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Web Dev Crash Course Curriculum

Here's a simple curriculum I've come up with for self-teaching web development, using my guides, or really any guides.

The idea is to limit yourself to about a week for each item in the list, but you can go faster or slower as necessary. Pace yourself.

  1. Make a personal page with just HTML + CSS.
  2. With just PHP, add in a neat quirk to your personal page, like a random quote generator, or how many days til your next birthday, or something.
  3. With PHP + MySQL, add an anonymous Twitter-like feed to the page that anyone can submit to.
  4. With PHP + MySQL, secure the feed so only logged in users can use it.
  5. With PHP + MongoDB, duplicate the last two points.
  6. With PHP + whatever you want + jQuery, make a near-real-time updating feed on your personal page that doesn't require the user to reload the page.
  7. With PHP + whatever, secure your login to prevent illegal usernames, injection attacks, and brute force attacks.

And for bonus points...

  1. With PHP + whatever + jQuery + node.js, make an actual real-time updating feed on your personal page.
  2. FOR EVEN MORE BONUS POINTS, do the same with only node.js and jQuery.

If you can accomplish all of that in 7-8 weeks and finish with confidence, then you're a web developer.