Next Level - Agentic Software Engineering For Developers

AI-Driven Software
Engineering Track

A realistic, phase-by-phase 6-month curriculum for React/JS developers who want to build and ship production AI products.

6
Phases
12+
Projects
100%
Free resources
6mo
Job-ready
View the roadmap Join the track →
The full journey
Six phases. One clear direction.
Each phase builds on the last. No gaps, no shortcuts — just a logical progression from UI developer to AI-driven engineer.
Month 1
P1
Advanced Frontend Mastery
Month 2
P2
Backend & Full Stack
Month 3
P3
AI Fundamentals
Months 4–5
P4
AI-Powered Full Stack Apps
Month 5
P5
DevOps & Production AI
Month 6
P6
Portfolio & Job Strategy
Phase breakdown
Click any phase to dive in
Resources, topics, and hands-on projects for each stage of the journey.
P1
Phase 1 · Month 1
Advanced Frontend Mastery
Close gaps in React, TypeScript, and modern tooling before layering AI on top.
+
React 19TypeScriptReact QueryViteVitestStorybookTurborepo

Core topics

  • Custom Hooks, Context API, useReducer patterns
  • React Query / SWR for server state
  • Code splitting, lazy loading, performance
  • React 19 — Server Components & Actions
  • TypeScript generics, utility types, discriminated unions
  • Type-safe API calls and form handling
  • Vite, ESLint, Prettier, Husky pre-commit hooks
  • Monorepo basics (Turborepo or Nx)
  • Testing: Vitest + React Testing Library

Free resources

Hands-on projects

Component Library
Build a reusable UI component library with TypeScript + Storybook — your own design system.
2 weeks
Real-time Dashboard
Data dashboard using React Query with live polling, optimistic updates, and skeleton states.
2 weeks
P2
Phase 2 · Month 2
Backend & Full Stack Engineering
Build production-grade APIs, work with real databases, and connect everything to your frontend.
+
Node.jsNext.js App RouterPostgreSQLPrisma ORMRedisJWT & OAuthZod

Core topics

  • Express.js / Fastify architecture & middleware
  • JWT authentication, refresh tokens, OAuth 2.0
  • Input validation with Zod, error handling patterns
  • Rate limiting, CORS, security best practices
  • PostgreSQL: schema design, joins, indexes, transactions
  • Prisma ORM: type-safe queries and migrations
  • Redis: caching and session management
  • Database normalization & query optimization basics
  • Next.js App Router: server actions, API routes
  • Deployment: Vercel, Railway, Render
  • Environment management & secrets handling

Free resources

Hands-on projects

Auth System
Full JWT auth with refresh tokens, email verification, and role-based access control — deployed live.
2 weeks
Production REST API
A full CRUD API with PostgreSQL + Prisma, rate limiting, Zod validation — deployed on Railway.
2 weeks
P3
Phase 3 · Month 3
AI Fundamentals for Engineers
Understand how LLMs actually work so you can integrate them intelligently — not just copy-paste API calls.
+
LLM ConceptsPrompt EngineeringClaude APIOpenAI APIEmbeddingsRAGpgvector

Core topics

  • Tokens, embeddings, and vector spaces (intuition)
  • Prompt engineering: system prompts, few-shot, chain-of-thought
  • Temperature, top-p, context windows — what they actually do
  • Fine-tuning vs. prompting vs. RAG — when to use which
  • Chat completions & streaming responses
  • Function calling / tool use for structured outputs
  • Vision models, image generation with DALL-E
  • Cost optimization: token counting & caching strategies
  • What embeddings are and why they matter
  • Pinecone / Supabase pgvector for similarity search
  • Building a RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) pipeline

Free resources

Hands-on projects

AI Chatbot with Streaming
Streaming chat interface with full conversation history and system prompt customization panel.
2 weeks
Document Q&A (RAG)
Upload a PDF, ask natural language questions — full RAG pipeline with pgvector and source citations.
2 weeks
P4
Phase 4 · Months 4–5
AI-Powered Full Stack Apps
Build real AI products users actually want — combining full stack skills with agent architecture and system design.
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Vercel AI SDKLangChain.jsTool CallingAI AgentsLangSmithStripeSystem Design

Core topics

  • Streaming AI responses into React UIs in real-time
  • Vercel AI SDK: useChat, useCompletion hooks
  • Tool calling: let AI execute backend functions
  • Structured output parsing with Zod + function calling
  • LangChain.js: chains, agents, and memory
  • Building multi-step AI workflows
  • ReAct agents (search, calculate, take actions)
  • LangSmith for tracing and debugging pipelines
  • Loading states and streaming UX feedback
  • Guardrails: content filtering & output validation
  • Cost-aware design: when NOT to call AI
  • System design for AI products (scale, latency, cost)
  • Stripe billing integration for SaaS

Free resources

Hands-on projects

AI Writing Tool
Notion-like editor with AI autocomplete, rewrite, and summarize — streaming into contenteditable.
2 weeks
Research AI Agent
An agent that searches the web, reads URLs, and answers multi-step research questions.
1.5 weeks
AI SaaS MVP
Full AI-powered SaaS with auth, Stripe billing, usage limits, and a core AI feature.
2.5 weeks
P5
Phase 5 · Month 5
DevOps, Deployment & Production AI
Ship AI products that are fast, reliable, and cost-efficient in production — not just local demos.
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DockerGitHub ActionsCI/CDRedis CachingLangSmithHeliconeBullMQWebSockets

Core topics

  • Docker: write efficient Dockerfiles for Node/Next.js
  • GitHub Actions: automated test, build, deploy pipelines
  • Environment management across dev/staging/production
  • Caching AI responses to reduce cost (Redis + semantic caching)
  • Monitoring AI quality: LangSmith, Helicone, Braintrust
  • Handling AI latency: streaming, background jobs, webhooks
  • Prompt versioning and A/B testing AI responses
  • Serverless functions for AI endpoints (Vercel, AWS Lambda)
  • Queue systems for long AI tasks (BullMQ, Upstash QStash)
  • WebSockets for real-time AI features

Free resources

Hands-on projects

Dockerized AI App + CI/CD
Containerize your Phase 4 SaaS project with Docker and automate deploys via GitHub Actions.
2 weeks
Production Observability
Add full monitoring to an AI app: token costs, latency tracking, error rates, prompt versions.
2 weeks
P6
Phase 6 · Month 6
Portfolio, Open Source & Job Strategy
Land your first AI Software Engineer role by showing real shipped work — not just listing skills on a CV.
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PortfolioOpen Source PRsSystem DesignLeetCode DSATechnical WritingLinkedIn Outreach

Core topics

  • Portfolio site with live AI project demos
  • Technical case studies: problem → solution → results
  • GitHub profile: pinned repos, READMEs, consistent commits
  • System design for AI systems (scale, cost, latency)
  • Open source contributions to AI tools
  • DSA: 50 LeetCode Easy/Medium (arrays, hashmaps, trees)
  • Target: AI startups and product companies
  • Cold outreach templates to AI engineers & CTOs
  • Technical blog posts on Medium or Dev.to
  • Specialise by Month 4: chatbots, SaaS, or dev tools

Free resources

Hands-on projects

Portfolio Site
Live portfolio with 3+ working AI project demos, case studies, and a contact form.
2 weeks
Open Source PR
Merge at least one meaningful PR into a public AI or developer tool repository.
Ongoing
Technical Blog Posts
Publish 2 deep-dive posts on what you built and what you learned — your public proof of work.
2 weeks
Mindset
6 things that separate engineers who ship
Curriculum is the map. These habits are how you actually get there.
01
Ship early, improve daily
Deploy a working v1 by end of Month 3. Real deployed apps beat polished local demos every time when talking to employers.
02
Think AI-first on every feature
When building anything, ask: "Could AI make this 10x better?" Train yourself to see those opportunities before anyone else does.
03
Build in public
Post your progress on LinkedIn and Twitter/X weekly. Share what you shipped, what broke, what you learned. This alone lands interviews.
04
Join AI communities
Follow engineers on Twitter/X, join the Latent Space Discord, attend local meetups. 60%+ of tech jobs come through people, not job boards.
05
Read every AI release note
Claude, GPT, Gemini updates — read them all. Knowing the latest capabilities gives you product ideas competitors haven't thought of yet.
06
Specialise by Month 4
Pick one focus: AI chatbots, AI-powered SaaS, or AI developer tools. Depth in one area makes you far more hireable than being average in all three.

Ready to make the leap?

Follow this roadmap step by step, build every project, and you will be job-ready in 6 months. Every resource is free. The only cost is your time, focus, and consistency.

Start the track →
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