Docker Career Path

Ten production-grade Docker projects. Operate real stacks, engineer hardened images across languages, and build full platforms — from a single deployment lab to a commerce capstone.

10 projects3 levels

Level 1 — Foundations

Intermediate

Open Source Deployment Lab

Operate a production-style WordPress stack: private networking, persistence, backups, health checks, and failure drills.

Intermediate6–8 hours

NginxWordPressMariaDBDocker Compose+1

Node.js Container Engineering

Engineer small, secure, production-ready Node.js images with proper layering, non-root users, and fast startup.

Intermediate4–6 hours

Node.jsDockerAlpinenpm

Python Container Engineering

Build lean Python service images with reproducible dependencies, a real WSGI/ASGI server, and sane defaults.

Intermediate4–6 hours

PythonDockeruvGunicorn

Level 2 — Platform Engineering

Advanced

Java Container Engineering

Containerize JVM services with multi-stage builds, layered jars, and memory settings that respect cgroup limits.

Advanced5–7 hours

JavaJVMDockerMaven

.NET Container Engineering

Package ASP.NET services into trimmed, production-hardened images with multi-stage publish and health checks.

Advanced5–7 hours

.NETASP.NETDockerAlpine

Full-Stack Production Platform

Compose a real frontend + API + database platform behind a reverse proxy with persistence and backups.

Advanced8–10 hours

ReactNode.jsPostgresNginx+1

Level 3 — Production Systems

Advanced

Polyglot Async Platform

Wire multiple services in different languages together through an async message broker and shared contracts.

Advanced8–10 hours

RabbitMQPythonNode.jsDocker Compose

Production Microservices Platform

Run a microservices system with an API gateway, service-to-service networking, and independent scaling.

Advanced10–12 hours

MicroservicesAPI GatewayPostgresDocker Compose

Observability Platform

Add metrics, logs, traces, and dashboards across the stack with a full open-source observability pipeline.

Advanced8–10 hours

PrometheusGrafanaLokiOpenTelemetry

Production Commerce Platform (Capstone)

Bring it all together: a full commerce platform with payments, persistence, observability, and operational drills.

Advanced12–16 hours

Full-StackPaymentsPostgresObservability+1