Prove

Powstik Varsity

Ship code anyone can run.

Computer Science & Data. Free CS and data courses, in order. Ship code at every step.

What you'll prove

What is the Computer Science & Data Department?

It groups free courses on this subject, in order, as Powstik paths. You build something at each step and show it.

Who is it for?

It is for anyone who wants to learn a subject by doing it. You can start at any level.

What costs money?

Nothing. Learning on Varsity is free: courses, books and self-checks.

How does verification work?

A real person who knows your work signs in and checks each proof. You can never check your own proof. Your standing grows as more people check your work.

Varsity curricula

Finish every path in a Program. Then pass a blind review of your final project to earn Honors.

Computer Science

The full OSSU computer science map, free. People check your work as you go.

  1. CS Curriculum 1: Intro CS
  2. CS Curriculum 2: Core programming
  3. CS Curriculum 3: Core math
  4. CS Curriculum 4: CS tools
  5. CS Curriculum 5: Core systems
  6. CS Curriculum 6: Core theory
  7. CS Curriculum 7: Core security
  8. CS Curriculum 8: Core applications
  9. CS Curriculum 9: Core ethics
  10. CS Curriculum 10: Final project

67 milestones · About 2 years at about 20 hours a week: 1698 hours of course time, plus your projects.

How this works

  1. Take each free course.
  2. Pass its free self-check.
  3. Show your work as a proof. People who saw the work confirm it.
  4. Finish every path, then pass a blind review of your final project to earn Honors.

Related paths

Optional practice. Not needed for Honors.

Modelled on a typical 4-year undergraduate program. Course map adapted from OSSU Computer Science (MIT License)

Data Science

The full OSSU data science map, free. People check your work as you go.

  1. DS Curriculum 1: Intro to Data Science
  2. DS Curriculum 2: Intro to CS
  3. DS Curriculum 3: Data structures and algorithms
  4. DS Curriculum 4: Databases
  5. DS Curriculum 5: Single-variable calculus
  6. DS Curriculum 6: Linear algebra
  7. DS Curriculum 7: Multivariable calculus
  8. DS Curriculum 8: Statistics and probability
  9. DS Curriculum 9: Data science tools and methods
  10. DS Curriculum 10: Machine learning and data mining
  11. DS Curriculum 11: Final project

74 milestones · About 2 years at about 20 hours a week: 2038 hours of course time, plus your projects.

How this works

  1. Take each free course.
  2. Pass its free self-check.
  3. Show your work as a proof. People who saw the work confirm it.
  4. Courses you already finished in the Computer Science curriculum count here too.
  5. Finish every path, then pass a blind review of your final project to earn Honors.

Related paths

Optional practice. Not needed for Honors.

Modelled on a typical 4-year undergraduate program. Course map adapted from OSSU Data Science (CC BY-SA 4.0)

AI Engineering

All 20 phases of AI Engineering from Scratch, free. Your work is checked at every phase.

  1. AI Engineering 0: Setup & Tooling
  2. AI Engineering 1: Math Foundations
  3. AI Engineering 2: ML Fundamentals
  4. AI Engineering 3: Deep Learning Core
  5. AI Engineering 4: Computer Vision
  6. AI Engineering 5: NLP: Foundations to Advanced
  7. AI Engineering 6: Speech & Audio
  8. AI Engineering 7: Transformers Deep Dive
  9. AI Engineering 8: Generative AI
  10. AI Engineering 9: Reinforcement Learning
  11. AI Engineering 10: LLMs from Scratch
  12. AI Engineering 11: LLM Engineering
  13. AI Engineering 12: Multimodal AI
  14. AI Engineering 13: Tools & Protocols
  15. AI Engineering 14: Agent Engineering
  16. AI Engineering 15: Autonomous Systems
  17. AI Engineering 16: Multi-Agent & Swarms
  18. AI Engineering 17: Infrastructure & Production
  19. AI Engineering 18: Ethics, Safety & Alignment
  20. AI Engineering 19: Capstone Projects
  21. AI Engineering 20: Capstone

48 milestones · About 306 hours of lessons (the curriculum's own estimate), plus your projects and capstone.

Before you start

Best after the maths and data science foundations. Not needed for Honors.

How this works

  1. Work through each phase's free lessons and pass their self-checks.
  2. Show the phase's work and one project of your own as proofs. People who saw the work confirm each.
  3. Outcomes you finished in other Varsity curricula count here too.
  4. Finish every phase, then pass a blind review of your capstone system to earn Honors.

Related paths

Optional practice. Not needed for Honors.

Modelled on a full AI engineering curriculum: maths first, through to production and safety. Course map adapted from AI Engineering from Scratch (MIT License)

AI Research

Six AI phases, four research projects and a paper you reproduce, free. People check each one.

  1. AI Engineering 1: Math Foundations
  2. AI Engineering 3: Deep Learning Core
  3. AI Engineering 7: Transformers Deep Dive
  4. AI Engineering 9: Reinforcement Learning
  5. AI Engineering 10: LLMs from Scratch
  6. AI Engineering 17: Infrastructure & Production
  7. AI Research 1: Backprop from scratch
  8. AI Research 2: Small GPT and loss curves
  9. AI Research 3: LoRA fine-tune and published evaluation
  10. AI Research 4: PPO or GRPO on a toy task
  11. AI Research 5: Capstone

22 milestones · About 36 weeks for the research paths and capstone, after the six AI Engineering phases.

Before you start

Best after the maths foundations. Not needed for Honors.

How this works

  1. Do the six AI Engineering phases it builds on (they count in both curricula).
  2. Do each research project in a public repo, with tests or an evaluation and a short write-up.
  3. People who know the topic confirm each step.
  4. Reproduce and extend one paper, then pass a blind review of it to earn Honors.

Related paths

Optional practice. Not needed for Honors.

Modelled on the research track of a graduate programme: build it, test it, write it up, defend it.

Programs

Finish every path in a Program. Then pass a blind review of your final project to earn Honors.

How standing works

Permanent and earned only from verified work. Never bought, applied for or handed out. Separate from the weekly team league.

  1. Member

    Joined any path in this Department.

  2. Varsity Letter

    5 verified outcomes here, each checked by 3 different people.

  3. Honors

    Finish a Program. Then Faculty you didn't pick review your final project blind.

    Opens as Faculty join

Sign in to see your standing

Faculty

People who check others' work in this Department.

No Faculty in this Department yet. Seats fill as people verify work here.

Advanced

Become an AI Engineer

From zero to shipping AI products that real people use.

Skills
5 required + 1 opt24w
Advanced

Prove Your Data Science Chops

Learn data science free. Build real projects. Show them.

SkillsLearning
6 required52w
BeginnerGrades 6-12

Code Your First Game

For grades 6–12: go from player to game maker

Skills
2 required + 2 opt24w
AdvancedUndergraduate

Computer Science Fundamentals

Build the foundations that every CS abstraction rests on. Prove you understand the machine, not just the language.

Skills
2 required + 3 opt36w
AdvancedUndergraduate

Algorithms & Data Structures

Implement. Analyse. Prove. Then compete. Working code is not the proof — understanding is.

Skills
3 required + 1 opt28w
ExpertUndergraduate

Prove Your Machine Learning Chops

Understand the mathematics before you touch the framework. Implement gradient descent from scratch.

Skills
3 required + 2 opt40w
AdvancedUndergraduate

Prove Your Cybersecurity Chops

Find the vulnerability. Exploit it. Document every step of your methodology.

Skills
0 required + 4 opt32w
ExpertPostgraduate

Cloud Architecture

Design systems that survive real failure modes. Trade off consistency against availability with documented reasoning.

Skills
0 required + 3 opt32w
ExpertPostgraduate

Prove Your Software Engineering Chops

Engineering at scale is not about writing more code. It is about making decisions that hold up.

SkillsTeams
2 required + 4 opt40w
AdvancedUndergraduate

CS Curriculum 1: Intro CS

Write your first real programs in Python.

Skills
1 required14w
AdvancedUndergraduate

CS Curriculum 2: Core programming

Design programs on purpose, in more than one language.

Skills
5 required54w
AdvancedUndergraduate

CS Curriculum 3: Core math

Calculus and the math behind programs.

Skills
4 required45w
AdvancedUndergraduate

CS Curriculum 4: CS tools

The shell, git and editor skills every programmer uses.

Skills
1 required2w
AdvancedUndergraduate

CS Curriculum 5: Core systems

Build a computer, then learn how operating systems and networks run.

Skills
4 required31w
AdvancedUndergraduate

CS Curriculum 6: Core theory

Algorithms you can design, analyse and code.

Skills
2 required16w
AdvancedUndergraduate

CS Curriculum 7: Core security

Find security holes, and write code without them.

Skills
5 required24w
AdvancedUndergraduate

CS Curriculum 8: Core applications

Databases, machine learning, graphics and software engineering.

Skills
6 required27w
AdvancedUndergraduate

CS Curriculum 9: Core ethics

Ethics, intellectual property and privacy in the code you ship.

Skills
3 required16w
AdvancedUndergraduate

CS Curriculum 10: Final project

Solve a real problem, ship it, pass a blind review.

Skills
1 required12w
AdvancedUndergraduate

DS Curriculum 1: Intro to Data Science

See what data science is by answering a real question with data.

Skills
1 required1w
AdvancedUndergraduate

DS Curriculum 2: Intro to CS

Write Python programs, then use them to model and simulate.

Skills
2 required + 1 opt28w
AdvancedUndergraduate

DS Curriculum 3: Data structures and algorithms

Learn Java, build the core data structures, then design algorithms.

Skills
5 required34w
AdvancedUndergraduate

DS Curriculum 4: Databases

Model data, build pipelines and a warehouse, and work with document databases.

Skills
7 required40w
AdvancedUndergraduate

DS Curriculum 5: Single-variable calculus

Derivatives, integrals and series, with the math checked in code.

Skills
3 required32w
Milestone map

Ship AI Products in Production

4 milestones · 12 weeks

Ship a real AI-powered product to production and keep it live with real users — proof is usage data and a technical post-mortem, not a tutorial.

Milestone map

First App Shipped (Curriculum Complete + Public Repo)

4 milestones · 12 weeks

Complete a free coding curriculum and ship one self-contained program that solves a real problem and runs on someone else's machine — not a certificate.

Milestone map

Become Data Analyst

4 milestones · 12 weeks

Take a real 10,000+ row dataset from raw to a documented, visualised answer — proof is the analysis and what it honestly cannot conclude.

Milestone map

Ship a Full Stack App From Scratch

4 milestones · 12 weeks

Build and deploy a working full-stack app — real auth, real database, a public URL — that solves an actual problem, not a tutorial clone.

Milestone map

Ship a Mobile App to a Real App Store

4 milestones · 12 weeks

Ship a working mobile app to a real app store listing, built to use at least one real device capability beyond the screen.

Milestone map

Run Production Infrastructure Reliably

4 milestones · 12 weeks

Automate a real, currently-manual deployment or infrastructure task into a CI/CD pipeline or infrastructure-as-code that runs without human intervention.

Milestone map

Coding Bootcamp Graduate (Portfolio Project Deployed)

3 milestones · 16 weeks

Go from zero to job-ready developer through an intensive program.

Milestone map

Data Analysis Project (Peer-Reviewed, Dataset + Findings)

3 milestones · 10 weeks

Go from spreadsheets to Python pandas and produce real insights.

Milestone map

Software Tool Power-User Review (Verified)

3 milestones · 8 weeks

Go from beginner to power user in a tool essential to your work.

Milestone map

First Three Projects Shipped (Beginner to Public App)

5 milestones · 16 weeks

Write, run, and ship your first Python programs — from a terminal hello-world to a deployed web app that real strangers can use.

Milestone map

Build and Deploy Your First Web App

5 milestones · 12 weeks

Build a complete web application — frontend, backend, and deployed to a public URL — that real strangers can use without any instructions from you.

Milestone map

Master React (Beginner to Shipped Product)

3 milestones · 10 weeks

Build and deploy a React application that solves a real problem for real users.

Milestone map

Master Python for Real Projects

5 milestones · 12 weeks

Write Pythonic code, work with APIs and external libraries, build and test a data pipeline, and publish a real Python package on PyPI.

Milestone map

Make Your First Open Source Contribution

3 milestones · 6 weeks

Get a pull request merged into a public GitHub repository with 100+ stars.

Milestone map

Pass a Senior Engineering Interview

3 milestones · 12 weeks

Receive and accept an offer for a senior (L5+) engineering role at a tech company.

Milestone map

Build an AI Agent from Scratch

3 milestones · 8 weeks

Design, build, and deploy an AI agent that takes actions in the world autonomously.

Milestone map

Ship an AI Product to Real Users

4 milestones · 10 weeks

Take an AI feature or product from working demo to 10 active users outside your network. Proven by real usage data, not by the code shipping.

Milestone map

Master SQL for Data Analysis

4 milestones · 8 weeks

Write and optimize complex queries across joins, CTEs, window functions, and indexes on a real production dataset.

Milestone map

Master Statistics for Data Analysis

5 milestones · 10 weeks

Apply descriptive statistics, hypothesis testing, regression, and A/B test design to real datasets — every milestone requires working with real data and documenting the decisions,…

Milestone map

Complete a Kaggle Competition (Top 25%)

3 milestones · 8 weeks

Enter and submit a Kaggle competition, finishing in the top 25% of participants.

Milestone map

Master Rust (Beginner to Systems Project)

0 milestones · 12 weeks

Write, test, and publish a Rust project that demonstrates ownership, lifetimes, and safe concurrency.

Milestone map

Master TypeScript (Beginner to Typed Codebase)

0 milestones · 8 weeks

Migrate or build a JavaScript codebase to strict TypeScript with zero `any` usage and full type coverage.

Milestone map

Master Docker + Kubernetes

0 milestones · 10 weeks

Deploy a production-grade application with Docker containers orchestrated on Kubernetes, with health checks and autoscaling.

Milestone map

Build a Distributed System

0 milestones · 16 weeks

Design and implement a distributed system with consensus, fault tolerance, and observable performance characteristics.

For teams and weekly leagues: See Portfolios

Powstik Varsity does not grant degrees.