Curriculum

0.1-backend-mental-model What is a backend? (concepts only) → 0.2-go-toolchain Go toolchain — the red/green TDD loop → 0.3-types-zero-values Static types + zero values → 0.4-errors-as-values Errors as values, not exceptions → 0.5-first-http-hit Make your first HTTP request in Go →

1.1-hello-world Setup & stdin-echo → 1.2-types-structs Types, Structs, Interfaces — the Maelstrom node pattern → 1.3-error-testing Error handling + table-driven tests → 1.4-pointers-slices-maps Pointers, slices, maps — KV REPL → 1.5-goroutines-channels Goroutines, channels, the intentional race → 1.6-tdd-practice TDD muscle — property tests, reflection, SVG clock →

2.1-http-protocol HTTP as a protocol (what curl actually sees) → 2.2-net-http-server net/http JSON API — no routers → 2.3-concurrency-patterns Worker pool + fan-out/fan-in + context → 2.4-networking-serialization TCP + line-delimited JSON — the Maelstrom twin → 2.5-time-tickers time.Ticker + graceful shutdown → 2.6-testing-at-scale Acceptance tests + fakes over mocks →

3.1-sql-fundamentals SQL fundamentals — no Go → 3.2-postgres Postgres via database/sql + pgx → 3.3-caching-fundamentals Caching fundamentals — redis-cli, no Go → 3.4-redis Redis from Go — rate limit, lock, cache-aside, pub/sub → 3.5-queue-fundamentals Message queue fundamentals — nats CLI, no Go → 3.6-nats NATS + JetStream from Go → 3.7-mini-system Three-binary link-analytics system →

4.1-distsys-theory Read + discuss — DDIA Ch 5/8/9, Young Bloods → 4.2-gossip-protocol Implement a gossip protocol standalone → 4.3-logical-clocks Lamport + vector clocks → 4.4-crdt G-Counter + PN-Counter CRDTs → 4.5-maelstrom-setup Maelstrom installed + demo echo passes →

5.1-echo Challenge 1 — Echo → 5.2-unique-id Challenge 2 — Unique ID generation → 5.3a-broadcast-single Challenge 3a — Single-node broadcast → 5.3b-broadcast-flooding Challenge 3b — Naive multi-node broadcast → 5.3c-broadcast-fault-tolerant Challenge 3c — Fault-tolerant broadcast → 5.3d-broadcast-efficient Challenge 3d — Efficient broadcast → 5.3e-broadcast-constrained Challenge 3e — Latency + budget constrained broadcast → 5.4-g-counter Challenge 4 — G-Counter with seq-kv → 5.5a-kafka-single Challenge 5a — Single-node log → 5.5b-kafka-lin-kv Challenge 5b — Multi-node log via lin-kv → 5.5c-kafka-efficient Challenge 5c — Efficient multi-node log → 5.6a-txn-single Challenge 6a — Single-node transactions → 5.6b-txn-read-uncommitted Challenge 6b — Read-uncommitted transactions → 5.6c-txn-read-committed Challenge 6c — Read-committed transactions →