Santosh's AdTech Lab · learning in public
Santosh Mahanty — AdTech Solutions Engineer & Learning Platform
Hi, I'm Santosh. This is my hands-on AdTech lab — the same SSP, DSP, CTV, OpenRTB, and attribution workflows I work with every day, written up so the next person learning them (and future-me) moves faster.
Topics
Pick a topic and go straight there
This homepage stays simple on purpose. Start with one of these topic cards to explore the site.
AdTech Foundations
Understand how an ad actually reaches a screen — from bid request to impression — so you can debug it when it does not.
- Ad request to impression
- SSP / DSP basics
- Beginner-friendly concepts
GTM and Tracking
Validate tracking setups and catch broken tags before they become measurement errors or billing disputes.
- Event QA
- Trigger logic
- Consent checks
Video and CTV
Learn how video ads are requested, stitched, and measured so you can troubleshoot player failures and delivery gaps.
- VAST basics
- CTV delivery flow
- Player-side QA
API and Debugging
Read payloads, spot error patterns, and build the debugging instinct that separates operators from engineers.
- REST basics
- Payload reading
- Integration thinking
Privacy and Consent
Respect user choices without breaking measurement — learn the compliance rules and the implementation that follows.
- Consent signals
- Compliance basics
- Measurement impact
Learning Hub
Track what you know, what you are studying, and build a structured path through technical AdTech topics.
- Topic notes
- Study tracks
- Reference pages
Glossary & topic index
Look up any AdTech term instantly — 100+ definitions across programmatic, CTV, privacy, identity, and mobile.
- Term lookup
- Blog links
- Learning tracks
Tracking and Attribution
Trace a conversion back to the right touchpoint — understand MMP postbacks, windows, and incrementality thinking.
- Install tracking
- Postbacks
- Attribution windows
AI and ML in AdTech
See where machine learning runs inside bidders, recommenders, and fraud filters — and what it means for your workflow.
- Recommendation systems
- Prediction
- Optimization