Stage 2 of 10 · 6 lessons · ~6 weeks

Core engineering you still need

The engineering base customer-facing roles depend on: one fast scripting language, SQL on unfamiliar data, HTTP, Git in someone else's repository, cloud basics and a calm method for debugging systems you did not build.

Start: One language you are fast in

Lessons· one lesson for each topic, in this order

Do this

Write three glue scripts in your main language: file to API, API to database, database to report.
Profile a public dataset you did not create with SQL and write down five surprises.
Send requests with curl and Postman, and explain five status codes from real responses.
Deploy a small service to one cloud with a secret stored properly and logs you can read.
Contribute one small pull request to someone else's repository, following their guide.
Debug one real bug using the reproduce, narrow, hypothesise method and write notes as you go.

Start with· follow one of these

CoursePaid
Grokking Python Fundamentals
Design Gurus · Beginner · $50
A structured path to real Python fluency, the most common glue language in customer work
CourseFree
CS50's Introduction to Programming with Python
Harvard University · Beginner
Free: Harvard's Python course, with file I/O, libraries and tests in the later weeks

Practise

LeetCode SQL 50
Fifty graded SQL problems to build speed with joins, aggregates and window functions

Keep handy

MDN: HTTP
The clearest reference for HTTP methods, headers and status codes
Everything curl
How to send and inspect any HTTP request from the terminal, the first tool in integration debugging

Also worth your time

The Missing Semester of Your CS EducationGo deeper
Shell, Git, debugging and tooling: the practical skills that make you fast on unfamiliar machines

Before moving on: A small service in your main language, deployed to a cloud, that reads a CSV, calls a public API, stores results in a database and logs failures, plus five SQL queries profiling a dataset you did not create.

Tauseef's advice

Customer-facing does not mean less technical. The engineers customers trust most are the ones who can open a laptop and fix the problem in the room. Keep this base strong, and keep coding every week even when your calendar fills with meetings.