Protocol Buffers

Bidirectional Streaming RPC

A gRPC pattern where client and server each send an independent, ordered stream of messages over the same connection at the same time.

Choosing the Right RPC Type

A practical decision guide for picking between unary, server-streaming, client-streaming, and bidirectional-streaming gRPC methods.

Client Streaming RPC

A gRPC pattern where the client sends a sequence of messages over one stream and the server replies with a single response once the client finishes.

Defining a .proto File

A practical guide to writing a .proto file: syntax declarations, messages, services, field rules, and naming conventions.

Generating Code from .proto

How protoc and language plugins turn a .proto file into usable client stubs and server interfaces, and how to wire that into a build.

gRPC Authentication with TLS

How gRPC uses TLS and mutual TLS to secure transport, and how call credentials layer token-based authorization on top for production services.

gRPC Deadlines and Cancellation

Understand how gRPC deadlines bound RPC execution time, how they propagate across service chains, and how explicit cancellation stops unneeded work.

gRPC Error Handling

Understand gRPC's canonical status code model, how to choose the right code and attach structured details, and how to propagate and recover from errors safely.

gRPC-Gateway for REST Compatibility

How grpc-gateway generates a REST/JSON reverse-proxy from annotated .proto files so browsers and legacy clients can reach a gRPC-only backend.

gRPC Interceptors

How to use gRPC interceptors to implement cross-cutting logic like logging, authentication, retries, and tracing without touching individual handlers.

gRPC Interview Questions

A curated set of common gRPC interview questions covering fundamentals, streaming modes, error handling, and performance, with model answers.

gRPC Metadata and Headers

Learn how gRPC carries cross-cutting information like auth tokens and trace IDs via initial and trailing metadata, separate from the protobuf message body.

gRPC Performance Considerations

Key factors that determine gRPC throughput and latency: connection reuse, message size, streaming versus unary trade-offs, and serialization overhead.

gRPC Quick Reference

A condensed cheat sheet of gRPC RPC types, status codes, .proto syntax essentials, and CLI/tooling commands for fast lookup.

gRPC Reflection and grpcurl

How the gRPC Server Reflection service exposes a server's API at runtime, and how to use grpcurl to explore, describe, and invoke RPCs from the command line.

gRPC vs REST

A practical comparison of gRPC and REST covering serialization, performance, streaming, and when to choose each for an API.

gRPC with Node.js or Go

How to build gRPC servers and clients using the official Node.js (@grpc/grpc-js) and Go (google.golang.org/grpc) libraries, and where their concurrency models…

Implementing a gRPC Client

Learn how to establish a gRPC channel, call unary and streaming methods with a generated stub, and configure retries and load balancing for production use.

Implementing a gRPC Server

Learn how to define a gRPC service, generate server stubs, implement unary and streaming handlers, and manage a production server's lifecycle safely.

Load Balancing in gRPC

Why gRPC's persistent, multiplexed HTTP/2 connections need client-side or proxy-aware load balancing, and how policies like round_robin and least_request work…

Nested Messages and Enums

How to model hierarchical data and closed sets of values in Protocol Buffers using nested message types and enums.

oneof Fields in Protobuf

Modeling mutually exclusive fields efficiently in Protocol Buffers using the oneof construct.

Protobuf Data Types

A tour of Protocol Buffers' scalar, composite, and byte-oriented field types, and how each is encoded on the wire.

Protobuf Versioning and Compatibility

The rules that keep Protocol Buffers messages backward- and forward-compatible as schemas evolve over time.