Week-by-Week Schedule
Before you start
You need: a chosen route — .NET or Python.
Time: about 30 minutes to read and adapt. Then keep it open every week.
Learning objective
Turn a route into a week-by-week plan you can actually follow, and know how to recover when you fall behind.
Topics
- The weekly shape
- What a study session looks like
- The 24 weeks, block by block
- AI practice each week
- The weekly review
- When you fall behind
- Signals you are drifting
The weekly shape
Monday to Friday 2 hours each 10 hours
Saturday 3 hours 3 hours
Sunday rest, or catch up 0–3 hours
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13 hours
Two hours a day beats twelve hours on Sunday. Not motivational advice — you forget most of a Sunday marathon by Wednesday, and half the next session goes on re-learning. Spacing is why the same total hours produce very different results.
Sunday off is part of the plan, not a failure. Six days on and one off is sustainable for six months. Seven days on is sustainable for about five weeks, and then you stop entirely.
Protect the weekday two hours. Same time each day if you can. The decision of when to study is the one that quietly kills programmes — make it once.
What a study session looks like
A two-hour weekday session:
| Minutes | Do |
|---|---|
| 0–10 | Recall last session. What did you build? What was confusing? |
| 10–45 | Read the article. Type every code example — do not copy and paste |
| 45–55 | Break. Away from the screen |
| 55–105 | Practice exercises. Your own code, your own mistakes |
| 105–120 | Commit your work. Write down one thing you did not understand |
Type the examples. Copy-paste teaches nothing; your fingers and your errors are part of how this sticks. You will make typos, the compiler will complain, and reading those messages is Track 17 starting early.
The last fifteen minutes matter most. Committing gives you a history; writing down the confusion gives you tomorrow's first question — for a colleague, or for an AI.
The three-hour Saturday session:
| Minutes | Do |
|---|---|
| 0–20 | Review the week. Reread your confusion notes |
| 20–60 | Finish any unfinished exercises |
| 60–150 | Project work — apply the week to your own build |
| 150–180 | AI practice for the week, then commit and write the weekly review |
The 24 weeks
Both routes share this shape. Substitute your own tracks; the block structure holds.
Weeks 1–2 · Foundation
| Read | Track 02 in full — all seven articles |
| Alongside | Git Articles 01–02. Create your GitHub account |
| Tools | Install everything. Track 15 Article 01 or 02 |
| AI | Article 03. Practise the critique prompt |
| By the end | A GitHub repository with commits. You can explain what a sprint is |
Do not skip week 1 because it has no code. It is the week that makes the next twenty-three make sense.
Weeks 3–7 · The language
| .NET | Track 03, roughly two articles a week |
| Python | Track 13 Articles 01–09 |
| Alongside | Git Articles 03–05 — branch for every exercise |
| Debugging | Track 17 Articles 01–02 at your first real bug |
| Milestone | Week 7: the console capstone, with tests |
This is the block people rush and should not. Everything after it assumes it.
Weeks 8–11 · The database
| Both routes | Track 06 SQL Server, all ten articles |
| Python only | Add Track 14 MongoDB in week 11 |
| Alongside | Track 15 Article 03 — SSMS properly |
| Milestone | Week 11: the School database, scripted and rebuildable |
Weeks 12–14 · Connecting code to data
| .NET | Track 07 ADO.NET & Dapper |
| Python | Track 13 Articles 10–11 — databases and FastAPI |
| Alongside | Track 17 Article 05 |
| Milestone | Week 14: a tested repository over real data |
Weeks 15–18 · The API
| .NET | Track 10 ASP.NET Core — the largest track |
| Python | Finish Track 13 and deepen the FastAPI work |
| Alongside | Track 15 Article 04 — Postman |
| AI | The full Track 18, and Article 07 |
| Milestone | Week 18: a secured REST API with JWT and validation |
Weeks 19–20 · The browser
| Both routes | Track 09 Web Development — compressed, focus on articles 01–10 |
| Alongside | Track 15 Article 05 — DevTools |
| Milestone | Week 20: a plain frontend calling your own API |
Weeks 21–23 · The frontend framework
| .NET | Track 11 Angular or Track 12 React |
| Python | Track 12 React |
| Milestone | Week 23: the full stack connected, one complete CRUD workflow |
Week 24 · Ship and present
| Build | Article 08 — add the AI feature |
| Polish | Article 09 — README, deployment, screenshots |
| Prepare | Article 10 and Article 13 |
| Milestone | A project you can demonstrate and a walkthrough you can give |
Then interview preparation runs alongside applications, not before them. Apply while you practise.
AI practice each week
Fifteen minutes at the end of each Saturday. It compounds.
| Week | Do |
|---|---|
| Every week | Ask to be quizzed on what you covered, one question at a time |
| Weeks 3–7 | Critique prompts on your own code: "don't rewrite it" |
| Weeks 8–11 | Ask for test data, then check absentees are NULL and not 0 |
| Weeks 12–14 | Generate a repository method, then run the four checks from Article 03 |
| Weeks 15–18 | Generate an endpoint. Check where SchoolId comes from. Record how often it is wrong |
| Weeks 19–23 | Ask for a component, then check accessibility and error states |
| Week 24 | Rehearse the AI interview questions from Article 11 |
Keep a note of every time generated code broke one of the four rules. By week 24 you have a real number and a real story — and that story is an interview answer nobody else has.
The weekly review
Fifteen minutes every Saturday. Five questions:
1. What did I build this week that I could not build last week?
2. What did I not understand? (Tomorrow's first question)
3. Did I commit every day I studied?
4. Am I on schedule? If not, by how much?
5. One thing to do differently next week.
Write it down and keep them. In month six you will read week 3's review and see how far you have come — which matters more than it sounds when you are tired and doubting it.
When you fall behind
You will. Everyone does. What matters is the response.
| Behind by | Do |
|---|---|
| A few days | Nothing. Use a Sunday. This is what Sunday is for |
| One week | Skip the optional exercises in the current block. Keep the milestone |
| Two to three weeks | Drop a whole optional track. Move your finish date out by two weeks and carry on |
| A month or more | Stop and re-plan. Do not sprint — restart the current block properly |
Never skip a milestone to stay on schedule. The milestones are the portfolio; the schedule is only a guide. Arriving at week 24 on time with nothing to show is the worst outcome available.
Never skip the fundamentals block. If you must compress, compress the frontend or drop an optional track. Compressing weeks 3–7 produces someone who cannot debug their own API in month four.
Signals you are drifting
Check monthly. Each has a specific fix.
| Signal | What it means | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| You cannot explain code you wrote last week | Pasting, not learning | Reread Article 03. Rebuild it by hand |
| No commits for a week | You stopped, whatever you tell yourself | Restart with one small session today |
| Reading without typing | Feels productive, teaches little | Type every example this week |
| Skipping the practice exercises | The exercises are the learning | Do one, however small |
| Starting a second course | Avoidance | Finish this one |
| Milestone slipped twice | The plan is wrong, not you | Re-plan honestly |
Common mistakes
- Twelve-hour Sundays instead of two-hour weekdays
- Copy-pasting code examples instead of typing them
- Studying seven days a week, then stopping entirely in month two
- Skipping the weekly review because it feels unproductive
- Sprinting to catch up and skipping a milestone
- Compressing the language block because it is slow
- Leaving all AI practice to the end
- Not committing on days you studied but did not finish anything
Practice
- Write your 24 weeks in a calendar with real dates and a finish date.
- Choose your two-hour weekday slot. Same time each day. Write it down.
- Mark the six milestone weeks. These are the immovable dates.
- Set up your GitHub repository this week, before any code exists.
- Run one full study session using the minute-by-minute structure. Adjust and keep it.
- Write your first weekly review this Saturday, even if week one was only reading.
- Decide now what you will drop if you fall two weeks behind. Deciding in advance stops panic later.
You can now
- Turn a route into 24 dated weeks
- Structure a two-hour session so it teaches
- Say why spacing beats intensity
- Build AI practice into every week
- Run a weekly review in fifteen minutes
- Recover from being behind without abandoning a milestone
- Recognise the six drift signals in your own work
Review questions
- Why does two hours a day beat twelve hours on Sunday for the same total?
- What are the last fifteen minutes of a session for?
- What do you cut when you fall three weeks behind — and what do you never cut?
- What does "you cannot explain code you wrote last week" tell you, and what fixes it?
Next: Building with AI