Terms starting with "B"
Bellman-Ford Algorithm
PHP 7.1+ Single-source shortest path algorithm that handles negative edge weights and detects negative cycles by relaxing all edges V-1 times.
2mo ago
Algorithms advanced
Brute-Force Protection
Defences against automated credential-guessing attacks — rate limiting login attempts, account lockout, CAPTCHA, and multi-factor authentication to make guessing passwords computationally infeasible.
CWE-307 OWASP A7:2021
6mo ago
Security intermediate
Backpressure
Backpressure signals upstream producers to slow down when downstream consumers can't keep up — preventing queue overflow, memory exhaustion, and system collapse under load.
6mo ago
Messaging intermediate
Bidirectional Text (BiDi)
1
The handling of text that mixes left-to-right (LTR) and right-to-left (RTL) scripts in the same document — governed by the Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm, with CSS and HTML direction attributes controlling display.
6mo ago
i18n intermediate
BigInt — Arbitrary Precision Integers
ES2020
JavaScript's Number type cannot safely represent integers larger than 2⁵³−1 (Number.MAX_SAFE_INTEGER). BigInt is a separate numeric type that handles integers of arbitrary size, essential for working with 64-bit IDs from databases, cryptographic values, and precise financial calculations.
6mo ago
JavaScript intermediate
BM25 Ranking
1
Best Match 25 — the industry-standard relevance ranking algorithm used by Elasticsearch, Lucene, and SQLite FTS5, refining TF-IDF with better document length normalisation and a term frequency saturation parameter.
6mo ago
Search intermediate
Branded / Opaque Types in TypeScript
1
A technique to make structurally identical types incompatible — a UserId and an OrderId are both strings, but branding makes them distinct types so passing an OrderId where UserId is expected is a compile-time error.
6mo ago
TypeScript advanced
BroadcastChannel — Cross-Tab Messaging
HTML5
BroadcastChannel allows same-origin pages/tabs to communicate — post a message on one tab, receive it in all others — without a server or service worker.
6mo ago
JavaScript intermediate
B-Trees & B+ Trees
5
Self-balancing tree structures used in database indexes — each node holds multiple keys, keeping the tree shallow and minimising disk I/O for range queries.
6mo ago
Data Structures advanced
Backends for Frontends (BFF)
PHP 7.0+
1
A dedicated API layer per frontend client (mobile app, web app, third-party) — each BFF aggregates and transforms microservice data for its specific client's needs.
6mo ago
Architecture advanced
Bike-Shedding
1
Spending disproportionate time on trivial, visible decisions (tab vs space, variable naming) while complex, important decisions receive inadequate attention.
6mo ago
General beginner
Block Cipher Modes
PHP 7.1+
1
How a block cipher (AES) processes data larger than one block — ECB is insecure, CBC requires a MAC, GCM provides authenticated encryption and is the correct choice.
6mo ago
Cryptography advanced
Branch Naming Conventions
Consistent branch names using type/description patterns — making branch purpose immediately clear and enabling automation based on branch name prefixes.
6mo ago
Style beginner
Brotli vs gzip Compression
PHP 5.0+
Brotli (br) compresses 15-25% better than gzip for text content — use Brotli for supported browsers (all modern ones), gzip as fallback, both configured at the server level not PHP.
6mo ago
Performance intermediate
Business Logic Abuse
3
Exploiting flaws in application workflows rather than technical vulnerabilities — bypassing payment steps, abusing discount codes, manipulating quantity fields, or racing concurrent requests.
6mo ago
Security advanced
Bytecode VMs
PHP 5.0+
1
Zend Engine (PHP), JVM (Java/Kotlin), CLR (.NET) — all compile source to platform-independent bytecode then interpret or JIT-compile to native code.
6mo ago
Compiler intermediate
Backtracking
An algorithmic technique that builds solutions incrementally, abandoning a path ('backtracking') when it determines the current path cannot lead to a valid solution.
6mo ago
Algorithms advanced
basename()
PHP 5.0+
1
Returns only the filename component of a path, stripping any directory prefix — a simple path traversal defence.
6mo ago
PHP beginner
Bash Scripting
bash4
1
Writing shell scripts in Bash to automate command-line tasks — from simple file operations to complex deployment pipelines.
6mo ago
Linux intermediate
Behaviour-Driven Development (BDD)
PHP 5.0+
2
A development practice where tests are written in business-readable language (Given/When/Then) that domain experts, developers, and testers all understand.
6mo ago
Testing intermediate