C++ (Application-Focused) — 13 · Month Roadmap

Modern C++, RAII, templates, systems, and performance work.

00 · Command

• The Next 13 Months — C++ for the Applied ML Engineer
• The Next 13 Months — Month-by-Month
• The 26-Sprint Calendar
• North Star Artifacts — The 8 Portfolio Rungs
• The Canonical Week
• The KPI Dashboard
• Zoho Alignment — Making the Plan Compound With Your Day Job
• The M13 Pitch — Six Versions

01 · Phase 0 Refresh and Toolchain

• Phase 0 — Refresh & Toolchain
• 01 — Toolchain Setup (macOS Apple Silicon)
• 02 — Editor & Debugger
• 03 — Syntax Refresh Drills
• 04 — First Projects
• 05 — Common Pitfalls for the Returning Developer

02 · Phase 1 Modern Cpp Core

• Phase 1 — Modern C++ Core (Months 2-3, Weeks 5-12)
• Ownership & RAII — The Foundation of Modern C++
• Move Semantics & Value Categories — Understood Once, Correctly
• Templates & Concepts — Generic Programming Without Fear
• STL Deep Dive — Containers, Algorithms, Iterators, Ranges
• Error Handling in Modern C++
• Phase 1 Projects — Building Under Pressure

03 · Phase 2 DSA in Cpp

• Phase 2 — DSA in C++ (Months 3–5, W9–W20)
• STL for Competitive & study C++
• NeetCode 150 — Full Roadmap in C++
• Custom Data Structures — Implement From Scratch
• Patterns & Templates — Copy-Paste C++ You Should Memorize
• study Simulation — Solo Mock Protocol
• Phase 2 Projects — Public Signal, Employer-Facing

04 · Phase 3 Systems and Concurrency

• Phase 3 — Systems + Concurrency (Months 5–7, W17–W28)
• The C++ Memory Model — Rigorously
• Threads and Synchronization Primitives
• 03 — Async, Futures, and Coroutines
• 04 — Lock-Free Basics
• 05 — Linux Syscalls for C++ Engineers
• 06 — Undefined Behavior
• Phase 3 Projects

05 · Phase 4 Build Test Tooling

• Phase 4 — Build, Test, Tooling (Months 6–7, Weeks 21–26)
• 01 — Modern CMake
• 02 — Conan 2.x and vcpkg
• 03 — Testing and Benchmarks
• 04 — Sanitizers and Static Analysis
• 05 — CI and Docker
• Projects — Phase 4

06 · Phase 5 Cpp for ML Data

• Phase 5 — C++ for ML and Data (Months 7-9, Weeks 25-36)
• 01 — Eigen: Linear Algebra in C++
• 02 — PyTorch C++ / LibTorch
• 03 — ONNX Runtime C++
• 04 — pybind11 and nanobind
• 05 · Apache Arrow C++ and Data Pipelines
• 06 · Custom Kernels and GPU (from a Mac)
• 07 · Model Serving in C++
• Projects · Phase 5 Portfolio Anchors

07 · Phase 6 Production Systems

• Phase 6 — Production Systems (M9–M11, W37–W44)
• 01 — gRPC and Protobuf
• 02 — HTTP and Web Services
• 03 — Logging, Metrics, and Tracing
• 04 — Profiling and Performance
• 05 — Allocators and Memory
• 06 — Compiler and Optimization
• 07 — Distributed Basics for a C++ Engineer
• Phase 6 Projects — P6.1, P6.2, P6.3

08 · Phase 7 Capstone and Signal

• Phase 7 — Capstone and Signal (M11–M13, W45–W56)
• 01 — Capstone Alpha: MiniServe
• 02 — Capstone Beta: PyFast
• 03 — Public Signal and Blog
• 04 — LinkedIn and Resume
• 05 — study Conversion: Portfolio → Offer
• 06 — The M13 Pitch
• Phase 7 — Capstone Shipping Checklist

09 · Resources

• 09_resources — The Ammunition Rack
• 01 — Books Canon
• 02 — Online Courses & Structured Tutorials
• 03 — Papers, Talks & Deep Reads
• 04 — Reference Sites (Daily-Lookup Layer)
• 05 — Paid Platforms: Honest Verdicts
• 06 — The 2026 Flag & Kill List
• 07 — Zoho Alignment & India Applied-C++/ML Reads

10 · Communities

• 10_communities — Where Practitioners Actually Live
• 01 — Reddit, HN, Lobste.rs & India Forums
• 02 — Discord & Slack: Real-Time Practitioner Chats
• 03 — YouTube Channels & Must-Watch Talks
• 04 — Twitter/X, Bluesky, LinkedIn: Who to Follow, and Where They Actually Live in 2026
• 05 — Meetups & Conferences: In-Person, Hybrid, and India Reality

11 · Tools Setup

• 11 — Tools Setup: The Day-1 Fortress
• 01 — Day-1 macOS Setup (Apple Silicon, macOS Sequoia+ / macOS 16, verified July 2026)
• 02 — VSCode Production C++20/23 Config
• 03 — CLion Alternative: Free Non-Commercial in 2026, When It Wins
• 04 — Docker, OrbStack, Colima, and Dev Containers on Apple Silicon (2026)
• 05 — Cloud GPU Access for CUDA C++ (Phase 5, No NVIDIA on Mac)

12 · Portfolio

• Portfolio Ladder — 8 Rungs to Applied C++/ML Signal
• Rung 1 (M1) — The Toolchain Trio
• Rung 2 (M3) — Templated LRU Cache
• Rung 3 (M4) — Recursive-Descent JSON Parser
• Rung 4 (M5) — NeetCode-150 in C++, CI-Compiled
• Rung 5 (M7) — Concurrency Duo: Thread Pool + SPSC Ring Buffer
• Rung 6 (M9) — HARD GATE #1 — Eigen MLP + pybind11/nanobind
• Rung 7 (M11) — HARD GATE #2 — gRPC + REST ML Inference Service
• Rung 8 (M13) — Capstones: Alpha (MiniServe) + Beta (PyFast Library)

13 · Discipline

• 13 — Discipline
• 01 — Sprint Cadence
• 02 — Lab Notebook
• 03 — Benchmark Hygiene
• 04 — Daily Practice
• 05 — Teach to Learn
• 06 — Failure Modes
• 07 — Motivation Sustainment
• 08 — Health & Burnout
• 09 — study / Assessment Conversion

99 · Pre Mortem

• 99 — Pre-Mortem
• 01 — The M1 Wall
• 02 — The AI Rebound
• 03 — The DSA Rabbit Hole
• 04 — The Zoho Creep
• 05 — The M9 Hard Gate Miss
• 06 — The Capstone Scope Creep
• 07 — The study Fail Spiral
• 08 — The Life Risk
• 09 — Summary & Reset Protocol