Home Archive Health checks, middleware, and MCP in .NET – .NET News Daily Issue #179 (Apr 21, 2025)

Editor's note

I pulled together a very mixed issue this time: practical ASP.NET Core guidance, language tips, and a few forward-looking AI pieces. The health checks article is a solid operations refresher, while the MCP posts are worth a look if you’re tracking where .NET tooling is headed next.

Health checks, middleware, and MCP in .NET

Kick-start your Monday with the precision and elegance of a finely-tuned classic car engine, ready to power through another week of .NET developments. As we line up today’s top picks, imagine your experience as the seasoned driver, effortlessly navigating the cutting-edge curves and straights of .NET updates and insights. Gear up as we unleash a collection meticulously crafted to fuel your passion and hone your expertise. Roll down those windows, it’s going to be a smooth ride!

Today's Articles

Mastering Health Checks in .NET Core 8: A Complete Guide with Real-World Examples

https://medium.com/@ashokreddy343/mastering-health-checks-in-net-core-8-a-complete-guide-with-real-world-examples-e52b47dea317

Introduction

Article preview

An Efficient Way To Process Large Files

https://learn-code-learn.medium.com/an-efficient-way-to-process-large-files-d64144712c97

While handling large data set that would take a long time to load and consumes lot of memory. Instead of loading large data set in memory… Continue reading on Nerd For Tech »

Article preview

15 C# Shorthand Techniques Every Developer Should Know to Boost Productivity

https://medium.com/@ashokreddy343/15-c-shorthand-techniques-every-developer-should-know-to-boost-productivity-09543a724d48

Introduction

Article preview

Chain of Responsibility Design Pattern in .NET

https://medium.com/teknopost/chain-of-responsibility-design-pattern-in-net-f7aed0b1d2ca

When many checks or steps need to be done in sequence to get something done, this is often the first thing that comes to mind: Continue reading on TeknoPost »

Article preview

The Ultimate 18-Week Roadmap to Becoming a Senior Backend Engineer (C# Edition)

https://medium.com/@shadeed.1990/the-ultimate-18-week-roadmap-to-becoming-a-senior-backend-engineer-c-edition-0e0c9f76822a

Are you a mid-level C# developer ready to level up to a Senior Backend Engineer? This 18-week roadmap is your realistic, project-driven…

Article preview

MediatR Alternative — Wolverine

https://thecodeman.net/posts/mediatr-alternative-wolverine

MediatR will soon require a commercial license for some usage.

Article preview

Middleware in ASP.NET Core

https://medium.com/we-are-developers/middleware-in-asp-net-core-c94d82dc3ef6

Visualizing the Request-Response Journey Continue reading on .NET|C# Hub »

Article preview

nameof in C#: The Tiny Keyword That Solves Big Problems

https://medium.com/@nagarajvela/nameof-in-c-the-tiny-keyword-that-solves-big-problems-28b767343f25

Explore clever ways to use C#’s nameof for UI, serialization, and debugging. Continue reading on Level Up Coding »

Article preview

The true power of the Decorator Pattern | How to build a lightweight service in ASP.NET Core

https://medium.com/@denmaklucky/the-true-power-of-the-decorator-pattern-how-to-build-a-lightweight-service-in-asp-net-core-0737478a804b

Let’s say you have a UsersService that works with a User entity. The entity is just a class with an identifier and a string property — in…

Article preview

DevNetNoord Talks

https://blog.wildermuth.com/2025/04/13/devnetnoord-talks/

In this talk, I show how Nullable Reference Types work and why I think it’s important for many projects to switch over to them. You can see my code and slides here if you missed it:

Article preview

C# Output: How to Talk to the Console (Properly)

https://medium.com/@fulton_shaun/c-output-how-to-talk-to-the-console-properly-82d9e10e7b89

Understanding console output is step one to debugging, user feedback, and interactive programs.

Article preview

Building a Stock Market API with FastAPI and Python

https://www.c-sharpcorner.com/article/building-a-stock-market-api-with-fastapi-and-python/

In this tutorial, we'll walk through the process of creating a backend API for a stock market application using Python and the FastAPI framework.

Article preview

Async vs Sync

https://medium.com/write-a-catalyst/async-vs-sync-034b8d4f266a

Transforming C# Development Forever Continue reading on Write A Catalyst »

Article preview

AI isn’t Ready to Directly Replace Programmers (April 2025)

https://www.c-sharpcorner.com/article/ai-isnt-ready-to-directly-replace-programmers-april-2025/

AI tools are evolving fast, but in April 2025, experts agree that AI still isn't ready to fully replace programmers. While models like GPT-4.1 can assist with coding, they lack the deep problem-solvin...

Article preview

.NET 10 Preview 3 is now available!

https://devblogs.microsoft.com/dotnet/dotnet-10-preview-3/

Find out about the new features in .NET 10 Preview 3 across the .NET runtime, SDK, libraries, ASP.NET Core, Blazor, C#, .NET MAUI, and more! The post .NET 10 Preview 3 is now available! appeared firs...

Article preview

C# Singleton Pattern: One Instance to Rule Them All

https://www.c-sharpcorner.com/article/c-sharp-singleton-pattern-one-instance-to-rule-them-all/

The Singleton Design Pattern in C# ensures only one instance of a class exists and provides a global access point. It's ideal for managing shared resources like logging, configuration, or database con...

Article preview

Building a Face Detection System with .NET 9

https://www.c-sharpcorner.com/article/building-a-face-detection-system-with-net-9/

Build a real-time face detection app using .NET 9 and OpenCV via Emgu.CV. This project leverages a webcam and Haar cascades to detect faces, ideal for learning computer vision basics.

Article preview

Calling MCP Servers in C# with Microsoft.Extensions.AI

https://markheath.net/post/2025/4/14/calling-mcp-server-microsoft-extensions-ai

I've updated my demo application to support calling MCP tools, following the techniques demonstrated in Microsoft's Chat With Tools sample. I posted recently about how to allow LLMs to call tools usin...

Article preview

C# Made Me Like Programming — Here’s Why

https://medium.com/@fulton_shaun/c-made-me-like-programming-heres-why-fd4e8db4457f

How one language changed the way I see code

Article preview

The Only 3 Videos You Need to Get Started with MCP!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRfOiB0Im64

Article preview

Vibe-coding for security

https://textslashplain.com/2025/04/15/vibe-coding-for-security/

Recently, there's been a surge in the popularity of trojan clipboard attacks whereby the attacker convinces the user to carry their attack payload across a security boundary and compromise the device....

Article preview

Jasen's take on today's picks

Mastering Health Checks in .NET Core 8: A Complete Guide with Real-World Examples

A practical walkthrough of health checks in .NET 8, with examples that should help you wire up better service diagnostics fast.

An Efficient Way To Process Large Files

A useful angle on file processing when you need to avoid loading everything into memory at once.

15 C# Shorthand Techniques Every Developer Should Know to Boost Productivity

Short C# techniques can save time daily, and this list is the kind of reference people end up bookmarking.

Chain of Responsibility Design Pattern in .NET

A classic pattern refresher that shows when Chain of Responsibility still makes sense in real .NET code.

The Ultimate 18-Week Roadmap to Becoming a Senior Backend Engineer (C# Edition)

A career-focused roadmap, more study plan than code article, but useful if you’re mapping backend growth.

MediatR Alternative — Wolverine

Wolverine gets the MediatR comparison treatment here, which should interest teams reconsidering messaging and handler pipelines.

Middleware in ASP.NET Core

Middleware is one of those ASP.NET Core fundamentals that pays off every time you need clean request flow control.

nameof in C#: The Tiny Keyword That Solves Big Problems

nameof may be tiny, but it prevents brittle strings from sneaking into logs, validation, and refactoring-sensitive code.

The true power of the Decorator Pattern | How to build a lightweight service in ASP.NET Core

Decorator patterns can keep services lightweight and composable without turning everything into inheritance soup.

DevNetNoord Talks

DevNetNoord talks is a conference roundup worth browsing for what local community speakers are discussing.

C# Output: How to Talk to the Console (Properly)

Console output seems simple until formatting and usability matter; this one treats it like a real interface.

Building a Stock Market API with FastAPI and Python

The FastAPI stock market article is off-topic for .NET, but it may interest readers comparing API stacks.

Async vs Sync

Async versus sync is evergreen guidance, especially for developers who still mix blocking work into server code.

AI isn’t Ready to Directly Replace Programmers (April 2025)

The AI-isn’t-replacing-programmers take is more opinion than tutorial, but it reflects the current industry conversation.

.NET 10 Preview 3 is now available!

.NET 10 Preview 3 is the biggest platform update in the lineup and deserves attention from early adopters.

C# Singleton Pattern: One Instance to Rule Them All

Singleton is one of the most misused patterns, so any fresh explanation is a chance to revisit where it fits.

Building a Face Detection System with .NET 9

Face detection with .NET 9 shows how far the platform has moved into practical AI and vision scenarios.

Calling MCP Servers in C# with Microsoft.Extensions.AI

Mark Heath’s MCP walkthrough is one of the most concrete pieces here for developers experimenting with Microsoft.Extensions.AI.

C# Made Me Like Programming — Here’s Why

A personal C# story rather than a technical guide, but it’s a reminder of why the language hooks so many of us.

The Only 3 Videos You Need to Get Started with MCP!

The MCP starter videos are a good companion if you’re trying to understand the protocol quickly.

Vibe-coding for security

Vibe-coding and security is a timely warning: speed is great until it starts bypassing basic safeguards.

Related issues

📬 Get daily .NET content delivered to your inbox