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Bytes & Beyond

Redis

Redis internals, data structures, caching strategies, and high-performance in-memory architecture

Redis

Welcome to the Redis learning hub. This section covers Redis’s in-memory architecture, internal workings, and best practices for building high-performance applications.

Articles

Core Concepts

  1. Redis Internals: How It Achieves Sub-Millisecond Performance

    • O(1) hash table lookups and bucket structure
    • Single-threaded event loop with IO multiplexing
    • Incremental rehashing and collision handling
    • Why Redis is blazingly fast

  2. Installation & Setup

    • Docker, macOS, Ubuntu, CentOS, Windows installation
    • Build from source
    • Redis Cloud setup
    • Basic commands and configuration

Data Structures

  1. Redis Strings

    • Basic string operations and counters
    • Session tokens, page views, rate limiting
    • JSON storage and caching patterns
    • Node.js and Python examples

  2. Redis Lists

    • Queues (FIFO) and Stacks (LIFO)
    • Activity feeds and chat messages
    • Blocking operations and producer-consumer patterns
    • Node.js and Python examples

  3. Redis Sets

    • Unique item tracking and memberships
    • Finding common items (intersection, union, difference)
    • Tagging systems and permissions
    • Node.js and Python examples

  4. Redis Hashes

    • User profiles and product inventory
    • Session data and shopping carts
    • Efficient object storage
    • Node.js and Python examples

  5. Redis Sorted Sets

    • Leaderboards and rankings
    • Rate limiting with sliding windows
    • Priority queues and trending topics
    • Node.js and Python examples

  6. Redis Streams

    • Activity logs and audit trails
    • Chat messages and event processing
    • Consumer groups for reliable delivery
    • Node.js and Python examples

Setup & Operations (Coming Soon)

  • Persistence — RDB snapshots, AOF logging
  • Scaling — Replication, clustering, high availability

Learning Path

  1. Start with Redis Internals to understand how Redis achieves its speed
  2. Set up Redis locally using Docker or your preferred method
  3. Learn Strings — the foundation for caching and counters
  4. Explore Lists for queues and Sets for unique items
  5. Use Hashes for objects and Sorted Sets for rankings
  6. Master Streams for event-driven architectures

Each article includes Node.js (ioredis) and Python (redis-py) examples for practical implementation.