
Ask HN: What knowledge do I need to get real time system/low latency related job? - aksaquest
I am currently a full stack developer (javascript angular + node ) 2 years out of college, I realize recently that full stack doesn&#x27;t really interest me that much and I want to transition to a job that deal with low latency and RTS like real time bidding etc.<p>I have begin to learn Rust, golang and practice implementing a bunch low latency and distributed related algorithms (hyperloglog, maglev hashing, raft), I also try to contribute to some open source related to distributed programming and got some merged to master.
But most of the place that is willing to interview me are offering full stack. I think I might be lacking some skills that company dealing with RTS are looking for.<p>My next step is to implement my own rts system like scrape message from reddit or something and do some interesting analysis using kafka for my topology not sure if thats a good idea.
Big data&#x2F;distributed program&#x2F;low latency stuff is really hard to practice in my own time (ie. server cost).<p>Can someone point me some direction? Like what knowledge&#x2F;experience do I need, what are those companies looking for?<p>Note: I am from SF
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ddorian43
Rts is different (airplanes,missiles etc). How about finding jobs in
stackoverflow, see their requirements and do them ? Example:
[http://www.scylladb.com/career-post/software-
developer/](http://www.scylladb.com/career-post/software-developer/)

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jwilliams
When I think real-time I think embedded programming. In particular, formal
methods and scheduling. This is an understood canon of work, so there are lots
of good textbooks, courses, etc in the area.

When I think latency I think really fast. The nice thing about that domain is
that each piece is quite important. Even just getting the data from Reddit in
a timely/efficient/optimized manner is an interesting puzzle in its own right.
Personally, I'd focus on those components, work out what makes them really
fly, write some interesting stuff.

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jacquesm
Erlang, QnX, RTOS would be good starting points.

Note the differences between 'soft real time' and 'hard real time'.

Embedded controllers are another fruitful avenue of research, as are systems
that are hybrids, for instance very tight control loops in FPGA driven by
conventional processors.

