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

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

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?

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