Java + Spring Boot + AI
Complete Developer Syllabus
From Basics to Job-Ready | ~16-18 Weeks
Duration Daily Study Phases Goal
16-18 Weeks 3-4 Hours 7 Phases Job Ready
PHASE 1 Core Java ⏱ 3-4 Weeks
Build a rock-solid Java foundation before touching any framework.
• OOP Concepts
◦ Classes, Objects, Constructors
◦ Inheritance, Polymorphism, Abstraction, Encapsulation
◦ Interfaces and Abstract Classes
• Collections Framework
◦ List, ArrayList, LinkedList
◦ Map, HashMap, TreeMap
◦ Set, HashSet
◦ Iterator and for-each loops
• Exception Handling
◦ try-catch-finally
◦ Custom exceptions
◦ Checked vs Unchecked
• Generics
• Java Streams & Lambda Expressions
• Functional Interfaces
• Multithreading Basics (Thread, Runnable, synchronized)
• Java 17+ Features (records, sealed classes, text blocks)
PHASE 2 Spring Boot ⏱ 4-5 Weeks
The most important skill for your job search. Master this phase.
• Spring Core
◦ Dependency Injection (DI)
◦ Inversion of Control (IoC)
◦ Spring Beans and Application Context
• Spring Boot Setup
◦ Project structure
◦ [Link] / [Link]
◦ Profiles (dev, prod)
• REST API Development
◦ @RestController, @GetMapping, @PostMapping, @PutMapping, @DeleteMapping
◦ Request/Response handling
◦ @PathVariable, @RequestParam, @RequestBody
• Validation (@Valid, @NotNull, @Size, etc.)
• Global Exception Handling (@ControllerAdvice)
• Spring Security + JWT Authentication
• Swagger / OpenAPI Documentation
PHASE 3 Database & ORM ⏱ 2-3 Weeks
Learn to store, query, and manage data efficiently.
• SQL Fundamentals
◦ SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE
◦ JOINs (INNER, LEFT, RIGHT, FULL)
◦ WHERE, GROUP BY, ORDER BY, HAVING
◦ Indexing for performance
• PostgreSQL or MySQL setup and usage
• JPA & Hibernate
◦ @Entity, @Table, @Id, @Column
◦ Relationships: @OneToMany, @ManyToOne, @ManyToMany
◦ JPQL queries
• Spring Data JPA
◦ JpaRepository, CrudRepository
◦ Custom queries with @Query
• Transactions (@Transactional)
• Data consistency and isolation levels
PHASE 4 System Design & APIs ⏱ 2 Weeks
Companies heavily test API thinking and system design in interviews.
• REST API Best Practices
• API Versioning (/api/v1/, /api/v2/)
• Pagination and Filtering
• Error handling patterns (standard error responses)
• Microservices Basics
◦ What they are and why they exist
◦ Service-to-service communication (REST, Feign Client)
◦ API Gateway pattern
• Docker Basics
◦ Dockerfile, docker-compose
◦ Containerizing a Spring Boot app
• System Design Concepts
◦ Load balancing, caching, queues
◦ Data flow: frontend ↔ backend ↔ AI
PHASE 5 AI Integration ⏱ 2-3 Weeks
You don't need to BUILD AI — you need to USE it in backend systems.
• AI/ML Fundamentals (just enough)
◦ What are LLMs (Large Language Models)?
◦ Embeddings and vector search
◦ Prompt engineering basics
• Calling AI APIs from Java
◦ OpenAI API integration
◦ Google Gemini API
◦ Handling streaming responses
• Spring AI Framework
◦ Setup and configuration
◦ ChatClient, EmbeddingClient
◦ Prompt templates
• LangChain4j
◦ Chains and memory
◦ RAG (Retrieval Augmented Generation) basics
• Projects to Build
◦ Chatbot backend with Spring Boot + OpenAI
◦ Text summarizer API
◦ AI-powered recommendation service
PHASE 6 Cloud & DevOps ⏱ 2 Weeks
Know enough to deploy and monitor your apps in production.
• AWS Basics
◦ EC2 (virtual servers)
◦ S3 (file storage)
◦ RDS (managed databases)
◦ IAM (access management)
• CI/CD Pipelines
◦ GitHub Actions basics
◦ Automated build and deploy
• Logging & Monitoring
◦ SLF4J + Logback
◦ Application health checks
• Secure Coding
◦ JWT tokens
◦ HTTPS and encryption basics
◦ Input validation and SQL injection prevention
PHASE 7 Interview Prep ⏱ Ongoing
Start this alongside Phase 5-6. Consistent daily practice is key.
• Data Structures & Algorithms in Java
◦ Arrays, Strings, HashMap
◦ Linked Lists, Stacks, Queues
◦ Binary Search, Sorting
◦ Trees and basic Graph traversal
• Spring Boot Interview Questions
◦ What is DI? What is IoC?
◦ How does @Transactional work?
◦ Difference between @Component, @Service, @Repository
• System Design Interview Prep
• Build 2 Strong Portfolio Projects
◦ Push to GitHub with README
◦ Deploy live (even a simple demo)
Your Target Stack
Java Spring Boot SQL REST APIs AI Integration Cloud
You don't need deep ML theory • You need to BUILD systems that USE AI
