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Track 3 of 6 · 42% complete

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Learn by shipping something that breaks.

Every lesson ends in a running program. Every track ends in a deployed project you can put in front of someone.

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Your track: Backend fundamentals

Eighteen lessons. You are on nine.

In progress · 24 min

09 · Connection pooling

Why your app dies at 200 concurrent users, and the twelve lines that fix it.

Next up · 31 min

10 · Transactions and isolation

Build a booking system, then break it with two people clicking at once.

Locked · 28 min

11 · Indexing for real queries

Read a query plan, add the wrong index on purpose, watch it get slower.

Learn by breaking

Every lesson ends with you causing the failure on purpose, then fixing it. Reading about a deadlock teaches nobody anything.

Runs in the browser

A real database and a real server per lesson, provisioned in about four seconds. Nothing to install and nothing to configure.

Finished, not watched

No videos to scrub through. Progress is measured by what your code does, not by minutes played.

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What everyone else is reading

  1. 01

    09 · Connection pooling

    In progress · 24 minutes

  2. 02

    10 · Transactions and isolation

    Next up · 31 minutes

  3. 03

    11 · Indexing for real queries

    Locked · 28 minutes

  4. 04

    12 · The N+1 you keep writing

    Locked · 19 minutes

  5. 05

    13 · Migrations without downtime

    Locked · 34 minutes

  6. 06

    14 · Reading a query plan

    Locked · 26 minutes

6

Tracks

104

Lessons total

0

Videos to scrub through

14k

Projects deployed by students

The lesson where they make you cause the deadlock yourself taught me more than a year of reading about them.

Daniel Okafor

Daniel Okafor

Student, backend track

About this publication

Do I need to install anything?

No. Each lesson provisions a real database and server in the browser in about four seconds, and throws it away when you leave.

How long is a lesson?

Twenty to thirty-five minutes, and each one ends with something running. You can stop between lessons without losing the thread.

Is the first track really free?

All eighteen lessons, no card and no trial timer. Finish it and then decide whether the rest is worth paying for.

What if I get stuck?

Every lesson has a hint chain and a full solution. Using them is not cheating; getting stuck for an hour teaches nobody anything.

First track is free, all of it.

No card, no trial timer. Finish it and decide whether the rest is worth paying for.

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© 2026 Groundwork. Demo content for a Layerkit template.

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