Essentials🔗
The API is returning 502s. Is it the load balancer, DNS, or the app itself? Essentials is the networking layer underneath that question — not academic theory, the specific mechanics you need when something between the client and your service is broken.
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How an API Endpoint Gets Exposed — following a URL through DNS, ports, and the listening server to see where your API actually lives.
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TLS Handshake Explained and TLS Termination & mTLS for APIs — certificates, the chain of trust, and where the encrypted connection actually stops.
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DNS Explained — resolvers, records, and TTLs. DNS doesn't "propagate," caches expire; know the difference before your next deploy day.
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Load Balancer Explained — how traffic gets distributed across servers, health checks, and why L4 vs L7 changes everything.
More Essentials topics — DNS debugging tools and general network troubleshooting (ping, traceroute, curl) — are still on the way.
Start with How an API Endpoint Gets Exposed — the request/response path every other article in this tier plugs into.