2yr_roadmap

1️⃣ System Design

Read the courses below in sequence

1. https://jpmc.udemy.com/course/mastering-system-design-from-basics-to-cracking-interviews/learn/lecture/49243879#overview

2. https://jpmc.udemy.com/course/system-design-a-comprehensive-guide/

3. https://jpmc.udemy.com/course/software-architecture-system-design-practical-case-studies/

4. https://jpmc.udemy.com/course/system-design-interview-prep/

5. https://jpmc.udemy.com/course/software-architecture-design-of-modern-large-scale-systems/

6. https://jpmc.udemy.com/course/rocking-system-design/

2️⃣ Distributed Systems + Event Driven

https://jpmc.udemy.com/course/apache-kafka-for-developers-using-springboot/learn/lecture/12852294#overview

https://jpmc.udemy.com/course/apache-kafka/learn/lecture/31409100#overview

https://jpmc.udemy.com/course/apache-kafka-for-beginners/

3️⃣ AWS Architecture

Ultimate AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate

Why:

• best structured AWS course

• teaches real architecture patterns

4️⃣ Kubernetes

Docker and Kubernetes: The Complete Guide

Why:

• strong hands-on labs

• widely recommended

5️⃣ Infrastructure Automation
HashiCorp Certified: Terraform Associate
Why:


practical infrastructure automation



Strict 6-Month Learning Schedule
Study 1 hour per weekday + 2 hours weekend.
That is enough for deep learning.

Month 1–2: System Design Foundation
Course

→ Mastering the System Design Interview
Week 1
Topics


scalability basics


load balancing


caching


Practice
Design:
URL shortener


Week 2
Topics


database scaling


sharding


replication


Practice
Design:
Instagram feed


Week 3
Topics


messaging systems


queues


async architecture


Practice
Design:
Notification service


Week 4
Topics


distributed systems patterns


failure recovery


Practice
Design:
Rate limiter


Month 2
Design real enterprise systems
Practice designs:
Order management system
Trading platform
Payment system


Month 3: Event Driven Architecture
Course

→ Kafka course
Week 1
Learn


Kafka architecture


brokers


topics


partitions


Practice
Run Kafka locally with Docker.

Week 2
Learn


producers


consumers


message streaming


Build
Order event publisher


Week 3
Learn


consumer groups


event streaming patterns


Build
Order processing pipeline


Week 4
Learn


Kafka scaling


fault tolerance


Build
Event-driven microservices system


Month 4: AWS Architecture
Course

→ AWS Solutions Architect
Week 1
Learn
EC2
VPC
Networking

Practice
Create cloud architecture diagram.

Week 2
Learn
S3
Load balancers
Auto scaling

Practice
Deploy a simple web app.

Week 3
Learn
Lambda
Serverless architecture

Practice
Build simple serverless API.

Week 4
Learn
RDS
DynamoDB
Data architecture

Design
Cloud microservices architecture


Month 5: Kubernetes
Course

→ Docker and Kubernetes
Week 1
Learn
Docker fundamentals
containers
images


Week 2
Learn
Kubernetes pods
deployments
services

Deploy:
Spring Boot service


Week 3
Learn
scaling
autoscaling
service discovery

Deploy
3 microservices


Week 4
Learn
rolling deployments
configmaps
secrets

Run full microservice stack.

Month 6: Infrastructure Automation
Course

→ Terraform
Week 1
Learn
Terraform basics

Create infrastructure:
VPC
EC2
Security groups


Week 2
Learn
Terraform modules

Automate infrastructure creation.

Week 3
Learn
Terraform state
remote state

Create reusable infrastructure.

Week 4
Project
Build complete cloud infrastructure:
VPC
EC2
Load balancer
Database


The Most Important Rule
Don't just watch courses.
Use this learning loop:
Watch lesson
→ Write notes
→ Build small project
→ Draw architecture

That is how engineers master architecture.

Your End Result After 6 Months

You will understand:

System design
Event-driven systems
Kafka architecture
AWS cloud systems
Kubernetes deployments
Infrastructure automation

___________________________________

Perfect — that’s very clear. Your focus is technical mastery and next-gen architecture, not management for now. That aligns perfectly with the JPMorgan Lead Software Engineer role, especially with a small 4-person team: you can spend more time learning, experimenting, and designing systems.

Here’s how I would frame your 1-year plan inside this role to build foundations for the next 10 years.

---

1️⃣ Goal for Year 1

• Primary goal: Deep mastery of next-generation architecture: distributed systems, event-driven systems, system design, cloud, Kubernetes, infrastructure automation.

• Secondary goal: Build visibility as a technically strong engineer.

• Not a goal: Leading/managing people.

---

2️⃣ Learning + Hands-On Action Plan

Timeframe	Focus	Actions / Projects	Outcome
Months 1–2	System Design Foundation	- Take Mastering System Design Interview Udemy course- Weekly design exercises: order management, payment, trading pipelines- Document architecture diagrams and trade-offs	Internalized system design thinking, ability to reason about scale, failures, and resilience
Months 3–4	Event-Driven Architecture	- Take Kafka Udemy course- Build small event-driven project: Order API → Kafka → Risk → Notification- Practice fault-tolerant consumers, retries, idempotency	Strong understanding of async pipelines and real-time systems
Months 5–6	AWS Architecture	- Take AWS Solutions Architect Udemy course- Deploy microservices in AWS with load balancers, auto-scaling, managed databases- Build diagrams and real experiments	Cloud architecture mastery, real deployment experience
Months 7–8	Kubernetes	- Take Docker + Kubernetes Udemy course- Deploy multi-service microservice stack in Kubernetes- Practice scaling, rolling updates, config maps, secrets	Container orchestration expertise
Months 9–10	Infrastructure Automation	- Take Terraform Udemy course- Automate deployment of previous projects (VPC, EC2, DB, microservices)- Connect CI/CD pipeline	Infrastructure as code mastery, reproducible environments
Months 11–12	Integration & Reflection	- Combine all previous projects into a cloud-native, event-driven platform- Present architecture internally / document lessons- Explore optional AI / analytics hooks	Year-end portfolio of next-gen architecture projects, ready for staff-level responsibility

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3️⃣ Principles to Make the Learning Stick

1. Learn → Build → Explain

   • Watch course / read concept → Build a small system → Explain it (docs, diagrams, team review)

2. Document everything

   • Architecture diagrams, trade-offs, challenges

   • Builds visibility and reinforces understanding

3. Apply to “real work context” when possible

   • If tasks at JPM allow, integrate Kafka, microservices, or cloud experiments into team projects

4. Weekly reflection

   • What did I learn?

   • What patterns can I reuse?

   • What would I do differently?

---

4️⃣ What You Will Achieve by Year-End

• Mastery of distributed, event-driven, cloud-native systems

• Hands-on experience with AWS, Kubernetes, Terraform

• Portfolio of projects demonstrating next-gen architecture capability

• Strong technical credibility, laying a 10-year foundation

• No management distractions → pure technical growth

---

5️⃣ Strategic Career Tip

• Even without leading people, focus on technical leadership: propose architecture improvements, mentor peers on design choices, review code with system-level perspective.

• This positions you naturally for Staff Engineer / Architect roles in the future.

---

If you want, I can create a strict weekly schedule for the first 6 months that balances Udemy courses + hands-on projects + internal application so you maximize learning without burning out.

Do you want me to do that?