Roadmap

Full Stack Developer

Work on both front-end and back-end of applications. Build UIs with HTML, CSS, JavaScript (and a framework like React or Vue); build server logic, databases, and APIs. Often take care of everything required to push the product into production.

3levels16skills~28hours

Curated from the best, MDN · Kubernetes · AWS · OWASP · Google SRE & more

Valuable for startups and product teams. Skills: HTML/CSS/JS, a backend language, databases, Git, RESTful APIs, and a full stack framework (e.g. Next.js, Django).

Start learning, it’s free Ready to build? See capstone projects

Foundations: System Thinking & Core Layers

~10h

The architectural thinking, database fundamentals, API design, and frontend patterns that every production-grade full stack engineer must own.

Apply the 5-step system design framework to any engineering problem Design and index PostgreSQL schemas for real production workloads Build REST APIs with correct versioning, rate limiting, and auth patterns Architect React applications with proper state management and rendering strategies

System Design FundamentalsThe FAANG framework: clarify → estimate → design → deep-dive → cross-cutting

Database ArchitectureSQL vs NoSQL, indexing strategies, sharding, ACID transactions, connection pooling

API Design & Backend ArchitectureREST best practices, GraphQL trade-offs, gRPC, rate limiting, authentication

Frontend Architecture & State ManagementComponent layers, React Query vs Redux, CSR/SSR/SSG/ISR, performance patterns

Build Challenge: Full-Stack Job BoardWeek 1 at a startup. Ship /jobs, /jobs/[id], and /admin/jobs/new with NextAuth. No N+1 queries, no SQL injection, no missing 404 page. Your CTO load-tests on Friday.

Intermediate: Scale, Reliability & Security

~12h

The infrastructure, async, observability, and security patterns that separate hobby projects from production systems.

Design multi-layer caching and horizontal scaling strategies Build async architectures with queues, streams, and idempotent consumers Implement observability with metrics, logs, traces, and SLOs Apply security patterns: JWT, OAuth 2.0, RBAC, OWASP Top 10, encryption

Scaling Horizontally: Load Balancing, Caching & CDNStateless apps, load balancer algorithms, Redis cache-aside, CDN and Cache-Control

Data Processing at ScaleMessage queues vs event streams, Kafka, idempotent consumers, outbox pattern

Observability & MonitoringMetrics/logs/traces, four golden signals, SLOs, error budgets, OpenTelemetry

Security: Auth, Authorization & EncryptionJWT deep-dive, OAuth 2.0 PKCE, RBAC/ABAC, OWASP Top 10, encryption at rest

Deployment & InfrastructureCI/CD pipelines, zero-downtime deployments, Kubernetes, Terraform IaC

Build Challenge: Add Real-Time + EmailThe job board needs live updates and email confirmations. Add SSE for new listings, idempotency keys on apply (no double emails), and the Outbox Pattern for reliable email delivery.

Advanced: Distributed Systems & Engineering Leadership

~8h

The FAANG-principal-level topics: distributed systems theory, performance engineering, architectural decision-making, and technical leadership.

Design systems that handle partial failures with saga patterns and circuit breakers Diagnose and fix real performance bottlenecks with profiling and data Make the monolith-vs-microservices decision with concrete trade-off analysis Write Architecture Decision Records and communicate technical decisions to business stakeholders

Distributed Systems: Consensus, Consistency & Fault ToleranceCAP/PACELC, saga pattern, circuit breakers, distributed transactions, Raft

Performance OptimizationProfiling, flame graphs, N+1 queries, pg_stat_statements, Core Web Vitals

Microservices vs MonolithHonest trade-off analysis, bounded contexts, strangler fig migration pattern

Building Products: Architecture to Business ImpactTechnical debt strategy, ADRs, communicating to executives, engineering leverage

Build Challenge: Ship to ProductionThe SRE go-live checklist for your job board: distributed traces (OTel), /healthz + /readyz endpoints, rate limiting (10 applications/hour/user), and zero-downtime deploy to Fly.io via GitHub Actions.

Job-ready: Full Stack Developer

Finish the path, earn the certificate, and walk into interviews prepared.