✅ Progress Template#

"A checked box isn't a declaration — it's proof. Don't check the box before you pass the acceptance criteria."

Copy this file for yourself (e.g. PROGRESS.md) and check things off as you go. Only mark a module [x] once you've passed all its acceptance criteria with a command/output. If you can't pass the block transition signal, you haven't left that block yet.

Start date: ____ · My ramp: A1 / A6 / B1 (PLACEMENT.md)

Block A — Intuition#

[ ] A1  Linux basics
[ ] A2  Networking I — TCP/IP, ports, routing
[ ] A3  Networking II — DNS → HTTP → TLS
[ ] A4  Git basics
[ ] A5  Bash
[ ] A6  Stand up an app by hand (+ broken lab)

Transition signal (A → B): I can narrow down why a service won't come up, using three commands, without looking at documentation. [ ]

Block B — Visibility#

[ ] B1  Reading logs
[ ] B2  Metrics — Prometheus basics
[ ] B3  First broken lab

Transition signal (B → C): I proved an incident with logs and metrics — I didn't guess. [ ]

🔒 Don't move on to Block C until this box is checked — the strictest rule on the path.

Block C — Reproducibility#

[ ] C0  Python for ops
[ ] C1  Containers (+ broken lab)
[ ] C2  CI
[ ] C3  Terraform (+ broken lab)
[ ] C4  Cloud basics + budget alert
[ ] Capstone 1 (end of Block C)

Transition signal (C → D): I can rebuild my system from scratch without touching anything by hand. [ ]

Block D — Orchestration (security woven throughout)#

[ ] D1  K8s basics — RBAC + NetworkPolicy from day one (+ broken lab)
[ ] D2  K8s in production (+ broken lab)
[ ] D3  Secret management
[ ] D4  Supply chain — continuation of the C2 pipeline
[ ] D5  GitOps / ArgoCD (+ broken lab)
[ ] Capstone 2 (end of Block D)

Transition signal (D → E): Something I built broke because of my own mistake, and I brought it back. [ ]

Block E — Ownership (L1 gate)#

[ ] E1  SLI / SLO / error budget
[ ] E2  Alerting + on-call
[ ] E3  Incident + blameless postmortem (+ broken lab)
[ ] E4  Database in production — restore (+ broken lab)
[ ] E5  Advanced broken lab / chaos
[ ] Capstone 3 (end of Block E)

Transition signal (E → F): I said "no" to something and defended my reasoning in writing. [ ]

Block F — Judgment (L1 → L2)#

[ ] F1  Cost and trade-offs (FinOps)
[ ] F2  Threat modeling + compliance
[ ] F3  Platform, IDP, Team Topologies
[ ] F4  Writing — ADR, RFC, postmortem
[ ] F5  Stakeholders, saying "no", vendors

🧗 Honest ceiling reminder#

The E and F gates can't be passed on your own: they require an incident you didn't choose, a system you own, and real users. If you've gotten here, the next step isn't more reading — it's getting into a production environment. See README.md → Honest ceiling.

"Progress isn't measured by the calendar — it's measured by the gates you've passed."