Career Progression Repository Schema

Overview

This repository contains an 8-week intensive program focused on Python, MariaDB, and Distributed Systems mastery. The structure is designed to track daily progress, build a portfolio, and prepare for senior-level technical interviews.

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Repository Structure

career-progression-2026/
│
├── README.md                          # Overview, goals, and progress tracking
├── .gitignore                         # Python, IDE, secrets, etc.
├── LICENSE                            # MIT or your choice
│
├── docs/
│   ├── syllabus.md                    # Markdown version of the syllabus
│   ├── 8_week_career_progression_syllabus.pdf
│   ├── progress-tracker.md            # Weekly checkboxes and reflections
│   ├── interview-prep/
│   │   ├── behavioral-stories.md      # STAR method stories
│   │   ├── system-design-notes.md     # Common patterns and solutions
│   │   └── technical-questions.md     # LeetCode-style prep
│   └── resources/
│       ├── reading-list.md            # Articles, books, videos
│       └── architecture-diagrams/     # Draw.io or Excalidraw files
│
├── week-01-python-internals/
│   ├── README.md                      # Week overview and daily goals
│   ├── day-01-gil/
│   │   ├── notes.md                   # Learning notes
│   │   ├── gil_demo.py                # CPU-bound comparison
│   │   └── interview-questions.md     # Practice Q&A
│   ├── day-02-asyncio/
│   │   ├── notes.md
│   │   ├── async_scraper.py
│   │   └── requirements.txt
│   ├── day-03-profiling/
│   │   ├── notes.md
│   │   ├── profiled_scraper.py
│   │   └── profiling_results/         # cProfile, viztracer outputs
│   ├── day-04-type-hints/
│   │   ├── notes.md
│   │   ├── typed_scraper.py
│   │   └── mypy.ini
│   ├── day-05-design-patterns/
│   │   ├── notes.md
│   │   ├── scraper_final.py           # With context managers, decorators
│   │   └── tests/
│   └── weekly-retrospective.md        # What worked, what didn't
│
├── week-02-mariadb-mastery/
│   ├── README.md
│   ├── day-01-innodb/
│   │   ├── notes.md
│   │   ├── docker-compose.yml         # MariaDB setup
│   │   ├── init.sql                   # Sample schema
│   │   └── transaction_experiments.sql
│   ├── day-02-indexing/
│   │   ├── notes.md
│   │   ├── slow_queries.sql
│   │   ├── optimized_queries.sql
│   │   └── explain_analysis.md        # EXPLAIN output analysis
│   ├── day-03-composite-indexes/
│   │   ├── notes.md
│   │   ├── composite_index_demo.sql
│   │   └── performance_comparison.md
│   ├── day-04-mariadb-features/
│   │   ├── notes.md
│   │   ├── json_columns.sql
│   │   ├── virtual_columns.sql
│   │   └── window_functions.sql
│   ├── day-05-schema-design/
│   │   ├── notes.md
│   │   ├── twitter_schema.sql
│   │   ├── ecommerce_schema.sql
│   │   └── design-decisions.md
│   └── weekly-retrospective.md
│
├── week-03-distributed-systems/
│   ├── README.md
│   ├── day-01-message-queues/
│   │   ├── notes.md
│   │   ├── docker-compose.yml         # RabbitMQ
│   │   ├── producer.py
│   │   └── consumer.py
│   ├── day-02-celery/
│   │   ├── notes.md
│   │   ├── celery_app/
│   │   │   ├── __init__.py
│   │   │   ├── tasks.py
│   │   │   └── config.py
│   │   └── docker-compose.yml
│   ├── day-03-idempotency/
│   │   ├── notes.md
│   │   ├── outbox_pattern/
│   │   │   ├── models.py
│   │   │   ├── worker.py
│   │   │   └── schema.sql
│   │   └── failure-scenarios.md
│   ├── day-04-cap-theorem/
│   │   ├── notes.md
│   │   ├── cap_examples.md
│   │   └── pacelc_analysis.md
│   ├── day-05-rate-limiter/
│   │   ├── notes.md
│   │   ├── rate_limiter.py            # Redis-based
│   │   ├── tests/
│   │   └── system-design.md           # Interview answer
│   └── weekly-retrospective.md
│
├── week-04-infrastructure/
│   ├── README.md
│   ├── day-01-docker/
│   │   ├── notes.md
│   │   ├── Dockerfile
│   │   ├── .dockerignore
│   │   └── multi-stage-build.md
│   ├── day-02-replication/
│   │   ├── notes.md
│   │   ├── docker-compose.yml         # Primary-Replica
│   │   └── replication-setup.md
│   ├── day-03-read-write-split/
│   │   ├── notes.md
│   │   ├── app/
│   │   │   ├── db_router.py
│   │   │   └── config.py
│   │   └── proxysql-config.cnf
│   ├── day-04-scaling-strategies/
│   │   ├── notes.md
│   │   ├── partitioning_demo.sql
│   │   └── scaling-interview-answers.md
│   ├── day-05-docker-compose/
│   │   ├── notes.md
│   │   ├── docker-compose.yml         # Full stack
│   │   └── architecture-diagram.png
│   └── weekly-retrospective.md
│
├── week-05-observability/
│   ├── README.md
│   ├── day-01-structured-logging/
│   │   ├── notes.md
│   │   ├── logging_config.py
│   │   └── sample_logs.json
│   ├── day-02-prometheus/
│   │   ├── notes.md
│   │   ├── instrumented_app/
│   │   │   ├── main.py
│   │   │   └── metrics.py
│   │   └── prometheus.yml
│   ├── day-03-grafana/
│   │   ├── notes.md
│   │   ├── dashboards/                # JSON exports
│   │   └── dashboard-screenshots/
│   ├── day-04-sentry/
│   │   ├── notes.md
│   │   ├── sentry_integration.py
│   │   └── error-scenarios.md
│   ├── day-05-outage-simulation/
│   │   ├── notes.md
│   │   ├── postmortem.md              # STAR format
│   │   └── incident-timeline.md
│   └── weekly-retrospective.md
│
├── week-06-security/
│   ├── README.md
│   ├── day-01-oauth-jwt/
│   │   ├── notes.md
│   │   ├── auth_service/
│   │   │   ├── main.py
│   │   │   ├── jwt_handler.py
│   │   │   └── models.py
│   │   └── oauth-flows.md
│   ├── day-02-password-hashing/
│   │   ├── notes.md
│   │   ├── auth.py
│   │   └── password-comparison.md     # bcrypt vs argon2
│   ├── day-03-refresh-tokens/
│   │   ├── notes.md
│   │   ├── token_rotation.py
│   │   └── security-tests.md
│   ├── day-04-sql-injection-secrets/
│   │   ├── notes.md
│   │   ├── sql_injection_examples.md
│   │   ├── vault_integration.py
│   │   └── .env.example
│   ├── day-05-owasp/
│   │   ├── notes.md
│   │   ├── security-audit.md
│   │   └── owasp-checklist.md
│   └── weekly-retrospective.md
│
├── week-07-system-design/
│   ├── README.md
│   ├── day-01-microservices/
│   │   ├── notes.md
│   │   ├── ecommerce-design.md
│   │   └── service-boundaries.png
│   ├── day-02-grpc/
│   │   ├── notes.md
│   │   ├── protos/
│   │   │   └── user_service.proto
│   │   ├── server.py
│   │   └── client.py
│   ├── day-03-refactoring/
│   │   ├── notes.md
│   │   ├── monolith/                  # Before
│   │   ├── microservices/             # After
│   │   │   ├── user-service/
│   │   │   └── order-service/
│   │   └── migration-strategy.md
│   ├── day-04-api-gateway/
│   │   ├── notes.md
│   │   ├── gateway/
│   │   │   ├── main.py
│   │   │   ├── routing.py
│   │   │   └── middleware/
│   │   └── architecture.png
│   ├── day-05-mock-interviews/
│   │   ├── notes.md
│   │   ├── design-instagram.md
│   │   ├── design-uber.md
│   │   ├── design-netflix.md
│   │   └── interview-recording-notes.md
│   └── weekly-retrospective.md
│
├── week-08-final-project/
│   ├── README.md                      # Project overview
│   ├── architecture/
│   │   ├── system-diagram.png
│   │   ├── database-schema.sql
│   │   └── api-specification.yaml     # OpenAPI
│   ├── src/
│   │   ├── api/
│   │   │   ├── main.py
│   │   │   ├── routes/
│   │   │   ├── models/
│   │   │   └── middleware/
│   │   ├── workers/
│   │   │   ├── celery_app.py
│   │   │   └── tasks/
│   │   ├── database/
│   │   │   ├── migrations/
│   │   │   └── seeds/
│   │   └── config/
│   │       ├── settings.py
│   │       └── logging.py
│   ├── infrastructure/
│   │   ├── docker-compose.yml
│   │   ├── Dockerfile
│   │   ├── prometheus/
│   │   ├── grafana/
│   │   └── nginx/
│   ├── tests/
│   │   ├── unit/
│   │   ├── integration/
│   │   └── load/
│   ├── monitoring/
│   │   ├── dashboards/
│   │   └── alerts/
│   ├── docs/
│   │   ├── setup.md
│   │   ├── deployment.md
│   │   └── troubleshooting.md
│   ├── requirements.txt
│   ├── pyproject.toml
│   └── weekly-retrospective.md
│
├── portfolio/
│   ├── README.md                      # Portfolio overview for recruiters
│   ├── project-showcase.md            # Best projects with screenshots
│   ├── technical-blog-posts/         # Write-ups of key learnings
│   │   ├── gil-deep-dive.md
│   │   ├── database-scaling.md
│   │   └── microservices-migration.md
│   └── resume-bullets.md              # Achievement-focused bullets
│
└── scripts/
    ├── setup.sh                       # Initial environment setup
    ├── daily-commit.sh                # Automated daily commit template
    └── week-summary.py                # Generate weekly progress report

---

Key Features

📁 Week-Based Structure

Each week is self-contained with daily subdirectories for focused learning and implementation.

📝 Documentation-First

Every directory includes:

• README.md for overview and goals
• notes.md for learning retention
• Interview preparation materials

🔄 Retrospectives

Weekly reflection documents to:

• Track progress
• Identify challenges
• Adjust learning strategies

💼 Portfolio Section

Ready-to-share materials including:

• Project showcases with screenshots
• Technical blog posts
• Resume-ready achievement bullets

🧪 Tests Included

Demonstrates production-ready code practices with unit, integration, and load tests.

🐳 Infrastructure as Code

All Docker configurations versioned for reproducibility and easy environment setup.

📊 Interview Prep

Dedicated sections for:

• Behavioral interviews (STAR method)
• Technical interviews (LeetCode-style)
• System design practice

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Suggested .gitignore

# Python
__pycache__/
*.py[cod]
*$py.class
*.so
.Python
venv/
env/
.venv

# IDE
.vscode/
.idea/
*.swp
*.swo

# Secrets
.env
*.pem
*.key
secrets/

# Database
*.db
*.sqlite3

# Logs
*.log
logs/

# Profiling
*.prof
*.trace

# OS
.DS_Store
Thumbs.db

# Docker
.docker/

---

Daily Workflow

1. Start of Day

# Create daily branch
git checkout -b week-01/day-01

# Navigate to daily directory
cd week-01-python-internals/day-01-gil/

2. During Learning

• Take notes in notes.md
• Write code with meaningful commits
• Document interview questions and answers

3. End of Day

# Commit daily work
git add .
git commit -m "Week 1 Day 1: GIL deep dive and CPU-bound comparison"

# Merge to main
git checkout main
git merge week-01/day-01
git push origin main

4. End of Week

• Complete weekly-retrospective.md
• Update docs/progress-tracker.md
• Review and refactor code

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Portfolio Building

During the Program

• Document key learnings in technical-blog-posts/
• Take screenshots of working projects
• Write achievement-focused bullets for resume

After Completion

• Make repository public on GitHub
• Add comprehensive README with project highlights
• Link to portfolio in resume and LinkedIn

---

Benefits of This Structure

✅ Granular Progress Tracking — Daily commits show consistent effort
✅ Interview-Ready — Easy to reference specific projects during interviews
✅ Portfolio-Friendly — Clean structure for sharing with recruiters
✅ Reproducible — Anyone can clone and follow along
✅ Scalable — Easy to add more weeks or topics
✅ Professional — Demonstrates software engineering best practices

---

Getting Started

1. Initialize Repository

   git init career-progression-2026
   cd career-progression-2026
   

2. Create Directory Structure

   # Use the provided setup script
   bash scripts/setup.sh
   

3. Start Week 1

   cd week-01-python-internals/day-01-gil/
   # Begin learning and coding!
   

4. Track Progress

   • Update docs/progress-tracker.md daily
   • Commit frequently with descriptive messages
   • Review weekly retrospectives

---

Success Metrics

By the end of 8 weeks, you should have:

• ✅ 40+ days of documented learning and code
• ✅ 8 major projects demonstrating different skills
• ✅ Portfolio-ready GitHub repository
• ✅ Interview stories using STAR method
• ✅ System design practice for senior roles
• ✅ Technical blog posts showcasing expertise

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Next Steps

After completing the 8-week program:

1. Apply to positions with your portfolio repository
2. Continue contributing to open-source projects
3. Publish blog posts on Medium or Dev.to
4. Practice interviews on Pramp or interviewing.io
5. Network by sharing your learnings on LinkedIn

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License

Choose an appropriate license (MIT recommended for portfolio projects).

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Contact

Add your contact information and links:

• GitHub: [your-username]
• LinkedIn: [your-profile]
• Email: [your-email]

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Good luck with your career progression journey! 🚀