🔥 STAGE 1 — Strong Foundations (1–2 weeks)
“Don't skip this. Most bugs happen here.”
📘 Topics:
- Ethereum Basics: Accounts, Transactions, Gas, Nonces
- EVM Architecture
- Storage vs Memory vs Calldata
- msg.sender, msg.value, tx.origin, block.number
- Solidity Types, Mappings, Structs
- Function Visibility: public, external, internal, private
- Modifiers and Error Handling
- Events and Logging
- Custom Errors (cheaper than require)
📦 Projects:
- Simple ERC20 Token
- Voting Contract
- Access-Control based Wallet
🛡️ STAGE 2 — Security & Intermediate Smart Contracts (2–4 weeks)
“Write code like someone’s trying to rob you. Because they are.”
🔐 Learn:
- Reentrancy Attacks & Mitigations
- Fallbacks & Receive Functions
- delegatecall vulnerabilities
- Front-running & Miner Extractable Value (MEV)
- Denial of Service & Gas griefing
- Oracle Manipulation
- Block Timestamp dependency
- Flash Loan Attacks
🔨 Projects:
- Crowdfunding dApp with refund logic
- NFT Mint + Reveal contract (ERC721A, gas optimized)
- Multi-Sig Wallet
- Rebuild Uniswap V2 Swap Logic
Tools:
- Foundry: Testing, fuzzing, forking
- Hardhat: Frontend + Contract interaction
- Slither, MythX: Security static analysis
- Tenderly: Real-time debugging
💀 STAGE 3 — Advanced Contracts & EVM Internals (3–5 weeks)
“This is where Solidity ends and EVM mastery begins.”
💡 Topics:
- Assembly (Yul) + inline assembly
- Storage slot packing + collision
- CREATE2 and deterministic deployments
- Upgradeability Patterns:
- Delegatecall and Proxy Contracts
- Gas Golfing
- Custom Errors vs Strings
- Minimal Proxy (EIP-1167)
- State Channels + Meta Transactions
Projects:
- Minimal Proxy Factory
- Gas-optimized ERC721 Drop
- Diamond Proxy Modular dApp
- On-chain Game Logic
🔁 STAGE 4 — Testing, Auditing & Optimization (Ongoing)
“You’re only as good as your last bug-free audit.”
🧪 Learn:
- Fuzz Testing (forge fuzz)
- Invariant Testing (forge invariant)
- Fork testing against mainnet
- Slither, Echidna, Foundry Coverage
- Advanced debugging with Tenderly or Hardhat traces
Activities:
- Audit popular contracts on GitHub
- Try CTFs like Ethernaut, CaptureTheEther
- Read real audits (Trail of Bits, OpenZeppelin)
🧠 STAGE 5 — DeFi & On-Chain Patterns (4–6 weeks)
“You’re playing chess with whales, bots, and the mempool.”
Key Concepts:
- AMMs (Uniswap V2/V3 math)
- Lending/Borrowing Protocols
- Liquidation logic
- Flash Loans
- Price Oracles (Chainlink, TWAP, Median)
- MEV bots and frontrunning protection
- Keeper/Automation Design
Projects:
- Build a Lending Protocol
- Build a Flash Loan Arbitrage bot (testnet)
- Implement TWAP oracle
- Simulate MEV sandwich attacks in Foundry
📡 STAGE 6 — Go Full DeGen Builder
Build real stuff that touches mainnet/testnet daily:
Final Missions:
- Join hackathons (ETHGlobal, Encode, Chainlink)
- Launch your dApp on Base or Optimism
- Publish audits and smart contract libraries
- Work on open-source projects like DeFi protocols, L2 tooling
- Build your own:
📚 Reference Stack
