Month-by-Month — M1 to M13¶

From Monday July 6, 2026 to Monday July 5, 2027.

This is the whole arc in one file. Every month has: theme, primary phase, sprint numbers, concrete deliverables (with file pointers), reading targets, portfolio-rung status, a Zoho alignment opportunity, an India-specific hazard warning, and an exit check. Four buffer weeks are marked explicitly (one per quarter). The Valley of Despair is named at M5-M7 — you have been warned in writing.

Read this file cold once. Then re-read the current month on the 1st of every month for 20 minutes.

The Big Picture¶

Buffer weeks: M3 wk4 (Sep 21-27), M6 wk3 (Dec 7-13), M9 wk4 (Mar 8-14), M12 wk4 (May 31 - Jun 6). These are non-negotiable pauses. If you are on track, use them to rest or read. If you are behind, use them to catch up. They are not extra sprint capacity by default.

The Valley of Despair: M5 (Nov 2026) through M7 (Jan 2027). This is when the honeymoon is over and the payoff has not arrived. This is the range where 60% of learners quit. The pre-mortem file 99_pre_mortem/07_the_interview_rejection_spiral.md and 13_discipline/07_motivation_sustainment.md were written for these three months specifically.

M1 — July 6 to August 2, 2026¶

Theme: Sharpen the tools before you touch the code.

Primary phase: Phase 0 — Refresher & Toolchain (01_refresher_and_toolchain/) Secondary overlap: None. This month is single-tracked. You are re-earning the right to your terminal. Sprints: S1 (Jul 6-19), S2 (Jul 20 - Aug 2)

Concrete deliverables:

Working gcc 15 + clang 20 on your Mac, both invocable, both with -Wall -Wextra -Wpedantic -Werror -fsanitize=address,undefined -g habit — see 01_refresher_and_toolchain/01_compiler_toolchain.md
A working clangd + LSP setup in your editor with compile_commands.json — see 01_refresher_and_toolchain/05_editor_setup.md
The 5 gdb writeups + 5 ASan writeups for Rung 1 — see 12_portfolio/01_rung_1_toolchain_journal.md
Two shipped mini-projects: (1) the Makefile-driven “utils” library, (2) 5 classic-segfault reproductions with debugger sessions logged — see 01_refresher_and_toolchain/projects.md

Reading targets:

Beej’s Guide to C Programming, chapters 1-7 (roughly the first 80 pages) — see 09_resources/02_free_online_books_and_guides.md
11_tools_setup/09_day_one_setup_script.md — run it on Day 1
The Compiler Explorer (godbolt.org) tutorial — open your first C snippet, see the assembly, feel the fact that a C line is 3 x86 instructions

Portfolio rung status:

Rung 1 (Toolchain Journal) ships end of M1. Public GitHub repo. LinkedIn post: “Starting my 13-month C journey.”

Zoho alignment opportunity:

Quiet quarter. Do not talk about the roadmap yet. Just start doing sharper C-adjacent thinking in code reviews where opportunity exists. See 06_background_alignment.md — Q1 is “quiet.”

India / life warning:

Bangalore monsoon peaks in July. Humidity, power fluctuations, mosquitoes. Screen time in the evening is fine; keep the fan on and hydrate. This is the easiest month of the year for personal-time carving.

Exit check (Sat August 1, 2026, before Sunday retro):

gdb, clangd, bear, mold all installed and usable
Rung 1 repo is public with README, 5 gdb writeups, 5 ASan writeups, green CI
You can explain the difference between -O0 and -O2 in one sentence without googling
You have written and posted your “starting the journey” LinkedIn post
The lab notebook has at least 4 entries (predict-then-measure) — see 13_discipline/02_lab_notebook.md

M2 — August 3 to August 30, 2026¶

Theme: The C language is smaller than you thought — but every corner will kill you.

Primary phase: Phase 1 — C Language Deep (02_c_language_deep/) Secondary overlap: Continue polishing Rung 1 if it slipped. No new rung this month. Sprints: S3 (Aug 3-16), S4 (Aug 17-30)

Concrete deliverables:

The strsplit / dynamic-string module (~200 LOC) with tests, ASan clean — 02_c_language_deep/projects.md
The tiny bytecode VM or interpreter (~200-300 LOC) demonstrating structs, unions, switch-dispatch — same file
A private-but-committed ub_diary.md in your Rung 1 repo listing every UB you have hit personally, with the -O0 vs -O2 output

Reading targets:

Modern C by Jens Gustedt — free HAL PDF (C17 2nd ed), chapters 1-6 (levels 0-1: “Encounter” and “Acquaintance”). See 09_resources/01_the_five_books.md
02_c_language_deep/05_undefined_behavior_catalog.md — the whole file, all 12 UBs. Type each example. Watch it break.

Portfolio rung status:

Rung 1 must be shipped by S3-end (Aug 16). If not, apply reset protocol — see 99_pre_mortem/09_summary_and_reset_protocol.md.
Rung 2 begins design in S4 (libprep API sketch on paper only).

Zoho alignment opportunity:

Still quiet quarter. But: any Zoho code you touch that involves C, C bindings, or a Python C extension — read it carefully. Note down which team owns it. This is intel for Q3.

India / life warning:

August 15 is Independence Day (holiday, Saturday in 2026 — no extra day off). Ganesh Chaturthi late Aug — family time, plan a short sprint week if applicable.

Exit check (Sun August 30, 2026):

The 12-UB catalog in your head, no cheat sheet
strsplit module public, ASan clean, tests passing
Bytecode VM public, README explains dispatch model
Lab notebook ≥ 12 entries total
Rung 1 shipped, publicly visible, one comment or star from r/C_Programming

M3 — August 31 to September 27, 2026¶

Theme: Everything is a pointer. Everything you own you must free.

Primary phase: Phase 2 — Memory & Pointers (03_memory_and_pointers/) Secondary overlap: Rung 2 (libprep) implementation starts. Sprints: S5 (Aug 31 - Sep 13), S6 (Sep 14-27). S6 wk2 is Q1 BUFFER WEEK.

Concrete deliverables:

The 200-LOC bump-arena allocator with test suite, ASan clean, zero leaks — 03_memory_and_pointers/projects.md
The ownership-annotated linked-list library (every function documents who frees what)
Rung 2 shipped: libprep container library — 5 data structures (vector, string builder, hashmap, min/max heap, deque), full tests, 90%+ line coverage, ASan clean — 12_portfolio/02_rung_2_libprep_containers.md

Reading targets:

Chris Wellons — nullprogram.com arena posts (2023 + 2025 follow-ups). See 09_resources/06_blogs_and_newsletters.md
Ryan Fleury — “Untangling Lifetimes: The Arena Allocator.” See 03_memory_and_pointers/06_custom_allocators.md
Drepper 2007 “What Every Programmer Should Know About Memory,” sections 1-3 only. Peter Cordes’ StackOverflow audit as line-by-line footnote.

Portfolio rung status:

Rung 2 ships by S6-end (Sep 27). Submit to r/C_Programming for feedback. Expect one hostile comment, one useful comment, three positive comments. This is normal.

Zoho alignment opportunity:

Q2 begins in M4. Still quiet in M3. But: if Zoho has any internal C code review you can be a “second reviewer” on, volunteer softly.

India / life warning:

Onam mid-Sep (Kerala colleagues away). Nothing major otherwise. This is your last easy month before the Valley.

Exit check (Sun September 27, 2026):

libprep public, ASan clean, README with API examples for each container
Bump-arena repo public, 200 LOC, tests green
You can draw the 4-segment memory diagram of any C program on a whiteboard
You have used bear -- make at least once and understand what it produced
Rung 2 posted to r/C_Programming; you did not delete the post after the first hostile comment

M4 — September 28 to October 25, 2026¶

Theme: DSA is the language of studies. C is the language of respect.

Primary phase: Phase 3 (part 1) — DSA in C (04_dsa_in_c/) Secondary overlap: None. Rung 2 must be finished by M3 end. Sprints: S7 (Sep 28 - Oct 11), S8 (Oct 12-25)

Concrete deliverables:

30 of the 75 NeetCode problems solved in C, one folder per problem with tests and complexity comments — 12_portfolio/03_rung_3_neetcode75_in_c.md
Cover: Arrays, Strings, Two Pointers, Sliding Window, Stack, Binary Search, Linked List patterns

Reading targets:

04_dsa_in_c/01_leetcode_in_c_strategy.md (whole file) — read Day 1 of the month
04_dsa_in_c/02_arrays_strings_two_pointers.md and 03_linked_lists_from_scratch.md
Skim “Beyond Cracking the Coding study” (studying.io team, 2025) for pattern framing — 09_resources/

Portfolio rung status:

Rung 3 in progress. 30/75 by M4 end is the pace.

Zoho alignment opportunity:

Q2 = “measure.” Start noting where in your Zoho ML pipeline C or C-adjacent code sits. Not proposing anything yet. Just measuring.

India / life warning:

Diwali is Nov 8, 2026 (in M5). Anticipate the family-time drawdown in the last week of October. Plan S8 to end soft.

Exit check (Sun October 25, 2026):

30 NeetCode problems solved in idiomatic C, each with time/space complexity comment
Aggregate time-per-problem tracked in a spreadsheet or CSV in the repo
You solved at least 3 hashmap problems using the libprep hashmap you built in M3 (dogfood)
Lab notebook ≥ 30 entries total

M5 — October 26 to November 22, 2026 — VALLEY OF DESPAIR BEGINS¶

Theme: The honeymoon is over. The payoff has not arrived. Ship anyway.

Primary phase: Phase 3 (part 2) — DSA in C Secondary overlap: Design sketch for the mini-shell (Rung 4) starts in the last week. Sprints: S9 (Oct 26 - Nov 8), S10 (Nov 9-22)

Concrete deliverables:

Remaining 45 of the 75 NeetCode problems solved. Cover: Trees (BST, DFS/BFS), Heaps, Backtracking, Tries, Graphs, DP (1D and 2D), Bit Manipulation
Rung 3 shipped: NeetCode-75 in C — full public repo, 5 hardest problems cross-posted to r/C_Programming with writeups — 12_portfolio/03_rung_3_neetcode75_in_c.md

Reading targets:

04_dsa_in_c/04_hashmaps_in_c.md through 08_interview_patterns_top_20.md
13_discipline/07_motivation_sustainment.md — read this at the start of the month, not when you feel bad. Prevention.

Portfolio rung status:

Rung 3 ships by S10-end (Nov 22).

Zoho alignment opportunity:

Still Q2 = measure. Prepare a 3-bullet “here is where systems-C skills would help our team” note. Do not send it yet. This is Q3’s ammunition.

India / life warning:

Diwali Nov 8, 2026 (Sunday). Long weekend Nov 7-8. S9 ends Nov 8 — do not schedule a hard sprint deliverable on Diwali night. Scope S9 to end by Nov 6.
Wedding season begins mid-November. If you have cousin/friend weddings, mark them on the calendar now. See 99_pre_mortem/03_the_wedding_season_and_family.md.

Exit check (Sun November 22, 2026):

75/75 NeetCode problems solved in C
Rung 3 repo public, cross-posted to r/C_Programming
You did not skip the daily 30-min habit for more than 3 consecutive days
You have re-read 99_pre_mortem/08 at least once this month

M6 — November 23 to December 20, 2026 — VALLEY, WEDDING SEASON¶

Theme: Talking to the kernel for the first time.

Primary phase: Phase 4 (part 1) — Systems Programming (05_systems_programming/) Secondary overlap: None. Rung 4 begins as slow build. Sprints: S11 (Nov 23 - Dec 6), S12 (Dec 7-20). S12 wk1 (Dec 7-13) is Q2 BUFFER WEEK — wedding season.

Concrete deliverables:

6 syscall exercises: implement cat, wc, head, tail (non--f yet), cp, ls — all using raw syscalls, not stdio
Read the entire 05_systems_programming/01_the_unix_syscall_model.md through 03_process_control.md and type every code sample

Reading targets:

Beej’s Guide to Network Programming, chapters 1-4 (early network intro)
man 2 open, man 2 read, man 2 write, man 2 fork, man 2 execve, man 2 wait — read all of them cover to cover

Portfolio rung status:

Rung 4 sketch: pseudocode + component diagram for nsh. Public draft in the Rung 4 repo folder even before code.

Zoho alignment opportunity:

End of Q2. Consider: is there a 1:1 with your manager where you can say “I’ve been sharpening my C fundamentals — any team-facing use for that?” — See 06_background_alignment.md.

India / life warning:

Wedding season peak. You will lose 2 weekends this month. Buffer week is Dec 7-13; use it for a wedding OR a rest, do not use it for both a wedding AND a code push. Pick one.
Christmas/New Year approaches in M7 — anticipate lower personal-time hours through Jan 5.

Exit check (Sun December 20, 2026):

The 6 syscall exercises done, no stdio, all under strace-clean
Rung 4 (nsh) has a public repo with README and architecture doc, even if 0 LOC of code yet
You have man-read all 6 syscalls listed above
You have not missed more than 1 full week in the last 4 weeks

M7 — December 21, 2026 to January 17, 2027 — VALLEY BOTTOM¶

Theme: Fork, exec, pipe, signal. This is where Unix stops being magic.

Primary phase: Phase 4 (part 2) — Systems Programming Secondary overlap: Rung 4 (nsh) main build. Sprints: S13 (Dec 21 - Jan 3), S14 (Jan 4-17). S13 is a lower-load sprint by design — holidays.

Concrete deliverables:

Rung 4 shipped: nsh mini-shell — fork/exec, multi-stage pipes, redirects, background jobs, signal handling, history, tab completion (basic), ~600-1000 LOC. Passes the 30-scenario scripted test suite. Demo GIF. Blog post published on personal blog + dev.to. 12_portfolio/04_rung_4_mini_shell.md
Read 05_systems_programming/06_binary_and_linker.md and 07_performance_intro.md

Reading targets:

05_systems_programming/ — finish the whole directory
One production-code walkthrough: /bin/sh or dash source (short and old, kind to newcomers)

Portfolio rung status:

Rung 4 ships by S14-end (Jan 17, 2027). Submit to r/C_Programming with the demo GIF.

Zoho alignment opportunity:

Q3 begins in M8. In M7 end, if the Q2 measurement + 3-bullet note is ready, schedule a conversation with your manager for early Feb. See 06_background_alignment.md.

India / life warning:

December 25 - January 1 holiday break for many. Personal-time hours actually go UP this week if you don’t travel. Use it — this is the single best natural sprint week in the year.
Bangalore winter is mild but early mornings are cold; the 6-7am slot is unpleasant. Move to 9-10pm this month only.
You will hit the Valley floor around Jan 10. You will consider quitting. Do not decide anything on a Sunday night. See 13_discipline/07.

Exit check (Sun January 17, 2027):

nsh public, demo GIF in README, blog post published with a URL
No zombies remain after any test run (ps aux verification scripted)
ASan clean under the full 30-scenario suite
You did not quit the fortress in the last 4 weeks. This is the deliverable.

M8 — January 18 to February 14, 2027 — VALLEY EXIT¶

Theme: Threads are the second-hardest thing in the language. Networking is the first.

Primary phase: Phase 5 (part 1) — Concurrency & Networking (06_concurrency_and_networking/) Secondary overlap: Rung 5 architecture design. Sprints: S15 (Jan 18-31), S16 (Feb 1-14)

Concrete deliverables:

Pthreads exercises: producer-consumer with condvar, thread pool, deadlock reproduction & fix
The SPSC lock-free queue with TSan-clean tests, benchmarked vs mutex-based — 06_concurrency_and_networking/projects.md deliverable 2
Rung 5 architecture doc: public design doc for the epoll HTTP server (protocol handling, state machine, event-loop shape) — 12_portfolio/05_rung_5_epoll_http_server.md

Reading targets:

06_concurrency_and_networking/01_pthreads_fundamentals.md through 05_sockets_from_scratch.md — full read
Dan Kegel’s C10K essay (1999, still worth reading)
Redis ae.c + ae_epoll.c (~300 LOC combined) — preview for M9’s walkthrough

Portfolio rung status:

Rung 5 begins.

Zoho alignment opportunity:

Have the manager conversation in the first 2 weeks of Feb. Bring the 3-bullet note. Do not oversell. Ask more than you tell.

India / life warning:

Republic Day Jan 26 (Tuesday) — mid-week holiday, small bonus if you take Mon off, four-day weekend.
Weather cool and comfortable; personal-time hours should be at year peak (12-15h/week).

Exit check (Sun February 14, 2027):

SPSC queue benchmark repo public, TSan clean, 5-10x speedup vs mutex documented
Rung 5 public design doc committed
Manager conversation had (or explicitly deferred with reason)
You can explain memory_order_acquire and memory_order_release in one sentence each

M9 — February 15 to March 14, 2027 — HARD GATE #1¶

Theme: Halfway. The gate opens or the roadmap resets.

Primary phase: Phase 5 (part 2) — Concurrency & Networking Sprints: S17 (Feb 15-28), S18 (Mar 1-14). S18 wk2 (Mar 8-14) is Q3 BUFFER WEEK.

Concrete deliverables:

RUNG 5 SHIPPED (HARD GATE #1): epoll-based HTTP/1.1 echo server with keepalive, benchmarked at 100k+ RPS on a 4-core laptop, 24h leak-free soak test, TSan clean under load, blog post published, submitted to r/programming AND Show HN — 12_portfolio/05_rung_5_epoll_http_server.md

Reading targets:

06_concurrency_and_networking/07_epoll_and_io_uring.md and 08_a_production_server_walkthrough.md
The walkthrough of redis/valkey src/networking.c — full 45-minute guided read
08_production_and_mastery/01_reading_production_code.md (preview for Phase 7)

Portfolio rung status:

HARD GATE. Rung 5 must ship. If it slips beyond March 21 (one week grace), invoke 99_pre_mortem/09_summary_and_reset_protocol.md. Do not power through. Scope down.

Zoho alignment opportunity:

Q3 = “propose.” With Rung 5 in hand you have credibility. Propose a small internal C-adjacent side task to your manager if the opportunity fits.

India / life warning:

Holi Mar 3-4, 2027. Two-day holiday for many. Plan S18 wk1 accordingly.
Financial year-end at Zoho — work may compress into March. Anticipate personal-time hours dipping to 8-10 in the last two weeks.

Exit check (Sun March 14, 2027):

Rung 5 server: 100k+ RPS reproduced on your machine, benchmark graph in README
kill -9 on the server leaves no dangling fds
TSan clean under wrk -t8 -c1000 -d60s
Blog post published with URL and 500+ views OR one substantive HN/Reddit comment
You crossed the halfway mark of the fortress. Take Sunday off. Actually rest.

M10 — March 15 to April 11, 2027¶

Theme: The C engineer meets the CPU.

Primary phase: Phase 6 (part 1) — Applied C: ML Inference (07_applied_c_ml_inference/) Secondary overlap: Rung 6 architecture design. Sprints: S19 (Mar 15-28), S20 (Mar 29 - Apr 11)

Concrete deliverables:

The naive matmul (baseline in C, ~50 GFLOPS on a modern laptop) — 07_applied_c_ml_inference/04_matmul_and_gemm.md
The cache-blocked matmul (2-4x over naive)
Reading tour of the llama.cpp / ggml codebase — answer the 5 exit questions in 07_applied_c_ml_inference/06_reading_llama_cpp.md

Reading targets:

07_applied_c_ml_inference/01_why_c_for_ml_inference.md through 04_matmul_and_gemm.md
Roofline model — the Berkeley paper, or Chip Huyen’s blog treatment

Portfolio rung status:

Rung 6 begins. Naive + blocked matmul are the first two rungs of the benchmark ladder.

Zoho alignment opportunity:

Q3 = propose. If there’s any inference-optimization work in your team’s pipeline, this is the month you can start actually contributing (not just proposing). Bring benchmark numbers.

India / life warning:

Bangalore/Chennai heat begins. Daytime highs 34-38°C. Air conditioning at home matters. If you don’t have AC in your workspace, morning 6-8am is your best block.
Ugadi/Gudi Padwa late March.

Exit check (Sun April 11, 2027):

Naive matmul benchmarked (GFLOPS reported), cache-blocked matmul benchmarked (2-4x speedup shown)
You have opened ggml.c in llama.cpp and can name 3 functions in it from memory
Roofline plot for your machine drawn (spreadsheet or matplotlib)

M11 — April 12 to May 9, 2027 — HARD GATE #2¶

Theme: SIMD or bust.

Primary phase: Phase 6 (part 2) — Applied C: ML Inference Sprints: S21 (Apr 12-25), S22 (Apr 26 - May 9)

Concrete deliverables:

RUNG 6 SHIPPED (HARD GATE #2): SIMD (AVX2 on x86 or NEON on Apple Silicon) matmul benchmarked head-to-head vs OpenBLAS. Target: within 3x of OpenBLAS on chosen matrix sizes. Long-form blog post (≥2000 words) with roofline analysis. Reproducible benchmark script. Submit to Bangalore ML meetup as a talk pitch — 12_portfolio/06_rung_6_simd_gemm_benchmark.md
Python C extension: fp32 → INT8 quantization + back, benchmarked, PyPI-packageable

Reading targets:

07_applied_c_ml_inference/02_simd_and_vectorization.md, 03_cache_and_memory_hierarchy.md, 05_quantization_kernels_in_c.md
llama.cpp ggml-quants.c (partial) — the Q4_K quantized matmul kernel

Portfolio rung status:

HARD GATE. Rung 6 must ship. If it slips past May 16, invoke reset. Do not power through the heat and self-destruct.

Zoho alignment opportunity:

With Rung 5 and Rung 6 both shipped, you have the credentials for a serious conversation. This is the month to say to your manager, “I want to work on ML infra.” See 06_background_alignment.md.

India / life warning:

Bangalore/Chennai HEAT PEAK. April/May can hit 40°C in Chennai, 36°C in Bangalore. Hydration, sleep, AC. Personal-time hours may dip to 8-10.
Election season sometimes falls here — political rallies, traffic, holidays. Check the state calendar.
Wedding season resurgence in April-May.

Exit check (Sun May 9, 2027):

Rung 6 SIMD matmul within 3x of OpenBLAS, benchmark reproducible
Blog post 2000+ words published, LinkedIn post targeting ML-infra recruiters
You applied to a Bangalore ML meetup with a talk pitch (accepted or not)
You have not overheated (literally). Sleep still 7h+ average.

M12 ‧ May 10 to June 6, 2027¶

Theme: Reading other people’s C. Contributing to other people’s C.

Primary phase: Phase 7 (part 1) — Production & Mastery (08_production_and_mastery/) Secondary overlap: Rung 7 (OSS PR) hunt begins. Sprints: S23 (May 10-23), S24 (May 24 - Jun 6). S24 wk2 (May 31 - Jun 6) is Q4 BUFFER WEEK.

Concrete deliverables:

Reading 3 production codebases in depth: valkey src/, sqlite sqlite3.c (amalgamated, hardest), curl selected .c files — 08_production_and_mastery/01_reading_production_code.md
One CVE case study writeup (annotate a real CVE from curl or redis, explain root cause and fix) — 08_production_and_mastery/03_secure_c_and_cve_literacy.md
Two “good first issue” bookmarks with plans of attack in 12_portfolio/07_rung_7_oss_merged_pr.md

Reading targets:

Entire 08_production_and_mastery/ directory
One Bryan Cantrill talk (any). One Chris Wellons blog post from 2025-2026. One Julia Evans zine.

Portfolio rung status:

Rung 7 in-flight. PR opened by S24 end is the target.

Zoho alignment opportunity:

Q4 = “own.” At this point, you should be the person on your team who is called when C, C++, or performance issues surface. Not because of a title. Because it’s true.

India / life warning:

Cooler than April, but summer holidays for family may mean travel commitments.
End of Zoho FY26-27 (assuming April FY start); appraisal conversations happen — you now walk in with 6 shipped public artifacts.

Exit check (Sun June 6, 2027):

3 production codebases read (not skimmed — tracked notes in 13_discipline/02_lab_notebook.md)
CVE case study published on your blog
At least one PR OPENED (not merged yet) at a target OSS repo
Buffer week actually taken

M13 — June 7 to July 5, 2027 — THE PITCH BECOMES REAL¶

Theme: Ship the merged PR. Write the story. Own the sentence.

Primary phase: Phase 7 (part 2) — Production & Mastery Sprints: S25 (Jun 7-20), S26 (Jun 21 - Jul 5)

Concrete deliverables:

RUNG 7 SHIPPED: at least ONE non-trivial merged PR into a top-tier C project (valkey, curl, llama.cpp, or nginx). ≥200 LOC change OR documented significance. Blog post 1500+ words about a lesson from the journey. 12_portfolio/07_rung_7_oss_merged_pr.md
The M13 pitch versions written out: elevator, recruiter call, technical intro, portfolio landing page, LinkedIn bio, “why hire me” — 07_thirteen_month_pitch.md
Mock study cadence: 3 mocks this month (Pramp / studying.io / a Bangalore peer)

Reading targets:

Whatever is left of 08_production_and_mastery/
Your OWN Rung 1 code from July 2026. Read it. Feel the gap.

Portfolio rung status:

All 7 rungs shipped by July 5, 2027.

Zoho alignment opportunity:

Position: are you converting internally, or leaving? The 7 rungs open both doors. See 13_discipline/09_interview_or_assessment_conversion.md.

India / life warning:

Monsoon returns. First year of the arc complete. Consider a 1-week rest at end of M13 before deciding next moves.

Exit check (Sun July 4, 2027):

All 7 rungs public, dated, verifiable
M13 pitch sentence can be said cold, in one breath, to a stranger
3 mock studies done, feedback written down
You are not the same person who started this file. Look at your July 6, 2026 self. Say thank you.

Summary Table¶

Month	Dates	Phase	Rung Shipped	Hard Gate	Buffer	India Watch
M1	Jul 6 – Aug 2, 2026	Refresher & Toolchain	R1			Monsoon (fine)
M2	Aug 3 – Aug 30, 2026	C Language Deep				Independence Day, Ganesh Chaturthi
M3	Aug 31 – Sep 27, 2026	Memory & Pointers	R2		Q1 wk	Onam
M4	Sep 28 – Oct 25, 2026	DSA in C — pt 1				Diwali prep
M5	Oct 26 – Nov 22, 2026	DSA in C — pt 2	R3			Diwali Nov 8, Valley begins
M6	Nov 23 – Dec 20, 2026	Systems — pt 1			Q2 wk	Wedding season
M7	Dec 21, 2026 – Jan 17, 2027	Systems — pt 2	R4			Christmas/NY break, Valley floor
M8	Jan 18 – Feb 14, 2027	Concurrency — pt 1				Republic Day
M9	Feb 15 – Mar 14, 2027	Concurrency — pt 2	R5 🟧	#1	Q3 wk	Holi, Zoho FY-end
M10	Mar 15 – Apr 11, 2027	ML Inference — pt 1				Heat begins, Ugadi
M11	Apr 12 – May 9, 2027	ML Inference — pt 2	R6 🟧	#2		Heat peak, wedding surge
M12	May 10 – Jun 6, 2027	Production & Mastery — pt 1			Q4 wk	Summer travel
M13	Jun 7 – Jul 5, 2027	Production & Mastery — pt 2	R7			Monsoon returns

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