Practical SQL: building Inkwell
Nine levels building a small blogging app: schema design in the SQL workbench, then real Postgres queries, indexes and transactions.
System Design
Self-paced high-level system design: estimation, building blocks (LB, caching, DBs, sharding, queues, edge, reliability), then three full case studies.
Software Design
Low-level design for everyday Python: clear code, coupling, SOLID, testable design and patterns as they appear in AI engineering, then staged projects (LLM client stack, rate limiter, RAG + evals) and a capstone refactor.
Agentic System Design
Agent fundamentals (components, memory, orchestration, guardrails, challenges), then real systems: MACRS, Eureka, ChainBuddy, WebVoyager and MuLan, two ADK builds, and design exercises.
Prompt Engineering
Design, test, and improve prompts across text, images, audio, video, and tool use. Includes local AI feedback and a booking-bot practice lab.
Tavern & Tools
How the web works, the terminal, Git and GitHub. Set up your gear before the first quest.
Structure: HTML
Semantic HTML, links, images, forms and accessibility. Build a recipe page that everyone can use.
Style: CSS
Selectors, the box model, Flexbox, Grid, responsive layouts and CSS variables.
JavaScript Core
Variables, functions, arrays and objects, then the DOM and events. Make pages react to the player.
Async JavaScript
Promises, async/await, fetch and JSON. Talk to real APIs without freezing the page.
TypeScript
Types, interfaces, unions and generics. Catch bugs before you run the code.
React
Components, props, state, effects, forms and routing. Build multi-page apps from small pieces.
Back end: Node & Express
Servers, REST APIs, middleware and validation. Build the API your front end talks to.
Auth & Security
Sessions vs JWTs, password hashing, and the OWASP basics every web dev must know.
Testing
Unit tests with Vitest, component tests, and end-to-end tests with Playwright.
Ship It
Deploying, environment variables, CI/CD with GitHub Actions, and a little Docker.
Full-stack Frameworks
Next.js or Astro: server rendering, routing and data loading in one framework.
Web Performance
Core Web Vitals, bundle size, images, caching and lazy loading. Make your app fast and prove it with numbers.
AI-powered Web Apps
Add LLM features to your apps: calling model APIs from a server, streaming responses, chat UIs, and keeping keys and costs safe.