# Building world-class product search at Shopify: Where C++ excellence meets ML innovation

DevFeed: [Building world-class product search at Shopify: Where C++ excellence meets ML innovation](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/building-world-class-product-search-at-shopify-where-c-excellence-meets-ml-innovation-1678.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://shopify.engineering/world-class-product-search>)

Author: Mikhail Shakhray

Published: 2025-11-12T16:21:44Z

Content type: article

Language: en

Sources: [Shopify Engineering](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/shopify-engineering.md>), [Shopify Engineering - Shopify Engineering](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/shopify-engineering-shopify-engineering.md>)

Topics: [Shopify](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/shopify.md>), [C++](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/c-plus-plus.md>), [AI Development](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/ai-development.md>), [AI search](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/ai-search.md>), [Latency](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/latency.md>), [Large Language Model](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/llm.md>), [Inference](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/inference.md>), [Framework](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/framework.md>)

Tags: [apis](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/apis.md>), [architecture](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/architecture.md>), [c-plus-plus](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/c-plus-plus.md>), [engineering](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/engineering.md>), [evaluation](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/evaluation.md>), [experimentation](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/experimentation.md>), [information-retrieval](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/information-retrieval.md>), [latency](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/latency.md>), [machine-learning](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/machine-learning.md>), [ml](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ml.md>), [models](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/models.md>), [performance](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/performance.md>), [pipeline](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/pipeline.md>), [ranking](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ranking.md>), [real-time](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/real-time.md>), [retrieval](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/retrieval.md>), [scale](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/scale.md>), [search](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/search.md>), [speed](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/speed.md>), [systems](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/systems.md>)

## AI overview

Shopify describes a commerce search platform that combines classical information retrieval with transformers, neural rankers, and gradient boosting while maintaining native C++ speed and millisecond-scale latency. Its RankFlow DSL and TurboDSL execution engine support rapid model deployment, real-time indexing, retrieval, ranking, experimentation, and relevance customization at global commerce scale.

## Source excerpt

Learn how we solved a major search engineering dilemma--running machine learning models at native C++ speed.