The Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) is the complete and unique name of a computer or host on the internet or a local network. It consists of multiple parts that reflect a hierarchical structure.

Structure of an FQDN

An FQDN is made up of three main components:

1. Hostname – The specific name of a computer or service (e.g., www).

2. Domain Name – The name of the higher-level domain (e.g., example).

3. Top-Level Domain (TLD) – The highest level of the domain structure (e.g., .com).

Example of an FQDN:
👉 www.example.com.

• www → Hostname

• example → Domain name

• .com → Top-Level Domain

• The trailing dot (.) is optional and represents the root domain of the DNS system.

Why is the FQDN important?

✅ Uniqueness: Each FQDN is globally unique and refers to a specific resource on the internet.
✅ DNS Resolution: It is used by DNS servers to find the IP address of websites and servers.
✅ SSL Certificates: An FQDN is often required for SSL/TLS certificates to ensure secure connections.
✅ Email Delivery: Mail servers use FQDNs to send emails to the correct hosts.

Difference Between an FQDN and a Simple Domain

• FQDN: mail.google.com (fully specified)

• Simple Domain: google.com (can contain multiple hosts, e.g., www, mail, ftp)

In summary, the FQDN is the complete address of a device or service on the internet, while a simple domain is a more general address.

An Early Exit is a programming technique where a function or algorithm terminates early when a specific condition is met. The goal is usually to make the code more efficient and easier to read.

Example in a function:

function getDiscount($age) {
    if ($age < 18) {
        return 10; // 10% discount for minors
    }
    if ($age > 65) {
        return 15; // 15% discount for seniors
    }
    return 0; // No discount for other age groups
}

Here, the Early Exit ensures that the function immediately returns a value as soon as a condition is met. This avoids unnecessary else blocks and makes the code more readable.

Comparison with a nested version:

function getDiscount($age) {
    $discount = 0;
    if ($age < 18) {
        $discount = 10;
    } else {
        if ($age > 65) {
            $discount = 15;
        }
    }
    return $discount;
}

This version introduces unnecessary nesting, reducing readability.

Other Use Cases:

• Input validation at the start of a function (return or throw for invalid input)

• Breaking out of loops early when the desired result is found (break or return)

An Early Exit improves readability, maintainability, and performance in code.

Vite is a modern build tool and development server for web applications, created by Evan You, the creator of Vue.js. It is designed to make the development and build processes faster and more efficient. The name "Vite" comes from the French word for "fast," reflecting the primary goal of the tool: a lightning-fast development environment.

The main features of Vite are:

1. Fast Development Server: Vite uses modern ES modules (ESM), providing an ultra-fast development server. It only loads the latest module, making the initial startup much faster than traditional bundlers.

2. Hot Module Replacement (HMR): HMR works extremely fast by updating only the changed modules, without needing to reload the entire application.

3. Modern Build System: Vite uses Rollup under the hood to bundle the final production build, enabling optimized and efficient builds.

4. Zero Configuration: Vite is very user-friendly and doesn’t require extensive configuration. It works immediately with the default settings, supporting many common web technologies out-of-the-box (e.g., Vue.js, React, TypeScript, CSS preprocessors, etc.).

5. Optimized Production: For production builds, Rollup is used, which is known for creating efficient and optimized bundles.

Vite is mainly aimed at modern web applications and is particularly popular with developers working with frameworks like Vue, React, or Svelte.

A Partial Mock is a testing technique where only certain methods of an object are mocked, while the rest of the object retains its real implementation. This is useful when you want to stub or mock specific methods but keep others functioning normally.

When to Use a Partial Mock?

• When you want to test a class but isolate certain methods.

• When some methods are difficult to test (e.g., they have external dependencies), but others should retain their real logic.

• When you only need to stub specific methods to control test behavior.

Example in PHP with PHPUnit

Suppose you have a Calculator class but want to mock only the multiply() method while keeping add() as is.

class Calculator {
    public function add($a, $b) {
        return $a + $b;
    }

    public function multiply($a, $b) {
        return $a * $b;
    }
}

// PHPUnit Test with Partial Mock
class CalculatorTest extends \PHPUnit\Framework\TestCase {
    public function testPartialMock() {
        // Create a Partial Mock for Calculator
        $calculator = $this->getMockBuilder(Calculator::class)
                           ->onlyMethods(['multiply']) // Only mock this method
                           ->getMock();

        // Define behavior for multiply()
        $calculator->method('multiply')->willReturn(10);

        // Test real add() method
        $this->assertEquals(5, $calculator->add(2, 3));

        // Test mocked multiply() method
        $this->assertEquals(10, $calculator->multiply(2, 3));
    }
}

Here, add() remains unchanged and executes the real implementation, while multiply() always returns 10.

Conclusion

Partial Mocks are useful when you need to isolate specific parts of a class without fully replacing it. They help make tests more stable and efficient by mocking only selected methods.

A rate limit is a restriction on the number of requests a user or system can send to a server or API within a given time frame. It helps prevent overload, ensures fair resource distribution, and mitigates abuse (e.g., DDoS attacks or spam).

Common Rate-Limiting Methods:

1. Fixed Window – A set number of requests within a fixed time window (e.g., max 100 requests per minute).

2. Sliding Window – A dynamic limit based on recent requests.

3. Token Bucket – Users get a certain number of "tokens" for requests, which regenerate over time.

4. Leaky Bucket – Requests are placed in a queue and processed at a controlled rate.

Examples of Rate Limits:

• An API allows a maximum of 60 requests per minute per user.

• A website blocks an IP after 10 failed logins within 5 minutes.

If you need to implement rate limits in web development, various techniques and tools are available, such as Redis, NGINX rate limiting, or middleware in frameworks like Laravel or Express.js.

Memcached is a distributed in-memory caching system commonly used to speed up web applications. It temporarily stores frequently requested data in RAM to avoid expensive database queries or API calls.

Key Features of Memcached:

• Key-Value Store: Data is stored as key-value pairs.

• In-Memory: Runs entirely in RAM, making it extremely fast.

• Distributed: Supports multiple servers (clusters) to distribute load.

• Simple API: Provides basic operations like set, get, and delete.

• Eviction Policy: Uses LRU (Least Recently Used) to remove old data when memory is full.

Common Use Cases:

• Caching Database Queries: Reduces load on databases like MySQL or PostgreSQL.

• Session Management: Stores user sessions in scalable web applications.

• Temporary Data Storage: Useful for API rate limiting or short-lived data caching.

Memcached vs. Redis:

• Memcached: Faster for simple key-value caching, scales well horizontally.

• Redis: Offers more features like persistence, lists, hashes, sets, and pub/sub messaging.

Installation & Usage (Example for Linux):

sudo apt update && sudo apt install memcached
sudo systemctl start memcached

It can be used with PHP or Python via appropriate libraries.

A spider (also called a web crawler or bot) is an automated program that browses the internet to index web pages. These programs are often used by search engines like Google, Bing, or Yahoo to discover and update content in their search index.

How a Spider Works:

1. Starting Point: The spider begins with a list of URLs to crawl.

2. Analysis: It fetches the HTML code of a webpage and analyzes its content, links, and metadata.

3. Following Links: It follows the links found on the page to discover new pages.

4. Storage: The collected data is sent to the search engine’s database for indexing.

5. Repetition: The process is repeated regularly to keep the index up to date.

Uses of Spiders:

• Search engine optimization (SEO)

• Price comparison websites

• Web archiving (e.g., Wayback Machine)

• Automated content analysis for AI models

Some websites use a robots.txt file to specify which areas can or cannot be crawled by a spider.

A crawler (also known as a web crawler, spider, or bot) is an automated program that browses the internet and analyzes web pages. It follows links from page to page and collects information.

Uses of Crawlers:

1. Search Engines (e.g., Google's Googlebot) – Index web pages so they appear in search engine results.

2. Price Comparison Websites – Scan online stores for the latest prices and products.

3. SEO Tools – Analyze websites for technical errors or optimization potential.

4. Data Analysis & Monitoring – Track website content for market research or competitor analysis.

5. Archiving – Save web pages for future reference (e.g., Internet Archive).

How a Crawler Works:

1. Starts with a list of URLs.

2. Fetches web pages and stores content (text, metadata, links).

3. Follows links on the page and repeats the process.

4. Saves or processes the collected data depending on its purpose.

Many websites use a robots.txt file to control which content crawlers can visit or ignore.

An Internationalized Resource Identifier (IRI) is an extended version of a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) that supports Unicode characters beyond the ASCII character set. This allows non-Latin scripts (e.g., Chinese, Arabic, Cyrillic) and special characters to be used in web addresses and other identifiers.

Key Features of IRIs:

1. Unicode Support: While URIs are limited to ASCII characters (A-Z, 0-9, -, ., _), IRIs allow characters from the entire Unicode character set.
2. Backward Compatibility: Every IRI can be converted into a URI by encoding non-ASCII characters into Punycode or percent-encoded format.
3. Use in Web Technologies: IRIs enable internationalized domain names (IDNs), paths, and query parameters in URLs, making the web more accessible for non-English languages.

Example:

• IRI: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Überblick
• Equivalent URI: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%9Cberblick
  (Here, Ü is encoded as %C3%9C)

Standardization:

IRIs are defined in RFC 3987 and are supported in modern web technologies like HTML5, XML, and RDF.

Conclusion:

IRIs make the internet more linguistically inclusive by allowing websites and resources to be referenced using non-Latin characters, improving accessibility worldwide.

A SUT (System Under Test) is the system or component being tested in a testing process. The term is commonly used in software development and quality assurance.

Meaning and Application:

• In software testing, the SUT refers to the entire program, a single module, or a specific function being tested.
• In hardware testing, the SUT could be an electronic device or a machine under examination.
• In automated testing, the SUT is often tested using frameworks and tools to identify errors or unexpected behavior.

A typical testing process includes:

1. Defining test cases based on requirements.
2. Executing tests on the SUT.
3. Reviewing test results and comparing them with expected outcomes.