Ivan's Cool Obsidian Vault

8-Week Plan

3 min read

Start: March 24
End: May 18
Goal: Brush up on React & backend, learn cloud fundamentals, and understand DataStage & ETL workflows.

✅ Week 1–2: Deepen React + Modern Patterns

🎯 Goals

  • Refactor component structure using best practices
  • Practice hooks, context, and React testing

📚 Topics

  • Custom Hooks
  • Context API for global state
  • Error boundaries
  • Component patterns (container/presentational, compound)
  • Unit testing with Jest + React Testing Library

🛠️ Mini Project

  • Build a Task Manager App
    • Add Firebase Auth for user login
    • Use custom hooks for state management
    • Test components with Jest

🔗 Resources

✅ Week 3: Backend – Express.js + REST API Mastery

🎯 Goals

  • Build and test robust REST APIs
  • Master routing, middleware, and authentication

📚 Topics

  • Express routing and middleware
  • RESTful design principles
  • Error handling and status codes
  • JWT Authentication
  • PostgreSQL integration (via Prisma or Sequelize)

🛠️ Mini Project

  • Build a Book Store API with:
    • CRUD operations for books
    • JWT-based user auth

🔗 Resources

✅ Week 4: Databases – PostgreSQL & IBM Db2

🎯 Goals

  • Get comfortable with relational databases
  • Understand Db2 basics for IBM tooling

📚 Topics

  • SQL basics, joins, indexes
  • Schema design
  • ORM usage (Prisma or Sequelize)
  • Explore IBM Db2 on IBM Cloud Lite

🛠️ Challenge

  • Refactor Grocery Tracker App to use PostgreSQL backend

🔗 Resources

✅ Week 5: Cloud 101 – IBM Cloud + AWS Basics

🎯 Goals

  • Understand core cloud services and deployments
  • Get comfortable with cloud app hosting

📚 Topics

  • IaaS vs PaaS vs SaaS
  • IBM Cloud Functions, Code Engine, Db2 setup
  • AWS EC2, S3 basics (just for comparison)
  • CI/CD with GitHub Actions

🛠️ Task

  • Deploy your React + Express app to IBM Cloud or Render.com

🔗 Resources

✅ Week 6: ETL Concepts + Intro to DataStage

🎯 Goals

  • Grasp ETL pipeline basics
  • Understand what DataStage does

📚 Topics

  • What is ETL/ELT
  • Data pipeline components (Extract → Transform → Load)
  • Parallelism and job types in DataStage
  • DataStage architecture

🛠️ Task

  • Build a simple ETL script in Python
    • Extract data from CSV
    • Clean & transform
    • Load into PostgreSQL

🔗 Resources

✅ Week 7: Microservices + API Gateway Concepts

🎯 Goals

  • Learn microservice structure and API integration

📚 Topics

  • Microservices vs monoliths
  • REST vs gRPC (high-level)
  • API Gateway concepts (e.g., IBM API Connect)
  • Rate limiting and service auth
  • Event-driven overview (Kafka/RabbitMQ basics)

🛠️ Task

  • Split Book Store API:
    • Auth service
    • Book service

🔗 Resources

✅ Week 8: Final Project – School Inventory Manager (Full Stack)

🎯 Goal

Build a full-stack app that simulates a real-world DataStage-like workflow in a school setting.

🛠️ Features

  • React frontend with reusable components
  • Express.js backend with PostgreSQL
  • Firebase Auth (or JWT)
  • Inventory dashboard with:
    • Add/View/Edit/Delete school items
    • Track quantity and expiration (e.g., lab equipment, supplies)
    • Low stock alerts
  • Simple ETL logic:
    • Nightly script checks for low stock or expired items
    • Sends alerts or logs into a separate table
  • Deployment to IBM Cloud or Render

🔗 Bonus Learning

  • Read case studies of DataStage in data warehousing
  • Check out IBM Developer Blog for examples
  • Browse IBM Redbooks for ETL and integration best practices

🚀 You’re ready for IBM!

Graph View