The CTO Podcast with Fexingo · 2026-07-05 · 10 min
In this episode, Lucas and Luna dive into how Notion rebuilt its sync engine from the ground up to handle over 100 million blocks per workspace. They explore the shift from a naive JSON-based sync to a conflict-free replicated data type (CRDT) architecture inspired by Figma and Roam Research. Lucas breaks down the key decisions: why they chose a custom CRDT over OT, how they solved cache invalidation for real-time multiplayer, and the trade-off between latency and consistency. Luna challenges the engineering cost: was it worth rewiring the core database for less than one percent of users? The episode also touches on how Notion's engineering team scaled from three to sixty engineers during the rebuild. A masterclass in architectural evolution for product engineers and technical leaders alike. #Notion #CRDT #SyncEngine #RealTimeCollaboration #ConflictFreeReplicatedDataTypes #OperationalTransformation #DatabaseDesign #CacheInvocation #Multiplayer #ProductivityTools #EngineeringLeadership #Scaling #Business #Technology #FexingoBusiness #BusinessPodcast #CTOPodcast #Architecture Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo
Other episodes covering the same guests and topics, from across The B2B Podcast Index.
How Airbnb Rebuilt Its Search for 100 Million Listings72 / 100How GitHub Migrated 100 Million Repositories to a New Storage Engine76 / 100How Dropbox Rebuilt Its Sync Engine for 700 Million Users85 / 100How Skyscanner Migrated 300 Microservices to Event-Driven Architecture85 / 100How Palantir Rebuilt Its Foundry Ontology for Government AI Deployments85 / 100
