ASP.NET Core Learning Roadmap — Beginner → Advanced

STAGE 1: FOUNDATION (Beginner)

Goal → Understand the Core framework basics.

1. C# Fundamentals

Before Core, make sure you know basic C#:

Variables, Data Types
OOP: Classes, Objects
Inheritance, Polymorphism, Abstraction
Interfaces
Collections (List, Dictionary)
LINQ (important!)

Practice
Create a small C# console app with CRUD operations on a List.

2. ASP.NET Core Basics

Learn what Core actually is:

What is ASP.NET Core?
.NET SDK, Runtime
Program.cs / Startup.cs
Middleware pipeline
appsettings.json
Dependency Injection (DI)

Practice:
Create a simple project → return “Hello World" from a controller.

3. MVC Architecture (Very Important)

Understand:

Model
View
Controller
Flow of request → controller → database → view

Practice:
Build a simple Student Registration (CRUD) app.

STAGE 2: INTERMEDIATE (Core Project Level)

Goal → Build real applications with database + validations + login.

4. Razor Pages + Views

Learn:

Razor syntax (@)
Layout pages
ViewBag vs ViewData vs TempData
Partial views
ViewImports & ViewStart

Practice:
Build a dashboard UI with tables & forms.

5. Entity Framework Core (Database Connection)

This is your key skill.

Learn

Code-first migration
DbContext
DbSet
LINQ queries
CRUD operations
Relationships (1-many, many-many)

Practice:
Build CRUD for Users, Products, Orders.

6. Model Validation + ModelState

Understand:

[Required], [EmailAddress], [Range]
ModelState.IsValid
Server-side vs client-side validation

Practice:
Create signup + login forms with validations.

7. Authentication & Authorization

Learn:

Cookie authentication
Session
Claims
Role-based permissions (Admin/User)

Practice:
Admin panel + User panel login.

8. Dependency Injection (DI)

Most important concept in Core.

Learn:

AddScoped / AddSingleton / AddTransient
Inject services in controllers
Create your own service class

Practice
Make a service for sending email / calculating price.

STAGE 3: ADVANCED (Professional Level)

Goal → Build production-level applications.

9. API Development

Learn:

REST API fundamentals
Controllers vs API controllers
JSON response
Swagger
Postman testing
JWT authentication

Practice:
Create an API for your SecureVault project.

10. Advanced EF Core

Learn:

Stored Procedures
Raw SQL Queries
Transactions
Performance optimization
Lazy vs Eager loading
Global query filters

11. Asynchronous Programming

Understand:

async / await
Task
When to use async controllers
Avoid blocking threads

Practice
Make database calls async.

12. Middleware (Custom Pipeline)

Learn:

Create custom middleware
Logging middleware
Exception handling middleware

13. File Upload & Download

Learn:

IFormFile
Upload to wwwroot
Save in database
Return file to download

14. Email Sending

Use:

SMTP
Gmail / Outlook
Background service (Hosted Service)

15. Logging & Error Handling

Learn:

Built-in logging
Serilog / NLog
Global exception handler
Try-catch best practices

STAGE 4: EXPERT LEVEL (Mastery)

16. Clean Architecture / Onion Architecture

Learn:

Repository Pattern
Services Layer
DTOs
AutoMapper
SOLID principles

This makes your projects professional.

17. Performance Optimization

Learn:

Caching
Response compression
Connection pooling
Pagination
ViewModel optimization

18. Deployment

Learn:

Publish to IIS
Host on Windows/Linux
Environment variables
Reverse proxy (Nginx)

EXTRA MUST-HAVE Skills

These are not Core but needed:

SQL Server (Joins, SPs, Functions, Views)
Git & GitHub
Docker basics
Postman
Swagger
JavaScript (basic)

DAILY PRACTICE PLAN (30–45 MINS)

Watch 1 concept
Do coding practice for that concept
Build one real-life mini project
Commit to GitHub
End your day with debugging practice