The .NET Developer Route
Before you start
You need: Article 02 — you have chosen .NET, and a frontend.
Time: about 30 minutes to read. Then roughly 26 weeks to walk.
Learning objective
Know exactly which tracks to take, in what order, and what you can build after each one.
Topics
- The route at a glance
- Why this order
- What each stage gives you
- The four tracks you take alongside, not after
- Optional tracks and when they pay
- Milestones you can put on a resume
- If you have less than six months
The route at a glance
Class counts come from the Sahasra syllabus. A class is 90 minutes.
| # | Track | Classes | What it gives you |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 02 Software Industry Foundation | 8–10 | The vocabulary a team uses |
| 2 | 03 C# & .NET | 36–44 | The language everything else is written in |
| 3 | 06 SQL Server | 30–36 | Where the data lives |
| 4 | 07 ADO.NET & Dapper | 22–28 | Connecting C# to the database |
| 5 | 08 EF Core | 14–18 | The ORM almost every listing names |
| 6 | 09 Web Development | 36–44 | HTML, CSS, JavaScript, TypeScript |
| 7 | 10 ASP.NET Core | 40–48 | The API — the biggest backend track |
| 8 | 11 Angular or 12 React | 32–40 / 28–36 | One frontend. Choose one |
| — | Alongside from week one: 15 Tools, 16 Git, 17 Debugging, 18 AI | 40–56 | How the work is actually done |
Roughly 259–318 classes. At 13 hours a week that is about 26 weeks.
Track 01 is the guided path itself — a routing track that traces one feature, a fee receipt, through all of these. Read its stage article before starting each block. It does not teach the material; it shows how the block connects to the last one.
Why this order
02 first because vocabulary comes before code. A week that saves you months of confusion about sprints, acceptance criteria, environments and what an endpoint is.
03 before everything. An API is C#. A repository is C#. Weakness here surfaces as confusion in month four, not month two, and by then it is expensive to fix.
06 before 07 because you cannot connect to a database you cannot design. And SQL outlives frameworks — the schema you write will still be there when the application has been rewritten twice.
07 before 10 because the API is a thin layer over data access. Learning them together means debugging two unfamiliar things at once.
08 straight after 07, because an ORM is only safe once you know the SQL it replaces. Dapper first is the teaching order and it does not change — you learn to see the query you send before you learn a tool that writes it for you. But EF Core is not optional in the market: it is named in the large majority of .NET fresher listings, and "I used Dapper, not EF Core" reads as a gap to a screener who has thirty resumes to get through. Take it while the data-access ideas are still fresh, and you can then say which one you would choose for a given job and why — which is the actual interview question.
09 before 11/12 because a component is HTML, CSS and TypeScript with a framework arranging them. Skipping straight to Angular or React means every layout problem becomes framework magic you cannot reason about.
10 before the frontend, so there is a real API to call. A frontend built against mock data hides every interesting problem: CORS, tokens, error states, race conditions.
What each stage gives you
After 02 — Software Industry Foundation (1 week)
You can read a work item, ask the right clarifying questions, and follow a stand-up. You know what a sprint, a pull request and UAT are.
After 03 — C# & .NET (5 weeks)
You can write and debug console programs, model entities as classes, use collections and LINQ, handle exceptions, and write a unit test. Milestone: a Student Marks Application that handles absent students correctly. This is your first portfolio item.
After 06 — SQL Server (4 weeks)
You can design a normalised schema whose constraints prevent bad data, write joins and stored procedures, and use transactions. Milestone: the School database, scripted so it can be dropped and rebuilt.
After 07 — ADO.NET & Dapper (3 weeks)
You can connect C# to SQL Server safely — parameterised, transactional, behind a repository interface. Milestone: a repository layer with tests.
After 08 — EF Core (2 weeks)
You can map a relational model with DbContext, run migrations, query with LINQ, load related data without the N+1 trap, and read the SQL EF Core actually generates. Milestone: the same repository, implemented twice — once in Dapper and once in EF Core, behind one interface. That is a better portfolio item than either alone, because it lets you answer the comparison question with something you built rather than something you read.
After 09 — Web Development (4 weeks)
You can build responsive semantic pages and call an API with fetch, handling every status code. Milestone: a working frontend, no framework.
After 10 — ASP.NET Core (5 weeks)
You can build a validated, secured REST API with correct status codes, DI and JWT. Milestone: the School API — the centrepiece of your portfolio.
After 11 or 12 — Angular or React (4 weeks)
You can build a routed frontend that calls your secured API and handles every failure state. Milestone: the full stack, connected.
The four tracks you take alongside
This is the part people get wrong. Tracks 15–18 are not a final module.
| Track | Start it | Why then |
|---|---|---|
| 16 Git | Week 1 | Every line you write from week one is worth not losing |
| 15 Developer Tools | Week 1, then as needed | Visual Studio, SSMS and Postman as you first meet each |
| 17 Debugging | Your first bug — week 2 or 3 | Guessing does not scale past a console app |
| 18 AI-Assisted | Week 1 for Article 03; the full track around month 4 | You will use AI from day one either way |
Git from week one is not optional. A GitHub history showing six months of steady commits is evidence no certificate can match, and it cannot be created retroactively.
Optional tracks and when they pay
| Track | Classes | Take it if |
|---|---|---|
| 04 VB.NET | 14–18 | You are targeting companies with older systems |
| 05 Web Forms | 18–22 | Same, and it pairs with 04 |
| 14 MongoDB | 16–20 | Listings mention NoSQL |
Do these after the main route, not during it.
EF Core used to be on this list. It is not any more — it moved into the main route at position 5. Enough listings name it that treating it as optional was costing candidates interviews they were otherwise ready for.
A word on the legacy tracks. VB.NET and Web Forms look unappealing and are genuinely valuable. Large numbers of working systems are built on them, somebody has to maintain them, and almost no fresher can. Being the one who can read the legacy module makes you useful in week one rather than month three.
Milestones you can put on a resume
| Month | You have |
|---|---|
| 1 | A console application with tests |
| 2 | A designed database with constraints and procedures |
| 3 | A tested repository layer over real data, in both Dapper and EF Core |
| 4 | A secured REST API with JWT and validation |
| 5 | A connected frontend — the full stack working |
| 6 | An AI feature, a deployment, and a walkthrough you can give |
Each is a checkpoint, not a certificate. The test is whether you can open the code and explain a decision in it. Article 09 covers making them presentable.
If you have less than six months
Four months — drop the optional tracks entirely, choose React over Angular for the smaller class count, and reduce the frontend to one complete CRUD screen rather than a full application. Keep every other track, EF Core included.
Three months — take 02, 03, 06, 07, 08, 10 and Git only. Backend, no frontend. Apply for backend roles and say plainly that frontend is next. A strong backend candidate beats a thin full-stack one.
If something has to go, cut the frontend before you cut EF Core. A backend candidate with no React is applying for backend roles. A .NET candidate with no ORM is failing the resume filter for all of them.
Do not compress by skipping the fundamentals. Cutting C# from five weeks to two produces someone who cannot debug their own API in month four. If time is short, cut breadth, never depth.
Common mistakes
- Leaving Git until the end, and having no commit history
- Skipping Track 02 because it has no code
- Rushing C# to reach "the real work" sooner
- Learning both Angular and React
- Building the frontend against mock data instead of your own API
- Treating tracks 15–18 as a final module
- Collecting tracks instead of finishing one project
- Adding EF Core before Dapper, and never learning what SQL is being sent
Practice
- Write your 26-week plan with the eight main tracks and start dates.
- Add Git in week one, not week twenty.
- Check your local job listings against the optional tracks — VB.NET, Web Forms, MongoDB. Count how many of them name EF Core while you are there.
- Write the six milestones with target dates.
- For each milestone, write the one sentence you would put on a resume.
- If you have less than six months, choose which compression applies and write down what you are dropping.
- Read Track 01's stage 1 article and see how the fee receipt threads through the route.
You can now
- Name the eight main tracks in order, and why that order
- Say what you can build after each stage
- Explain why Git and debugging start in week one
- Decide which optional tracks apply to your market
- State the six milestones and what each proves
- Compress the route sensibly if you have less time
Review questions
- Why does SQL come before the data-access track, and that before the API?
- Why build the frontend against your own API rather than mock data?
- Why learn Dapper before EF Core, when EF Core is the one the listings ask for?
- Which four tracks run alongside the route, and what happens if you leave them to the end?
- If you had three months, what would you cut — and what would you never cut?