Intermediate terms
Authorisation
PHP 7.0+
1
The process of determining what an authenticated user is permitted to do — checking permissions, roles, or policies before allowing access to a resource or action.
3mo ago
security intermediate
Accessing Undeclared Properties (PHP 8.2+)
PHP 8.2+
PHP 8.2 deprecated dynamic (undeclared) properties — PHP 9 will make them an error. Declare all properties explicitly or use AllowDynamicProperties.
3mo ago
php intermediate
Accidental Object Mutation Bugs
ES2015
Objects and arrays are passed by reference in JS — mutating a function parameter or array element mutates the original, causing subtle cross-component state bugs.
3mo ago
javascript intermediate
Async Error Handling (try/catch + Promise)
ES2017
Errors in async functions require try/catch or .catch() — a rejected Promise that's not caught becomes an unhandledRejection that crashes Node or shows a console warning in browsers.
3mo ago
javascript intermediate
AbortController — Cancellable Fetch
ES2017
AbortController cancels in-flight fetch requests — essential for search-as-you-type, tab switching, and preventing race conditions in PHP API calls.
3mo ago
javascript intermediate
AJAX Patterns for PHP Backends
ES2017
1
Patterns for communicating with PHP backends via fetch — JSON APIs, CSRF tokens, error handling, and response parsing.
3mo ago
javascript intermediate
Axios — HTTP Client for PHP APIs
ES2015
1
Axios is a promise-based HTTP client with interceptors, automatic JSON parsing, and CSRF token injection — common in Laravel and Symfony frontends.
3mo ago
javascript intermediate
Abstract Factory Pattern
PHP 5.0+
Creates families of related objects ensuring they are used together consistently without mixing implementations.
3mo ago
quality intermediate
Accessibility Testing Tools
PHP 5.0+
1
axe, Lighthouse, WAVE catch 30-40% of issues automatically — manual keyboard and screen reader testing is required for the rest.
3mo ago
accessibility intermediate
Accessible Forms
HTML5
1
Every input needs a visible label, errors linked via aria-describedby, required fields indicated, and validation announced via aria-live.
3mo ago
accessibility intermediate
Accessible SVGs
SVG1.1
Decorative SVGs need aria-hidden=true; informative SVGs need role=img and aria-label or title+desc elements.
3mo ago
accessibility intermediate
Active Record Pattern
PHP 5.0+
A design pattern where a database row is wrapped in an object that includes both the data and the persistence logic — the object knows how to save, update, and delete itself.
3mo ago
quality intermediate
Adjacency Matrix vs Adjacency List
1
Two ways to represent a graph — adjacency matrix (2D array, O(1) edge lookup, O(V²) space) vs adjacency list (array of lists, O(V+E) space, better for sparse graphs).
3mo ago
data_structures intermediate
Ahead-of-Time vs Just-in-Time Compilation
1
AOT compiles all code before execution (C, Go, Rust — fast startup, predictable performance). JIT compiles hot paths at runtime (PHP 8+, JVM — adapts to actual usage patterns).
3mo ago
compiler intermediate
AI API Cost Management
1
Strategies to reduce LLM API costs — caching identical prompts, batching requests, choosing smaller models for simpler tasks, and minimising context length.
3mo ago
ai_ml intermediate
AI-Assisted Code Generation
6
Using LLMs to generate, complete, or refactor code — powerful for boilerplate and exploration but requiring review for correctness, security, and licence compliance.
3mo ago
ai_ml intermediate
Alert Fatigue
When alerts fire so frequently or for such trivial reasons that on-call engineers begin ignoring them — the most dangerous state for a production monitoring system.
3mo ago
observability intermediate
API Authentication Patterns
2
Bearer tokens (JWT) for user sessions, API keys for machine-to-machine, mTLS for highest-security internal services — matching authentication method to the use case.
3mo ago
api_design intermediate
API Backwards Compatibility
Rules for evolving an API without breaking existing clients — additive changes are safe, removals and renames require versioning, and deprecation needs a documented sunset period.
3mo ago
api_design intermediate
API Documentation
1
OpenAPI/Swagger for REST APIs, Postman collections for explorability, and Stoplight for design-first workflows — good API docs are the product's user interface for developers.
3mo ago
api_design intermediate