Development Fundamentals
Building the foundation for your journey as a software developer. Understanding the fundamentals is crucial before diving into any programming language or framework.
Computer History
Understanding the evolution of computers helps us appreciate modern programming and make better architectural decisions.
Why This Matters
Learning computer history isn't just about memorizing dates and names. It helps you understand:
- Evolution of Programming Paradigms: From machine code to high-level languages, see how abstraction evolved
- Hardware-Software Relationship: Why certain optimizations matter and how software interacts with hardware
- Problem-Solving Approaches: Learn from the challenges early pioneers faced and their elegant solutions
- Industry Trends: Recognize patterns in technology cycles to better predict future directions
What We'll Cover
- From ENIAC to modern computing
- The birth of programming languages
- Evolution of operating systems
- The internet revolution and its impact on software development
- Cloud computing and distributed systems era
Digital Circuits
Understanding how computers work at the fundamental level - from electricity to executable code.
Why This Matters
As a backend developer, knowing digital circuits gives you:
- Deep Understanding: Know what happens when you write
int x = 5;at the hardware level - Performance Optimization: Make informed decisions about data types, memory usage, and CPU operations
- Debugging Skills: Understand low-level errors and memory-related issues better
- Architecture Awareness: Appreciate why certain operations are faster than others
- Bit Manipulation: Master bitwise operations used in cryptography, compression, and system programming
What We'll Cover
- Binary number systems and Boolean algebra
- Logic gates and circuit design
- Memory: RAM, ROM, Cache hierarchy
- CPU architecture and instruction cycles
- How high-level code becomes machine instructions
- Data representation: integers, floating-point, characters
Algorithms and Data Structures
The heart of computer science - learning to solve problems efficiently and elegantly.
Why This Matters
This is arguably the most important topic for any developer:
- Problem-Solving Foundation: Learn systematic approaches to break down complex problems
- Performance: Choose the right data structure and your app can be 100x faster
- Code Quality: Write cleaner, more maintainable code that scales
- Technical Interviews: Essential for passing coding interviews at top companies
- Real-World Applications: From database indexing to search engines, algorithms power everything
- Computational Thinking: Develop the mindset to approach any technical challenge
What We'll Cover
Data Structures:
- Arrays and Dynamic Arrays
- Linked Lists (Single, Double, Circular)
- Stacks and Queues
- Hash Tables and Hash Maps
- Trees (Binary Trees, BST, AVL, Red-Black)
- Heaps and Priority Queues
- Graphs and their representations
Algorithms:
- Searching: Linear Search, Binary Search
- Sorting: Bubble, Selection, Insertion, Merge, Quick, Heap Sort
- Recursion and Backtracking
- Dynamic Programming
- Greedy Algorithms
- Graph Algorithms: DFS, BFS, Dijkstra's, A*
- String Algorithms and Pattern Matching
Complexity Analysis:
- Big O Notation
- Time and Space Complexity
- Best, Average, and Worst Case Analysis
Git & Version Control
The essential tool for modern software development - collaborate, track changes, and never lose your work.
Why This Matters
Git is not optional in modern development - it's mandatory. Here's why:
- Collaboration: Work with teams without stepping on each other's toes
- History & Rollback: Track every change and revert mistakes instantly
- Branching Strategy: Work on features independently, experiment safely
- Code Review: Professional teams review all code before merging
- Deployment: Git integrates with CI/CD pipelines for automated deployments
- Portfolio: GitHub is your resume - employers check your repositories
- Open Source: Contribute to projects used by millions worldwide
What We'll Cover
Git Fundamentals:
- Understanding version control systems
- Repository initialization and cloning
- Staging and committing changes
- Working directory, staging area, and repository
- Git workflow and best practices
Branching & Merging:
- Creating and switching branches
- Merge strategies and conflict resolution
- Rebasing vs Merging
- Git Flow and branching models
- Feature branches, hotfixes, and releases
Collaboration:
- Remote repositories (GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket)
- Pushing and pulling changes
- Pull requests and code reviews
- Forking and contributing to open source
- Managing merge conflicts in teams
Advanced Topics:
- Cherry-picking commits
- Stashing changes
- Interactive rebase
- Git hooks and automation
- .gitignore and repository management
- Git tags and releases
Our Approach
In this module, we focus on understanding the basics rather than mastering everything. Our goal is to give you:
- How Computers Work - The fundamental concepts behind computing
- What Programming Means - Understanding the nature of software development
- How Algorithms Are Made - The thinking process behind problem-solving
- Essential Tools - Git for managing your code from day one
We're building your conceptual foundation - you'll dive deeper into each area as you progress through Java SE, Jakarta EE, and Spring.