Learn: Linux → Docker → Kubernetes → Networking → Azure → AKS → Platform Engineering

A hands-on curriculum to take you from "never touched a terminal" to running, securing, observing, and operating production platforms on Azure. Originally four tracks (Linux/Docker/Kubernetes/AKS), then extended with a networking and Container Apps detour, and now extended again into the full platform- engineering stack: IaC, CI/CD, security, observability, data, and operations. You're on Windows 11 — everything here assumes you practice inside WSL2 (a real Linux kernel running alongside Windows).

This is a large curriculum, being built out in batches. Tracks are added in dependency order; if a track's folder doesn't exist yet, it hasn't been built out yet — check back.

Naming convention

• Tracks are top-level folders directly under learn/, named NN-track-name — a zero-padded two-digit sequence number (the order you do them in) plus a lowercase kebab-case slug. NN is globally sequential across the whole curriculum, not restarted per topic.
• Modules are subfolders inside a track, named the same way — NN-module-name — but NN restarts at 00 inside each track and is local to that track.
• Every module folder contains exactly one README.md. There are no other file types in this curriculum — no separate exercise files, no scripts — everything a module needs is written inline in its README as fenced code blocks the reader copies into their own terminal/files.
• The last module in every track is always NN-capstone-project — an open-ended, no-solution-given project. It's structurally different from every other module (no command reference, no quiz, no independent challenge — see below) and is what "finishing a track" means.
• Every track folder's own README.md is that track's index: a module table and a "Start here" link. The one file you're reading now (learn/README.md) is the single master index for all tracks.

How to use this

• Go in order. Track numbering reflects dependency order, not just topic grouping — each track assumes everything before it, and nothing after it.
• Inside each track, module folders are numbered — do them in order.
• Every standard module README has: concepts explained plainly, a command reference table, hands-on exercises (do these — don't just read), an independent challenge with no commands given, common mistakes, and a checkpoint quiz. Every 3-4 modules there's also a cumulative review mixing questions from everything so far in that track. Capstone modules skip the quiz/challenge/review scaffolding — they're the open-ended integration test instead.
• Don't rush. "Practice a lot" was the ask — repeat exercises until the commands feel automatic, not just recognizable.

How to actually retain this (read this once, seriously)

Guided exercises (the ones that hand you the exact command) build recognition, not recall — they're the easiest tier of learning and, on their own, will not make you fluent. Use the curriculum the way it's structured to fight that:

• Attempt every quiz question in writing before opening the answer. Reading the answer without trying first feels like learning and isn't.
• Do the independent challenge with zero peeking at earlier solved exercises. Struggling for 10-15 minutes before checking a hint is the point, not a sign you're behind.
• Take the cumulative reviews closed-book. If you can't answer something from three modules back, that's a real signal to go redo that module's exercises, not just reread the prose.
• Before starting a new module, redo one exercise from the previous module from memory, no notes. Thirty seconds of friction here is what turns "I did this once" into "I know this."
• When you hit a real error the curriculum didn't script for you, sit with it before searching — that's the actual skill being built.

Tracks

Prerequisites already confirmed

• Total beginner with the command line — content starts from zero.
• Practicing in WSL2 on this machine.
• You have an active Azure subscription — most tracks from 2 onward use it for real deployments, not just theory.

Setup you need before starting 01-linux

Install WSL2 with Ubuntu (run in PowerShell as Administrator):

wsl --install -d Ubuntu

Restart if prompted, then open the "Ubuntu" app from the Start menu and finish creating your Linux username/password. That terminal is where almost every exercise in this curriculum happens.

Start here → 01-linux/README.md