Web Development
The complete path from your first HTML element to a deployed full-stack application with users, a database, payments and a real domain. Twenty-four weeks, taught in order, with nothing assumed and nothing skipped.
What this programme is really for
Almost everyone learning web development online hits the same wall: they can follow a tutorial, but they cannot build something from an empty folder. That gap is not about talent — it is about never having been taught the connective tissue between the pieces.
This programme is built to close it. Every module ends with you building something without a video to copy, and every week you sit in a live class where an instructor reviews real code — often yours.
What you will be able to do
- Build responsive, accessible interfaces from a design
- Write modern JavaScript with genuine understanding
- Build React applications with real state management
- Design and query relational and document databases
- Build REST APIs with authentication and file uploads
- Take payments with Stripe and send transactional email
- Write tests and read a stack trace without fear
- Diagnose performance and fix Core Web Vitals
- Deploy to a host, configure a domain and set up SSL
- Work with Git and GitHub the way a team does
Curriculum
12 modules · 24 weeks · a live class every week
- Clients, servers, HTTP, DNS and what happens when you type a URL
- Setting up VS Code, extensions and a comfortable workspace
- The terminal: the twenty commands you will use forever
- Git and GitHub: commits, branches, merges, pull requests
- How to read documentation and search for answers effectively
- Semantic elements and why a div is rarely the right answer
- Forms, inputs, labels and native validation
- Accessibility fundamentals: landmarks, alt text, keyboard order, ARIA
- Document structure, metadata and on-page SEO basics
- Images: formats, responsive images and loading behaviour
- The box model, specificity and the cascade — properly, once
- Flexbox and CSS Grid until layout stops being guesswork
- Responsive design, container queries and fluid typography
- Custom properties and building a small design system
- Transitions, animation and tasteful motion
- Tailwind CSS, and when a utility framework helps or hurts
- Types, scope, functions and control flow
- Arrays and objects, and the methods you will use daily
- The DOM: selecting, creating, updating and event handling
- ES6+ syntax: destructuring, spread, modules, optional chaining
- Asynchronous JavaScript: callbacks, promises, async/await
- Fetching data from APIs and handling loading and error states
- Debugging with browser devtools instead of guessing
- Closures,
this, prototypes and the class syntax - npm, package.json, semantic versioning and lockfiles
- Vite, bundling and what a build step actually does
- ESLint, Prettier and consistent code style
- An introduction to TypeScript and why teams adopt it
- Components, props, JSX and thinking in component trees
- State, effects and the hooks you will genuinely use
- Lists, keys, conditional rendering and forms
- Routing with React Router
- Context, custom hooks and lifting state sensibly
- Data fetching patterns, caching and error boundaries
- Component composition and avoiding the common re-render traps
- Node fundamentals, modules and the event loop
- Express: routing, middleware and project structure
- Designing a REST API that other people can use
- Authentication with sessions and JSON Web Tokens
- Password hashing, authorisation and protecting routes
- File uploads, validation and error handling
- Environment variables and configuration for different stages
- Relational modelling, normalisation and schema design
- SQL: selects, joins, aggregates, indexes and migrations
- PostgreSQL and MySQL in practice
- MongoDB and when a document store is the better fit
- Using an ORM (Prisma) and knowing what it hides from you
- Seeding, backups and not losing your users' data
- Connecting a React front end to your own API
- End-to-end authentication: sign up, log in, protected pages, sessions
- Taking payments with Stripe, including webhooks
- Sending transactional email
- File and image handling with cloud storage
- CORS, cookies and the errors that cost people whole evenings
- Unit and integration testing with Vitest or Jest
- Testing React components the way users use them
- Core Web Vitals, Lighthouse and real performance work
- Bundle size, code splitting and lazy loading
- The OWASP basics: XSS, CSRF, injection, secure headers
- Handling secrets and dependencies responsibly
- Git branching workflows used by real teams
- Continuous integration with GitHub Actions
- Deploying front ends to Vercel or Netlify
- Deploying a Node API and database to a VPS or managed host
- Domains, DNS records, SSL certificates and redirects
- Logging, uptime monitoring and reading production errors
- Planning and shipping a full-stack capstone of your own design
- Code review with an instructor before you show it to anyone
- Building a portfolio that survives thirty seconds of scrutiny
- A GitHub profile and README that recruiters actually read
- CV writing and technical interview preparation, including live coding
- Freelancing: finding clients, scoping, quoting and invoicing
Technologies you will use
Projects you will build
Personal portfolio site
Hand-built, responsive and accessible, deployed to a live domain in week five — your first real thing on the internet.
Interactive dashboard
A JavaScript application consuming a public API with search, filtering, loading states and proper error handling.
React storefront
Product listing, detail pages, cart, and persisted state — the front end of a real e-commerce experience.
REST API with authentication
An Express and PostgreSQL API with users, roles, protected routes, validation and documented endpoints.
Full-stack SaaS application
Front end, API and database joined together, with Stripe payments, email and file uploads working end to end.
Your own application
You choose the idea, plan it, build it, test it, deploy it and present it — reviewed by an instructor before it goes in your portfolio.
Who this is for
A good fit if…
- You want a developer job or serious freelance work
- You have tried self-teaching and stalled somewhere in JavaScript
- You can genuinely commit 10–12 hours a week for six months
- You want to understand your code, not just make it work
Consider another track if…
- You have never coded at all — start with Programming Foundations
- You want paid work sooner — WordPress Mastery is the faster route
- You are drawn to how things look and feel — try UI/UX Design
Questions about this programme
It is not a hard requirement — module one starts from nothing. But the programme moves at a real pace, and students who have written at least a little code before tend to have a much better time. If you have never programmed, Programming Foundations first will make this programme dramatically easier, and it is why the All-Access Pass exists.
Because it has by far the largest job market and the deepest ecosystem, which matters most when you are looking for your first role. We spend three weeks on plain JavaScript before React specifically so that you learn the language rather than the framework — which is what makes moving to Vue, Svelte or Angular later a matter of days, not months.
Nothing bad happens. The 24 weeks describe the pace of the live sessions, not a deadline on your access — the lesson material is yours for life. Plenty of students working full time take nine or ten months, attend the live classes that are relevant to wherever they are, and finish perfectly well.
Any laptop from roughly the last six years running Windows, macOS or Linux, with 8 GB of RAM and a stable internet connection. Everything we use is free or has a free tier. You do not need a powerful machine to learn web development, and we will help you set yours up in the first live session.