5.3+
Every dependency is a liability — prefer few well-maintained packages; pin versions via composer.lock; audit regularly.
6mo ago
General intermediate
Divide and Conquer
1
Recursively break a problem into smaller subproblems, solve each independently, and combine results — the strategy behind mergesort, quicksort, binary search, and FFT.
6mo ago
Algorithms intermediate
Docker Multi-Stage Builds
PHP 5.0+ Dockerfile builds using multiple FROM stages — build dependencies (Composer, Node, test tools) in earlier stages, copy only production artifacts to the final minimal image.
6mo ago
DevOps intermediate
Document Stores
PHP 7.0+
2
Databases that store semi-structured documents (JSON/BSON) — MongoDB, CouchDB — flexible schema, nested data, and horizontal scaling at the cost of no joins and eventual consistency.
6mo ago
Database intermediate
DSN Security & Connection String Secrets
PHP 5.0+
Database credentials in connection strings must never be hardcoded — use environment variables or secrets managers, least-privilege users, and never log DSNs.
6mo ago
Database intermediate
Data Clump
The same group of variables appearing together repeatedly — a signal they belong in a class together.
6mo ago
Code Quality intermediate
Data Transfer Object (DTO)
PHP 8.0+
A simple object that carries data between layers or systems with no business logic — reducing coupling between layers and making data contracts explicit.
6mo ago
Code Quality intermediate
Database Indexes — Types & Trade-offs
PHP 5.0+ B-Tree, hash, full-text, and partial indexes — each suited to different query patterns, with write overhead as the cost of read speed.
6mo ago
Database intermediate
Database Indexing
PHP 5.0+
3
Indexes are data structures that allow the database to find rows matching a WHERE clause without scanning the entire table.
6mo ago
Performance intermediate
Database Migrations
PHP 5.0+
1
Version-controlled, incremental scripts that evolve the database schema alongside code, enabling reproducible deployments and rollbacks.
6mo ago
General intermediate
Database Normalisation
PHP 5.0+
Organising relational database tables to reduce redundancy and improve integrity — from 1NF through 3NF (and beyond) as design guidelines.
6mo ago
General intermediate
Database Normalisation
1
The process of structuring a relational database to reduce redundancy and improve integrity, defined through progressive normal forms (1NF through BCNF).
6mo ago
Database intermediate
Database Schema Design
PHP 5.0+
5
The process of defining tables, columns, data types, constraints, and relationships — decisions made at schema design time are expensive to reverse once data is live.
6mo ago
Database intermediate
Database Transactions
PHP 5.1+
4
A sequence of SQL operations treated as a single atomic unit — all succeed or all roll back — enforcing ACID guarantees.
6mo ago
Database intermediate
Database Views & Materialised Views
PHP 5.0+
1
A view is a saved SELECT query presented as a virtual table. A materialised view stores the query result physically — trading freshness for query speed.
6mo ago
Database intermediate
DDD Value Objects in PHP
Immutable objects defined by their attributes rather than identity — Money, Email, Coordinate — that encapsulate validation and domain behaviour.
6mo ago
Architecture intermediate
Dead Code Detection
PHP 7.1+
1
Identifying code that can never be executed — unreachable branches, always-true conditions, unused variables — via static analysis or coverage reports.
6mo ago
Code Quality intermediate
Debouncing & Throttling
ES5 Debounce delays execution until input stops; throttle caps execution to once per interval — both control the frequency of expensive operations.
6mo ago
Performance intermediate
declare(strict_types=1)
PHP 7.0+
2
Enables strict scalar type checking for function arguments and return values in a PHP file, preventing silent type coercion.
6mo ago
PHP intermediate
Decorator Pattern
PHP 5.0+
Wraps an object to add new behaviour dynamically without modifying its class or using inheritance.
6mo ago
General intermediate