Stage 3 · Build
Networking for Engineers
TCP/IP, DNS, TLS, HTTP/2, gRPC, load balancing, and network debugging — the networking foundation every backend and SRE engineer needs to troubleshoot anything.
Prerequisite
Linux fundamentals.
What this course leaves you with
- Diagnose DNS, TLS, and TCP failures under pressure
- Understand HTTP/2, gRPC, and load balancing
- Debug networking issues from application to wire
Why this stage matters — Networks are clear — now write the Go tooling SREs actually use.
Progress
0 of 36 lessons complete. Progress is stored locally in your browser so you can pick the path back up later.
course completion
TCP/IP Fundamentals
How packets travel across the internet — IP addressing, routing, TCP handshake, and UDP.
- 01The Network ModelOSI and TCP/IP models, how layers interact, and what engineers actually care about.6 min
- 02IP Addressing & SubnettingIPv4, IPv6, CIDR notation, subnets, and classless routing.7 min
- 03TCP: The Handshake & ConnectionSYN/SYN-ACK/ACK, FIN/RST, sequence numbers, and connection states.8 min
- 04UDP & ICMPWhen to use UDP, ICMP messages, ping, traceroute internals.6 min
- 05Packet Capture with tcpdump & WiresharkCapture, filter, and read network traffic to diagnose production issues.8 min
- 06Routing & NATStatic routing, default gateways, NAT masquerade, and port forwarding.7 min
DNS: The Phone Book of the Internet
How DNS works, resolution chains, records, caching, and debugging DNS in production.
- 01DNS Resolution ChainRecursive resolvers, authoritative servers, caching, TTL, and negative caching.7 min
- 02DNS Record TypesA, AAAA, CNAME, MX, TXT, SRV, NS, SOA — when to use each.7 min
- 03Debugging DNSdig, nslookup, systemd-resolve — trace resolution failures in production.7 min
- 04Split-Horizon & CoreDNSInternal vs external DNS, Kubernetes CoreDNS, and service discovery.7 min
- 05DNSSEC & DNS over HTTPSProtect DNS from cache poisoning and eavesdropping.6 min
- 06DNS at ScaleAnycast DNS, GeoDNS, latency-based routing, and failover.7 min
TLS & Certificate Management
How TLS works, certificate chains, mutual TLS, and automating certificate lifecycle.
- 01The TLS HandshakeCipher suites, key exchange, certificates, and session resumption.8 min
- 02X.509 CertificatesCertificate structure, SANs, CA chains, intermediate certs, and trust stores.8 min
- 03Certificate ManagementOpenSSL, cfssl, cert-manager, and Let's Encrypt automation.7 min
- 04Mutual TLS (mTLS)Client certificates, service mesh mTLS, and zero-trust networking.7 min
- 05Debugging TLS Issuesopenssl s_client, certificate expiry alerts, and TLS inspection.7 min
- 06TLS in KubernetesIngress TLS, cert-manager, Secrets, and rotating certificates safely.7 min
HTTP, HTTP/2 & gRPC
The application-layer protocols that power every API — from HTTP/1.1 to modern gRPC services.
- 01HTTP/1.1 FundamentalsMethods, status codes, headers, caching, Keep-Alive, and chunked encoding.7 min
- 02HTTP/2 & HTTP/3Multiplexing, header compression, server push, and QUIC/HTTP3.7 min
- 03REST API DesignResources, verbs, status codes, pagination, idempotency, and versioning.7 min
- 04gRPC & Protocol BuffersProtobuf schema, service definitions, bidirectional streaming, and deadlines.8 min
- 05WebSockets & Server-Sent EventsWhen to use streaming, upgrade handshake, and connection management.6 min
- 06Debugging APIs in Productioncurl, httpie, grpcurl, and distributed tracing with OpenTelemetry.7 min
Load Balancing & Traffic Management
L4 vs L7, algorithms, health checks, sticky sessions, and modern service mesh traffic control.
- 01Load Balancing BasicsL4 (TCP/IP) vs L7 (HTTP), virtual IPs, and ECMP routing.6 min
- 02Load Balancing AlgorithmsRound robin, least connections, IP hash, consistent hashing, and EWMA.7 min
- 03Health Checks & Failure DetectionActive vs passive health checks, connection draining, and graceful shutdown.7 min
- 04Nginx & HAProxyConfigure reverse proxies, upstream blocks, and rate limiting.8 min
- 05Kubernetes Load BalancingServices (ClusterIP/NodePort/LoadBalancer), Ingress, and Gateway API.8 min
- 06Service Mesh Traffic ControlIstio/Linkerd traffic policies, retries, circuit breakers, and canary splits.8 min
Network Debugging in Production
Systematic approach to diagnosing latency, packet loss, DNS failures, and connectivity issues.
- 01Network Debug MethodologyDivide-and-conquer — isolate layer by layer from application to wire.7 min
- 02Latency Debuggingss, netstat, tcp_retrans, and identifying latency sources at each hop.7 min
- 03Debugging Connection Failuresiptables, firewall rules, security groups, and connection tracking.7 min
- 04Network Performanceiperf3, bandwidth testing, MTU issues, and jumbo frames.7 min
- 05Kubernetes Network DebuggingPod-to-pod, pod-to-service, DNS, and CNI plugin troubleshooting.8 min
- 06Incident Practice: Network OutageStep through a realistic production network incident from alert to resolution.9 min