Part I — From Zero
Twelve stages, ~4–9 months of part-time effort, from "never written code" to "shipped a full-stack project."
Part I — From Zero
Twelve stages. Each one ends with a project — build it before moving on, or none of this sticks.
The whole arc is 4–9 months of part-time effort. If a stage feels easy, skim it and do the project to verify. If a stage feels hard, slow down — there is no shortcut around understanding.
Each stage assumes everything before it. JavaScript before React. Git before deployment. HTTP before backends. Skipping is the most common way beginners stall — they grind on a stage they're not ready for and conclude "I'm bad at coding."
You can't learn to code from summaries — only from doing reps. So while every stage below explains its concepts and gives you a project to build, right here, each also recommends a top free course or reference (javascript.info, MDN, The Odin Project…) for the hours of hands-on practice that actually build the skill. That's the one place the guide deliberately points off-site — and it's a recommendation for practice, not a gap you're meant to fill elsewhere to understand the material.
The thirteen stages
| Stage | Topic | Time | Project |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | Get set up | ~1 day | "Hello, world" in Node |
| 0+ (optional) | Set up like a pro | ~½ day, on demand | A dev environment that gets out of your way |
| 1 | JavaScript basics | ~3–6 weeks | CLI scripts that read & transform data |
| 2 | HTML & CSS | ~2–4 weeks | A static personal landing page |
| 3 | JavaScript in the browser | ~2–3 weeks | An interactive page (no framework) |
| 4 | Git & GitHub | ~1–2 weeks | Your work, on GitHub, with history |
| 5 | TypeScript | ~2–3 weeks | Your scripts, type-safe |
| 6 | React fundamentals | ~3–5 weeks | A small React app deployed |
| 7 | Tailwind CSS | ~1 week | The app, restyled with Tailwind |
| 8 | Next.js | ~3–4 weeks | A multi-page Next.js site |
| 9 | Ship a real portfolio | ~1–2 weeks | A portfolio you'd link on a résumé |
| 10 | Backend basics | ~3–4 weeks | An API with a database |
| 11 | Your first full-stack project | ~2–4 weeks | A real product with auth & a DB |
| 12 | Going professional | ~3–6 weeks, then ongoing | A portfolio, a network, a job-ready you |