Software Engineering Roadmap from Beginner to Advanced (for college students)

Foundations (22 weeks; 366 hours)

Learn to code (6 weeks; 100 hours)

Learn to code in any language of your choice with a strong focus on foundations. You should aim to become extremely comfortable in coding. If you’re told the high-level logic, you should be able to code it without much thinking.

A good practice while learning to code is to think about everything logically rather than in terms of code.

Suggested roadmap

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Learn programming concepts through C (4 weeks; 70 hours)

Learn different programming concepts like input, output, variables and data types, operators, decision making, loops, arrays, strings, and functions.

While learning the language, write a lot of code for whatever you are learning to retain the syntax and the various concepts. Solve a good number of problems where you can use these concepts. This will help you get a hold of the syntax.

You can enroll in our 'Learn to Code in C/C++' program for a hands-on learning experience.

Learn about object-orientation (3 days; 6 hours)

This will require you to code in C++ (which is just C with object-orientation). Learn about classes and objects (including constructor), encapsulation (including public and private access specifiers, this pointer and getters and setters), and the static keyword. You do not need to learn any other OOP concept at this stage.

Transition to Java (12 days; 24 hours)

Once you know the common programming concepts and have an idea about classes and objects, you can learn Java pretty easily. Learn exception handling as well.

You do not need to learn multithreading or any other advanced concepts at this stage. You just need to

Convert your previously created solutions from C/C++ to Java. This will help you get a hold of Java syntax.

Become a power computer user (3 weeks; 50 hours)

Google is your friend. Learn how to get answers (keep improving forever)

One of the most important skills that you need to have. Try to become a

Whenever you are learning something and have a doubt, Google for the specific doubt/error. Do not search for anything that is very broad. Try to get to the specifics.

Learn regular expression (4 days; 10 hours)

This is an extremely useful skill that you should have at your fingertips. Learn the basics of regular expression (language-agnostic). Practice the learned concepts in Java (or any language that you know).

Learn the basics of command-line (2 weeks; 35 hours)

Use Linux/Mac: If you have a Windows Laptop, install Linux. If you have a Macbook then you are good to go. Start using the terminal.

Things to learn:

• Basics of bash: echo, read, variables.
• Interact with the filesystem: ls, cd, pwd, cat, touch, head, tail, cp, rm, mv, mkdir, find, etc.
• Input/output redirectors.
• Regular expression in bash.
• grep, sed, and awk.
• file permissions in general and how to work with them using bash.
• Programming concepts in bash: decision making, loops, arrays, strings, operators, functions, etc.

Learn how to use (and exit from) vim. :p

Make sure to practice using these regularly after learning.

Learn about VCS, Git, and GitHub (2 days; 5 hours)

Learn the basics of Git and GitHub. Create a repository on GitHub and upload your codes from the 'Learn to Code' section to that repository using the terminal.

Internet 101 (1 week; 16 hours)

Learn how the internet works. Learn about related concepts like HTTP, Browser, DNS, Domain Name, Hosting, Client-Server Model, HTTPS. Visualize these concepts through the terminal using commands like ping, whois, dig, wget, curl.

Frontend Development 101 (9 weeks; 150 hours)

Learn to create basic frontend-only webpages using HTML, CSS, JS. Learn-by-doing and build multiple projects using the learned concepts.

Suggested roadmap

Learn to code in JavaScript (1.5 weeks; 25 hours)

Build a basic website using only HTML (2 weeks; 35 hours)

Things to learn and use:

• adding headings, paragraphs, images, links, lists, tables
• creating a form, adding text fields, and button
• adding other input fields like radio button, dropdown, checkbox, etc
• div, span, head, body, doctype

Build a few small webpages. These can be pretty basic and should use only HTML. Try to create at least 5 webpages using a combination of the abovementioned things.

Design websites using CSS (1.5-2 weeks; 30 hours)

Things to learn and use:

• color, background
• height/width
• typography (fonts, text, icons)
• Learn about box model: content, padding, border, margin
• Layout
• Display
• Flex, Grid
• Positioning, Float
• Overflow
• Alignment

Start by learning how to modify CSS properties directly in the browser. Then start styling your webpages (built while learning HTML) with inline styling. After that, migrate a few styles by using classes. Finally, move all the CSS to a separate CSS file

Once you have learned how to do these things, properly design all the webpages that you previously created using only HTML.

Add interactivity and logic through JavaScript (3.5 weeks; 60 hours)

Learn how to add JS to webpages to bring interactivity and logic to your website.

Things to learn and use:

• Basic DOM manipulation
• AJAX
• Events & Event Listeners
• Chrome DevTools & Debugging

Add interactivity and logic to webpages that you created using HTML and CSS.

Start building better projects after learning HTML, CSS, JS

Learn Object-Oriented Programming (3 weeks; 50 hours)

Learn Object-Oriented Programming concepts (Encapsulation, Inheritance, Polymorphism, Abstraction, and Composition) using Java.

Once you have learned OOP and created a few implementations, learn Design Principles to make your code designs better. Design Principles: DRY, KISS, YAGNI, SOLID, Separation of Concern.

After this, solve a few design problems using these concepts. Try to write structured and well-designed solutions.