What this is

A developer-focused, modular curriculum for university blockchain clubs ready to build on Solana. Every module includes clear learning goals, hands-on activities, and practical takeaways. Mix and match modules based on your club's skill level and semester goals—or run them sequentially for a full developer bootcamp experience.

Who it's for

• Club leads & student developers ready to write Solana programs
• Experienced devs exploring Solana's architecture and tooling
• Hackathon teams needing structured prep on core concepts
• Guest mentors/builders who want a ready-made teaching outline

How to use this page

1. Prerequisite check: Students should have basic programming experience (any language) and familiarity with blockchain fundamentals.
2. Clone module pages as sub-pages and customize with your own examples, resources, and local mentor contacts.
3. Pair with projects: After core modules (1-6), students should start building. Use remaining modules as references during project work.
4. End sessions with code reviews or demos to reinforce learning and build portfolio pieces.

Modules

1. Dev Environment & Toolchain ⚙️ [Core] Dev Environment & Toolchain [Core]
   • Goal: Be able to build, test, and deploy Solana programs locally.
   • Cover: Rust + cargo, Solana CLI, Node/TS, Anchor, local validator vs devnet, keypairs & program IDs.
   • Activity: Spin up solana-test-validator, create a workspace, deploy a hello-world program.
   • Takeaway: "My toolchain works end-to-end on localnet."
2. Program Model: Accounts, Instructions, Data Layout 🧩 [Core] Program Model: Accounts, Instructions, Data Layout [Core]
   • Goal: Think in accounts and instructions.
   • Cover: System program, rent exemption, owners/signers, data serialization (Borsh), sysvars.
   • Activity: Write a program that initializes and updates a state account.
   • Takeaway: "I can design account layouts and mutate them safely."
3. PDAs & Access Control 🔑 [Core] PDAs & Access Control [Core]
   • Goal: Use Program-Derived Addresses correctly.
   • Cover: Seeds/bump, PDA signing, canonical seeds, authority models, ATA derivation.
   • Activity: Create a PDA-owned vault; restrict writes to PDA authority.
   • Takeaway: "I can gate actions with PDAs instead of private keys."
4. Transactions v0, ALTs, Compute & Priority Fees 🚦 [Core] Transactions v0, ALTs, Compute & Priority Fees [Core]
   • Goal: Construct efficient transactions that land reliably.
   • Cover: v0 tx format, Address Lookup Tables, compute units, priority fees, local fee markets.
   • Activity: Build a TS client that simulates, sets CU budget, and uses an ALT.
   • Takeaway: "I can pack/price txs for throughput and reliability."
5. Anchor 101: First Real Program 🛠️ [Core] Anchor 101: First Real Program [Core]
   • Goal: Ship a small but real Anchor program + client.
   • Cover: Accounts macros, constraints, events, errors, IDL, TypeScript client.
   • Activity: Counter or notes app with create → update → close flows.
   • Takeaway: "I can build faster with Anchor's patterns safely."
6. Testing & Localnet Workflows ✅ [Core] Testing & Localnet Workflows [Core]
   • Goal: Write reliable tests and iterate quickly.
   • Cover: solana-program-test, Anchor tests, fixtures, deterministic keys, CI basics.
   • Activity: Unit + integration tests for your Anchor program; CI script to run them.
   • Takeaway: "I can prove behavior and prevent regressions."