Worked on the Shopify/rails repository to enhance ActiveRecord’s strict loading integrity, focusing on backend improvements using Ruby and Ruby on Rails. Addressed a bug where strict loading checks could be bypassed, potentially leading to data integrity issues during association loading and pluck operations. Introduced a find_target? check within Association#violates_strict_loading? to ensure that strict loading validations only execute when a target association exists, thereby preventing unnecessary or erroneous checks. This targeted fix resolved an issue where violations were previously ignored under strict loading, contributing to more reliable data handling and stricter enforcement of loading rules within the codebase.