Alibaba Taobao programmers "open source" the internal annual technical summary, and also called out the P9 boss to teach you how to "fight monsters and level up"

Yuyang from Aofei Temple
Quantum Bit Report | Public Account QbitAI

What? The annual technical summary of Alibaba Taobao programmers is something I can read for free?

Not only will P9 bosses share their experiences on how to upgrade and fight monsters from P4 to P9.

Various technical experts have written articles to discuss how to plan a programmer's career.

There are also detailed sharings of a basket of technical solutions, such as "How to use quality AI based on reinforcement learning in Taobao" and "How Taobao can automatically rebuild the 3D model just by circling the product with a mobile phone".

Looking through the catalog, from front-end and back-end to algorithm testing , from technical practice to workplace survival , this resource can be said to be a detailed record of the real problems and core technology progress encountered by Taobao technology in this year.

Even the must-read technical books and practical projects for 2022 have been arranged.

800+ pages of content, with a lot of useful information.

Let’s take a look at the highlights first.

What black technologies has Taobao used in 2021?

The most eye-catching aspect of Taobao technology is the huge and complex business scenarios behind it, such as Taobao and Xianyu.

This "year-end technical summary" covers the core "black technology" of Taobao's technology throughout the entire year of 2021.

For example, Object Drawer, a 3D modeling product based on neural rendering .

Simply put, no special equipment is needed. Just take your phone and walk around the product to take a video, and Object Drawer can complete high-precision 3D modeling in real time .

It can be seen that the resulting 3D model of the product can achieve the display effect of a real photo when viewed from any perspective.

At a resolution of 1920*1080, the inference speed of Object Drawer can reach 200FPS, and 30FPS on mobile phones.

At the same time, the model training time only takes 4 hours, and the model size is compressed to 20M.

Supported product categories include: shoes, bags, figures, building blocks, porcelain pots, hats, sofas, coffee tables, cabinets, etc.

In other words, with Object Drawer, merchants no longer need to spend hours or even days manually 3D modeling products. In addition, Object Drawer also solves the problem of low restoration accuracy of traditional automatic 3D modeling technology when facing weakly textured objects such as shoes and porcelain pots.

As shown in the following figure, the first line shows the traditional automatic modeling effect, and the second line shows the Object Drawer modeling effect.

At present, some Tmall and Taobao merchants have used this technology.

Recently, the trial interface of Object Drawer has also been opened to academia and general users.

There are also live venue "construction" plans like this:

Without spending a lot of money, all you need is a wall of ordinary green screens and a real anchor. This 3D immersive live broadcast room solution based on film-level extended reality cloud shooting technology can give merchants a live broadcast effect with a venue of thousands of square meters, nearly a thousand stage lights, and special camera equipment.

Similar AI black technology not only brings convenience to businesses.

This information also reveals what kind of technology makes you want to buy more and more when you browse Taobao.

For example, the highlights replay in live shopping are automatically selected by AI for you.

In order to reduce the delay to less than 1 second when watching live broadcasts, Taobao programmers have developed a smart scheduling low-latency system GRTN...

This series of technical solutions, which are deeply rooted in products serving hundreds of millions of users, have been organized into detailed ideas in this 800+ page technical summary.

This annual summary is full of technical information, but it is not just about technology.

"Programmers should not be business development tools"

In addition to technical solutions, the "daily life of programmers in large companies" has always been a topic of discussion among the outside world.

In their annual summaries, Taobao programmers do not shy away from talking about what they see and think about their work and their growth experiences.

“Is it reliable to cross over and become a programmer?”

“How to become P7/P8/P9?”

“How to avoid becoming a ‘technical tool person’?”

Even for topics like "How to write technical articles that get 100,000+ views", you can find "personal experience" in it.

Fanyi, a Taobao front-end expert who majored in human resources management, wrote an article to share his story of being a liberal arts student who switched careers to become a programmer. He also combined his own experience to answer the following common questions:

1. Can students who are not majored in computers learn computers?

2. I have studied computer science for 4 years. Can you keep up with it by self-study?

3. Can I find a job after I get out?

4. What do you need to do during the career change process?

…

He also organized his self-study method into the "Four More Principles" and shared it: read more, think more, ask more and do more. "If time permits, write more and summarize your knowledge", just like this -

As for the career development issues that programmers are generally concerned about, the discussion in this material is also sincere and true.

One of the topics that is frequently discussed is - don’t be a tool .

Someone described the frontline experience like this:

If it is business development, please make sure to improve your understanding of the business. Do not just do it when the demand comes and that's it. It will not be beneficial to your personal growth if you regard yourself as a tool for the business.

The author of the best-selling book "Vue.js in Simple Terms" further shared his thoughts on the issue of "thinking":

What is the difference between P7 and P8? At the work level, it means "more resources can be mobilized". The reason for mobilizing more resources is that more complex things need to be done.

Where do complex things come from? They come from thinking .

He also gave a specific development path:

1. Think more about the future development direction of the project and the problems of the existing technical system

2. Make judgments and execute in the right direction

3. If things are big enough, there will be a need to mobilize more resources.

4. When the time is right, you may be promoted to the next level to facilitate the mobilization of more resources

The specific implementation methodology is also discussed in detail in this summary: walking on two legs of technology and business; stable performance; seeking common ground and respecting differences.

As for how many years of work experience and technical capabilities are required for P7/P8/P9, you can also open this document and see the answers from the experts who have worked their way up from P4 to P9...

With more than 800 pages and more than 400,000 words, I have to say that what Alibaba Taobao programmers have shared truly spans business and academic, technology and life experience.

It has not only accumulated technical solutions for many popular business scenarios such as the Double 11 promotion and Taobao Live, but also has produced a large number of top conference papers and open source projects.

The key is that this "good stuff" can now be obtained by anyone for free .

If you are interested in these technologies, or want to know the real life of programmers in big companies, the portal has been set up at the end of the article.

Just take it away~