clutch-2022

Bilyal Mestanov

Interview

Office

Milush-photo

Google

Digital tools

Radoslav

Bug illustration

Emil Kirilov

Deyan Denchev - new2

Clutch Top Developers

regular expressions 101

Mira

Programming

Lexis Solutions-Team

CTO & Co-Founder

Milush Karadimov

Software Developer

Radoslav Kosev

QA Engineer

Deyan Denchev

CEO & Co-Founder

Web Developer

Mira Ereeva

Growth Manager

Lexis Solutions isn't just a team of expert developers with decades of combined experience. We're also a team that deeply cares about our clients and how our work impacts their operations. This is why we invest so much time and effort into ensuring they get exactly what they want. Now, this approach is paying dividends for us because our clients have just helped us get named one of the best development companies in Bulgaria for 2022 by Clutch.

![clutch-2022](//images.ctfassets.net/5gydaotbo8jm/1bqxnzG0Odn2LJ70Fsdmi0/616e22ec34393e533cad512222b09f66/image1.png)

Clutch is an online review and rating platform providing the B2B industry with important research on fact-finding. They do this through their unique verification process that tests information for authenticity before publishing them as reviews on their site.

Their [2022 research showcases](http://clutch.co/bg/developers) that we're at the top of the country's development industry because we've gained the approval of our clients and partners. Clutch's driving criteria are the number and quality of reviews written and published on a company's profile.

> "*We are delighted to receive such positive feedback from Clutch. This recognition only strengthens our belief in providing top-quality services to our customers. It does mean a lot to see that our way of doing business is appreciated and celebrated. Lexis Solutions is thankful for the clients we met and left a positive review for us. This award is as much our as it is theirs.*"
> 
> Deyan Denchev, Co-Founder of Lexis Solutions.

Lexis Solutions is growing, and we are rapidly expanding our skillset. Each client provides us with unique challenges and interactions we can learn from! The team is eager to face the challenges ahead, and if your project is exciting, we would like to hear from you!

Please contact our team for more information on how we can connect as soon as possible.

Clutch's 2022 team article about Lexis Solutions.


Lexis Solutions is a Clutch Top Development Company in Bulgaria for 2022

I started my software engineer career in a big corporation as a backend developer. Then I moved on to the startup ecosystem building many projects from scratch, joining existing dev teams as a contractor, and building dev teams on my own. In the six years that I’ve been involved in software development, being part of different environments taught me great lessons where I succeeded in gaining broad experience and various skills throughout my career.

Throughout the years, I've taken many technical interviews and introductory conversations for different positions both as an interviewee and interviewer.

Let's talk about how you can introduce yourself to the finest and achieve the best results.

__CV:__

It is crucial to do it well once!

## General info:

- Choose a simple design that emphasizes the important topics
- Use a professional-looking email
- It's recommended that you add a LinkedIn profile and a GitHub profile (but only if you have something good to show)
- Don't neglect soft skills. They are as important as hard skills. List them in an easily visible place.

*Pro Tip:*

It would help if you did not put a picture on a resume in the US, UK, or Canada. Do not submit a resume with a picture, as these countries are bias-conscious. Employers are worried about discrimination lawsuits and often discard resumes with pictures out of policy. A resume with a picture isn't a wrong thought, however. It lets employers connect the sheet of paper with a living, breathing human being. It ensures they won't forget you or confuse you with another applicant. 

Unless you know for sure that the company won't do that, don't add a resume photo.

__Education:__

Education is not always a key point for clients to focus on while analyzing a CV. However, having specialized education or relevant training for the project will be an advantage.

__Technical skills__:

Don't list the technologies you have barely worked with or are irrelevant for the position. Place the technologies mentioned in the job description first. This way, you ensure that the interviews won't miss the information that it's crucial for them. It's a good idea to separate the technologies by categories (Front-end, Backend, DBs, Services, etc.). 

__Work experience:__

Sort the work experience by descending order - list the most recent work experience/projects first. If there is a sizable missing period, be prepared to share the reason. Putting 3-4 sentences/bullet points for each work experience is essential. Try to think about how you can stand out. Mention the things that show your most significant achievements, your contribution to the specific project/topic, and sound attractive to newcomers.

It will be a plus to add a link to your projects. This way, the interviewer gets an excellent opportunity to see your work's results. 

__Interview preparation:__

An interview is a dialog intended for the parties to get to know each other. 
There is a misconception among many people that the interview is like an interrogation. 

No. While a client wants to ensure the developer has the necessary technical skills and fits the client's team, the developer learns more about the client's product, team, and current state of affairs.

I recommend preparing for the interview minimum of 2-3 weeks. It would help if you started revising essential topics connected to the job position during this time.

*Ex.* Let's say you apply for a Senior Front-end position. It'll be a significant red flag if you don't know what a DOM is, what an attribute is in HTML, or if you can't name the difference between synchronous and asynchronous code.

It would be beneficial if you continued revising specific questions depending on the job position. There are tons of articles that list interview questions for different programming languages and positions.

Simultaneously please start researching the right company choice.

I highly recommend scheduling at least 3-4 interviews (the more, the better) even if you have a favorite company. During the interviews, it may turn out that this company is not the perfect choice for you. Often job descriptions are vague and don't include essential information like your responsibilities.

__Right before the interview:__

- Turn off the sound and vibration mode on the phone during a call;
- Turn off the sound of notifications on the computer;
- Check if you have a link to join the call (min. 10 minutes before the call);
- Check if your headphones and camera are working properly;
- Find a light and monochromatic background so that there are as few; household details on the background as possible. 

__Communication:__

The client usually understands perfectly well in case you are not a native speaker, so there is no need to stress out about imperfect English or minor grammar mistakes. However, it's essential to make sure you pronounce professional terminology correctly.

If what the customer is saying or asking is not clear, please do not be shy and ask them to repeat it.

At the interview's beginning, the other side usually introduces the company and the opening position briefly. After that, you are welcome to introduce yourself. 

*You should mention:*

- Your name and main specialization highlight your areas of the most; profound expertise (1-2 sentences);
- How many years of development experience in total;
- Preferred technology stack.

*Then you can add more details:*

- What industries/domains have you worked in (marketplaces, healthcare, e-commerce, fintech, etc.);
- What projects are you most proud of and why?

Discussing what you've prepared rather than just answering the interviewer's questions is better. At the same time, try to organize your thoughts and avoid being chaotic. 

You should emphasize if you have relevant experience with the client's project/domain/technologies. This way, you will stand out among other candidates.

*Pro Tip:*

- Try to give complete answers rather than answering with Yes and No;
- You should pay attention to how the interviewers react to what you are saying;
- You should round up your monologue if they don't look curious or bored. 

## Some questions that interviewers have asked me:

- The biggest professional challenge I've faced?
- Share my achievements.
- Share compelling examples where my coaching to other developers has led to outstanding team achievements.
- Have I worked remotely before? Have I worked in fully distributed teams? How do I feel about it?
- What are the best communication practices for remote work?
- Why I've chosen specific technology over another?
- Have I been a part/taken care of product deployment?
- What challenges have I faced during deployment?
- Have I taken the leadership role in any project?
- How I would solve specific technical challenges (depending on the role)?
- Why am I considering walking away from my current/previous job?
- How do I deal with disagreements with a colleague?
- What infrastructure am I using (Mac, Windows, Linux, etc.)
- In what situations I'll it be ok to work with legacy code rather than refactor it.
- The most exciting project I have worked on. Be ready to explain what was so special about it. If it's hard to think of something, you may recall a complex feature you had to accomplish and explain why it was challenging to build and how you overcame it.
- What are my favorite software books/articles/videos/podcast episodes/open-source projects?
- Have I ever contributed to open source projects?
- What channels do I use to stay up-to-date with the newest technologies?
- Do I do any testing?
- Do I write unit tests?
- When will I be ready to start working on?

*Pro Tip:*

If you cannot understand the answer or need a tiny hint to remind you of the solution, don't be afraid to ask for details. If you still can't answer it, it's ok to say: "I can't think of it right now," for example. 

## Prepare your questions for the client. 

It would help if you prepared questions for the client. This way, you show that you're highly interested in the position. You're not willing to work in whatever the company is; instead, the company should meet your standards.

__You can ask about:__

- Their product and business model
- Their plans for the future
- Their processes (schedule, communication channels, task/bug tracking, release management systems)
- Team structure; who is going to be your immediate manager or the main person of contact
- Their expectations and deadlines
- Specific questions about the range of your responsibilities
- Does the company/team comply with specific code standards.

It's crucial to take time and prepare to present yourself as the best. I've noticed that it's hard to answer specific trivial questions in case I haven't taken technical interviews for some time. This is because, in your day-to-day work, you're either working with a specific set of tools or just using the tools/paradigms without thinking about how exactly they work. 

### Choose the company, don't let the company choose you!


 Major Dos and Don'ts to bear in mind for your following interview.

Tips to Master Interviews for Any Developer Position

Agree to disagree - digital tools make our lives easier, but the bigger question is at what cost? For sure, digital access made it possible to communicate and do our jobs efficiently, especially during the pandemic. We have all those apps and platforms - to create, collaborate or distract ourselves for a bit. And this is the biggest downfall of the digital revolution we are currently experiencing - sometimes, even during work, we delight ourselves for more than a bit. 

But let's see some of the positives and negatives of digital tools:

Firstly, digital tools offer benefits like quick access to information, diverse learning, contextual learning, control over one's understanding, support, and encouragement; generally speaking, it is pretty compelling.

## Communication is the key

Communication is the foundation of everything. Strictly digital tools play a significant role in the way we communicate nowadays. With hundreds of different apps, you can contact anybody from all around the globe in seconds. 

And precisely, the digital tools were a great asset when millions of people had to start working remotely because of COVID-19.

Zoom, Skype, Facetime, and Google Hangouts have come in as saviors during the pandemic. They have made organizations across specific sectors continue with their operations and allowed global corporations to host webinars, and conferences, strike important deals, and whatnot.

## Network remotely

Because of the increase in digital tools, networking capabilities and opportunities have enlarged. For example, Twitter and LinkedIn are comprehensive standards for creating connections.

Corporations will connect with anyone within the same business or approach potential purchasers curious about their merchandise or services. It doesn't need any cold line of work or emailing; connect and say your word.

## Productive enough?

Indeed we have an overwhelming number of digital tools available, and it is pretty challenging to determine which ones might increase our work productivity.

As already mentioned, the tools could be helpful, allowing us to communicate more easily with colleagues. Still, we could also use them to track our projects, delegate tasks, proofread our emails, etc. Therefore there is a reduced chance of human error. 

An average person uses four to five applications daily. However, the time spent on helpful activities is curtailed by 50% since individuals tend to waste their time on social media applications.  

The tools can be a significant distraction, pulling us away from the task at hand and making it difficult to focus, especially with the rise of Tik Tok and such platforms. 

##  Privacy in the digital world

We live in a world with sensors and surveillance cameras all around us and recording devices and gadgets constantly monitoring what we do, which is a high risk of your personal information being taken. For example, platforms such as Google Maps watch and record our movements. Every month you get information about how many kilometers you passed last month, the places you visited, etc.

Everyone with a smartphone has the power to take photos and video footage, then post it online on social media. Therefore everyone can see exactly where you are. And it might be dangerous, especially if some of your followers are *extremely friendly*. So, the best solution here would be to upgrade your digital literacy. 

## Conclusion:

For sure, digital tools can cause a distraction if not handled wisely. It can rather tempt us to procrastinate than increase our productivity. However, their benefits somehow outweigh the side effects.

Do you want to boost your productivity and reach entirely new levels? Well, digital tools help you stay focused and overcome that procrastination like a true champion.  

But remember, after all, they are just tools. You can use them beneficially, use them wrong, and even hurt yourself. 

The truth is that one must become acquainted with and master them; otherwise, they risk being outcompeted in this world of digital tools.

__Resources:__

1. Altshuler, Tehilla Shwartz. Privacy in a digital world. - In: TechCrunch+. Available from: https://techcrunch.com/2019/09/26/privacy-queen-of-human-rights-in-a-digital-world/?[https://techcrunch.com/2019/09/26/privacy-queen-of-human-rights-in-a-digital-world/](https://techcrunch.com/2019/09/26/privacy-queen-of-human-rights-in-a-digital-world/) [19.08.22] 
2. Bhumiraj Raut, Sanjivani. Do Digital Tools make us More Productive or Less Productive at Work? - In: Irjet.net. Available from: https://www.irjet.net/archives/V8/i4/IRJET-V8I4494.pdf [19.08.2022]
3. Sarma, Rajan. Do digital tools make us more or less productive at work?  - In: CIO Tech Outlook. Available from: [https://www.ciotechoutlook.com/news/do-digital-tools-make-us-more-or-less-productive-at-work-nid-6160-cid-64.html](https://www.ciotechoutlook.com/news/do-digital-tools-make-us-more-or-less-productive-at-work-nid-6160-cid-64.html) [19.08.2022]


A dive into the positives and negatives of digital tools.

Digital tools - Pros and Cons

I wrote my first line of code that went to production six years ago. It was the summer after my Computer Science bachelor's began, and I was eager to put all of the [knowledge](https://www.lexis.solutions/blog/why-does-knowledge-matter) I got up to that moment to good use. I developed an app, published it to the Play Store, and quickly reached users who still use it today.

![Screenshot](//images.ctfassets.net/5gydaotbo8jm/4EpPtEMNRbVEt0thNwH9NU/c00d2d9e246f99ffdadbcc164199805a/image_2_.png)

Over the years, with many projects and the privilege of working with gifted engineers, some realizations occurred to me that helped me become a better professional. To celebrate the occasion, I compiled a non-exhaustive list of a-ha moments I had, to depict the path and learnings of a (WIP) software engineer.

## Standardize code

It came to me as a revelation when I realized the best way to write code is to try to do it as a machine would. Define a set of rules and stick to them. Use style guides and tools that enforce them as much as possible. ESLint & Prettier have been an absolute must in the projects I have started. While those are great for syntactic "dumb" conventions, higher-level conventions can be extracted to the README - followed and exercised with every PR by the team members. Use the same "tropes," "patterns," or ways of doing things in similar contexts. And while one might think this is only good for teams, a single-person project can quickly deteriorate and become a mess. As there is nobody to stop you from writing however you like, developers are not consistent in their style and prone to mixing and matching styles and ideas. The advantages of *trying* to write code like a machine are manifold.

First, this drastically reduces the number of tiny decisions you have to make, e.g.

-   Do I name this const object `Colors` or `COLORS`?

-   Do I define my `useCallback`s first or my `useMemo`s?

-   Do I name this endpoint `allUsers` or `users`?

-   Do I write `if (foo) return;` or `if (foo) { return; }`

-   Do I use a named function or an arrow function?

These tiny decisions eat away from your energy to focus on what's genuinely human about programming - the creative part.

Second, this makes refactoring easier. Find and replace works best if the codebase has a consistent style.

Third, this reduces the friction of switching projects in an organization if the projects use the same (or similar) conventions.

Fourth, there are fewer merge conflicts - saving you time otherwise spent on solving those. In the last years, my teams have used tools to order the imports in files deterministically and order the props of a React component. Not a single merge conflict regarding those has risen since then.

## Know your tools

Whatever development tools you use, take some time and learn the ins and outs. At the top of the list is your IDE or editor and the terminal, where you spend most of your coding time. There are many tips and tricks videos on Youtube, and 10 minutes of your time now can save you years of doing simple tasks sub-optimally. Not only will this make you more productive, but there are many occasions when you share your screen and work with a peer or manager. People certainly notice if you are fast with your tools, making a great impression.

## Chase simplicity despite complexity

I notice, especially at the beginning of their careers, developers solve problems bottom-up, solving parts of the big problem and then trying to piece everything together. Doing so often results in bloated and complex code, which is prone to becoming spaghetti and is hard to maintain. In my first project, I certainly remember how proud I was when I wrote a Java file with 1.2K lines! What I discovered as a better method of going from spec to implementation is top-down, not worrying too much about detail, and trying to get the bigger picture right. In this feature which are the main components? How do they interact? Are there dependencies? Of course, things will not be apparent right away. What works for me is a cyclic process:

1.  come up with a big picture

2.  go into detail about a component

3.  inevitably things come up that require changes to the big picture

4.  update your existing big picture; in most cases, this will bring complexity

5.  can it be simplified and still do the same thing?

6.  repeat 2-5 until ready for implementation

Requirements push the code towards complexity. As developers, we must do our best to counteract that force by trying to solve those complex problems with the (possibly) most straightforward solutions. After all, the best code is less code.

## Don't overdo abstraction

Talking about less code, taking that idea to the extreme can also be counterproductive. By all means, I am guilty of building abstractions over classes that are vaguely connected only to extract a 3-line class method. I have also written some shared packages that became more of a headache to maintain, only to follow the famously evangelized DRY principle in countless programming books. The bottom line is that sometimes abstraction is not worth it. Before building an abstraction, weigh the pros and cons of maintaining another software artifact versus having multiple instances of it in existing artifacts. Ask the question, how similar are what you are trying to abstract away in essence, in pure words, as an entity, not code? This lesson was a revelation from no other than Dan Abramov (not the creator of React) from a 2019 talk, "[The Wet Codebase](https://www.deconstructconf.com/2019/dan-abramov-the-wet-codebase)," which I highly recommend.

## Read the documentation

An inspiration for countless memes, the documentation is often ignored when you hop on the hottest new dev tool/technology. Not only does it provide a structured way to comprehend the technology, but it also outlines edge cases that you might not even be aware you are getting into. A while back, my team employed Prisma for an ORM to large-scale project. It was using GraphQL in conjunction, and we had missed reading [this](https://www.prisma.io/docs/guides/performance-and-optimization/query-optimization-performance#debugging-performance-issues) little guide on query optimization and the n+1 problem, which is precisely the problem we shipped to production unknowingly. After some performance issues, a team member finally spotted the post, which fixed our problem.

The bottom line is that the documentation provides not only what a tool can do but also its limitations, what to watch out for, what's the roadmap, how well maintained it is, and who the people behind it are. Avoid treating it as a flashy advertisement but as a receipt that describes how to use it, its side effects, and what can go wrong.

## Use and build tools to consolidate the development process complexity

As a project evolves, it gets more complex to deal with during development. Maybe you have microservices and need to start all the services one by one, or perhaps you extract translation keys before starting your front-end. To minimize the learning curve, any task or process newly onboarded developers have to learn is better consolidated in shell scripts. These scripts rarely change; keeping them in the git repository will make your workflow faster and shorten the time for new hires to start being productive. If you see an opportunity to create tooling that doesn't exist, go for it. It could be a simple shell alias as `alias ys=yarn start`, a VSCode plugin, a dev dependency, an integration, you name it; even saving a few keystrokes counts. Chances are, your team or even external communities of developers could also benefit from it.

## Notice when you are stuck

There is nothing heroic about trying to solve a problem on your own at any cost. Give your best attempt, maybe twice, but learn to recognize the moment when you should seek to speak to someone. And notice I don't say seek help. I have seen some of the most significant breakthroughs happen while simply explaining where someone is at with a problem. It doesn't have to be your engineering lead or CTO; it could be your peer or even someone with less experience than you. A simple "hey, does anyone have some time to check out this problem with me" on Slack can go a long way. Is nobody online? Come back to the task after a walk, run, or a good night's sleep. Almost any senior developer I know does this. Pushing hours and days alone with no progress on a task is selfish, as it detracts from your team's goals and burns money for no justifiable reason for the stakeholders.

## Present your work as early as possible

I have spent all my professional career in startups or startup-like environments - fast-paced and flat organizations where the top priority is to deliver value in very short cycles. One of the more recent rituals we stumbled upon is what we call "local demos." It is essentially a screen share session between two or more developers where the feature's author presents the work on their local development environment before opening a PR request. This ritual has proven to be a great way of catching code and requirement issues even before they are in the form of a PR request. Viewing the code and the result alongside the author gives the future PR reviewer a better idea of what to look at when the PR is ready to be merged. We even do these sessions with clients and QAs, allowing them to peek at the progress. Instead of a bug going through a PR, QA testing, or potentially a staging environment, it's detected right there and then. So far, many bugs have been eliminated in the earliest stage possible, enabling us to produce a better product in shorter cycles.

## Don't write code for the sake of writing code; it's always about the client

The internet somewhat idolizes this hardcore hacker dev persona - always writing the cleanest code, solving problems with possibly the most efficient algorithms, sunglasses in a dark room, Vim? As romantic as it sounds, the expectation of being this brilliant engineer working on exciting and challenging problems all the time is unrealistic. In a commercial setup, what matters is building a product that people want and use, given deadline and budget limitations. It is a cherishable trait to put yourself in the stakeholders' shoes and have their concerns in mind when doing the actual engineering instead of solely focusing on solving problems in the most elegant way possible. More often than not, a working solution now is better than the best solution tomorrow. Of course, this is no excuse to put in the minimal amount of work and produce the "minimum non-sucking product." The best engineers create robust, sustainable, and scalable solutions given all the constraints.

## Production is nothing like development

It took three months for me to publish my first app. I had put so much energy and thought into every detail; it looked great and worked perfectly on my emulator and phone. I was so excited to share it with the world. Then I onboarded the first users. A few days in, complaints were raining - "It's too slow!", "It's crashing," "It sucks!" My phone was ringing every day with users and their bug reports. This period gets to you when you have never published anything to production, and it is easy to feel inadequate as a developer. The truth is, nothing prepares a developer early in their career for the utter chaos of an actual mess of people using your product. It's an entirely different set of problems than the programming itself. Deployment, availability, backups, scaling, and performance are problems that reveal themselves only when you hit production usage. In big companies, those roles are separate, so not all programmers are concerned with deployment & reliability. But I would argue that working on software from inception to end user has given me good insights I still use daily. Plus, it's always fun to watch your baby fly (or flop!).

The good thing is that these lessons never end; they change, they become obsolete, or plain wrong. The field of software engineering is a gift that keeps on giving. Every day, millions of people are hard at work imagining the world's future using code, and I sure am looking forward to what we will build in the next six years and the lessons that come along with it.

A compilation of thoughts and insights from my experience as a software developer over the past six years.

10 Lessons I Learned in 6 Years of Software Engineering

Good old (and new) friends. A lot of blue outfits. Some cupcake challenges. And one fantastic rooftop. That's how we would describe the 4th of August when Lexis Solutions marked its 5th birthday. 

Lexis Solutions started with four enthusiastic developers - its founders - Bilyal, Deyan, Emil, and Milush, who met at a university competition and embarked on a new adventure - Lexis Solutions. Five years later, 14 people are involved in the life of Lexis' family. It recently expanded with our manager of growth - Mira, and intern - Oleksandr.

All of the mentioned and the rest of the Lexis team - Antoniya, Dilyan, Radoslav, Stefan, Nikola, Martin, and Victor gathered together with some good old friends from the Bulgarian IT world at the Barter Community Hub to celebrate the company's 5th birthday.  Unfortunately, Ivan missed the party, but was definitely missed.

![Lexis Solutions-Team 2](//images.ctfassets.net/5gydaotbo8jm/7yJGZ6nMf843pFngmgp2rs/74eaa56020fa71b7e820e7d6c5c28ad3/Lexis_Solutions-185.JPG)

Our CEO Deyan gave a speech and presented the company and its development. 

![Deyan giving a speech](//images.ctfassets.net/5gydaotbo8jm/5i6fAFCyBqWQW5XGsGjZFi/d43d2460d3db8354a78e1476df941aa3/Lexis_Solutions-209.JPG)

To honor our celebration, the guests followed a special dress code - to wear the Lexis Solutions' color - blue. 

![Milush and a blue guest](//images.ctfassets.net/5gydaotbo8jm/6qgjCncHtKgIfBYoKLjBIY/8821a4c9a3b117da9e8d5732009625bf/Lexis_Solutions-275.JPG)
![Guests1](//images.ctfassets.net/5gydaotbo8jm/4ksbawPJUFZFTLINiCskVz/147a43bb0ee0594d17504aa2f15de4aa/Lexis_Solutions-289-min.JPG)

There was a lot of delicious food, an open bar, excellent music from DJ Michael Veili, and some specially made Lexis Solutions cupcakes.

![Food](//images.ctfassets.net/5gydaotbo8jm/1lYyN4V6m6R7MeTYzHBQon/9739b1e7b9731de1f4c5c53afcb95f78/Lexis_Solutions-47.JPG)
![TOP DJ](//images.ctfassets.net/5gydaotbo8jm/1JcWCbpUrqzhLOHykWVIvB/fef8b3c029e9a475105293054524b883/Lexis_Solutions-94.JPG)
![Cupcakes](//images.ctfassets.net/5gydaotbo8jm/1k0Qqa42TtGNFamnPTPYjR/59c7d802e73c74daf945b1e529df688c/Lexis_Solutions-242-min.JPG)
![Cupcakes3](//images.ctfassets.net/5gydaotbo8jm/6lgMgKoFmBYpnsqzjxZkXo/18696aeb43be2d94c29a275c51eede3f/Lexis_Solutions-255.JPG)

The team's effort is crucial… especially when blowing up balloons.

![Ballons](//images.ctfassets.net/5gydaotbo8jm/4uioa4X7b0YXtVx2fMvFsq/af8af086ebd3b7951cd7892522efc992/Lexis_Solutions-1.JPG)
![Ballons2](//images.ctfassets.net/5gydaotbo8jm/1UFsKJG9cLiUsswsJBAvLP/d135f650f9a48e91575193d7e20f5d0f/Lexis_Solutions-5.JPG)

[Stoyan](https://www.facebook.com/St.Nedev), our skilled photographer, was always around the corner and captured all the important moments. He also made sure everyone had an Instagram-worth picture.

![Instagram1](//images.ctfassets.net/5gydaotbo8jm/73xRXcZzQxSQ9Quw0Uld26/c14c1c31ad4286aa2e2c6fed74eb0e9a/Lexis_Solutions-97.JPG)
![Instagram2](//images.ctfassets.net/5gydaotbo8jm/3M965LvBNE9drDHH1e4qbf/4c521094e164fb4dde2903fa5cd28c61/Lexis_Solutions-139.JPG)
![Instagram3](//images.ctfassets.net/5gydaotbo8jm/5M7XVE1cnv9JjsL6AfhbpZ/0305b2250ca25ad7b2657a2cdeebc86e/Lexis_Solutions-107.JPG)
![Instagram4](//images.ctfassets.net/5gydaotbo8jm/5qFlR9TzN7cuK3VXhyTFOo/973ca5244cddf48eb8885e67b3fca746/Lexis_Solutions-121.JPG)

Of course, Lexis Solutions' rooftop party wouldn't have been the same without its guests. We thank them for their smiles, good appetite, and sense of humor. 

![Guest](//images.ctfassets.net/5gydaotbo8jm/3V9kBh1t06TnbvxaexEQAA/ada2a87a56f813d58db99fa4fbe65919/Lexis_Solutions-55.JPG)
![Guest2](//images.ctfassets.net/5gydaotbo8jm/22HAcdBPupXQyc0OhFLeR1/ea2e7240a1a1e90a1e2a839bed3ff469/Lexis_Solutions-82.JPG)
![Guest3](//images.ctfassets.net/5gydaotbo8jm/6IxOHnU5SLWiq0ZOi5VHRr/03c624b9eba29873d86bab63d2549d31/Lexis_Solutions-124__1_.JPG)
![Guest5](//images.ctfassets.net/5gydaotbo8jm/4igi8z1eTlLZfmNdIacLDu/d0dfc345a2342ada53d77926177a43c0/Lexis_Solutions-122.JPG)
![Guest6](//images.ctfassets.net/5gydaotbo8jm/MKCoa8pb91qc3VCeYhOuM/9bd5bffa2e8558c5c5730461a89a4882/Lexis_Solutions-164.JPG)


Lexis Solutions is celebrating its 5th anniversary.

5 Years Lexis Solutions: A Rooftop Party

Over the years, software programming has changed, and as a result, testing, which is an essential aspect of software development, has changed as well.

It all began during the programming and debugging phases when detecting faults while debugging was regarded as testing. Testing was given its own identity in 1957 and was viewed as a distinct activity from the debugging process. Until the late 1970s, testing was regarded as a means of ensuring that software met the defined criteria. It was then expanded to discover the flaws and provide the software’s proper operation. In the 1980s, testing was also used to determine quality. It grew in prominence as a result and was handled as a well-defined and managed process inside the software development life cycle

For a better understanding of the software testing evolution, let us take a look at some of the crucial and defining periods separately. 

**1\. Early stages of programming and testing**

During this time, development and testing were viewed as separate tasks. When the software was finished, it was handed over to the testing team for review. Testers were not highly involved during the requirement analysis phase and had minimal interactions with business stakeholders. They were significantly dependent on knowledge passed down to them through documentation created during design and development or expertise gathered from code developers. The testing team’s testing methodologies were constrained due to a lack of understanding of the customers’ objectives and expectations. The testers would create a test plan based on their knowledge of the documentation and test the program on-the-fly. There were some limits, and the testing was not exhaustive.

**2\. Evolving to manual tеsting**

Various approaches, such as agile testing, exploratory testing, and others, emerged in the late 1990s. Manual testing was carried out using comprehensive test cases and test plans.

Exploratory testing allows people to test and break software uniquely by investigating it within the scope of testing charters.

The rapid and extensive expansion of the software development process necessitated increasingly comprehensive testing methods. Agile testing’s incremental and iterative methodology assisted in accomplishing this goal. The iterative testing method made it possible to automate repetitive tests.

**3\. The era of automatic testing**

With the turn of the millennium, a slew of new methodologies emerged, completely overhauling software testing. These methods completely changed the way people approached testing. At every stage of the SDLC, testing was now considered essential. Quality assurance and control have become more critical at every step.

Automation aided in the rapid and accurate execution of regression and sanity testing. Testing was elevated to a new level thanks to automation. The testers were further empowered to carry out their responsibilities with increased efficiency thanks to various automated testing frameworks.

Scaling up the testing process was also necessary during this period. Crowdsourcing and Cloud testing let the company manage product testing faster with less infrastructure and workforce investment.

**4\. Continuous testing era**

Customers wanted to see an intermediate functioning model of the eventual product when the business dynamics began to shift. As a result, there was an increase in demand for regular and medium software releases.

High connection and faster deployment and testing across different platforms were made possible by upgraded network infrastructure. This allowed for more frequent delivery, which resulted in more testing effort.
Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment have become central concepts. Ongoing testing has also become more critical as a result of these developments.

Shorter delivery cycles have resulted from the rise of DevOps and CI/CD. Risk assessment in real-time has become increasingly important. At every level of the software development life cycle, risk assessment and management were required. Continuous testing aids in the direction of such risks by identifying and resolving issues before each software release.
The business stakeholders expected an interim release with short deadlines and no sacrifices on the eventual product’s quality. Continuous testing needs to improve its efficiency to keep up with these demands. That’s where artificial intelligence comes into play in the testing process.

**5\. The Age of Artificial Intelligence**

Simply put, Artificial Intelligence is a machine’s capacity to see, analyze, and learn to imitate human behavior.

AI algorithms are based on data analysis that predicts the future. This implies that AI testing is primarily reliant on data.

Many AI-powered testing solutions are now available to assist with unit testing, API testing, UI testing, and other tasks. Visual testing is a famous illustration of how AI may be used in testing.

**6\. Summary**

Within the last few years, the software sector has evolved dramatically. While it is difficult to forecast precisely what the next decade will bring, as the IT sector continuously evolves, a new variety of challenges will appear, providing a new set of issues for quality assurance professionals to solve.

While QA professionals are sometimes overlooked, their contributions to DevOps are becoming more widely recognized. Simultaneously, testing will become endemic throughout other aspects of the software lifecycle process, with rapidly emerging technologies bringing tests within reach of a more significant number of team members.

A look at how software testing has become an integral part of the software programming process, its development stages, and an estimation of what the future holds for the QAs.

Evolution and Different Approaches to Software Testing


Back in 1998: When the online world as we know it marked a new era - BackRub, as it was initially planned to be named, launched its first homepage just a year after registering its domain name "google.com."

*But what happens next?*

## The beggining

The Internet giant was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, both colleagues and Ph.D. students at Stanford University. Their first headquarters was actually in the garage of their friend Susan Wojcicki, who later became the CEO of YouTube.

Firstly, $100,000 was invested by Andy Bechtolsheim, owner of Sun Microsystems. By the end of the year, three more big investors contributed about 100 thousand dollars to the development of Google (one of them is Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon).

The idea of Larry Page and Sergey Brin was to create a good algorithm for searching Internet pages by a given keyword, so they created the PageRank algorithm, changing the development of the World Wide Web forever. The company's first so-called real office opened a year later in Palo Alto, and a few months after, it was moved to Mountain View.

The initially developed search engine worked in 10 different languages; in 2001, the first image gallery appeared, consisting of 250 additional photos in the search engine. And so, to this day, Google has not stopped developing new products and is constantly growing, entering into valuable partnerships with other companies, and acquiring new ones.

## But why Google?

At least once, you must have wondered where the name Google comes from and what it means. The name of the Internet search engine is a play on words and originates from the word googol, a mathematical term for a number represented by one and one hundred zeros. Over time, the search engine has become so popular that the word is actively used in English.

Did you know that, at the very beginning, when it was created in 1996, the search engine was called BackRub? In 1998, Larry Page and Sergey Brin renamed it Google and their entire business. The word has even been added to the Oxford English Dictionary.

## Logo

The official Google logo has been used since September 1, 2015. The company changed its logo a month later following a significant restructuring. The new logo is the company's product mark, but the font is sans-serif, has slightly softer colors, and looks more contemporary. The logo is executed in a typical style with the logo of Alphabet Inc., the company that "swallowed" Google in early August 2015.

On March 22, 2011, Google was granted a patent for the "Google Doodle." On holidays, famous people's birthdays, and important events, such as the Olympic Games, Google replaces its logo with so-called doodles (English doodle - a simple drawing, scribble), representing illustrations, animations, or even small games related to the given event.

On May 24, 2011, Google replaced the logo with a doodle dedicated to the Day of Bulgarian alphabet and Bulgarian education and culture.

## Older than Google

But Google is not the first internet search engine. There had already been AltaVista, Yahoo!, and others when it was created, but Google stands out with its better search quality and sample ad-free homepage.

In 1998, the company surpassed its competition, AltaVista, created three years earlier. On the day of the first Google tests, the name of the president of Stanford University, Gerhard Casper, was entered. The competing search engine failed to gather information about him and found news about the movie Casper the Friendly Ghost instead. At the same time, Google found an article about Gerhard Casper, thus attracting the attention of many professors at the university. John Hennessey, the man running the tests, known as the "Father of Silicon Valley," hoped that the search engine would find those results exactly.

## The jealous Yahoo!? 

Before Google, Yahoo! was the premier internet search engine. 

Having started to gain popularity, it became Yahoo's search engine provider in 2000. By the summer of 2002, Yahoo! had tried to acquire Google for $3 billion, but Google turned down the deal as it felt it must have been worth more.

Today, Google's net worth in April was estimated at $1853 Billion. On the other hand, Yahoo was sold to Verizon in 2017 for under $5 billion.

## More steps to the more significant success

The company launched Google News in 2002, a content aggregation [service ](https://www.lexis.solutions/services/react-development)that would change the way digital media was published and distributed on the web, Gmail in 2004, Google Maps in 2005, Google Chrome in 2008, and the social network known as Google+ in 2011, in addition to many other products. In 2015, Google became the primary subsidiary of the holding company Alphabet Inc.

In 2004, Google first floated its shares on the stock exchange and gradually began to expand its sphere of activity. The very same year, the company opened the mail service Gmail for invitation-only access. The following year, the mapping service Google Maps was launched, the electronic translator Google Translate began, and the video publishing site YouTube, which appears to be among the most visited worldwide, was bought.

In 2008, the company released the first version of its own Google Chrome Internet browser and Android smartphone operating system. Since 2010, in partnership with various major manufacturers, Google has successfully launched smartphones and tablets under the GoogleNexus brand, and since 2016 - Pixel. (According to the consulting company IDC, devices running Android in the first quarter of 2017 occupied 85% of the global smartphone market).

However, not all Google projects prove to be successful. For example, the social network Google+, launched in 2011, never managed to be equal to Facebook (Meta). The microblogging system Jaik, bought in 2007, was closed in 2012 because it failed to compete successfully in the market against Twitter.

__Resources:__

1. From the garage to the Googleplex. - In: About Google Available from: [https://about.google/our-story/](https://about.google/our-story/) [11.08.222]
2. GOOGLE TURNS 20: HOW AN INTERNET SEARCH ENGINE RESHAPED THE WORLD. - In: Verge. Available from: [https://www.theverge.com/2018/9/5/17823490/google-20th-birthday-anniversary-history-milestones](https://www.theverge.com/2018/9/5/17823490/google-20th-birthday-anniversary-history-milestones) [11.08.222]
3. Google Net Worth 2022: Top 5 Google (Alphabet) Shareholders. - In: Knowledge.com. Available from: [https://caknowledge.com/google-net-worth/ ](https://caknowledge.com/google-net-worth/)[11.08.222]
4. History of Google. - In: Wikipedia. Available from: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Google](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Google) [11.08.222]
5. Price, Dan. 8 Search Engines That Rocked Before Google Even Existed. - In: Make Use of. Available from: [https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/7-search-engines-that-rocked-before-google-even-existed/](https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/7-search-engines-that-rocked-before-google-even-existed/) [11.08.222]


The history of the biggest Internet search engine.

Are you older than Google?

Once you wake up, what do you do? Check your email and social on your phone? But is there somebody on the other side of it?

Let me tell you; there is always somebody - writing, rewriting, debugging,  troubleshooting, updating. And who that might be, you ask, of course, the programmers. 

Frankly, without them, you wouldn't be able to use your phone.

## A programmer without a computer is like French cuisine without butter

It is obvious - the world we currently live in can't function without programmers, but let's first see why programming is crucial.

Software is all around us - it manages our everyday activities, whether work or fun. It plays a role in how companies make decisions, execute tasks, gather data, and more.

Programming has caused a revolution in the industrial and social parts of our everyday lives.

## Coders - the problem solvers

Programming is a process taking three key phases: 

1.  Problem Identification

2.  Implementation  

3.  Maintenance 

Those 3 steps lay on the programmers' backs for them to successfully solve the appearing problems. And making sure that the trouble won't come back.

## IT gurus - the modern creators

Another purpose of programming is to create. Create to make a difference. The languages, machines, compilers, and interpreters are only tools; brushes to painters. Software creation could be seen as an art where the programmers express themselves through functionality and design. Or programming could be simply whatever one intends it to be.

## 26,9 million life changers

Did you know that currently, there are 26,9 million developers in the world? 

### Let's see a few examples of how some of them and their predecessors did.

Computer codes played a pivotal role in ending World War II. An English computer scientist, Alan Turing, was successful in deciphering the Nazis' code machine ENIGMA with his cryptologic and mathematical skills.

During this COVID-19 pandemic, Avi Schiffmann, a teenager, developed one of the world's most popular COVID-19 monitoring websites. He coded ncov2019.live, the admired COVID virus tracker that is one of the most visited corona trackers across the globe. Kautilya Katariya from the UK is the youngest to take up programming at 6. He developed AI applications after completing an array of study materials from IBM. He became a Guinness World Record holder.

## Computer specialists - the new rulers

As the technology, which nowadays shapes our lives, changes rapidly, the programmers' role is only getting more critical. 

People are so used to relying on all the websites - from the social ones to the news - different gadgets and tools - simply because they all make life easier. But the ones guilty of having this ease are the programmers. So next time you scroll through Instagram, check your bank balance online, order food from that particular app, ask yourself who runs the world.

The answer is easy. The programmers!

Did you know that currently, there are 26.9 million developers in the world? 

Who runs the world? Programmers! 

## Introduction

Regular expressions seem complicated, confusing, even ciphered. They easily become hard to read and can lead to performance issues. Their reputation precedes them as a quirky mix between chaos and maths.

I ask you to put your prejudices aside and let me introduce you to the friendly and powerful regex I know. Let's start with the basics.

## What is a regex?

A regex is a string that matches a pattern of text. In most programming languages you surround the string with forward slashes so it is recognized and treated as a regex. `/foo/`, `/[0-9]+\.[0-9]+/` and `/(0[1-9]|1[0-2])/(0[1-9]|[12][0-9]|3[01])/\d{4}/` are valid regular expressions. The first matches the sequence of characters 'foo', the second matches decimal numbers, and the third - dates.

## When to use a regex?

Regular expressions are used when you need to find, replace, split or validate strings. These tasks are so essential that all the major programming languages have a built-in regex engine.

## How to use a regex?

The capabilities of regular expressions are vast and we only go through the basics in this article. You can find more sophisticated use-cases and examples {{here}}.

Most characters, like letters and numbers, match themselves. Creating a regex composed of only alphanumerical characters will be no different than looking for a substring - a function present in the standard library of modern languages. In order to unlock the full potential of regular expressions, we add a little bit of special syntax in the form of quantifiers, tokens, anchors, and groups.

### Quantifiers

Quantifiers are symbols that indicate how many times a given character should be matched.

> Examples: ?, *, +, ...

#### Cheatsheet

a? - matches one or zero of a a* - matches zero or more of a a+ - matches one or more of a a{1} - matches exactly one of a a{1,3} - matches one, two, or three of a a{1,} - matches at least one of a

#### Examples

Lets's have a test sentence: `Son, it's too soon for you to drink alcohol`,and the goal to match both `son` and `soon`.

We can write the following regular expressions that will do the trick

- `/so{1,2}n/` - there are either 1 or 2 "o"s - `/soo?n/` - the second "o" is optional - `/soo{0,1}n/` - the second "o" is an optional alternative

### Tokens

Tokens generally start with a backslash `\` and represent a single or a group of characters. They also provide a way for matching the special characters that are part of the regex syntax.

> Examples: \?, \+, \s, \d, \D, \n, \t, ...

#### Cheatsheet

\? - matches the character *?* \+ - matches the character *+* \s - matches the whitespace character \d - matches any digit \D - matches  any non-digit; the opposite of \d \n - matches the newline character \t - matches the tab character . - matches any character [abc] - matches a single character: *a*, *b* or *c* [a-z] - matches a single character in the range from *a* to *z* [0-9] - matches any digit

#### Examples

- `/\?{3}/` - matches 3 consecutive question marks   - `/\s+/` - matches one or many spaces ⠀◦ useful for splitting user input - like names - `/\d{4}/` - matches 4 consecutive digits ⠀◦ think of years, ZIP codes - `/fi.e/` - matches *fire*, *file*, *five*, because the 3rd character can be anything - `/[A-Z][a-z]+/` - matches words that begin with an uppercase letter and have at least 2 letters  - `/[0-5][0-9]/` - matches all numbers that represent seconds ⠀◦ Imagine a digital clock that goes from 00 to 59

### Anchors

Anchors indicate the start and the end of strings and boundaries.

> Examples: ^, $, \b, \B

#### Cheatsheet

^ - start of string & - end of string \b - word boundary; a position between alphanumerical characters and non-alphanumerical characters \B - non-word boundary; a position between two alphanumerical characters or two non-alphanumerical characters 

#### Examples

- `/^Regex/` - matches strings that begin with *Regex*- `/regex.&/` - matches strings that end with *regex. *- `/^Some\b/` - matches strings that begin with the word *Some*

### Groups

Groups, or capturing groups, are a way to treat multiple characters as the same unit. This way you can isolate regex logic inside a group, or name a group so you can inspect what text it has matched. 

#### Cheatsheet

({regex}) - a group is indicated with brackets around your custom {regex}  (?<{name}>{regex}) - you name a group by writing a question mark right after the opening bracket and surrounding the {name} with less than and more than signs

#### Examples

- `/(\d+)/` - captures all numbers  - `/(?<long_spaces>\s{2,})/` - captures occurrences of two, or more, consecutive spaces

### Extras

There are logical operators in regex too! You can negate and use or, just like in your favorite programming language.

#### Cheatsheet

^ - negation | - or

#### Examples

- `/[^a-z]/` - matches any character which is not a lowercase letter from the English alphabet - `/al|eal/` - matches either the 2 characters *al*, or the word *eel *- `/(al|ea)l/` - matches either the word *all*, or the word *eel *⠀◦ note that using a group isolates the or logic inside of it

## Bringing the pieces together

Regular expressions need some time to sink in. Piling up more syntax will only confuse you so let us practice instead.

### Email validation

#### Basic

`/[^@]+@[^.]+\.[a-z]{2,}/`

This should be one of the simplest regular expressions that validate emails. It can be broken down into 5 parts:

- `[^@]+` - matches one or more characters that are not the character @ - `@` - matches the character @ - `[^\.]+` - matches one or more characters that are not the character . ⠀◦ we escape the dot character as it can also mean any character! - `\.` - matches the character . - `[a-z]{2,}` - matches two or more letters

#### With groups

`/(?<username>[^@]+)@(?<mail_server>[^\.]+)\.(?<domain>[a-z]{2,})/`

Adding groups allows us to match test string and see what we capture in each of them.

> **john.doe@test.com**

Groups: - username: john.doe - mail_server: test - domain: com

> **emil.kirilov@lexis.solutions**

Groups: - username: emil.kirilov - mail_server: lexis - domain: solutions

### Date validation

We will use the `dd.mm.yyyy` format in this example.

#### Naive with groups

`/(?<day>\d{2})\.(?<month>\d{2})\.(?<year>\d{4})/`

> **27.12.2021**

Groups: - Day: 12 - Month: 12 - Year: 2021

> **33.13.2021**

Groups: - Day: 33 - Month: 13 - Year: 2021

This regex is naive because it matches too optimistically. We could provide laughable input and it would find it acceptable. Let's fix it!

#### A perfect enough with groups

`/(?<day>0[1-9]|[12][0-9]|30|31)\.(?<month>0[1-9]|11|12)\.(?<year>[12][0-9]{3})/`

**Breakdown**

Group `day`: - the minimum date is 01, so dates starting with 0, can't end with 0 - all 10s and 20s are OK - 30 and 31 are both possible

Group `month`: - same logic as with day

Group `year`: - only accepts 1xxx and 2xxx years

**Examples**

> **27.12.2021**

Groups: - Day: 12 - Month: 12 - Year: 2021

> **33.13.2021 - no match**

**Considerations**

I labeled this regex as 'perfect enough' because not all months have 31 days, or 30 days, or 29 days for that matter. We could, of course, write a monster regex and account for each month's possible day count, but we won't. It will become unreadable and still for short on leap years.

Be careful not to misuse regular expressions. Our date regex will be exceptional if you need to extract dates in a long text. Perhaps your task is to find the min/max date? Do that with a library or a built-in date parser. Don't compare the year named groups, the month named, and the day named groups of each month.

## End thoughts

Regular expressions are indispensable. They are a specific tool that you won't need every day but can save you days when you correctly recognize a use case. 

I hope that by the end of this article you have a basic understanding and appreciation for the regex power and would, perhaps, revisit it whenever you find yourself in need of a cheat sheet in building regular expressions.

Learn the basics of regular expressions, when to use them and how to use them.

From the front lines