How One Engineer Cut Docker Image Size by 90 Percent

Episode 34 of The Software Engineering Podcast with Fexingo dives into a practical optimization story: how one engineer at a mid-sized SaaS company shrank a bloated Docker image from 2.1 GB to just 210 MB. Lucas and Luna walk through the specific techniques used — from switching to Alpine base images to eliminating layer bloat with multi-stage builds and removing unnecessary packages. They discuss why smaller images matter beyond disk space: faster CI pipelines, reduced network transfer, and improved security posture. The episode also touches on the engineer's debugging process, including how they used 'docker history' and 'dive' to find hidden culprits like cached pip packages and leftover build artifacts. Listeners will walk away with a concrete checklist they can apply to their own Dockerfiles today. #Docker #ContainerOptimization #AlpineLinux #MultiStageBuild #DevOps #CI #SaaS #SoftwareEngineering #Technology #FexingoBusiness #BusinessPodcast #EngineeringBestPractices #Dockerfile #LayerCaching #ImageSize #Performance #Security #Tooling Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo