THE PROJECTS

Fourteen deliverables.
Every one earns its keep.

Every chapter ships one project. Each one teaches an architect's skill — naming a cost, choosing a structure, picking the right tool, or directing an agent without surrendering the judgment. Three difficulty tiers each; pick what suits you. The midterm (P8) is a 60-minute closed-AI live exam; the final (P14) is a take-home build with a live session.

P1 WEEKLY
Week 1 · Python

Measure, Predict, Confirm

"What does it mean to count the cost before you build?"

Big-O as the language of cost, measuring time and space, the right-tool thesis, agentic AI, the local toolchain →
P2 WEEKLY
Week 2 · Python

Build a Dynamic Array

"What is built on a firm foundation?"

Contiguous memory, cache locality, amortized growth; Python list internals vs C++ vector / Java ArrayList →
P3 WEEKLY
Week 3 · Python

Linked List vs Array Benchmark

"How are many members joined into one body?"

Singly and doubly linked lists; O(1) splice vs cache-miss pointer-chasing; when linked wins and when it loses →
P4 WEEKLY
Week 4 · Python

Choose Your Backing Store

"What does it mean to wait your turn?"

Linear ADTs; array-backed vs linked-backed tradeoffs; undo stacks, BFS queues, the call stack →
P5 WEEKLY
Week 5 · Python

Build a Hash Map

"What does it mean to be called by name?"

Hashing, collisions, load factor, average O(1) vs worst case, the space cost; Python dict and set internals →
P6 WEEKLY
Week 6 · Python

A Searchable Tree

"What grows from a root?"

Binary trees, BSTs, traversals, balance, O(log n); the tree-vs-hash-table tradeoff (order vs raw lookup) →
P7 WEEKLY
Week 7 · Python

Model and Traverse a Network

"How are we bound to one another?"

Adjacency list vs matrix as a space/time tradeoff, BFS and DFS, modeling a problem as a graph →
P8 MIDTERM
Week 8 · Python

Concurrent Data Pipeline (MIDTERM)

"How do many hands work as one without chaos?"

Threads vs processes, the Python GIL as a right-tool lesson (I/O- vs CPU-bound), race conditions, locks, Node's event loop as contrast →
P9 WEEKLY
Week 9 · Node.js

A JSON API in Node

"What does it mean to serve?"

The request/response cycle, ports, HTTP methods and status codes, a minimal Node HTTP + JSON API; the event loop →
P10 WEEKLY
Week 10 · Python · FastAPI

The Same API, in FastAPI

"What is a promise made in precise words?"

REST principles, JSON contracts, FastAPI + Pydantic models as specs; the Node-vs-FastAPI right-tool comparison →
P11 WEEKLY
Week 11 · SQLite

Persist It in SQLite

"How do we faithfully keep a record?"

Why databases, tables and rows, SQL CRUD, schema, the relational model; SQLite as the zero-config MVP tool, wired to a backend →
P12 WEEKLY
Week 12 · PostgreSQL

Migrate to Postgres, Justify It

"What foundation can bear real weight?"

Client/server databases, connection pooling, migrations, indexes as a space/time tradeoff, transactions and ACID; the SQLite-vs-Postgres decision →
P13 WEEKLY
Week 13 · MongoDB

Model It in Mongo

"When do you need a new wineskin?"

The document store, schema-flexibility as a tradeoff, denormalization; the relational-vs-document decision →
P14 FINAL
Week 16 · Full-Stack

A Real Internet-Aware Application (FINAL)

"What can a Christian engineer build?"

Capstone — a complete app with a backend server, a chosen-and-justified database, and a reasonable web front end →