Month 1: The Foundations (HTML, CSS, Git, and Basic JavaScript)
Goal: Build a rock-solid understanding of the core technologies that power the web. By the end of
this month, you will be able to build beautiful, static, and responsive websites.
Weekly Breakdown:
Week 1: HTML5 & Semantic Structure
o Daily Plan:
Day 1-2: Master the basics: document structure (<!DOCTYPE>, <html>,
<head>, <body>), headings, paragraphs, lists, links, and images.
Day 3-4: Focus on Semantic HTML5: <header>, <footer>, <nav>, <main>,
<section>, <article>, <aside>. Understand why they are important for SEO
and accessibility.
Day 5: Learn about HTML forms: <form>, <input> (various types), <label>,
<textarea>, <button>.
Day 6-7: Build your first project from the list below. Focus purely on the
HTML structure.
Week 2: CSS Fundamentals
o Daily Plan:
Day 1-2: Learn the core concepts: selectors (class, ID, element), properties
(color, background, font-size), and the Box Model (margin, border, padding,
content).
Day 3-4: Deep dive into Flexbox. It's essential for modern layouts. Practice
building common UI patterns like navigation bars and card layouts.
Day 5: Learn about positioning (static, relative, absolute, fixed, sticky).
Day 6-7: Apply your CSS knowledge to the project you started last week.
Style it completely.
Week 3: Advanced CSS & Responsive Design
o Daily Plan:
Day 1-2: Learn CSS Grid. It's powerful for complex, two-dimensional
layouts. Compare it with Flexbox to understand when to use each.
Day 3-4: Master Responsive Design using Media Queries. Ensure your
projects look great on all screen sizes (mobile, tablet, desktop).
Day 5: Explore CSS variables for maintainable code and simple
animations/transitions.
Day 6-7: Refine your project to be fully responsive. Start a new, more
complex project from the list.
Week 4: Version Control (Git) & JavaScript Introduction
o Daily Plan:
Day 1-2: Learn Git & GitHub. This is non-negotiable for any developer.
Practice the core commands: git init, git add, git commit, git push, git pull,
git branch. Create a GitHub repository for your projects.
Day 3-4: JavaScript Basics: variables (let, const), data types (string, number,
boolean, array, object), and operators.
Day 5: Introduction to the DOM (Document Object Model). Learn how to
select and manipulate HTML elements using JavaScript (getElementById,
querySelector).
Day 6-7: Add basic interactivity to one of your projects (e.g., a button that
changes text on the page).
📌 Project Ideas for Month 1:
1. Personal Portfolio Website: A one-page site about you, your skills, and your projects. This
will be your home base.
2. Tribute Page: Create a page dedicated to someone you admire. Focus on good structure
and layout.
3. A Restaurant Menu Website: Practice using Flexbox and Grid to create a clean, responsive
menu layout.
4. Technical Documentation Page: Mimic the layout of a documentation site (like MDN). Good
for practicing navbars and content structure.
5. A "Sign Up" Form: Build a complex and well-styled registration form for a fictional service.
Month 2: Frontend Mastery (Advanced JS, React, and Tailwind CSS)
Goal: Transition from static websites to dynamic, interactive web applications using the most
popular frontend library in the market.
Weekly Breakdown:
Week 5: Advanced JavaScript
o Daily Plan:
Day 1-2: ES6+ Features: Arrow functions, destructuring, template literals,
map, filter, reduce.
Day 3-4: Asynchronous JavaScript: Understand Promises and async/await.
Practice fetching data from a free public API (e.g., The PokéAPI or
JSONPlaceholder).
Day 5: Learn about NPM (Node Package Manager) and how to use it to
manage external packages.
Day 6-7: Build a project that fetches and displays data from an API.
Week 6: Introduction to React
o Daily Plan:
Day 1-2: Set up your first React app using create-react-app or Vite.
Understand the core concepts: JSX, Components (functional), and Props.
Day 3-4: Learn about State using the useState hook. Understand how state
changes trigger re-renders.
Day 5: Conditional Rendering (showing/hiding components) and rendering
lists of data.
Day 6-7: Rebuild one of your earlier static projects (like the portfolio) in
React. Break the UI down into reusable components.
Week 7: React Hooks & Client-Side Routing
o Daily Plan:
Day 1-2: Deep dive into the useEffect hook for handling side effects (like
API calls).
Day 3-4: Learn to manage complex state with the useContext or
useReducer hooks.
Day 5: Implement client-side routing with react-router-dom to build a
multi-page application (SPA).
Day 6-7: Start a new, more complex React project from the list below.
Week 8: Styling in React with Tailwind CSS
o Daily Plan:
Day 1-2: Set up Tailwind CSS in your React project. Understand its utility-
first philosophy.
Day 3-4: Practice building components using Tailwind classes. Learn how to
handle responsive design with Tailwind's breakpoints.
Day 5: Customize your Tailwind configuration and explore advanced
features.
Day 6-7: Complete and polish your complex React project, ensuring it's
fully styled and responsive.
📌 Project Ideas for Month 2:
1. Weather Forecast App: Fetch data from a weather API and display the current forecast.
2. To-Do List Application: A classic project to master CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete)
operations in the frontend state.
3. Movie Database Browser: Use an API like TMDB to allow users to search for movies and
view details.
4. Recipe Finder App: Fetch recipes from a food API based on user-searched ingredients.
5. A Simple E-commerce Frontend: Build the product listing page and a shopping cart that
updates in real-time. (No backend yet).
Month 3: Backend Essentials (Node.js, Express, and Databases)
Goal: Build the "brain" of a web application. You'll learn how to create servers, design APIs, and
manage data, transitioning from a frontend developer to a backend-capable engineer.
Weekly Breakdown:
Week 9: Introduction to Node.js & NPM
o Daily Plan:
Day 1-2: Understand the Node.js runtime environment. Learn about the
module system (CommonJS with require and ES Modules with import).
Day 3-4: Work with built-in Node modules, especially the fs (File System)
module to read and write files.
Day 5: Revisit NPM. Understand package.json in depth and the difference
between dependencies and devDependencies.
Day 6-7: Build your first backend application: a Command Line Interface (CLI)
tool. For example, a tool that takes notes from the command line and saves
them to a file.
Week 10: Building APIs with Express.js
o Daily Plan:
Day 1-2: Set up your first Express server. Learn about routing (handling GET,
POST, PUT, DELETE requests) and how to send back JSON data.
Day 3-4: Deep dive into Express Middleware. Understand how it processes
requests. Practice with logging middleware or parsing request bodies.
Day 5: Learn the principles of RESTful APIs. Structure your routes and data
logically (e.g., GET /api/users, POST /api/users).
Day 6-7: Build a complete REST API with in-memory data (using a simple
JavaScript array for now, no database yet).
Week 11: Databases with PostgreSQL
o Daily Plan:
Day 1-2: Install PostgreSQL and a GUI tool like pgAdmin. Learn the basics of
SQL: CREATE TABLE, INSERT, SELECT, UPDATE, DELETE.
Day 3-4: Learn about database relationships (one-to-one, one-to-many) and
how to use foreign keys to link tables.
Day 5: Connect your Express app to your PostgreSQL database using a library
like node-postgres (pg).
Day 6-7: Refactor the API you built last week to use the database instead of
the in-memory array.
Week 12: Authentication & Advanced Concepts
o Daily Plan:
Day 1-2: Implement a full CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) API that
interacts with your database.
Day 3-4: Learn about authentication. Implement user registration and login
using password hashing (with a library like bcrypt).
Day 5: Implement token-based authentication with JSON Web Tokens (JWT).
Create protected routes that only logged-in users can access.
Day 6-7: As per your roadmap, read about Redis. Understand its use case as
a fast, in-memory database for caching or session storage. (Full
implementation can be an advanced project later).
📌 Project Ideas for Month 3:
1. Blog Post API: Create all the backend endpoints needed for a blog (create posts, edit posts,
add comments, user registration/login).
2. URL Shortener Service: An API that takes a long URL and returns a short one, handling the
redirection logic.
3. Task Management API: The backend for a To-Do list app. Users can sign up, log in, and
manage their own private lists of tasks.
4. User Authentication System: A boilerplate project that handles user registration, login,
password reset, and protected routes. This is a great reusable piece for future projects.
5. Polling App API: Backend where users can create polls, and other users can vote on them.
Month 4: Full Stack Integration, DevOps, and Deployment
Goal: Connect the frontend and backend, and learn how to deploy your complete application to the
cloud so the world can see it. This month is your launchpad into professional-level skills.
Weekly Breakdown:
Week 13: The Full Stack Connection
o Daily Plan:
Day 1-2: Connect your React application to your Express API. Learn how to
handle CORS (Cross-Origin Resource Sharing) errors.
Day 3-4: Use fetch or a library like Axios in your React useEffect hooks to load
data from your own backend.
Day 5: Create forms in React that POST data to your backend (e.g., a login
form or a "create new post" form).
Day 6-7: Convert one of your React projects into a full-stack application using
your own API.
Week 14: Linux & AWS Cloud Basics
o Daily Plan:
Day 1-2: Set up Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) on your PC. Learn basic
Linux command line navigation: ls, cd, pwd, mkdir, rm, sudo.
Day 3-4: Sign up for an AWS Free Tier account. Get familiar with the AWS
Management Console.
Day 5: Learn the core concepts of the services in your roadmap: EC2 (a
virtual server), S3 (file storage), VPC (your private network in the cloud), and
Route53 (DNS management).
Day 6-7: Launch your first EC2 instance (a small Linux server) and learn how
to connect to it using SSH.
Week 15: Deployment
o Daily Plan:
Day 1-2: Prepare your app for production. Learn about environment
variables (.env files) to manage secret keys and database URLs.
Day 3-4: Get your Node.js backend running on your EC2 instance. A process
manager like pm2 is essential here.
Day 5: Get your PostgreSQL database running (you can install it on the EC2
instance or use a managed service like AWS RDS).
Day 6-7: Build your React app for production (npm run build) and configure
your server (using Express or a web server like Nginx) to serve the static
frontend files. Congratulations, you've deployed a full-stack app!
Week 16: Introduction to CI/CD & Automation
o Daily Plan:
Day 1-2: Understand the why behind CI/CD (Continuous
Integration/Continuous Deployment). The goal is to automate your
deployment process.
Day 3-4: Learn the basics of GitHub Actions. Create a simple workflow in
your project repository that runs tests automatically when you push code.
Day 5: Create a deployment workflow. Set up your GitHub Action to
automatically deploy your latest code to your EC2 server when you push to
your main branch.
Day 6-7: Read high-level overviews of the other DevOps tools on your map:
Terraform (Infrastructure as Code) and Ansible (Configuration
Management). Understand what problems they solve. Full mastery of these
is a separate, advanced topic. Finally, polish your portfolio and GitHub
profile.
📌 Project Ideas for Month 4 (Capstone Projects):
1. Full-Stack Blog: A complete platform where users can register, write, edit, and delete their
own posts, and comment on others.
2. Simple E-commerce Site: Users can browse products, add items to a cart, and "check out"
(no real payment processing). Requires user authentication and complex state.
3. Project Management Tool: A Kanban board (like Trello) where users can create projects, add
task cards, and drag them between columns.
4. Real-time Chat Application: A more advanced project using WebSockets (Socket.io) with
your Node.js server to enable instant messaging between users.
5. A Social Media Clone (Basic): Users can register, create a profile, make posts (text-only to
start), and see a feed of posts from other users.
