PostgreSQL on Prateek Sharma

Composite index column order should match the query, not the schema

Sun, 30 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

In the TTS Study Assistant notes table, queries filter by user_id always and domain often, so the index is declared in that order:

CREATE INDEX idx_uid_did ON notes(user_id, domain);

A composite index is only fully useful as a left-prefix: this index serves WHERE user_id = ? and WHERE user_id = ? AND domain = ?, but not WHERE domain = ? alone. The rule of thumb is to order columns by how the queries actually filter — most selective / most-always-present first — not by declaration order in the table, and not alphabetically.

Tidylnk

Sun, 23 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Tidylnk is a URL shortener I built to have a simple, self-hosted alternative to the usual third-party link shorteners, with an admin panel to manage and track links.

Tech stack

Backend — Go, serving the redirect and link-management APIs.
Frontend — a React admin panel for creating, organizing, and tracking shortened links.
Storage — PostgreSQL as the primary datastore for link records, with Redis on the redirect hot path for fast lookups.
Deployment — backend and database containerized with Docker and deployed on Railway.

Why I built it

I wanted a link shortener I fully controlled — no reliance on a third party’s uptime, rate limits, or analytics restrictions — and a project to exercise Go and Redis together on a workload where caching genuinely matters: redirect latency.

TTS Study Assistant

Mon, 15 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The TTS Study Assistant lets you select text on any webpage, save it as a note, hear it read aloud, and summarize it with AI for review. It’s a Chrome extension (Manifest V3), a Go/Fiber backend, and a React admin panel.

Architecture

Backend (Go) — Fiber for HTTP, PostgreSQL via GORM, JWT auth, OpenAI for summarization, deployed on Railway in a Docker container.
Frontend (React + TypeScript) — Vite build, React Query + Context for state, deployed on Vercel.
Extension — Manifest V3 service worker, Chrome Storage API for local state, Chrome TTS API for playback, content scripts for text selection.

Decisions worth noting

Source-based token lifetimes

Web sessions and extension sessions have very different UX expectations, so the access-token lifetime depends on where the request comes from:

Emission Critical

Sun, 01 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Emission Critical is a B2B SaaS platform for enterprise carbon footprint and sustainability tracking. I led the backend: the data model, the APIs, and the computation engine.

Engineering areas

Multi-tenant platform

Architected a multi-tenant PostgreSQL schema with tenant-level data isolation.
Integrated Auth0 for identity and multi-tenant RBAC.
Streamlined data ingestion through Excel parsing and automated AWS S3 pipelines.

Carbon accounting engine

Designed the engine for full Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions tracking and product carbon footprints.
Cut computation latency ~50% and improved throughput a further ~30% with better indexing and batch processing.

Search and lookups

Built parsers and Meilisearch-backed full-text search over public emission factor databases.
Exposed REST APIs for emission-factor lookups feeding downstream carbon computation.

Observability

Stood up observability with OpenTelemetry, SigNoz, and Kubernetes-native logging for real-time diagnostics.

Stack

NestJS · TypeScript · PostgreSQL · Auth0 · Meilisearch · AWS · Kubernetes · OpenTelemetry