Week Topic
Week 1–2 Review Java Core
Week 1–2 Build CLI To-Do App
Week 1–2 Practice Java 8+ Features
Week 3–4 Learn Spring Boot Basics
Week 3–4 Create User Management API
Week 3–4 JUnit + Mockito Testing
Week 5–6 Spring Data JPA & Hibernate
Week 5–6 MySQL/PostgreSQL Integration
Week 5–6 Entity Relationships & Validation
Week 7–8 Spring Security (JWT)
Week 7–8 Build Blog API or Expense Tracker
Week 7–8 Add Swagger & Docker
Week 9–10 CI/CD with GitHub Actions
Week 9–10 Integration Testing with Testcontainers
Week 9–10 Basic AWS (EC2, S3, RDS)
Week 11–12 Capstone Project (Job Tracker / CRM)
Week 11–12 Deploy to Cloud (Render/Heroku)
Week 11–12 Write Project README
Learning Resources
https://www.w3schools.com/java/
https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/java-program-to-create-a-todo-list/
https://www.baeldung.com/java-8-new-features
https://spring.io/guides/gs/spring-boot/
https://www.baeldung.com/spring-boot-crud-thymeleaf
https://www.baeldung.com/mockito-junit-5
https://www.baeldung.com/the-persistence-layer-with-spring-data-jpa
https://www.baeldung.com/spring-boot-data-sql-and-schema
https://www.baeldung.com/jpa-join-types
https://www.baeldung.com/spring-security-oauth-jwt
https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-petclinic
https://www.baeldung.com/swagger-2-documentation-for-spring-rest-api
https://docs.github.com/en/actions
https://www.testcontainers.org/quickstart/junit_5_quickstart/
https://aws.amazon.com/training/
https://roadmap.sh/backend
https://render.com/
https://www.makeareadme.com/
Practice Tasks
https://www.hackerrank.com/domains/java
Build a To-Do app CLI with file storage
Use https://exercism.org/tracks/java
https://www.springboottutorial.com/
Extend CRUD to include filtering
Write unit tests for service layer
Build a mini inventory system
Practice writing JPA queries
Create ER diagram and validate input
Add login/auth system to project
Secure existing API & add user roles
Use Swagger UI and Dockerize app
Set up CI/CD on a GitHub repo
Write integration test for REST API
Deploy app on AWS EC2 with database
Design and build a full CRUD system
Deploy app and test live version
Write clean README with screenshots
✅ Week 1–2: Foundations & Setup
Review Java Core (OOP, Collections, Streams, Exception Handling, Generics)
Build a CLI To-Do App using plain Java (no frameworks)
Practice Java 8+ features (Lambdas, Streams, Optionals)
✅ Week 3–4: Spring Boot Basics
Learn Spring Boot (REST APIs, Spring MVC)
Create a simple User Management API with CRUD operations
Use Postman for API testing
Learn unit testing with JUnit + Mockito
✅ Week 5–6: Data & Persistence
Learn Spring Data JPA + Hibernate
Use MySQL/PostgreSQL with your User API
Create relationships (OneToMany, ManyToOne)
Add validation and global exception handling
✅ Week 7–8: Advanced Spring
Learn Spring Security (JWT + Role-based auth)
Build a secured Blog API or Expense Tracker
Integrate Swagger/OpenAPI docs
Add Docker support
✅ Week 9–10: DevOps & Testing
CI/CD basics with GitHub Actions
Containerize with Docker
Integration Testing with Testcontainers
Study basic AWS (EC2, S3, RDS)
✅ Week 11–12: Capstone Project
Build a complete Job Application Tracker or Mini-CRM
Auth, CRUD, Search, Filtering, Pagination
Deployed on Render/Heroku/AWS
Use GitHub for version control
Write a README with features, tech stack, and instructions
