Build Systems, Packages & Monorepos

By the end, you can

• Explain why a build is modeled as a DAG and what acyclicity guarantees.
• Trace which nodes must rebuild after a single file changes in a build graph.
• Distinguish task-based from artifact-based build systems and explain why hermeticity enables remote caching.
• Decode a semantic version number and identify which segment to bump for a breaking change, new feature, or bug fix.
• Explain what `^1.2.3` and `~1.2.3` allow, and describe the special behavior of caret below 1.0.
• Describe the diamond dependency problem and explain how a resolver and lockfile together produce reproducible installs.
• Define a monorepo and contrast its tradeoffs with a polyrepo.
• Explain how affected-only builds combined with a remote cache keep a large monorepo fast.