Hacker News with Generative AI: Software Engineering

Evaluating Agent-Based Program Repair at Google (arxiv.org)
Agent-based program repair offers to automatically resolve complex bugs end-to-end by combining the planning, tool use, and code generation abilities of modern LLMs.
Software Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, Bug Repair, Google
3 points by azhenley 3 hours ago | 0 comments
Software Engineering Laws (manager.dev)
Some of those are famous, and some are quite niche. ALL of them are super useful to engineers and managers.
Software Engineering, Management, Software Development, Best Practices
11 points by thunderbong 22 hours ago | 1 comments
Systems Correctness Practices at AWS: Leveraging Formal and Semi-Formal Methods (queue.acm.org)
AWS (Amazon Web Services) strives to deliver reliable services that customers can trust completely.
Systems Correctness, Cloud Computing, AWS, Software Engineering, Formal Methods
162 points by yarapavan 1 day ago | 52 comments
In retrospect, DevOps was a bad idea (rethinkingsoftware.substack.com)
In retrospect, DevOps was a bad idea.
DevOps, Software Development, Software Engineering
14 points by aard 2 days ago | 0 comments
There is no Vibe Engineering (serce.me)
You've probably heard about "vibe coding" by now. The term was recently coined by Andrej Karpathy in his tweet. Andrej defines Vibe Coding as "a new kind of coding, where you fully give in to the vibes, embrace exponentials, and forget that the code even exists". The key difference between vibe coding and normal coding is that the engineer doesn’t interact with the codebase directly, and instead converses with the agent and inspects the final outcome.
Software Engineering, AI, Coding
69 points by todsacerdoti 3 days ago | 67 comments
Vets Who Code (vetswhocode.io)
VetsWhoCode is a veteran-led 501(c)(3) committed to empowering veterans and military spouses through a high-quality, AI-powered software engineering training program.
Veterans, Non-Profits, Software Engineering, Artificial Intelligence
49 points by mooreds 3 days ago | 43 comments
You're protecting your data wrong – Introducing the Protected Query Pattern (vercel.app)
Securing modern full-stack applications can be complex. You have to manage authorizations in many different contexts from UI to data mutation functions.
Data Security, Web Development, Software Engineering, Programming
33 points by jussinevavuori 3 days ago | 21 comments
Ask HN: If you had 100 hours to learn something new, what would you learn? (ycombinator.com)
As a software engineer, To boost your career in this era.
Software Engineering, Career Development, Learning
40 points by erkanerol 3 days ago | 60 comments
Vibe Coding: A 20-Year Engineer's Love Letter and Warning (reddit.com)
As a principal engineer who’s coded through four tech eras, I adore vibe coding for democratizing creativity—but it’s a double-edged sword.
Software Engineering, Programming, Technology, Opinion
4 points by sexy_seedbox 3 days ago | 1 comments
Literate Development: AI-Enhanced Software Engineering (substack.com)
Software Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, Programming
38 points by maga 3 days ago | 22 comments
Why Software Engineering Will Never Die (i-programmer.info)
A new published paper, "Preparing Students for the Software Industry New Demands", is ostensibly a study on how graduates can become job ready. However, it also prompts thinking about the extent to which programmer jobs are threatened by low code tools or ai-assisted tools.
Software Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, Programming, Tools
8 points by aquastorm 4 days ago | 2 comments
My team loved to ship fast and sink later (rosesecurity.dev)
This is part three of my microblog series exploring the subtle dysfunctions that plague engineering organizations. After discussing over-abstraction as a liability and unpacking how excessive toil kills engineering teams, this post tackles a nuanced threat: when “moving fast” becomes a cultural shortcut for cutting corners.
Software Engineering, Organizational Culture, Burnout
10 points by r0nan 5 days ago | 6 comments
The Death of Software Engineering by a Thousand Prompts (verdikapuku.com)
My wife is working on an idea for a social platform. She’s been using Lovable to build it. Over the past week, she’s made very good progress independently but once a day she would get stuck because the AI isn’t doing what she’s expecting. Unfortunately, she doesn’t know full-stack development well enough to prompt it towards resolution or how to edit the code herself. When that happens, I come to her rescue.
Software Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, Prompt Engineering
28 points by frenchmajesty 6 days ago | 21 comments
I just got kicked out of Columbia for taking a stand against LeetCode interviews (twitter.com)
Something went wrong, but don’t fret — let’s give it another shot.
Education, Software Engineering, Social Media
10 points by taytus 6 days ago | 8 comments
Ask HN: Do US engineering skills translate well to European companies? (ycombinator.com)
I currently reside in the US and am looking to move to Europe (most likely Germany) some time in the next three years. Has anybody made this journey and have some insights to share?
Software Engineering, Job Market, Europe, Germany
10 points by dandrew5 7 days ago | 19 comments
HoarePrompt: Structural Reasoning About Program Correctness in Natural Language (github.com/msv-lab)
HoarePrompt structurally reasons about program correctness in natural language using large language models (LLMs). Drawing inspiration from the strongest postcondition calculus, it employs a step-by-step process to generate natural language descriptions of reachable program states at various program points. By aligning formal semantics with informal requirements, HoarePrompt enables LLMs to detect bugs that violate natural language specifications.
Programming, Artificial Intelligence, Software Engineering, Formal Verification
6 points by mechtaev 8 days ago | 0 comments
Coordinating the Superbowl's visual fidelity with Elixir (elixir-lang.org)
How do you coordinate visual fidelity across two hundred cameras for a live event like the Super Bowl?
Elixir, Software Engineering, Super Bowl, Live Events
644 points by lawik 8 days ago | 172 comments
What is Growth Engineering? A deep dive with MasterClass's former Head of Growth (pragmaticengineer.com)
Growth engineering was barely known a decade ago, but today, most scaleups and many publicly traded tech companies have dedicated growth teams staffed by growth engineers. However, some software engineers are still suspicious of this new area because of its reputation for hacky code with little to no code coverage.
Growth Engineering, Software Engineering, Technology, Business
9 points by stosssik 9 days ago | 1 comments
Leaked software engineering recruiter selection guideline (twitter.com)
Something went wrong, but don’t fret — let’s give it another shot.
Software Engineering, Recruiting, Leaks
14 points by ericzawo 9 days ago | 26 comments
War story: the hardest bug I ever debugged (clientserver.dev)
All of a sudden, without any ostensible cause, Google Docs was flooded with errors. How it took me 2 days and a coworker to solve the hardest bug I ever debugged.
Debugging, Software Engineering, Case Studies, Google Docs
462 points by jakevoytko 9 days ago | 187 comments
Why Vibe Coding Is Overrated (lycee.ai)
Vibe coding is on the rise.
Programming, Software Development, Opinion, Software Engineering
6 points by samson-delilah 10 days ago | 2 comments
The Software Engineering Identity Crisis (annievella.com)
Many of us became software engineers because we found our identity in building things. Not managing things. Not overseeing things. Building things. With our own hands, our own minds, our own code.
Software Engineering, Identity, Career, Personal Development
142 points by napolux 10 days ago | 159 comments
They lied to you, building software is hard (toddle.dev)
Every week there seems to be a new tool that promises to let anyone build applications 10x faster. The promise is always the same and so is the outcome.
Software Development, Software Engineering, Programming, Tools
22 points by Liriel 10 days ago | 6 comments
Vibe Coder – AI Engineer YC Job posting: Satire or not Satire? (ycombinator.com)
The more I read this job posting, the more I think it is satire: https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/domu-technology-inc/jobs/hwWsGdU-vibe-coder-ai-engineer<p>> At least 50% of the code you write right now should be done by AI; Vibe coding experience is non-negotiable.<p>> Ready to grind long hours, including weekends<p>All of this to "Automate debt collection calls for banks". Am I out of touch here?
Artificial Intelligence, Software Engineering, Humor, Job Market, Startups
13 points by gouthamve 11 days ago | 5 comments
Ask HN: How should junior programmers use and/or not use AI for programming? (ycombinator.com)
I am observing at my company that junior programmers, who have been allowed to use AI for helping with their coding seem to be losing their coding skills and critical skills.
Software Engineering, AI, Junior Developers, Programming
51 points by taatparya 12 days ago | 44 comments
Move faster, wait less: Improving code review time at Meta (engineering.fb.com)
When done well, code reviews can catch bugs, teach best practices, and ensure high code quality. At Meta we call an individual set of changes made to the codebase a “diff.” While we like to move fast at Meta, every diff must be reviewed, without exception. But, as the Code Review team, we also understand that when reviews take longer, people get less done.
Software Engineering, Code Review, Productivity, Facebook
6 points by avikalp 12 days ago | 0 comments
1x Engineer (1x.engineer)
You might have already heard of a 10x engineer. Probably too often, actually. If there's such a thing as a 10x engineer, surely there must be a 1x engineer, too?
Software Engineering, Humor, Productivity
8 points by Timothee 13 days ago | 1 comments
Grease: An Open-Source Tool for Uncovering Hidden Vulnerabilities in Binary Code (galois.com)
Proactively and defensively ensuring the absence of vulnerabilities in binary code is crucial for deploying high-assurance systems. GREASE is an open-source tool leveraging under-constrained symbolic execution to help software reverse engineers analyze binaries and uncover hard-to-spot bugs, ultimately enhancing system security. This kind of binary analysis is especially important for systems that include COTS software that is only provided in binary form.
Security, Software Engineering, Open Source, Binary Analysis, Vulnerabilities
116 points by thinkmoore 13 days ago | 12 comments
How I force LLMs to generate correct code (claudio.uk)
In my daily work as consultant, I'm often dealing with large pre-existing code bases.
Programming, Software Engineering, Code Generation, AI
12 points by csantini 14 days ago | 0 comments
Teaching a new way to prevent outages at Google (sre.google)
From a young age, I enjoyed the detective work of diagnosing and fixing a broken system–electronics, in my case.
Software Engineering, Google, Reliability Engineering
106 points by motxilo 14 days ago | 37 comments