🧭 AI-Era Essentials What Every Engineer Needs Now¶
The skills that weren't in your CS curriculum but are non-negotiable in 2024+.
🤖 AI-Assisted Development¶
| Tool/Skill | What | Link |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub Copilot | AI pair programming | github.com/features/copilot |
| Cursor / Kiro | AI-native IDEs | cursor.sh |
| Prompt Engineering | Getting useful output from LLMs | promptingguide.ai |
| RAG (Retrieval Augmented Generation) | Grounding LLMs in your data | YouTube |
| AI Code Review | Using AI to review PRs | YouTube |
| Vibe Coding | Conversational development | Practice daily |
What to Learn¶
- Prompt engineering not just "ask ChatGPT." Learn system prompts, chain-of-thought, few-shot.
- When NOT to use AI security-critical code, novel algorithms, architecture decisions.
- AI-augmented debugging paste error + context, get targeted fixes.
- Code generation validation AI writes, you review. Never ship unreviewed AI code.
📐 Technical Writing & Documentation¶
| Resource | Link |
|---|---|
| Google Technical Writing Course (free) | developers.google.com/tech-writing |
| Write the Docs | writethedocs.org |
| Diátaxis Framework (docs structure) | diataxis.fr |
| ADR (Architecture Decision Records) | adr.github.io |
| RFC Writing | YouTube |
🔒 Security Fundamentals (for every dev)¶
| Resource | Link |
|---|---|
| OWASP Top 10 | owasp.org/www-project-top-ten |
| OWASP Cheat Sheet Series | cheatsheetseries.owasp.org |
| Secure Coding Practices | owasp.org/www-project-secure-coding-practices |
| Web Security (Stanford CS253) | web.stanford.edu/class/cs253 |
| Crypto 101 | crypto101.io |
📊 Observability & Debugging at Scale¶
| Topic | Resource | Link |
|---|---|---|
| Distributed Tracing | OpenTelemetry Docs | opentelemetry.io |
| Logging Best Practices | 12-Factor (Logs) | 12factor.net/logs |
| Metrics & Alerting | Prometheus + Grafana | prometheus.io/docs |
| Chaos Engineering | Principles of Chaos | principlesofchaos.org |
| Incident Management | PagerDuty Guide (free) | response.pagerduty.com |
🧪 Testing (Beyond Unit Tests)¶
| Type | Tool/Resource | Link |
|---|---|---|
| Property-Based Testing | Hypothesis (Python) | hypothesis.readthedocs.io |
| Fuzz Testing | AFL / libFuzzer | llvm.org/docs/LibFuzzer |
| Contract Testing | Pact | pact.io |
| Load Testing | k6 | k6.io |
| Mutation Testing | Concept | YouTube |
| TDD (Test-Driven Development) | Kent Beck talks | YouTube |
🏎️ Performance Engineering¶
| Resource | Link |
|---|---|
| MIT 6.172 Performance Engineering | MIT OCW |
| Brendan Gregg (Performance) | brendangregg.com |
| Flame Graphs | brendangregg.com/flamegraphs |
| eBPF for Observability | ebpf.io |
| Latency Numbers Every Programmer Should Know | GitHub |
🌐 API Design & Best Practices¶
| Resource | Link |
|---|---|
| Google API Design Guide | cloud.google.com/apis/design |
| Microsoft REST API Guidelines | github.com/microsoft/api-guidelines |
| gRPC Best Practices | grpc.io/docs/guides |
| JSON:API Specification | jsonapi.org |
| OpenAPI Specification | swagger.io/specification |
📓 From Learning Log¶
| Course/Resource | Platform | Link |
|---|---|---|
| How Transformer LLMs Work | DeepLearning.AI | deeplearning.ai |
| Intro to Large Language Models (1hr) | YouTube (Karpathy) | YouTube |
| How I use LLMs (2h7m) | YouTube (Simon Willison) | YouTube |
| A Guide to Claude Code 2.0 | Blog | sankalp.bearblog.dev |
| Things we learned about LLMs in 2024 | Blog (Simon Willison) | simonwillison.net |
| 2025: The year in LLMs | Blog (Simon Willison) | simonwillison.net |
Cross-references: Career Growth · Cloud Track · Interview Prep