Backend Developer

The journey

1. Practised under observation

   1. 01Programming foundations for the serverFrom zero to a working programmer, with a server language at depth, the machine beneath it, and the internet the server lives on.Practised under observation

      MilestoneA programmer, provably

      That you can write working programs over real files and real remote data, and follow an error from its symptom back to its cause.

2. From here, milestones are verified rather than practised.

   Verified against a real task

   1. 02The server and the APIThe producer craft begins, with HTTP at depth and APIs designed as products rather than endpoints that happen to work.Verified against a real task

      MilestoneAn API someone else can build on

      That you can design a service another developer can use correctly from its contract alone, that refuses bad input at the border and says something useful when it does.

   2. 03Data and persistenceTruth that survives restarts, with relational depth, transactional honesty, and storage chosen by the problem rather than by habit.Verified against a real task

      MilestonePersistence with integrity

      That you can model data so the database itself protects it, keep it correct when two people write at once, and change its shape safely once it holds real records.

   3. 04Security, identity and the hostile internetThe licence to accept traffic, covering authentication, authorisation, and a defence posture for the seat where attacks actually arrive.Verified against a real task

      MilestoneDefended, provably

      That you can tell who someone is and what they are allowed to do, store credentials so a stolen database is not a catastrophe, and keep hostile input from reaching your logic.

   4. 05Software design, testing and architectureCode that survives its second year, with tests that catch, design that communicates, and architecture chosen on honest economics.Verified against a real task

      MilestoneDesigned to be changed

      That you can organise a service so it absorbs change rather than resisting it, and defend keeping it simple when a more elaborate architecture was available.

   5. 06Caching, async work and real-timeFast and decoupled without lying, treating caching as a correctness problem and reading the fine print on delivery guarantees.Verified against a real task

      MilestoneFast, decoupled, still correct

      That you can make a service faster and looser coupled without making it wrong, and state accurately what your messaging actually guarantees.

   6. 07Production: containers, delivery, observability and scaleOperated rather than babysat, with the service packaged, shipped through gates, observable in the dark, and scaled on evidence.Verified against a real task

      MilestoneOperated, not babysat

      That you can ship a service through automated gates, diagnose it in production from its own signals, survive a failing dependency, and say what it costs to run.

   7. 08The Backend Developer in the organizationThe producer professional duties, with the API treated as a product, every consumer honoured, and the trust economics of the service seat.Verified against a real task

      MilestoneA producer consumers trust

      That you can change a service other teams depend on without surprising them, and account for where personal data lives and how it is removed.

3. 1. Capstone

      A service the organization bets on

      A complete production backend service for a real domain, built under observation from a contract-described API through persistence, identity, architecture, asynchronous work, and production operation, with its own known limitations written down.

      Defence

      You walk an instructor through your own service: what consumers may rely on and what they must not, how a hostile request is stopped and where, what a stolen database would actually yield, what happens when a dependency dies, and what you would cut first under cost pressure. The credential is not awarded if you cannot account for your own work.

   2. Credential

      High-assurance credential

      Evidence that you can run services an organisation bets its product on, and prove they hold under failure. It does not claim seniority, and it does not oblige any employer to accept it.

      See how proof works