Go - Beginner Path

How to use this

Follow these steps in order. Each step takes 10–20 minutes and ends with a small practice task and a quick self-check.

1) Install & Verify (10–15 min)

• Read: Installation & Toolchain
• Do: Install Go and run go version
• Practice: Print your Go version and OS in a sentence
• Self-check: Can you run go env GOPATH without errors?

2) First Program (10–15 min)

• Read: First Program
• Do: Create main.go, run with go run .
• Practice: Change the text, then go build and run the binary
• Self-check: Explain the difference between go run and go build

3) Syntax & Basics (15–20 min)

• Read: Syntax & Basics
• Do: Call math.Pi in your program
• Practice: Write a function add and print its result
• Self-check: When can you use := short declaration?

4) Types & Variables (15–20 min)

• Read: Types & Keywords, Variables & Constants
• Do: Declare variables with var and :=
• Practice: Write a small snippet using int, float64, and string
• Self-check: What is a zero value for bool and string?

5) Control Flow (15–20 min)

• Read: If/Else, Switch, For
• Do: Sum numbers from 1 to 10
• Practice: Print only even numbers using continue
• Self-check: What’s the only loop keyword in Go?

6) Collections & Structs (20–25 min)

• Read: Arrays, Slices, Maps, Structs
• Do: Create a User struct and a slice of users
• Practice: Iterate and print user names
• Self-check: How do slices differ from arrays?

7) Methods & Interfaces (20–25 min)

• Read: Methods & Receivers, Interfaces
• Do: Give User a String() method
• Practice: Implement a small interface and pass it into a function
• Self-check: When do you prefer pointer receivers?

8) Files & JSON (20–25 min)

• Read: Files & I/O, JSON Encoding/Decoding
• Do: Save and read a JSON file with a struct
• Practice: Add error handling and print friendly messages
• Self-check: What is the purpose of struct tags like json:"name"?

9) Error Handling (15–20 min)

• Read: Error Handling
• Do: Wrap an error with fmt.Errorf("... %w", err)
• Practice: Check for os.ErrNotExist with errors.Is
• Self-check: Why avoid panic for normal control flow?

10) Concurrency (25–30 min)

• Read: Goroutines & Channels, Select, Context
• Do: Start a goroutine that sends a value on a channel
• Practice: Add timeout with context.WithTimeout
• Self-check: How do channels help avoid data races?

Capstone: Build a small service

• REST path: Sample REST API → CRUD + Migrations → Observability
• gRPC path: gRPC Streaming Service