Disruption Lab — Developer Onboarding

A self-paced, module-based onboarding app that takes a new student with no software engineering experience and gives them the general skills to contribute to a real team project end-to-end (fullstack, AI, or otherwise). Students read short lessons, pass a 100%-required quiz per module, and earn a printable certificate with their name on it.

Designed to be completed in ~10–15 hours over one week.

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What's inside

8 modules · 26 lessons · a quiz per module

#	Module	~Time
1	Welcome & Team Expectations (standup, dev night, client calls, strike system, PM/TL roles)	50 min
2	Dev Environment & the Command Line	1 hr
3	Git & GitHub (push/pull/clone/branches/PRs/forking)	3 hrs
4	APIs & How the Web Talks	2 hrs
5	Cloud & AWS (EC2, S3, and when to use each)	2.5 hrs
6	Data, Databases & Secrets	1.5 hrs
7	Using AI Tools Effectively	1.5 hrs
8	Working in a Team & Shipping	2 hrs

The in-app Dashboard shows a suggested day-by-day one-week schedule and live progress.

Curriculum — modules & topics

Every module ends with a quiz that must be passed at 100%, and each quiz stays locked until all of that module's lessons are completed.

1. Welcome & Team Expectations · ~50 min — how a DLab team actually runs, before any code.

• The weekly rhythm: standup, dev night (2 hrs/week), and client calls — what they are and look like (incl. the deadline: finish this certification before Dev Night 1)
• Attendance & communication expectations
• The strike system — what earns a strike and what happens at each one (3rd strike = removed from the lab)
• Who's who: PMs, TLs, the Engineering Manager & Head of Tech — and how they help you advance

2. Dev Environment & the Command Line · ~1 hr

• How software actually gets built (editor, terminal, Git, runtime)
• Terminal survival kit (core commands, reading a command)
• Packages, projects & running code (npm, package.json, scripts)

3. Git & GitHub · ~3 hrs

• Why Git exists & the core loop (add / commit / push / pull)
• Branches: working without fear
• Pull Requests & code review
• Forks, remotes & fixing mistakes

4. APIs & How the Web Talks · ~2 hrs

• What an API actually is (client/server, requests/responses)
• HTTP methods, status codes & JSON
• Calling an API & keeping keys safe

5. Cloud & AWS · ~2.5 hrs

• What "the cloud" really is
• EC2 — rented computers (instance types, when to use it)
• S3 & the wider AWS toolbox (EC2 vs S3, Lambda, RDS, IAM…)

6. Data, Databases & Secrets · ~1.5 hrs

• Databases: SQL vs NoSQL
• CRUD & thinking in data
• Environment variables & secrets

7. Using AI Tools Effectively · ~1.5 hrs

• What AI coding tools are good (and bad) at
• Prompting well
• Responsible & safe AI use

8. Working in a Team & Shipping · ~2 hrs

• How teams organize work (Agile basics)
• Communication & collaboration
• Shipping: from laptop to production (environments, deployment, CI/CD)

Features

• Email/password accounts (JWT auth, bcrypt-hashed passwords).
• Readable, paginated lessons (Markdown) with per-lesson time estimates.
• Module quizzes that must be retaken until 100%.
• Progress saved server-side; certificate auto-unlocks when everything is complete.
• Dashboard/Settings to edit name, switch dark/light mode, change password, delete account.
• Auto-delete of accounts after 6 months of inactivity (MongoDB TTL index).
• Optional email reminders to students who fall behind (daily cron).
• Printable / save-as-PDF certificate with the student's name, date, and an ID.

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Tech stack

• Frontend: React + Vite + React Router (/client)
• Backend: Node/Express + Mongoose (/server)
• Database: MongoDB

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Getting it running (local)

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+ and npm
• A MongoDB database — either local (mongod) or a free MongoDB Atlas cluster.

1. Backend

cd server
cp .env.example .env          # then edit .env
#   - set MONGODB_URI (local: mongodb://127.0.0.1:27017/disruption_lab)
#   - set JWT_SECRET to any long random string
npm install
npm run dev                   # API on http://localhost:4000

2. Frontend

cd client
npm install
npm run dev                   # app on http://localhost:5173

Open http://localhost:5173, register an account, and start Module 1. (The Vite dev server proxies /api to the backend automatically.)

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Configuration notes

• Auto-delete inactivity window — INACTIVITY_DAYS in server/.env (default 180 ≈ 6 months). Implemented as a MongoDB TTL index on lastActive, which is refreshed on every authenticated request.
• Email reminders — fill the SMTP_* vars in server/.env to enable. If they're blank, reminders are skipped silently so the app still runs. Students who are inactive for REMINDER_AFTER_DAYS (default 3) without finishing get a nudge email.
• Stored per user: name, email, bcrypt password hash, theme, progress, timestamps. Nothing more.

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Deploying (deployment-friendly by design)

• Frontend: cd client && npm run build → deploy the dist/ folder to Vercel/Netlify/S3.
• Backend: deploy /server to Render/Railway/Fly.io or an EC2 instance; set the same env vars.
• Database: MongoDB Atlas.
• Point the frontend at the deployed API (set CLIENT_ORIGIN on the server for CORS, and serve the built client behind the same domain or configure the API base URL).

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Extending the curriculum

All lesson + quiz content lives in client/src/curriculum/index.js as plain data — add lessons or modules there. If you add/remove a module or change a module's lesson count, mirror it in server/src/curriculumMeta.js so certificate completion stays correct.

Ideas for future modules

Testing & debugging · Docker & containers · CI/CD deep-dive · Web security basics · System design 101 · Accessibility · Writing good documentation.