Finished the Backend Developer path on boot.dev — mostly for fun.
Some of it covered familiar ground. That’s fine — I did it for the joy of building. The range surprised me: Python, Go, a bit of C, even an AI agent.
Highlights:
- Learn Memory Management — you build a small garbage collector in C. Solid refresher on manual memory and how GC works under the hood.
- Build an AI Agent — basic, but it nails the mental model: tool calls, the agent loop, why agents behave as they do.
- Learn Pub/Sub — hands-on Go with RabbitMQ. Messaging patterns you actually wire up and run.
- Functional Programming in Python — new perspective on composition, plus a tour of the
functoolslibrary. - Git (by ThePrimeagen) — picked up useful advice even after years of daily git.
- Build Asteroids — pure fun. Never built a game before. Now I have.
Funny thing: in an era of AI coding agents, building a garbage collector or a small game by hand was the most fun I’ve had learning in ages. The agent could write it — but building it yourself is where the understanding, and the fun, lives.
If you learn by building, boot.dev is a good way to get your hands on Go, C, and a bit of AI.
P.S. And it’s not all fundamentals — they have deeper tracks too, like cryptography and RAG. :)