Senior Engineer Accelerator
The mid-to-senior jump: system design, leadership, and influence
What you'll be able to do
- Design and lead larger technical projects
- Make and document architectural decisions and trade-offs
- Raise code quality, testing, and reliability across a team
- Mentor others and grow technical influence
Before you start
- 1–3 years of professional engineering experience
- Comfort shipping features in a production codebase
- Working in or alongside a team
Phase 1 · Technical Depth
System Design & Architecture Patterns
Scalability, data modeling, and the patterns (CQRS, event-driven, hexagonal) seniors are expected to wield.
- System Design Primer (GitHub, free)repofree
- Martin Fowler: Architecture articlesarticlefree
- Designing Data-Intensive Applications (book)bookpaid
- Design a system to scale 100x
- Justify a build-vs-buy decision
- Write an architecture decision record (ADR)
Code Quality, Reviews & Testing Strategy
Raising the bar: effective code review, testing pyramids, refactoring, and managing tech debt.
- Google: Code Review Developer Guide (free)docfree
- Refactoring (refactoring.guru, free)coursefree
- The Pragmatic Programmer (book)bookpaid
- Run a constructive review on a real PR
- Define a testing strategy for a service
- Plan a debt paydown with tradeoffs
Phase 2 · Technical Leadership
Leading Projects & Technical Decision-Making
Scoping, breaking down work, driving cross-team projects, and writing the docs that align people.
- The Staff Engineer's Path (book)bookpaid
- StaffEng: stories & guides (free)articlefree
- Amazon: Writing narratives / 6-pagers (writeup)articlefree
- Write a technical design doc
- Break an epic into shippable slices
- Drive a decision across 2+ teams
Mentoring & Growing Other Engineers
Coaching, feedback, pairing, and multiplying your impact through others.
- The Manager's Path (book)bookpaid
- Lara Hogan: Feedback Equation (free)articlefree
- Run a structured 1:1
- Give SBI feedback
- Create a growth plan for a mentee
Phase 3 · Influence & Soft Skills
Communication, Stakeholders & Project Management
Influencing without authority, managing up, estimation, and agile delivery in the real world.
- Atlassian: Agile Coach (free)coursefree
- Crucial Conversations (book)bookpaid
- Run a project status that builds trust
- Estimate + communicate uncertainty
- Resolve a cross-team disagreement
Capstone: Lead a Real Initiative
Apply it all: pick a real problem at work, write the doc, align stakeholders, and deliver.
- StaffEng: Engineer archetypes (free)articlefree
- Publish a design doc + get buy-in
- Lead delivery end to end
- Write a retro on what you learned
Frequently asked
Is the Senior Engineer Accelerator roadmap free?+
Yes. The entire Senior Engineer Accelerator roadmap and every curated resource is free to follow on Commit. You can track your progress, keep a daily streak, and earn a shareable certificate at no cost — there is no paywall.
How long does the Senior Engineer Accelerator roadmap take to complete?+
About 130 hours of focused study across 6 courses and 3 stages. At roughly one hour a day that is about 5 months; you can move faster by studying more each day.
Do I get a certificate for finishing the Senior Engineer Accelerator roadmap?+
Yes. When you complete the roadmap on Commit you receive a verifiable certificate of completion that you can add to LinkedIn and your public Commit profile as proof of what you finished.
Related roadmaps
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