The common failure modes in timestamp conversion

Timestamp conversion is usually simple. The real problems come from mixing seconds and milliseconds, confusing local time with UTC, and assuming a displayed time already matches business logic.

Check the unit first

• 10 digits usually means seconds.
• 13 digits usually means milliseconds.
• If the result lands near 1970, the unit is often wrong.

A simple debugging workflow

Convert the raw timestamp into a readable time, then confirm whether you are looking at local time or UTC. Many scheduling bugs are just timezone misunderstandings.

1707123456
1707123456000

Boundaries

• Logs and databases may store different precisions.
• User-facing time and engineering-facing time may need different displays.
• A correct conversion does not guarantee the upstream event ordering is correct.