Week 1 Master Guide
Week 1: Absolute Zero to Command Line, Git & Core Python Programming
Week 1 Daily Breakdown (7 Days)
Day 1
Week 1 — Day 1: How Computers, Operating Systems & The Terminal Actually Work
1 code file(s) • 5 Q&ADay 2
Week 1 — Day 2: Python From Zero — Variables, Memory References, Primitive Types & Strings
1 code file(s) • 4 Q&ADay 3
Week 1 — Day 3: Core Data Structures (`list`, `tuple`, `set`, `dict`) & Big-O Hash Table Internals
1 code file(s) • 4 Q&ADay 4
Week 1 — Day 4: Control Flow (`if/else`), Loops (`for`/`while`), Functions & Variable Scope
1 code file(s) • 4 Q&ADay 5
Week 1 — Day 5: Working with Files
1 code file(s) • 4 Q&ADay 6
Week 1 — Day 6: Object-Oriented Programming (OOP), `@dataclass` & Git/GitHub Version Control
1 code file(s) • 4 Q&ADay 7
Week 1 — Day 7: Mini-Project (Local Runbook Search & Analyzer CLI) + Week 1 Final Interview Grill
1 code file(s) • 0 Q&AWeek 1: Absolute Zero to Command Line, Git & Core Python Programming (week1.md)
Mentor's Note (10+ YOE Staff AI Engineer POV): Welcome to Week 1!
How this week is designed for TWO audiences simultaneously:
- Complete Non-Tech Beginners (Website Learners): If you have never written a terminal command or a line of Python in your life, follow every day step-by-step (
1–2 hours/day). We explain every word (CPU,RAM,PATH,variable,hash table,function,class,Git commit) in plain English with visual diagrams and runnable examples.- Experienced Builders & Interview Candidates (Bootcamp Pace): Don't let the word "Basics" fool you! Under every topic, we go straight into CPython memory internals, Big-O time complexity (
O(1)vsO(n)), mutability traps, and the exact trick questions Senior AI Engineers ask in coding interviews.By the end of Day 7, we build a complete Pure-Python SRE Runbook Analyzer & Keyword Search CLI—which later evolves into our LLM & RAG Copilot!
Week 1 Architecture & Daily Folder Map
text
week01_computer_terminal_git_python_basics/
├── week1.md # You are here! Master Week 1 Guide
├── day01_how_computers_os_terminal_work/ # Day 1: CPU, RAM, OS, PATH & Terminal Mastery
│ ├── README.md # Full Theory + Step-by-Step Terminal Commands
│ ├── src/sys_inspector.py # Runnable System & Environment Inspector
│ ├── tests/test_sys_inspector.py # Automated Verification Tests
│ └── interview_questions.md # Beginner to Senior OS/CLI Interview Q&A
├── day02_python_variables_types_strings_math/ # Day 2: CPython Memory, Types, Strings & Slicing
├── day03_lists_tuples_sets_dictionaries/ # Day 3: Data Structures & Big-O Hash Table Internals
├── day04_control_flow_loops_functions/ # Day 4: Loops, Functions, *args/**kwargs & Scope
├── day05_files_json_errors_modules/ # Day 5: File I/O, pathlib, JSON/CSV & Error Handling
├── day06_oop_classes_and_git_github/ # Day 6: Classes, @dataclass & Git/GitHub Version Control
├── day07_week1_mini_project_and_interview/ # Day 7: Mini-Project (Runbook Analyzer CLI) + Mock Interview
└── troubleshooting/ # Real bugs, edge cases & Q&A logged during Week 1
Daily Schedule & Learning Objectives
| Day | Topic | Core Concepts | Runnable Deliverable |
|---|---|---|---|
| Day 1 | How Computers, OS & The Terminal Work | CPU vs GPU vs RAM vs Disk, Processes, Environment Variables (.env, PATH), PowerShell & Bash commands (pwd, cd, ls, mkdir, cat, |, >) | sys_inspector.py — Audits OS, Python runtime, PATH, and safe environment variable masking |
| Day 2 | Python From Zero: Variables, Memory & Strings | CPython bytecode, id(), mutability vs immutability, int, float, bool, None, string methods, f-strings, slicing [start:stop:step] | text_sanitizer.py — Cleans raw server logs, strips PII, normalizes whitespace, and estimates tokens |
| Day 3 | Core Data Structures & Big-O Complexity | list, tuple, set, dict; Dynamic Arrays vs Hash Tables; why x in my_set is O(1) while x in my_list is O(n) | log_deduplicator.py — Benchmarks O(n²) list lookup vs O(n) set/dict hash lookup on 50,000 log lines |
| Day 4 | Control Flow, Loops & Functions | if/elif/else, truthiness, for/while, enumerate, zip, def, default mutable arg trap (def f(x=[])), *args, **kwargs, LEGB scope | incident_router.py — Rule-based SRE alert classifier using modular functions and keyword routing |
| Day 5 | Files, JSON, Markdown, Modules & Exceptions | pathlib.Path, context managers (with open), parsing .md and .json, try/except/else/finally, custom exceptions | runbook_parser.py — Safely reads Markdown runbooks, splits sections by # headers, and exports JSON |
| Day 6 | Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) & Git/GitHub | class, __init__, self, __repr__, @dataclass, inheritance vs composition, git init, staging, commits, branches | models.py — Object-oriented RunbookDocument, RunbookSection, and SearchResult models |
| Day 7 | Week 1 Mini-Project & Senior Interview Grill | Combining Days 1–6 into a complete, tested CLI application + 25 Foundation Interview Questions | Mini-Project: runbook_search_cli.py — Full CLI that indexes local Markdown runbooks and ranks answers! |
How to Run Any Day's Code & Tests
From the root workspace (d:\Spark\AI_Engineer), you can run any script or test suite using python or uv run:
powershell
# Run Day 1 System Inspector script:
python week01_computer_terminal_git_python_basics/day01_how_computers_os_terminal_work/src/sys_inspector.py
# Run Day 1 Automated Tests:
python -m unittest discover -s week01_computer_terminal_git_python_basics/day01_how_computers_os_terminal_work/tests
Let's dive straight into Day 1 (day01_how_computers_os_terminal_work/README.md) and Day 2 (day02_python_variables_types_strings_math/README.md)!