Facebook Technology Stack

Sat 08 Jul 2023, 19:59

Facebook's technology stack is a combination of various programming languages, frameworks, and tools. Here is a general overview of the key components of Facebook's technology stack, based on information available up until September 2021:

1. Programming Languages:

   • Hack: Facebook developed the Hack programming language, which is a statically typed variant of PHP. Hack is widely used within Facebook for its backend services.
   • PHP: Facebook initially built its platform using PHP, and while the majority of the codebase has transitioned to Hack, PHP still plays a role in some parts of the system.

2. Backend Technologies:

   • Apache Hadoop: Facebook utilizes the Hadoop ecosystem, including HDFS (Hadoop Distributed File System) and MapReduce, for distributed storage and batch processing of large-scale data.
   • Apache Hive: Hive is used as a data warehouse infrastructure on top of Hadoop, enabling SQL-like querying and analysis of large datasets.
   • Apache Cassandra: Facebook employs Cassandra, a highly scalable and distributed NoSQL database, to handle structured data storage and retrieval for certain use cases.
   • Memcached: Facebook heavily relies on Memcached, an in-memory caching system, to improve the performance of frequently accessed data.

3. Frontend Technologies:

   • React: Facebook developed the React JavaScript library for building user interfaces. React allows for efficient rendering of dynamic components and is widely used in Facebook's frontend development.
   • GraphQL: Facebook created GraphQL, a query language for APIs, to optimize data fetching and provide a flexible and efficient way of retrieving data from backend services.
   • Relay: Relay is a JavaScript framework developed by Facebook that works alongside GraphQL to manage data fetching and state management in complex applications.

4. Infrastructure and Tools:

   • Apache Thrift: Facebook's Thrift framework enables efficient and scalable communication between different services and languages by providing a language-agnostic interface definition language (IDL).
   • Apache ZooKeeper: ZooKeeper is used for centralized configuration management and distributed coordination in Facebook's infrastructure.
   • Presto: Facebook developed Presto, a distributed SQL query engine, for interactive querying and analysis of large datasets stored in its data warehouses.

5. Mobile Development:

   • React Native: Facebook's React Native framework allows for cross-platform mobile app development using JavaScript. It enables developers to build native-like mobile applications for both iOS and Android platforms.

6. AI and Machine Learning:

   • PyTorch: Facebook has been actively involved in the development of PyTorch, an open-source deep learning framework. PyTorch is widely used for research and production-level machine learning applications at Facebook.

It's important to note that Facebook's technology stack is vast and constantly evolving. The company continues to invest in research and development, regularly adopting new technologies and creating its own tools and frameworks to support its diverse range of products and services.

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