6-Month Roadmap Overview
24 Weeks · 168 Days · 6 Parallel Tracks · 1 Goal: AI Engineer at top company
🗺️ The 6 Tracks — Active Weeks
TRACK 1 ▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓ AI Engineering (All 24 weeks)
TRACK 2 ░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓ DSA & Algorithms (Weeks 9–24)
TRACK 3 ░░░░░░░░▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓ System Design (Weeks 5–24)
TRACK 4 ▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓ Communication (All 24 weeks)
TRACK 5 ▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓░░░░░░░░ CS Fundamentals (Weeks 1–12)
TRACK 6 ░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓ Career Prep (Weeks 13–24)📅 Month by Month
Month 1 (Weeks 1–4) — Foundation
Theme: Build Your Foundation
Active: AI + Communication + CS
| Week | AI Topic | Key Project | Milestone |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | LLMs, tokens, temperature, API | Temperature Explorer CLI | Working chatbot |
| 2 | Prompt engineering, zero/few-shot, CoT | Prompt A/B Testing Tool | BLUF method mastered |
| 3 | RAG — embeddings, ChromaDB, chunking | PDF Q&A Bot | Can explain RAG with analogy |
| 4 | Tool use, function calling, JSON schema | AI Assistant with 3 tools | 3 STAR stories ready |
Month 1 Milestone: 4 GitHub projects + 3 STAR stories + 30 vocab words
Month 2 (Weeks 5–8) — Real Applications
Theme: Build Real Applications
Active: AI + Communication + System Design (starts!) + CS
| Week | AI Topic | System Design | Project |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | Memory types, stateful conversations | Chat history at scale | Cross-session memory bot |
| 6 | Eval frameworks, guardrails, RAGAS | Monitoring, LangSmith | Eval dashboard for RAG |
| 7 | Async Python, streaming, concurrency | SQL vs NoSQL, Redis | Streaming chatbot |
| 8 | Docker, FastAPI, deployment | Cloud, scalability | Deployed RAG bot as API |
Month 2 Milestone: Deployed AI app + sys design basics + first blog post
Month 3 (Weeks 9–12) — Agentic AI + DSA Starts
Theme: Agentic AI
Active: AI (Agents) + Communication + System Design + DSA (starts!)
| Week | AI Topic | DSA Topic | Project |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9 | ReAct loop, LangChain agents, custom tools | Arrays, hash maps, two-pointer | Research Agent |
| 10 | LangGraph, multi-agent, CrewAI | Strings, stacks, queues | Multi-agent content pipeline |
| 11 | MCP architecture, build MCP server | Trees: BFS, DFS | Custom MCP server |
| 12 | Advanced RAG, hybrid search, reranking | Graphs: BFS, DFS, components | Production RAG system |
Month 3 Milestone: MCP server live + 30 DSA problems done + 5 STAR stories
Month 4 (Weeks 13–16) — Advanced AI + Portfolio
Theme: AI System Design + DSA Accelerates
Active: All tracks + Career (starts!)
| Week | AI Topic | DSA Topic | Career |
|---|---|---|---|
| 13 | Fine-tuning vs RAG vs prompting, LoRA | Dynamic programming pt1 | Polish GitHub projects |
| 14 | LLM observability, LangSmith, caching | DP pt2 + backtracking | Mock phone screen |
| 15 | Embeddings deep dive, multimodal | Heaps, priority queues | Resume draft |
| 16 | AI safety, RLHF, Constitutional AI | Binary search, two-pointer | Company values alignment |
Month 4 Milestone: 60 DSA problems + AI system design fluency + 2 phone screens
Month 5 (Weeks 17–20) — Full Interview Prep
Theme: Full Interview Prep Mode
Active: All tracks at full intensity
| Week | Focus | Key Activities |
|---|---|---|
| 17 | Traditional System Design | URL shortener, rate limiter, notifications |
| 18 | AI System Design Advanced | ChatGPT at scale, RAG for 100M docs |
| 19 | Mock Interview Week 1 | Full loop simulation all 5 days |
| 20 | Portfolio + Online Presence | Final GitHub, resume, LinkedIn overhaul |
Month 5 Milestone: 100+ DSA problems + full mock loops done + portfolio live
Month 6 (Weeks 21–24) — Land the Job
Theme: Land the Job
Active: Applications + Polish + Company-Specific Prep
| Week | Focus |
|---|---|
| 21–22 | Company-specific deep prep per target company |
| 23 | Mock interview marathon — one company per day |
| 24 | Apply to 15+ positions, negotiate, land offer |
🏆 Final Readiness Criteria
- 120+ DSA problems solved (NeetCode 150 / Blind 75)
- 5+ GitHub projects with demos
- 3 system design questions solved end-to-end
- 20 behavioral questions prepared (STAR)
- 2-minute project pitches for every project
- Company-specific knowledge for all 8 target companies
- 2+ published technical blog posts
- Resume ATS-optimized and reviewed
- LinkedIn with AI Engineer headline + 500+ connections