.NET Solution Architect - In-Depth Learning Roadmap

Phase 1: Core Technical Expertise

1. .NET Fundamentals & Advanced Concepts

• ✅ C# 12, LINQ, Async Programming, Memory Management
• ✅ .NET Core & .NET 8 (ASP.NET Core, API development, Dependency Injection)
• ✅ Clean Code, SOLID Principles, Design Patterns

📚 Courses:

• C# Advanced Topics: Take Your C# Skills to the Next Level - Mosh Hamedani
• Design Patterns in C# - Udemy

2. Backend Architecture & Microservices

• ✅ RESTful API, GraphQL, gRPC
• ✅ Microservices with .NET & DDD (Domain-Driven Design)
• ✅ CQRS, Event Sourcing, Service Mesh (Istio, Linkerd)

📚 Courses:

• Microservices Architecture and Design Patterns in .NET - Udemy
• Clean Architecture in .NET - Steve Smith

3. Databases & Data Management

• ✅ SQL (PostgreSQL, MS SQL, MySQL) - Indexing, Query Optimization
• ✅ NoSQL (MongoDB, Redis, CosmosDB) - When & Where to Use
• ✅ Entity Framework Core - Performance Tuning

📚 Resources:

• SQL Performance Explained - Markus Winand

4. Cloud & DevOps (Azure Focused)

• ✅ Azure Fundamentals (App Services, AKS, Functions, CosmosDB)
• ✅ CI/CD Pipelines (GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps)
• ✅ Kubernetes, Docker for Containerization

📚 Courses:

• Azure for Architects - Scott Duffy
• Kubernetes for .NET Developers - Pluralsight

5. Security & Compliance

• ✅ OAuth, OpenID Connect, JWT Authentication
• ✅ Zero Trust Security, Secure API Design
• ✅ Compliance (GDPR, HIPAA, SOC 2)

📚 Resources:

• OWASP Top 10 Security Risks - OWASP.org

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Phase 2: System Design & Architecture Mastery

6. High-Level System Design

• ✅ Monolith vs Microservices vs Serverless
• ✅ Event-Driven Architecture (Kafka, RabbitMQ, Azure Event Grid)
• ✅ Scalability, Fault Tolerance, High Availability

📚 Courses:

• System Design for Interviews - Educative.io

7. Trade-Off Analysis & Decision Making

• ✅ SQL vs NoSQL, REST vs GraphQL, Cloud vs On-Prem
• ✅ API Gateway vs Service Mesh, Event Sourcing vs Traditional CRUD

📚 Resources:

• The Software Architect Elevator - Gregor Hohpe

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Phase 3: Soft Skills & Leadership

8. Communication & Stakeholder Management

• ✅ Writing Architecture Documents (C4 Diagrams, UML)
• ✅ Presenting to Business & Technical Teams
• ✅ Bridging the gap between developers & executives

📚 Resources:

• Communicating Technical Decisions - Tom Greever

9. Business & Financial Acumen

• ✅ Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), ROI, Licensing Costs
• ✅ Optimizing Cloud Costs (FinOps)

📚 Resources:

• Cloud FinOps - J.R. Storment & Mike Fuller

10. Research & Innovation

• ✅ Staying updated with AI, Blockchain, Edge Computing
• ✅ Reading Whitepapers & Case Studies from Microsoft, AWS

📚 Resources:

• Microsoft Well-Architected Framework - MS Docs

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Final Steps: Applying Knowledge in Real-World Scenarios

• Practice Mock Interviews with system design questions
• Write & Publish Tech Blogs on Medium / Dev.to
• Contribute to Open Source or build a side project

🚀 With this roadmap, you'll be interview-ready and excel as a .NET Solution Architect!