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Prerequisites

You don’t need advanced math or a specific tech stack. These basics will help you get the most value:

Required​

  • Basic programming experience and ability to read pseudocode
  • Familiarity with OS and networking fundamentals (processes, ports, DNS, HTTP)
  • Version control basics (Git branching, pull requests)

Helpful​

  • Some exposure to client–server or distributed systems
  • Comfort reading simple diagrams (C4/UML sequence)
  • Access to a cloud account or local container runtime for experiments (optional)

Quick setup (optional but handy)​

  • Node.js LTS and a package manager (pnpm/npm) for local examples
  • Docker Desktop or an equivalent container runtime
  • A personal cloud sandbox (free tier) or local k8s (kind/minikube) if you plan to explore platform topics

Self‑check (2 minutes)​

  • Can you explain the difference between throughput and latency at a high level?
  • Do you know where to add a timeout and a retry in a client/server call?
  • Can you sketch a very simple C4 Context diagram of a product you know?