DEV Community: Wesley Bertipaglia

Input and Output Explained

Wesley Bertipaglia — Sun, 04 Oct 2026 03:00:00 +0000

Hey dev.to 👋

Post 7/9 of my Computers series is out.

This one is about input and output: keyboards, displays, audio, controllers, ports, interrupts and DMA - how the computer talks to the outside world.

Read here: https://www.wesleybertipaglia.com/blog/x0g3dogf

Storage Explained

Wesley Bertipaglia — Fri, 02 Oct 2026 03:00:00 +0000

Hey dev.to 👋

Post 6/9 of my Computers series is out.

This one is about storage: memory vs persistence, how HDDs and SSDs work, NAND flash, sectors/blocks, and sequential vs random access - where your data lives when power is off.

Read here: https://www.wesleybertipaglia.com/blog/s6kfogsy

Memory Explained

Wesley Bertipaglia — Wed, 30 Sep 2026 03:12:00 +0000

Hey dev.to 👋

Post 5/9 of my Computers series is out.

This one is about memory: cells and addresses, RAM vs ROM, SRAM vs DRAM, latency vs bandwidth, and the memory hierarchy - why cache exists and why memory speed shapes performance.

Read here: https://www.wesleybertipaglia.com/blog/5atxjdiq

The CPU Explained

Wesley Bertipaglia — Mon, 28 Sep 2026 03:00:00 +0000

Hey dev.to 👋

Post 4/9 of my Computers series is out.

This one is about the CPU: instruction sets, registers, ALU, control unit, the fetch-decode-execute cycle, and a taste of assembly - how the processor actually runs your code.

Read here: https://www.wesleybertipaglia.com/blog/cmvoxsqk

Digital Logic Explained

Wesley Bertipaglia — Sat, 26 Sep 2026 03:00:00 +0000

Hey dev.to 👋

Post 3/9 of my Computers series is out.

This one is about digital logic: transistors as switches, Boolean algebra, gates, truth tables, and how adders, multiplexers and memory elements emerge from them - the bridge from physics to computation.

Read here: https://www.wesleybertipaglia.com/blog/5zpz59bz

Information Representation Explained

Wesley Bertipaglia — Fri, 25 Sep 2026 17:00:00 +0000

Hey dev.to 👋

Post 2/9 of my Computers series is out.

This one is about information representation: how everything becomes bits - binary and hex, unsigned/signed integers, two's complement, IEEE 754 floats, Unicode, and how raw bytes turn into real data structures.

If you've ever wondered why 0.1 + 0.2 != 0.3, this post explains it.

Read here: https://www.wesleybertipaglia.com/blog/ylhwiwpb

The Computer Explained

Wesley Bertipaglia — Fri, 25 Sep 2026 15:58:02 +0000

Hey dev.to 👋

I've just published a new series about how computers actually work, starting from the fundamentals.

I wanted to go beyond programming languages and frameworks and revisit the concepts underneath everything we build as software engineers, from bits and binary representation to hardware, memory, CPUs, operating systems, and eventually the bigger picture.

The goal is to understand computers from the ground up, one concept at a time.

This is the first post in the series (1/9): https://www.wesleybertipaglia.com/blog/2lfin2nu

If you're also interested in computer science fundamentals, I'd love to hear what topics you think should be covered along the way.

🧑‍💻 How a Simple Idea Turned Into One of the Most Important Projects of My Journey — The Story Behind Backend Challenges

Wesley Bertipaglia — Mon, 13 Oct 2025 22:06:17 +0000

This is a submission for the 2025 Hacktoberfest Writing Challenge: Maintainer Spotlight

When I first started learning backend development, I felt completely lost.

Sure, there were tutorials, courses, and documentation everywhere. But none of it felt like it was for me. Everything assumed I already knew the basics, or worse — skipped the fundamentals entirely. I was trying to learn how to build APIs, handle authentication, work with databases, and deploy services… but I had no idea where to start or what order to follow.

I wasn’t looking for a quick fix. I wanted a path — something practical, step-by-step, that could help me grow from zero.

That’s why I created Backend Challenges.

Why I Built It

At the time, I was struggling to stay motivated. I would start learning something like JWT or Docker, only to realize I didn’t have the right context or experience to fully understand how or why to use it. I’d jump between tutorials, trying to piece together a learning path that didn’t really exist.

So I started building my own challenges. Very simple ones at first — like an API that just returns "Hello, World!". Then a to-do list. Then authentication, file storage, caching… and before I knew it, I had built a series of progressively harder backend exercises, grouped by experience level: Beginner, Junior, Middle, Senior.

Each one taught me something new. Each one pushed me just a little further.

And then it hit me:

“If this helped me so much… maybe it could help others too.”

That’s when I decided to make it open source.

What Makes It Different

There are plenty of challenge-based repos out there, but I wanted to do things differently.

Here’s how Backend Challenges stands apart:

Structured by skill level — You don’t need to guess where to start. Whether you're a total beginner or already have experience, there's a clear entry point.
Tech-agnostic — You can use whatever language or framework you’re learning. The focus is on backend concepts, not specific tools.
Real-world problems — These aren't just toy examples. They mirror the kinds of systems you actually build on the job: authentication services, APIs, email queues, payment integrations, microservices, etc.
From nothing to something — Many devs don’t have real-world projects to add to their portfolios. Solving these challenges can give you something concrete to show (or even turn into your own startup idea).

But most importantly, it's for people who are just like I was — figuring things out, curious, motivated, but overwhelmed.

The Impact (So Far)

I open-sourced the project without any expectations. I just wanted it to be out there — something that could help others the same way it helped me.

And even though it hasn’t had many pull requests or GitHub issues (yet 😅), I’ve received surprisingly positive feedback through other channels — especially LinkedIn.

People have reached out to tell me they used the challenges to improve their backend skills, to prepare for interviews, or even to create their own spin-off projects. That alone makes it all worth it.

Sometimes the impact of open source isn’t in the contribution graph — it’s in the quiet messages from someone who just wanted to say “Hey, this helped me.”

Why It Still Matters to Me

Even now, after I've grown a lot as a developer, I still come back to this project — not just to maintain it, but to remind myself how far I've come.

This repo is more than a collection of challenges. It’s a reflection of the path I walked — the confusion, the breakthroughs, the late-night debugging sessions, and the satisfaction of building something real.

It’s a small piece of my story, and I’m proud of it.

Want to Contribute?

If you're participating in Hacktoberfest, or just want to contribute to open source in a meaningful way, I’d love to have you involved:

Solve one of the challenges and share your approach
Suggest new challenges
Improve the documentation
Translate the content into other languages
Add tooling (like tests or CI)

You can find the project here:
👉 github.com/wesleybertipaglia/backend-challenges

Final Thoughts

If you’re a developer who feels stuck or doesn’t know where to begin, I want you to know:

You’re not alone.
It’s okay to feel overwhelmed.
And it’s totally possible to grow — one challenge at a time.

That’s what this project is really about.

Thanks for reading, and happy coding ❤️
Let’s build something great together.

🔦 Spotlight on Devs — My Submission for the DEV.to Challenge!

Wesley Bertipaglia — Sat, 05 Apr 2025 22:39:34 +0000

This is a submission for the WeCoded Challenge: Celebrate in Code

Hey everyone! 👋
This is my submission for the DEV.to WeCoded Challenge!

🔗 Live Project: Deploy
📦 Source Code: GitHub Repository

🌟 The Idea: Put Someone in the Spotlight

We all write, build, and share — but sometimes we miss great voices in the crowd.

So, I wanted my project to bring random creators into the spotlight.

✨ Spotlight Stories

It's a feature that highlights one random story from the #wecoded tag every time you visit the page. It’s like a mini-stage for someone in the community. You can then read their full post, follow them, and maybe even leave a comment to brighten their day.

🔁 Every click = a new story = a new person in focus.

🪄 Features

Spotlight Story – puts a random article in focus every visit
Wall of Stories – grid of stories from the #wecoded tag
Share Button – easily copy/share a story's link
Clickable Tags – explore similar stories by topic
Author Info – links to the author's profile
Fun 404 Page – with random gifs, quotes, or ASCII art (try it 😉)
Slick design – styled with Tailwind, smooth UX, lightweight
Lazy loading images – for performance boost

🛠️ Built With

React + TypeScript – fast, typed, and modular
TailwindCSS – utility-first styling for a clean and responsive UI
Phosphor Icons – beautifully simple icons for UI interactions
DEV.to API – stories pulled from real community posts via the API

💡 Final Thoughts

I loved building this, especially the idea that someone out there might get their story seen because of a little random spotlight. That's the spirit of DEV!

Would love to hear your thoughts — and if you try it and discover a great post, let me know! 💬

Thanks DEV team for putting this challenge together. Let’s keep coding, keep writing, and keep lifting each other up 🚀