Learning Paths¶
Choose intensity and depth. All paths share Setup. Core modules are listed in the home map.
Weekend Warrior (2–3 days)¶
Goal: Working chatbot or document Q&A.
| Day | Focus | Modules |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Prompts + safety basics | 01, 02 (skim) |
| 2 | Tools or basic RAG | 07 |
| 3 | Minimal eval + ship | 04 (unit smoke), 13 (capstone-starter/ /healthz + /v1/triage) |
Skip for now: Fine-tuning, multi-agent, compliance deep-dives.
You will not have Module 05 (context packing) yet. Cap pasted documents by hand — do not dump whole PDFs into the prompt. Treat that cap as a stand-in for the packer you will build later.
Professional Developer (8–12 weeks)¶
Goal: Production-minded app with tests, caching, and observability. Times below assume ~1 focused hour most weekdays, matching the module time boxes — not a two-week cram.
| Phase | Modules |
|---|---|
| Foundations | 01 → 04 |
| Knowledge | 05, 07, 09 |
| Connectors & cost | 08, 10 |
| Ship | 11 (optional), 13 |
| Production agents (optional) | 20, 21, 27, 22 |
Prerequisites: API experience; basic cloud or container familiarity.
Enterprise Architect (12–16 weeks)¶
Goal: Scalable, multi-component systems with governance. Longer than the Professional path because it covers the rest of the core (compliance, domains, integration, local models), not because the modules are harder to skim.
| Phase | Modules |
|---|---|
| Full core | 01 → 14 |
| Integration | 15, 16 |
| Local/hybrid | 17 |
| Patterns (optional) | 18, 19 |
| Production agents | 20–27 |
Emphasize: Security, evals, multi-agent orchestration, audit trails, hybrid routing, agent failure modes, sandboxes, trajectory evals.
AI Researcher (4–6 weeks of core, then a 90-day track)¶
Goal: Customization and advanced systems. The week count is core modules only. A specialization track is extra (~90 days) and is not folded into those 4–6 weeks.
| Phase | Modules |
|---|---|
| Theory + practice | 03, 05, 06 |
| Retrieval frontier | 09 |
| Agents | 11, 12 |
| SLMs | 17 |
| Production agents (optional) | 20, 22, 24, 26, 27 |
| Track | Hybrid models or stock research stack |
Specialization tracks (90 days)¶
| Track | Best after | Link |
|---|---|---|
| Stock recommender | 01–07, 09, 10, 13, 14, 17, 23 | Track |
| Hybrid Transformer+MLP | DL basics + 05–06; config pins (23 analog) | Track |
| Agentic VS Code plugin | 01–05, 07–08, 11–12, 17, 20–25 | Track |
Tracks can run in parallel with later core modules if you already code comfortably.
Daily cadence (any path)¶
- Review (10–15 min) — previous notes /
PROGRESS.md+ Progress dashboard - Story → picture (5 min) — read the opening incident and the Intuition lock first; say the sticky picture out loud
- Concept (20–30 min) — explainers and mental model; answer every Think about it before revealing
- Hands-on (20–30 min) — lab artifact (smallest thing that can fail in CI)
- Check (5–10 min) — predict → run → compare → explain, then quizzes + checkpoint; mark module complete only if you can teach the kill-this-idea line (Assessment)
- Log (5 min) — what failed, what you’d redesign, next question
Anti-skim rule
If you only remember the sticky picture and the kill this idea line from a module, you still own the core intuition. Vocabulary without those is bland memorization.
Capability checkpoints¶
See Progression summary for “what you can build” after each module.
Optional XP is a motivator, not a grade — production judgment still comes from evals and reviews.