• Variables
• Types
• Operators
• Loops
• Functions

• Classes
• Objects
• Inheritance
• Interfaces
• Traits
• Namespaces

• MySQL
• PostgreSQL
• Indexes
• Joins
• Transactions

• Composer
• PSR-4
• Dependency Management
• Packagist

• HTTP Protocol
• JSON
• REST
• API Design
• Postman

• PHP 8+
• Enums
• Attributes
• Match
• Constructor Promotion
• Readonly Properties

• SOLID Principles
• Repository Pattern
• Factory Pattern
• Strategy Pattern
• Observer Pattern
• Dependency Injection

• Routing
• Controllers
• Middleware
• Service Container
• ORM (Eloquent / Doctrine)

• JWT
• OAuth2
• Sessions
• CSRF Protection
• XSS Prevention
• SQL Injection Prevention

• PHPUnit
• Pest
• Mocking
• Integration Tests

• Redis
• Memcached
• OPcache
• Profiling
• Query Optimization

• RabbitMQ
• Redis Queue
• Laravel Queue
• Queue Workers
• Cron Jobs

• Docker
• Docker Compose
• Nginx
• Linux
• Bash Scripting

• CI/CD
• GitHub Actions
• GitLab CI
• AWS
• DigitalOcean
• Laravel Forge / Ploi

• Message Brokers
• Kafka
• RabbitMQ
• gRPC
• Service-to-Service Communication

• Horizontal Scaling
• Load Balancing
• Database Replication
• Database Sharding
• CDN

• Domain-Driven Design (DDD)
• Clean Architecture
• CQRS
• Event Sourcing
• Distributed Systems

• OpenAI API
• Claude API
• Gemini API
• MCP Servers
• Vector Databases
• AI Agents

Skipping basics won't skip the struggle.