Weekly Roadmap

The 30 days follow a simple arc: learn the basics, ship project 1, ship project 2, ship project 3, publish. Foundations mode moves through the same arc at half speed (1-2 projects instead of 3). Freestyle mode replaces “D8A project” with “your Kaggle project”, same rhythm.

🌱 Week 1 (Days 1-7): Foundations and liftoff

Goal: basics locked in, project 1 started.

• Days 1-3: complete the free Foundations intro course of your path (about 1 hour on D8A, or an equivalent free tutorial if you go solo).
• Day 4: pick Project 1 from the Project Library. Start with the first project of your path, it is calibrated for beginners. Read the brief, create the GitHub repo.
• Days 5-7: first real work sessions. Get the data loaded and explore it.

🚢 Week 2 (Days 8-14): Ship project 1

Goal: project 1 finished, submitted and written up.

• Days 8-9: core work plus a quality pass (clean code, clear README).
• Day 10: finish and submit. On D8A the GitHub validation flips it to “validated” on your portfolio. Solo: final commit and a README a stranger could follow.
• Day 11: write the project story. Problem, approach, result, in 5-10 sentences. This is what recruiters actually read.
• Days 12-14: pick Project 2, set up, start exploring.

📣 Week 3 (Days 15-21): Ship project 2, draft the portfolio

Goal: project 2 done, portfolio v1 exists.

• Days 15-17: work sessions. Day 17 is the “push through the hard part” day: every project has one, do not stall silently, ask for help.
• Day 18: finish and submit project 2.
• Day 19: publish portfolio v1. On D8A it already exists with your validated projects, just fill in your bio and photo. Solo: pin your repos and write a profile README.
• Days 20-21: get feedback from one real human, then review the week.

💎 Week 4 (Days 22-28): Project 3 and polish