All terms, A to Z
304 terms
Level:
#
A
- AdobeThe company behind Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere Pro, Acrobat and the PDF format.Basic
- AGIA hypothetical AI able to do most mental tasks as well as a person. Not here yet.Basic
- Agile and ScrumBuilding software in short cycles, showing results often and adjusting as you learn.Basic
- AI agentAn LLM that can take actions, check the results and keep going until the job is done.Intermediate
- AI biasWhen an AI system treats some groups of people unfairly, usually learned from its data.Basic
- AlgorithmA precise, step-by-step method for solving a problem or doing a task.Basic
- AlibabaChina's giant of online marketplaces, which also runs a major cloud.Basic
- AmazonAn online store with its own delivery network, and the company that runs AWS.Basic
- Amazon API GatewayThe front door of your API: it receives requests and passes them to your code.Intermediate
- Amazon AthenaRun SQL directly on files sitting in S3, with no database to set up.Intermediate
- Amazon BedrockA single AWS service to call AI models from Anthropic, Meta, Amazon and others.Basic
- Amazon CloudFrontAWS's CDN: copies of your content kept close to users all over the world.Basic
- Amazon CloudWatchThe dashboard and alarm system that watches everything running in your AWS account.Basic
- Amazon CognitoSign-up, login and passwords for your app, handled by AWS instead of you.Intermediate
- Amazon DynamoDBA key-value database that answers in milliseconds no matter how big the table gets.Basic
- Amazon EBSThe virtual hard drive of an EC2 instance, kept alive even when the instance stops.Intermediate
- Amazon EC2Virtual computers you rent by the hour, in any size, and switch off when done.Basic
- Amazon ECRA private warehouse on AWS for your container images, ready to be deployed.Intermediate
- Amazon ECS and FargateAWS runs your containers; with Fargate you never see the servers at all.Intermediate
- Amazon EKSKubernetes with the hard part, the control plane, run by AWS.Advanced
- Amazon ElastiCacheA managed in-memory cache that keeps hot data close so apps answer instantly.Intermediate
- Amazon EventBridgeA switchboard that routes "something happened" messages to whoever cares.Intermediate
- Amazon LightsailThe simple corner of AWS: a ready-made server for a flat monthly price.Basic
- Amazon OpenSearch ServiceManaged search engine on AWS, for site search boxes and digging through logs.Intermediate
- Amazon RDSA ready-made relational database that AWS keeps patched, backed up and running.Basic
- Amazon RedshiftAWS's data warehouse: SQL over huge tables, built for analysis rather than apps.Intermediate
- Amazon Route 53AWS's DNS service: it turns your domain name into the address of your servers.Basic
- Amazon S3A giant online drawer for files, rented by the gigabyte.Basic
- Amazon SageMakerThe AWS workshop for building, training and serving machine learning models.Intermediate
- Amazon SNSOne message in, many copies out: a megaphone for systems.Intermediate
- Amazon SQSA waiting line for messages between programs, so none of them gets lost.Intermediate
- Amazon VPCYour own private slice of the AWS network, with walls you draw yourself.Intermediate
- AMDThe chip designer that competes with Intel in CPUs and with NVIDIA in GPUs.Basic
- AnthropicThe AI company behind Claude, built around making models safe and useful.Basic
- AntivirusA program that watches your files and apps and blocks the ones known to be harmful.Basic
- Apache SparkAn open source engine that splits work on huge datasets across many machines.Advanced
- APIThe menu of things one program lets another program ask for.Basic
- API keyA secret string that identifies your app when it calls someone else's API.Intermediate
- AppleThe company that sells the iPhone and the Mac, plus the services that run on them.Basic
- ArmThe British company that designs the processor blueprints inside almost every phone.Intermediate
- Artificial intelligenceGetting computers to do things that, until recently, only people could do.Basic
- ASMLThe Dutch company that builds the machines every advanced chip factory depends on.Intermediate
- AutoscalingAdding and removing servers automatically as demand goes up and down.Intermediate
- AWS account and billingWhat an AWS account is, how you get charged, and how to avoid a surprise bill.Basic
- AWS AmplifyA shortcut for building and publishing web and mobile apps on AWS.Basic
- AWS BackupOne place to schedule, keep and restore backups of your AWS data.Intermediate
- AWS CDKDescribe your AWS infrastructure in a real programming language instead of YAML.Advanced
- AWS CloudFormationDescribe your AWS infrastructure in a text file; AWS builds it exactly like that.Intermediate
- AWS CloudTrailThe logbook of an AWS account: who did what, when, and from where.Intermediate
- AWS GlueAWS's service for finding, describing and cleaning up data, with no servers to run.Intermediate
- AWS KMSAWS's vault for encryption keys: you use them, but they never leave.Intermediate
- AWS LambdaRun a piece of code only when something happens, with no server to manage.Basic
- AWS OrganizationsOne place to group, govern and pay for many AWS accounts at once.Intermediate
- AWS Secrets ManagerA locked vault for passwords and API keys, so they never live in your code.Intermediate
- AWS ShieldAWS's protection against DDoS attacks, on by default for everyone.Intermediate
- AWS Step FunctionsA flowchart that runs: it chains steps, retries failures and remembers where it was.Advanced
- AWS WAFA filter in front of your website that reads each request and blocks the bad ones.Intermediate
B
- BackupA separate copy of your data, kept so you can get it back when the original is lost.Basic
- Bandwidth and latencyHow much data fits per second, and how long each trip takes. Two different things.Basic
- BGPThe protocol networks use to tell each other which addresses they can reach.Advanced
- Big dataData so large, fast or messy that one ordinary computer cannot handle it.Basic
- BiometricsProving who you are with your body: a fingerprint, your face, your voice.Basic
- BIOS and UEFIThe first program a PC runs: it checks the hardware and starts the operating system.Intermediate
- BlockchainA shared record book, copied on many computers, where old pages can't be quietly changed.Basic
- BluetoothShort-range wireless for connecting nearby gadgets: headphones, watches, keyboards.Basic
- BroadcomAn American chip designer behind data center networking, Wi-Fi and custom AI chips.Intermediate
- Brute-force attackBreaking into an account by trying passwords, one after another, until one works.Basic
- BugA mistake in software that makes it behave differently from what was intended.Basic
- Bug bountyA company pays outside researchers who find and privately report its security holes.Intermediate
- Business intelligenceTurning a company's data into reports and dashboards people use to decide.Basic
- ByteDanceThe Chinese tech company behind TikTok and its recommendation engine.Basic
C
- CAPTCHAA small test a website uses to tell a person from an automated program.Basic
- CDNCopies of a website kept on servers around the world, close to whoever asks.Intermediate
- ChatbotA program you talk to by typing or speaking, as if it were a person.Basic
- ChatGPTOpenAI's chat assistant, the app that brought AI chatbots to the general public.Basic
- ChipA sliver of silicon carrying billions of tiny switches that compute and remember.Basic
- CI/CDAutomation that builds, tests and ships every code change, so releases become routine.Intermediate
- CiscoThe company that makes much of the network gear connecting offices to the internet.Basic
- ClaudeAnthropic's family of AI models, and the assistant app built on them.Basic
- Clock speedHow many times per second a processor ticks, measured in gigahertz (GHz).Basic
- Cloud computingRenting computers over the internet instead of buying your own.Basic
- CloudflareA global network that sits in front of websites to make them faster and safer.Basic
- CMSSoftware that lets people publish and edit a website's content without writing code.Basic
- Code reviewHaving another person read a code change before it becomes part of the product.Intermediate
- Command lineControlling a computer by typing text commands instead of clicking icons.Basic
- CompilerA program that translates source code into instructions a computer can run directly.Intermediate
- Computer visionThe part of AI that lets computers find and understand what is in images and video.Intermediate
- ContainerA sealed box with a program and everything it needs to run anywhere.Basic
- Context windowHow much text an AI model can take into account at once, measured in tokens.Intermediate
- CookiesSmall notes a website asks your browser to keep, so it can recognize you later.Basic
- Cores and threadsWhy a CPU is really several processors, and why it can juggle even more tasks.Intermediate
- CPUThe chip that runs your programs, one instruction after another, very fast.Basic
- Cross-site scriptingSneaking code into a website so it runs in other visitors' browsers.Intermediate
- CSSThe language that decides how a web page looks: colors, fonts, spacing, layout.Basic
- CSVA plain text file that holds a table: one row per line, commas between values.Basic
- CybersecurityProtecting computers, networks and data from theft, damage and disruption.Basic
D
- Dark webWebsites that are reachable only with special software that hides who is talking to whom.Basic
- Data breachWhen private data an organization holds ends up with people who should not have it.Basic
- Data catalogA searchable inventory of an organization's datasets, with what each one means.Intermediate
- Data centerA building full of servers where the internet, the cloud and AI actually run.Basic
- Data cleaningFixing errors, gaps and duplicates in data before anyone trusts it.Basic
- Data governanceThe rules and roles that decide who owns data, who can use it and how it is kept right.Intermediate
- Data lakeCheap storage where all your data is kept as raw files, to be sorted out later.Intermediate
- Data meshAn organizational approach where each business team owns and publishes its own data.Advanced
- Data scienceUsing statistics, code and business sense to answer questions with data.Basic
- Data streamingProcessing data as a continuous flow of events, seconds after they happen.Advanced
- Data warehouseA database built for analysis: years of history, from many sources, in one place.Intermediate
- DatabaseAn organized store of data that programs can search and update safely.Basic
- Database indexA sorted shortcut that lets a database find rows without reading the whole table.Intermediate
- Database schemaThe blueprint of a database: which tables exist, their columns and how they connect.Intermediate
- dbtA tool for writing data transformations as SQL files, with tests and docs, like software.Advanced
- DDoSKnocking a site offline by flooding it with more traffic than it can handle.Intermediate
- DebuggingThe detective work of finding why a program misbehaves, and fixing it.Basic
- Deep learningMachine learning with many-layered neural networks, behind most recent AI leaps.Intermediate
- DeepfakeA fake video, photo or voice made with AI to look and sound like a real person.Basic
- DeepSeekA Chinese AI lab whose open-weight models showed that top AI could be built for less.Basic
- DevOpsBreaking the wall between people who write software and people who run it.Intermediate
- DHCPThe service that gives each device an IP address automatically when it joins a network.Intermediate
- Diffusion modelAn image generator that starts from random noise and cleans it up, step by step.Advanced
- Disaster recoveryThe plan for getting systems and data back after a major failure.Intermediate
- Display resolutionHow many dots, or pixels, make up a screen's image: more dots, finer detail.Basic
- DNSThe internet's phone book: it turns names like wikipedia.org into IP addresses.Basic
- DockerThe tool that made containers easy: package an app once, run it anywhere.Intermediate
- Domain nameThe readable name of a website, like wikipedia.org, that stands in for a numeric address.Basic
E
- Edge computingProcessing data close to where it is created, instead of in a distant data center.Intermediate
- Email protocolsThe shared rules, SMTP, IMAP and POP3, that carry an email from one inbox to another.Intermediate
- EmbeddingsTurning words, images or documents into lists of numbers that capture meaning.Intermediate
- EmojiLittle pictures that are really text characters, drawn differently by each phone maker.Basic
- EncryptionScrambling data so that only someone with the key can read it.Basic
- End-to-end encryptionOnly the sender and the recipient can read a message; the service in between cannot.Intermediate
- Environment variablesNamed settings a program reads from outside its code, like where its database lives.Intermediate
- ETLCopy data out of its sources, clean it up, load it where it can be analyzed.Intermediate
F
- Fiber opticThin strands of glass that carry data as pulses of light, fast and over long distances.Basic
- Fine-tuningExtra training that adapts an existing AI model to a specific task or style.Intermediate
- FinOpsUnderstanding and controlling cloud spending, as a job shared by engineers and finance.Intermediate
- FirewallA gatekeeper that decides which network traffic gets in or out.Basic
- FirmwareSoftware built into a device to run its hardware, from routers to washing machines.Basic
- FrameworkA ready-made skeleton for an app: it sets the structure and calls your code.Intermediate
- Frontend and backendThe part of an app you see and touch, and the part that works behind it.Basic
- FTP and SFTPTwo ways to move files to and from a server; only one of them keeps them private.Intermediate
G
- GeminiGoogle's family of AI models, and the assistant app that carries the same name.Basic
- Generative AIAI that creates new text, images, audio or code instead of just sorting things.Basic
- GitA time machine for code: every change saved, by whom and why.Basic
- GitHubA website where teams store their code with Git and work on it together.Basic
- GitHub CopilotAn AI assistant inside the code editor that suggests and writes code.Basic
- GoogleThe search company that gives most products away and makes its money on ads.Basic
- Google CloudGoogle's cloud business: computing, storage, data and AI services rented by the hour.Basic
- GPUThe chip that does thousands of simple calculations at once.Basic
- GraphQLAn API language where the app asks for exactly the fields it needs, in one request.Advanced
H
- HackerSomeone who takes systems apart to see how they work, for better or for worse.Basic
- HallucinationWhen an AI model states something false with total confidence.Basic
- Hard disk driveStorage that keeps data on spinning magnetic platters: slower than an SSD, but cheap.Basic
- HashingA one-way fingerprint of data: easy to compute, not meant to be reversed.Intermediate
- High availabilityDesigning a system so it keeps working when one of its parts fails.Intermediate
- HTMLThe text format that describes what is on a web page: headings, paragraphs, links.Basic
- HTTPThe request-and-response language browsers and websites speak.Basic
- HTTPSThe padlock in your browser: web traffic nobody in between can read.Basic
- HuaweiA Chinese company that makes mobile network equipment, phones and its own chips.Basic
- Hugging FaceThe website where people share AI models and datasets, and the tools to use them.Basic
- Hybrid and multi-cloudRunning systems across your own servers and the cloud, or across several cloud providers.Intermediate
- HypervisorThe software layer that splits one physical computer into many virtual machines.Advanced
I
- IAMThe rulebook that says who can do what in your AWS account.Basic
- IBMA century-old computer company that sells software, consulting and mainframes.Basic
- IDEThe app where programmers write, run and fix code, with all the tools in one window.Basic
- Identity theftSomeone uses your personal details to pass as you, usually to borrow or buy in your name.Basic
- Incognito modeA browser window that forgets your visit on this device. It does not make you invisible.Basic
- Infrastructure as codeDescribing servers, networks and databases in files instead of clicking.Intermediate
- IntelThe American company behind most PC and server processors for decades.Basic
- InternetA worldwide network of networks that lets any connected device reach any other.Basic
- Internet of thingsEveryday objects with sensors and a network connection: thermostats, meters, doorbells.Basic
- IP addressThe number that identifies a device on a network, like a postal address.Basic
- IPv6The newer internet addressing system, with practically unlimited addresses.Intermediate
- ISPThe company you pay to connect your home or phone to the internet.Basic
J
K
L
- LinuxA free, open source operating system that runs most of the internet's servers.Basic
- LLMA neural network trained on huge amounts of text to predict the next word.Basic
- Load balancerThe traffic cop that spreads incoming requests across many servers.Intermediate
- Low-code and no-codeBuilding apps and automations by dragging blocks instead of writing code.Basic
M
- MAC addressThe built-in name of a network card, used to deliver data inside a local network.Intermediate
- Machine learningTeaching computers by showing them examples instead of writing every rule.Basic
- Malware and ransomwareSoftware built to harm you; ransomware locks your files and charges to unlock them.Basic
- Mercado LibreLatin America's largest online marketplace, with its own payments and delivery network.Basic
- Mesh Wi-FiSeveral Wi-Fi units spread around a home that work together as one network.Intermediate
- MetaThe company behind Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, paid for by advertising.Basic
- MetadataData that describes other data: who made it, when, where and what it contains.Basic
- MetaverseThe idea of shared 3D virtual worlds where people meet, play and work as avatars.Basic
- MicroservicesBuilding one application as many small services that each do one job.Advanced
- MicrosoftThe company of Windows and Office, now just as much a cloud company with Azure.Basic
- Mistral AIA French company that builds AI language models, many of them with open weights.Basic
- Model Context ProtocolAn open standard for plugging tools and data into AI assistants the same way every time.Intermediate
- Model parametersThe billions of numbers a model learns in training; '70B' means 70 billion of them.Intermediate
- ModemThe box that connects your home to your internet provider's network.Basic
- Moore's lawThe observation that chips fit about twice as many transistors every two years.Basic
- MotherboardThe main circuit board that every other part of a computer plugs into.Basic
- Multimodal AIAI that works with more than one kind of data at once: text, images, sound, video.Intermediate
N
- NATHow a whole home or office shares one public IP address on the internet.Advanced
- Natural language processingThe field of AI that works with human language: reading, writing, translating.Intermediate
- NetflixA streaming service, and the engineering it built to deliver video to the whole world.Basic
- Neural networkA pile of tiny math units that learns patterns from examples.Basic
- NFCVery short-range wireless that works with a tap: contactless cards, phones, transit.Basic
- NoSQLDatabases that store data in shapes other than tables with fixed columns.Intermediate
- NPUA small AI engine inside phones and laptops that runs models fast on little battery.Intermediate
- NVIDIAThe company that sells the shovels of the AI gold rush.Basic
O
- OAuth and SSOLog in once with an account you trust, and let it vouch for you in other apps.Intermediate
- Object storageFiles stored as whole named objects, reached over the web, almost without limit.Intermediate
- OLAP and OLTPTwo kinds of database work: many small transactions, or a few huge analytical questions.Advanced
- Open sourceSoftware whose code anyone can read, use, change and share.Basic
- Open standardA public rulebook anyone can follow, so products from different makers work together.Intermediate
- Open-weights modelsAI models whose trained numbers anyone can download and run on their own machines.Intermediate
- OpenAIThe company that made ChatGPT and turned AI into a household topic.Basic
- Operating systemThe base software that runs a device and lets every app share its hardware.Basic
- OracleThe company behind one of the most used business databases, now also a cloud provider.Basic
P
- PacketThe small chunk every piece of internet data is cut into before it travels.Intermediate
- ParquetA file format that stores tables by column, compressed, so analytics reads far less.Advanced
- PasskeysA way to sign in without a password, using your phone's or computer's lock instead.Basic
- Password managerAn encrypted vault that remembers a different strong password for every site.Basic
- Penetration testingHiring someone to break into your systems, with permission, before a criminal does.Intermediate
- PerplexityAn AI answer engine that searches the web and replies with a summary and its sources.Basic
- Personal data and GDPRInformation about you, and the laws that say who can use it and how.Basic
- PhishingA fake message that tricks you into handing over a password or a payment.Basic
- PingA tiny "are you there?" message that tests a connection and times the reply.Basic
- PortThe numbered door on a computer that says which program a connection is for.Intermediate
- Primary and foreign keysA primary key names each row uniquely; a foreign key points to a row in another table.Intermediate
- Process nodeThe name of a generation of chip manufacturing, like "3 nm". A label, not a size.Intermediate
- Programming languageA precise, written language people use to give instructions to a computer.Basic
- PromptEverything you send to an AI model: the question, the instructions, the context.Basic
- Prompt engineeringWriting instructions for an AI model so it gives you what you actually need.Basic
- ProxyA middleman computer that makes requests on someone else's behalf.Intermediate
- Public-key cryptographyTwo linked keys: one you share with everyone to lock, one you keep to unlock.Intermediate
- PythonA popular programming language known for being easy to read and quick to write.Basic
Q
R
- RAGLet the model look things up in your documents before it answers.Intermediate
- RAMThe computer's short-term memory: fast, small and wiped when you turn it off.Basic
- Raspberry PiA cheap, credit-card-sized computer made for learning and tinkering.Basic
- RefactoringReorganizing code to make it clearer, without changing what it does.Intermediate
- RegexA compact pattern language for finding and checking pieces of text.Intermediate
- Regions and Availability ZonesWhere AWS physically lives: cities worldwide, each split into separate data centers.Basic
- Reinforcement learningLearning by trial and error, guided by rewards for good outcomes.Intermediate
- REST APIThe most common style of web API: things have URLs and you act on them with HTTP verbs.Intermediate
- RouterThe box that connects your devices to each other and to the internet.Basic
S
- SaaS, PaaS and IaaSThree ways to rent computing, depending on how much of the work you hand over.Basic
- SalesforceThe company that sells, as an online subscription, the software to manage customers.Basic
- SamsungKorean giant that sells phones and TVs, and makes much of the world's memory chips.Basic
- SandboxingRunning a program in a closed box so it cannot harm anything outside it.Intermediate
- SAPThe German company whose software runs the back office of many large businesses.Basic
- Satellite internetInternet access beamed from space to a dish, where cables and cell towers don't reach.Basic
- SDKA kit of code, tools and docs a company provides so you can build for its platform.Intermediate
- Security operations centerThe team that watches an organization's systems around the clock for attacks.Intermediate
- Semantic versioningA rule for version numbers like 2.4.1, so each part tells you how risky an update is.Intermediate
- ServerA computer whose job is to answer requests from other computers, all day, every day.Basic
- ServerlessCode that runs only when called; you never see or manage the server.Intermediate
- SIEMThe system that gathers security logs from everywhere and raises the alarm.Advanced
- SLAA written promise about how reliable a service will be, and what happens if it is not.Basic
- Social engineeringManipulating people, instead of machines, into giving away access or information.Basic
- Software libraryReady-made code for a common task that programmers plug into their own programs.Intermediate
- Software testingChecking that software does what it should, mostly with code that tests other code.Intermediate
- Source codeThe human-readable text that programmers write and that a program is built from.Basic
- SpamUnwanted messages sent in bulk: ads, scams and junk you never asked for.Basic
- SpotifyA Swedish streaming service for music and podcasts, free with ads or paid monthly.Basic
- Spreadsheet vs databaseWhy a company that runs on Excel eventually needs a real database.Basic
- SQLThe language you use to ask a database questions.Basic
- SQL injectionTyping text into a form that the database mistakes for its own instructions.Intermediate
- SSDStorage with no moving parts: where your files live when the power is off.Basic
- SSHAn encrypted way to log in to another computer and type commands on it.Intermediate
- StripeA company that lets websites and apps accept online payments with a few lines of code.Basic
- SubnetA slice of a network's IP addresses, grouped so its devices can talk directly.Advanced
- System on a chipOne chip that holds a computer's main parts: CPU, GPU, memory control and more.Intermediate
T
- TCP and UDPTwo ways to send packets: TCP checks everything arrives, UDP just sends and moves on.Intermediate
- Technical debtThe future cost of shortcuts taken in software today.Intermediate
- TerraformA popular tool for describing cloud infrastructure in files and creating it for you.Intermediate
- TeslaAn electric car maker that treats the car as a computer on wheels.Basic
- TLS certificateThe ID card a website shows your browser to prove it is who it claims to be.Intermediate
- TokenThe small chunk of text a language model actually reads.Basic
- TPUGoogle's chip designed specifically for the math of neural networks.Intermediate
- Training and inferenceTraining builds the model once; inference is using it, millions of times a day.Intermediate
- TransformerThe neural network design behind modern language models, built around 'attention'.Advanced
- TransistorAn electrically controlled switch, the basic building block of every chip.Intermediate
- TSMCThe factory that makes the world's most advanced chips for everyone else.Intermediate
- Two-factor authenticationA second proof that you are you, so a stolen password alone is not enough.Basic
U
V
- Vector databaseA database that finds things by similar meaning instead of exact matching words.Intermediate
- Video streamingWatching a video while it arrives in small pieces, instead of downloading it all first.Basic
- Virtual machineA complete computer made of software, running inside a real one.Basic
- VLANA way to split one physical network into several separate ones, using software rules.Advanced
- VPNAn encrypted tunnel that sends all your traffic through another network first.Intermediate
- VRAMThe memory built into a graphics card, where the GPU keeps what it is working on.Intermediate
- Vulnerability and CVEA flaw that lets an attacker misuse software, and the public id that names it.Intermediate
W
- Web browserThe app that fetches web pages from the internet and draws them on your screen.Basic
- Web hostingRenting space on an always-on computer so your website is reachable by anyone.Basic
- WebhookA way for one service to call your app the moment something happens.Intermediate
- WebSocketA connection between browser and server that stays open, so both can talk anytime.Advanced
- Wi-FiNetworking over radio waves: the internet without the cable, within a few rooms.Basic
- Wi-Fi securityHow a Wi-Fi password keeps neighbors out and scrambles what travels through the air.Intermediate
X
Z
Nothing matches those filters.