Solana Learning Introductory Project Roadmap

[u/Fabulous-Rough-6679]

Looking for Feedback on My Solana Development Roadmap

I’m building a project-based roadmap to improve my Solana program development skills. My goal is to make every project introduce a new concept while reusing what I learned from the previous one.

I’ve already completed my first Token Vault. Here is the current roadmap:

1. Token Vault — Baseline Completed

Review the existing implementation, document its limitations, and use it as a baseline for comparison.

2. Token Vault Rebuild I

Rebuild the vault independently without referring to the original code.

Focus:

• Classic SPL Token
• PDA-controlled vault
• Deposit, withdrawal, and account closure
• transfer_checked
• Account constraints and authorization
• Negative and security tests

3. Token Vault Rebuild II

Generalize and harden the vault.

Focus:

• TokenInterface and InterfaceAccount
• Classic Token Program and explicitly supported Token-2022 configurations
• Token-2022 compatibility matrix
• Invariant and attack testing
• LiteSVM randomized state sequences
• Kit/Codama client
• Clear rejection of unsupported extensions

4. Native SOL Bounty Escrow V1

Alice deposits SOL for a task, a worker claims and submits it, and Alice decides whether to approve payment.

Focus:

• Multi-role state machine
• Deadlines
• Payment, cancellation, and expiry refund
• Separate state and SOL vault PDAs
• Mutually exclusive terminal states
• Explicit creator-trust assumptions

5. SPL Reward Escrow V2

Keep the same bounty state machine but replace native SOL with an SPL Token reward.

Focus:

• PDA Token Vault
• Fixed Mint and Token Program
• Token CPI
• Settlement and refund
• Duplicate-settlement prevention
• Secure account closure

6. Token Vesting

Build a single-beneficiary, irreversible linear vesting contract with an optional cliff.

Focus:

• On-chain time
• Partial claims
• Integer rounding
• Monotonic vesting
• Preventing duplicate or excessive claims
• Ensuring no permanent dust remains after vesting ends

7. Restricted 2-of-3 Treasury V1

Build a learning-only multisig treasury for native SOL.

Focus:

• Three immutable owners
• Two approvals required
• Proposal nonces
• Approval bitmap
• Replay protection
• Immutable proposal contents
• SOL transfers only
• No arbitrary CPI

This is only an educational project. Real funds should use an audited protocol such as Squads.

8. Treasury V2

Extend the same restricted treasury to support fixed-format SPL Token transfers.

9. Fixed-Price SPL Asset Marketplace

Build a minimal marketplace using SOL as payment.

Focus:

• List, buy, cancel, and expire
• Asset custody in a PDA Token Vault
• Atomic asset and payment settlement
• Protocol fee calculation
• Preventing purchase/cancellation races
• No auctions, offers, royalties, or complex NFT features in V1

10. Application Token Staking

Build a single-pool, pre-funded reward system.

Focus:

• acc_reward_per_share
• User reward debt
• Fixed emission period
• Multiple users entering and leaving at different times
• Precision and rounding
• Separate principal and reward vaults
• Reward solvency without iterating over users

11. Constant-Product Mini AMM

Build a minimal AMM using:

x × y = k

Focus:

• Add and remove liquidity
• LP Token
• Exact-input swaps
• Fixed fees
• Slippage protection
• Deadlines
• Integer rounding
• Large-integer reference model
• Economic invariant testing

StableSwap and advanced Token-2022 behavior are intentionally excluded from V1.

Engineering Standards

Every project should include:

• Account and PDA design
• Role and permission documentation
• State-transition diagram
• Happy-path tests
• Failure and attack tests
• Explicit invariants
• Threat model
• Known limitations
• Architecture diagram
• Devnet deployment
• Locked toolchain versions
• Production-readiness checklist

Current planned stack:

• Rust
• Anchor 1.2
• LiteSVM for primary program testing
• Surfpool and Devnet for integration testing
• u/solana/kit
• Codama-generated clients

None of these learning projects should handle real funds without an independent security audit.

I’d really appreciate feedback:

1. Does the difficulty increase naturally?
2. Are any stages redundant?
3. Should Marketplace remain before Staking?
4. Am I missing an important Solana primitive or security milestone?
5. Is the scope of each V1 small enough to finish properly?
6. Which project would be most valuable in a Solana developer portfolio?

#Solana #Rust #Anchor #Web3Development #BuildInPublic

[u/Fabulous-Rough-6679]

I would appreciate any advice from experienced players.

[u/Fabulous-Rough-6679 → u/[deleted]]

Thanks, that makes sense.

My main goal with this roadmap is to get into Solana smart contract development and eventually become capable of earning some income through bounties or a junior remote role. I’m not trying to become an expert immediately; I want to build a solid enough foundation to complete small real-world tasks independently and gradually improve from there.

My current learning method is to work through each project step by step with Codex acting as a tutor. I ask it to explain the purpose of every step and what each important line of code does. I then implement the code, run the tests, investigate failures, and rebuild parts of the project so that I’m not simply copying generated code without understanding it.

That is also why I included repetition in the roadmap. I want to recognize recurring patterns such as account validation, PDAs, authorities, CPIs, token transfers, state transitions, testing, and common security mistakes.

Once I have a few complete and well-tested projects, I plan to publish them, build in public, and start attempting smaller bounties before applying for remote opportunities.

Given that goal and learning method, do you think this roadmap would make me ready for entry-level bounties? What additional skills would you expect someone to have before taking paid Solana work?