Select your current position
Pick a role and level — we'll show the growth path, skills and gap analysis.
Development path
Junior
0-2 years
Responsibility: Writing code in C/C++. Working with system calls. Debugging memory issues (Valgrind/ASan). Writing unit tests.
Key skills:
Middle
2-5 years
Responsibility: Performance optimization. Multithreaded programming (pthreads/std::thread). Profiling (perf). Building libraries.
Key skills:
Senior
5-8 years
Responsibility: Systems software architecture. Lock-free programming. Kernel modules. SIMD optimization. API design.
Key skills:
Lead / Staff
7-12 years
Responsibility: System architecture. Development standards. Choosing C vs C++ vs Rust. Coordination with hardware.
Key skills:
Principal
10+ years
Responsibility: Systems architecture at scale. Custom runtime. Compiler optimization. Industry standards.
Key skills:
Gap analysis: skills to develop
To reach the next level you'll need to develop:
Independently conducts driver and kernel module reviews. Focuses on race conditions, error handling correctness, proper kernel API usage, and memory barriers.
Designs CI/CD pipelines from scratch. Configures caching for build acceleration. Uses matrix builds for multi-version testing. Sets up deployment pipelines (staging → production). Works with secrets and environment variables.
Applies algorithms for system software: B-tree for FS, hash tables with open addressing, cache-oblivious algorithms. Evaluates hardware-specific complexity.
Applies async I/O: io_uring for Linux, completion-based I/O, coroutines (C++20/Rust async). Designs event loop architectures.
Applies quality tools: sanitizers (ASAN/MSAN/TSAN/UBSAN), static analysis (clang-tidy), fuzzing for edge cases.
Applies concurrent programming: reader-writer locks, thread pools, atomic operations, memory ordering (acquire/release/seq_cst).
Designs system components with proper abstractions: HAL, platform abstraction, API contracts. Applies layered architecture for kernel subsystems and drivers.
Understands TCP/IP stack internals at the OS level — socket buffer tuning, congestion control algorithms, and kernel network parameter optimization. Configures TLS/SSL for custom protocol implementations. Works with low-level network primitives including raw sockets and packet crafting. Understands DNS resolution internals and TTL propagation. Debugs network issues using tcpdump, Wireshark, and eBPF network tracing.
Applies system patterns: Flyweight for memory optimization, Reactor for I/O multiplexing, Chain of Responsibility for packet processing.
Applies system data structures: arena allocators, intrusive lists, radix trees, concurrent hash maps. Optimizes memory layout for cache.
Manages memory: custom allocators (pool, slab, arena), memory-mapped files, huge pages. Analyzes via Valgrind and perf.