New track · 100% free
From frontend to full-stack.
You already know JavaScript, HTTP from the client side, state, and async. This track is about everything on the other side of the network line — explained in plain language, one chapter a month, with code you run right here.
How to use this track
Read one chapter a month. Read it once early to build the mental model, then again after you've written some code. The practice questions at the end of each chapter aren't optional — if you can't say the answer out loud, the chapter isn't done. Jargon is defined the first time it shows up, because you'll hear these words in real conversations.
- 01Node.jsmediumWeeks 01–0416 min
The Runtime
Node is not just JavaScript on the server. It's a specific machine with specific habits, and once you understand it, the rest of the backend stops feeling like magic.
- 02DatabaseshardWeeks 05–0818 min
The Data Layer
Where senior engineers separate themselves, and where most frontend converts skip ahead. Relational modeling, how Postgres really works, indexes, query plans, transactions, and when to reach for Redis.
- 03API DesignmediumWeeks 09–1217 min
The API Surface
Your APIs are the contract between what you build and everything that uses it. REST done right, the GraphQL/tRPC/gRPC choice, auth from the protocol level, pagination, idempotency, real-time, and background jobs.
- 04System DesignhardWeeks 13–1620 min
System Design
Where senior engineers earn their seniority. Scalability, load balancing, caching, database scaling, consistency models, microservices, events, multi-tenancy, and the canonical designs you should be able to sketch in your sleep.
- 05DevOpsmediumWeeks 17–2016 min
The Edge
The gap between code that works and code that runs in production for years. Containers, where to deploy, CI/CD, observability, SLOs and error budgets, API security, and cost literacy.
- 06AI EngineeringmediumWeeks 21–2417 min
The Frontier
AI features are distributed systems with one extra strangeness: the system itself is non-deterministic. LLM APIs, streaming, RAG, agents, evals, cost engineering, and safety.
Go deeper
Backend deep dives
Real-system case studies (live cricket at 60M viewers, the IRCTC Tatkal rush, a UPI ledger) plus core-topic deep dives on Postgres internals, query plans, auth, idempotency, and more.
Build it
Stop reading, start shipping
The capstone: build one real app — a Snippets service — module by module, applying every chapter as you go, until you have something you can deploy and put on your CV.