Why I Chose Go for Backend Engineering (Pros, Cons, and Honest Trade-offs)

Source: Dev.to

Introduction

When I tell people I use Go for backend development, the most common reactions are:

• “Why not Java?”
• “Isn’t Go too simple?”
• “Rust is cooler, right?”

I didn’t choose Go because it’s trendy or because someone on Twitter said it’s the future. This post isn’t a Go tutorial; it’s about why I use Go, what it does well, where it frustrates me, and why I still stick with it for backend engineering.

Before Go, my backend knowledge was fragmented:

• I knew how to write APIs
• I knew how to connect databases
• I knew frameworks more than systems

I didn’t understand what my backend was doing under load, failure, or concurrency. At the same time, I was studying operating systems, computer networks, and DBMS in college. That’s when Go clicked.

Go’s Simplicity

Go is often criticized for being “too simple.” It has no fancy syntax, which can feel restrictive at first. However, this simplicity forces you to:

• Write readable code
• Think before adding abstractions
• Make decisions explicit

When building backend systems, clarity matters more than cleverness.

Error Handling

Go doesn’t have exceptions. Instead of hiding failures, it makes you face them:

result, err := doSomething()
if err != nil {
    return err
}

Initially this feels repetitive, but it teaches an important lesson: backend systems fail all the time—pretending they don’t is dangerous. Explicit error handling pushes you to:

• Consider failure paths
• Design safer APIs
• Avoid “happy‑path only” thinking

This aligns well with OS and DBMS concepts.

Concurrency Model

After studying OS concepts like threads, context switching, synchronization, and race conditions, Go’s concurrency model felt honest. Goroutines are lightweight, but they’re not magic. Go doesn’t stop you from writing buggy concurrent code; it makes concurrency visible, not hidden.

That visibility matters because Go will not save you from:

• Race conditions
• Deadlocks
• Poor synchronization design

You still need discipline, understanding, and testing—and I actually like that.

Practical Fit for Backend Work

Out of the box, Go provides:

• HTTP servers
• Networking primitives
• Encoding/decoding utilities
• Concurrency tools

You don’t need dozens of libraries just to start building. Go also offers:

• Good performance
• Predictable memory usage
• Fast startup times

All without manual memory management or overly complex language rules. For backend services, this balance is powerful.

Deployment Advantages

• Single static binary
• Minimal runtime dependencies
• Easy containerization

As a student deploying projects, this reduced friction dramatically.

Cons and Limitations

Go code can feel repetitive:

• Error checks everywhere
• Boilerplate in some patterns

This can slow you down for small scripts. Generics exist now, but they’re intentionally conservative, and some patterns remain awkward. If you’re coming from languages with powerful generics, this can feel limiting.

When Not to Use Go

• UI‑heavy applications
• Complex domain‑heavy business logic
• Situations where an expressive type system matters more than simplicity

Go shines in systems and services, not everywhere.

Mental Model Benefits

Beyond productivity, Go gave me a clear mental model:

• Understand what the code is doing
• Respect concurrency
• Think about failures
• Build systems, not just features

That foundation matters more than learning multiple frameworks.

Comparison with Other Languages

I don’t think Go is “better” than everything else:

• Java has a massive ecosystem
• Rust offers stronger safety guarantees
• Python is incredibly productive

Go sits in a sweet spot: simple, fast, and honest about systems—a trade‑off that works well for backend engineering.

Ongoing Learning

Using Go didn’t make me an expert. I’m still learning:

• Better concurrency patterns
• Distributed systems
• Observability
• Database internals
• System‑design trade‑offs

Go didn’t solve these problems—it made them visible, which is more important.

Choosing a Backend Language

Choosing a backend language isn’t about hype; it’s about:

• How it shapes your thinking
• How it handles failure
• How it scales with complexity

For me, Go helped bridge the gap between CS fundamentals and real backend systems, and that mattered more than anything else.

Thanks for reading — still learning, still building.