1. Phase 1. Where to start

    Why this course exists and who it fits: the problem it solves, how phases, tests and trainers work, and how to go through it without dropping off.

  2. Phase 2. Language basics: Java · 100 questions

    Syntax and types, OOP, collections, generics, exceptions, lambdas and Stream API, modern Java, tooling — language foundations before frameworks.

  3. Phase 3. Algorithms and data structures · 118 questions

    Arrays and Big-O, sorting, stacks and queues, lists, recursion, trees, hash tables, heaps and graphs — the foundation under collections, indexes and stores.

  4. Phase 4. Git and branching models · 46 questions

    Snapshots and commits, branches and merging, push/pull, pull requests and code review, rebase and reflog, branching models from Git Flow to trunk-based.

  5. Phase 5. Foundation: Spring core · 55 questions

    DI/IoC, bean lifecycle, Boot, MVC, Data JPA, transactions, events, AOP, scheduler.

  6. Phase 6. Multithreading and concurrency · 71 questions

    Threads and the Java memory model (JMM, happens-before, volatile), race conditions, synchronized and explicit locks, atomics and CAS, thread-safe collections, thread pools, CompletableFuture, Java 21 virtual threads, and common bugs — deadlock, livelock, starvation.

  7. Phase 7. Design principles and patterns · 27 questions

    SOLID, GRASP, GoF patterns, DRY/KISS/YAGNI.

  8. Phase 8. SQL from scratch · 67 questions

    The query language before any particular database: tables and keys, SELECT and WHERE, joins, aggregates, NULL, subqueries, window functions, dates and strings, modifying data, creating tables and why a query suddenly got slow.

  9. Phase 9. PostgreSQL: model and queries · 99 questions

    Transactions and isolation, locking, data types, indexes and EXPLAIN.

  10. Phase 10. PostgreSQL: operations and scale · 92 questions

    Migrations, connection pool, vacuum/WAL, replication, backup, partitioning, FTS and geo.

  11. Phase 11. Hibernate and ORM · 59 questions

    Object-relational mapping: mapping entities and associations, persistence context, lazy loading and N+1, JPQL and Criteria, caching, transactions and locking, inheritance and common pitfalls.

  12. Phase 12. Other stores: documents, search, files, analytics · 227 questions

    First the foundations — storage engines, replication, sharding, streams. Then the stores themselves: MongoDB, Elasticsearch, object storage (S3) and ClickHouse.

  13. Phase 13. Networking fundamentals · 83 questions

    OSI and TCP/IP models, IP and ports, TCP/UDP, DNS, HTTP and HTTPS, HTTP versions, connections and reliability.

  14. Phase 14. API: REST and contracts · 115 questions

    URLs and resources, query parameters, responses and errors, versioning, OpenAPI.

  15. Phase 15. Security and authorization · 161 questions

    Spring Security, Keycloak/OAuth2/OIDC and authorization patterns.

  16. Phase 16. Brokers and distributed systems · 68 questions

    AMQP/RabbitMQ, Kafka and distributed patterns: saga, outbox, idempotency.

  17. Phase 17. Microservices: architecture and pitfalls · 54 questions

    Whether you need microservices, how a service is structured and how they communicate; what breaks in a distributed system and how to fix it — saga, outbox, idempotency, resilience.

  18. Phase 18. Containers: Docker · 62 questions

    Containers and images, Dockerfile for Spring Boot, multi-stage builds, running containers, volumes and data, networking, Docker Compose, the JVM in a container, secure images and registries.

  19. Phase 19. Kubernetes and graceful shutdown · 95 questions

    Cluster, networking, Spring Boot on Kubernetes, deployment and graceful shutdown.

  20. Phase 20. Clouds · 298 questions

    Cloud principles and three providers — AWS, Azure and GCP: networking, IAM, compute, scaling, serverless, data, storage and IaC. One model, knowledge transfers between clouds.

  21. Phase 21. CI/CD: the delivery pipeline · 30 questions

    Pipeline principles, CI for Java, release strategies and branching.

  22. Phase 22. Quality: test strategy · 34 questions

    The test pyramid, slices and integration tests, mocks and external services, load testing.

  23. Phase 23. Observability and diagnostics · 83 questions

    How to see what a running system is doing: logs, metrics, tracing, context propagation, health checks, SLOs and alerts — plus database diagnostics and the incident review afterwards.

  24. Phase 24. Working with AI agents · 65 questions

    How a language model works and how to write code productively with an AI agent: tokens and hallucinations, context, tool calling, agents, the working loop, reviewing and accepting AI code.

  25. Phase 25. Building LLM applications · 67 questions

    How to embed AI into a backend product: what an LLM feature is made of, orchestration with LangChain, RAG and embeddings, vector databases, and agent applications.

  26. Phase 26. System design and architectural choices · 94 questions

    The design method, building blocks, storage and notation choices, C4.

  27. Phase 27. Domain-Driven Design · 42 questions

    Strategic and tactical DDD patterns, aggregates, domain events.

  28. Phase 28. Service architecture patterns · 118 questions

    Service and microservice structure, Onion and Hexagonal, CQRS, resilience and batch processing.

  29. Phase 29. Development methodologies and process · 41 questions

    Waterfall, Agile, Scrum, Kanban, XP, estimation and scaling — how a team organizes work from idea to release.

  30. Phase 30. Kotlin for the Java developer · 39 questions

    A second JVM language: syntax and idioms, null-safety, data and sealed classes, extension functions, coroutines vs virtual threads, and Spring Boot with Kotlin. Optional phase.

  31. Phase 31. The product engineer: role and practice · 81 questions

    The whole role: start from the user problem, outcome metrics and end-to-end ownership — plus working with an AI agent, the domain model and the path from slice to contract.

  32. Phase 32. Use Case Pattern and the end-to-end case · 66 questions

    The culmination: the Use Case Pattern methodology — designing a service from the business task, the Use Case spec, maturity levels 0–3 — and the end-to-end marketplace case that ties the whole path together.

  33. Phase 33. JavaScript

    Language and runtime foundations: values and references, scope, closures, prototypes, promises, async/await and the event loop.

  34. Phase 34. TypeScript

    Types and narrowing, generics, classes and decorators, modules, npm and TypeScript tooling.

  35. Phase 35. The browser and practical CSS

    Platform and styling: this, the event loop, DOM, security, critical rendering, errors, animations, bundling and practical CSS.

  36. Phase 36. React

    Components, typing, the rendering model and hooks.

  37. Phase 37. Frontend architecture

    Project structure and architectural trade-offs: feature-based and layer-based design, FSD, module boundaries, Atomic Design and microfrontends.

  38. Phase 38. Data and state

    State, data fetching, errors, forms.

  39. Phase 39. Routing and delivery

    Routing, styling and page delivery: SPA, SSR and SSG.

  40. Phase 40. Quality and performance

    Accessibility, performance, testing.

  41. Phase 41. Mobile app from the web

    Web-first instead of native: PWA and Capacitor, native APIs through a bridge, iOS (WKWebView) and Android (TWA) specifics, push and offline — and the line where native starts.

  42. Phase 42. What testing is

    Why software is tested, the QA role, manual vs automated, the software and testing lifecycle.

  43. Phase 43. Types and levels

    Test levels, functional and non-functional, black/white box, smoke and regression.

  44. Phase 44. Test-case design

    Writing test cases, the test plan and suites, reporting and metrics, effort estimation, test-design techniques, decision tables, checklists and data.

  45. Phase 45. Bugs

    What a bug is, severity and priority, writing a bug report and making it high-quality, the bug lifecycle and trackers.

  46. Phase 46. Tools and practice

    Test management, web basics (HTML/CSS/JS), client-server and HTTP, DevTools, API in Postman, SQL, cross-browser testing and Linux commands.

  47. Phase 47. Python for autotests

    Python from scratch to autotests: variables and strings, conditions, lists and dicts, loops, functions, assert, working with data, pytest and API autotests. Every article comes with trainer tasks.

  48. Phase 48. UI end-to-end tests

    Playwright: when an end-to-end test is worth it, setup, test structure and page objects, resilient locators, waiting instead of sleeps, data and login without the form, network interception, flakiness and CI runs.

  49. Phase 49. On a team and beyond

    QA in Agile and Scrum, testing against requirements, automation basics and where to grow next.

  50. Phase 50. The role and stepping into it

    What changes after the promotion and how to step into a team.

  51. Phase 51. The team: structure, ownership, people

    System ownership, delegation, growing engineers, difficult conversations and leading several teams.

  52. Phase 52. Hiring and onboarding

    The profile before the search, evaluation stages and a new hire's first thirty days.

  53. Phase 53. Commitments: deadlines, flow, stakeholders

    Estimates and commitments, inbound requests and choosing portfolio initiatives by money.

  54. Phase 54. Engineering norms and quality

    Review norms, technical debt, requirements, security and regulation.

  55. Phase 55. Reliability and operations

    Metrics, logs and traces for diagnosing a running system.

  56. Phase 56. Decisions and recording them

    The architecture committee, decisions by criteria, technology through a manager's eyes and vendors.

  57. Phase 57. Measurement and the business conversation

    Team metrics, the IT budget and technical risk in terms of money.