codewithmukesh

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.NET
BACKEND
DEVELOPER
ROADMAP
2025 EDITION

mukesh murugan
@iammukeshm
 codewithmukesh

The Developer Fundamentals

Build a strong foundation by mastering these essentials:
Understand how the internet works, including HTTP/HTTPS and
APIs.
Learn common HTTP status codes (e.g., 200, 404, 500).
Master object-oriented programming (OOP) principles.
Enhance problem-solving skills and basic data structures &
algorithms.
Refine research skills and optimize ChatGPT (and other AI tools)
usage. This is very important.
Learn Git in-depth and explore GitHub through practical
projects.
These basics will set you up for success in advanced topics.

mukesh murugan for beginners only

@iammukeshm
 codewithmukesh

Into the World of .NET

To get started with .NET, focus on these essentials:
Explore the .NET Ecosystem: Understand its framework,
runtime, libraries, and use cases.
Learn Basic C# Syntax: Master language features, starting with
C# 12 (the latest LTS version in .NET 8).
Start Simple: Build a basic .NET console app to grasp variables,
conditionals, loops, and fundamentals.
Master the .NET CLI: Learn key commands for project creation,
build, run, and publish.
Use the Right Tools: Get comfortable with IDEs like Visual
Studio or editors like VS Code.
Understand NuGet: Learn to manage dependencies and
packages effectively.
Focus on Modern .NET: Prioritize working with .NET 6 / 8 or
above (strictly). At the same time, be aware of features that
shipped with .NET 9!

mukesh murugan for beginners only

@iammukeshm
 codewithmukesh

Advanced C#
Now that you’ve mastered the basics, take the next steps:
Adopt Clean Code Practices: Focus on writing clear,
maintainable, and efficient code.
Explore C# Project Templates: Familiarize yourself with
templates using the .NET CLI.
Write Decoupled Code: Emphasize modularity and separation
of concerns.
Master Key Concepts: Learn interfaces, dependency injection,
and the dependency inversion principle.
Understand SOLID Principles: Apply these for better design and
maintainability.
Learn Design Patterns: Start with a few essential ones, like
Singleton, Factory, and Observer.
Engage in Feedback: Participate in peer reviews or contribute
to open-source projects.
Keep It Simple, Silly (KISS): Avoid overengineering; prioritize
simplicity.
Read Code: Explore open-source C# projects on GitHub for
inspiration.
Write Unit Tests: Ensure code reliability and catch bugs early.
These steps will elevate your .NET development skills significantly.

mukesh murugan
@iammukeshm
 codewithmukesh

Database Fundamentals
A critical step in your learning journey is mastering databases:
Understand Database Design: Learn normalization,
relationships, and schema design.
Learn SQL Syntax: Master CRUD operations, joins, and
advanced queries.
Explore Stored Procedures: While not always essential, they’re
valuable for specific use cases.
Relational vs NoSQL Databases: Understand the differences
and when to choose each.
Optimize Databases: Learn indexing, query optimization, and
performance tuning.
Work with Popular Databases: Gain hands-on experience with
relational databases like PostgreSQL and MSSQL, and NoSQL
options like MongoDB, DynamoDB, or CosmosDB.
I prefer working with PostgreSQL for relational and AWS
DynamoDB for NoSQL, as they offer a great balance of
features and scalability.
Mastering these concepts will provide a strong foundation for
handling data in your applications.

mukesh murugan
@iammukeshm
 codewithmukesh

ASP.NET Core - Powerhouse!

Focus on ASP.NET Core and Web Development! We would use this
tech to build powerful APIs.

Create a sample ASP.NET Core Web API and learn the basics.
Understand the lifecycle of a request within an ASP.NET Core
application.
Learn about Controllers and Minimal APIs.
Understand Middlewares.
Routing.
Filters and Attributes.
Various API Architectures like REST API, GraphQL, and gRPC.
REST API Conventions.
Understand MVC Pattern.
How to load Configurations and IOptions pattern.
Service Lifecycles (Scoped, Transient & Singleton), and
Dependency Injection.
Authentication & Authorization (We will have a separate page
for this)
Extension Methods.
Exception Handling with IExceptionHandler.

mukesh murugan
@iammukeshm
 codewithmukesh

ORM : Object Relational Mapping

To integrate your C# classes with a database, focus on these key
techniques:
Entity Framework Core (EF Core): Use it for seamless data
access and integration.
Code First & Database First: Learn both approaches to database
schema management.
Migrations & EF CLI: Master migrations and .NET EF CLI
commands for database versioning.
LINQ: Leverage LINQ for querying data in a concise and
readable way.
Data Loading Strategies: Understand eager, lazy, and explicit
loading.
DbContext & Query Filters: Use DbContext for managing
entities and query filters for reusable queries.
Interceptors: Customize and extend EF Core behaviors using
interceptors.
Dapper: For raw SQL queries and more control over
performance.
NoSQL Integration: Work with MongoDB, DynamoDB, or other
NoSQL databases as needed.
These techniques will help you efficiently work with databases in
.NET applications.

mukesh murugan
@iammukeshm
 codewithmukesh

Authentication & Authorization

Authentication and authorization are crucial for securing your
applications. Here's how to get started:
Understand Authentication & Authorization: Learn why they are
essential for securing APIs.
Implement a simple ASP.NET Core Web API for email/password
authentication, encrypting passwords and storing them securely.
Dive into built-in Identity functionality for user management.
Identity Endpoints (ASP.NET Core 8):
Users, Roles, and Permissions: Learn how to manage users, roles,
and access control.
Cookies & JWT: Understand session management with cookies and
token-based auth using JWT.
Identity Server: Explore IdentityServer for handling more complex
authentication scenarios.
OpenID Connect & OAuth 2.0: Learn these protocols and different
authentication flows.
OAuth Providers: Work with services like Keycloak, Auth0, AWS
Cognito, or Azure AD for authentication in real-world projects.
Claims & Permissions: Manage user claims and permissions for fine-
grained access control.
Multitenancy with Finbuckle: Understand how to implement multi-
tenant architectures in your applications.

mukesh murugan
@iammukeshm
 codewithmukesh

System & Solution Designs

Now that you have a basic understanding of building a .NET
application, focus on learning system design concepts.

Start building applications that are easy to maintain and

readable.
Develop good system design knowledge to break down
systems into smaller pieces and solve problems.
Learn about Monolith, Microservices, and Modular Monoliths,
and understand when to use them.
Event Driven Architecture.
Practice Clean Architecture with separation of concerns.
Vertical Slice Architecture.
Domain Driven Concepts - Domain Events, Value Objects, Rich
vs Anemic Domain Modelling, Bounded Contexts.

mukesh murugan
@iammukeshm
 codewithmukesh

Microservices!
To build truly decoupled systems, you need to know about
Microservices.
When to use Microservices.
The Tradeoffs and Perks.
Communication Between Services using Message Brokers &
Buses like RabbitMQ, or Kafka.
Masstransit.
Event Sourcing and Eventual Consistency.
Observability.
Containerization and Orchestration.
Secrets.
API Gateways like YARP, Ocelot.
Load Balancing.
And a lot more!

mukesh murugan
@iammukeshm
 codewithmukesh

Modular Monoliths!
The application remains a single deployable unit in a modular
monolith, but the code is organized into distinct modules.

Each module has its domain, clear boundaries, and internal

implementation details hidden from others. This approach
provides the clarity and maintainability benefits of microservices
while retaining the simplicity of a monolithic deployment.

I prefer to use this architecture before inching towards

Microservices!

The modular monolith shines because it addresses

real-world development challenges pragmatically.

mukesh murugan
@iammukeshm
codewithmukesh

TIP!
Never start with Microservices! In most of the cases, a well-
designed Modular Monolith is what you would need.

mukesh murugan
@iammukeshm
 codewithmukesh

Testing
This is something we often tend to skip or put for later. But make
sure that you write your test cases.

Unit Testing.
Integration Testing.
xUnit / NUnit NuGet Packages.
Fluent Assertions (Recommended).
Bogus for dummy data generation.
K6 for load testing.
Test Driven Programming. Make your code testable and ensure
you have good code coverage.
Learn about TestContainers to test your code / infrastructure
with docker containers!

mukesh murugan
@iammukeshm
 codewithmukesh

Caching
A crucial feature to improve your Web Application’s performance.

Learn various concepts about caching.

Cache Invalidation Techniques.
Cache Expirations - Sliding Window, Absolute Expiration.
In Memory / In Process Caching.
Distributed Caching with Redis.
Hybrid Caching (.NET 9 onwards). This is the future!
Application Level Caching (Response Caching, EF Caching)
Various Cache Providers like Redis, AWS ElastiCache.

mukesh murugan
@iammukeshm
 codewithmukesh

Logging
Enhance Your Application's Observability and Bug Tracking.

ILogger Interface from Microsoft

Serilog: This popular logging package is often the only one
you'll ever need and is my go-to tool for every new C# project I
work on!
Learn about various Sinks.
Structured Logging.
Serilog SEQ Logging for Development purposes.
Serilog Configurations and CoRelationId
NLog: a good alternative.
Learn about Kibana and the ELK stack too!

mukesh murugan
@iammukeshm
 codewithmukesh

Background Tasks
Every application would require background tasks at some point in
time.

Native IHostedService and BackgroundService interface for

simple task scheduling.
CRON concepts.
Hangfire.
Quartz.

mukesh murugan
@iammukeshm
 codewithmukesh

Good to Know Libraries.

Use Refit / HttpClientFactory for HTTP calls.
FluentValidation to validate incoming requests.
ProblemDetails for organized Error Throws.
Use Polly for the Retry Mechanism.
SignalR for real-time communication.
API Versioning.
Scrutor for Automated Dependency Injection.
Carter for better Minimal API routing.
Mapster/Mapperly for Object Mapping.
Sonar Analyzers.
OpenIddict.
YARP Reverse Proxy.
Learn CQRS Pattern with the MediatR library.
Open API / Scalar for API Documentation. (Swagger is no
longer included as a default package .NET 9 onwards)
Benchmark.NET for evaluating your application performance.

mukesh murugan
@iammukeshm
 codewithmukesh

Beyond C#
It takes more than just a single technology to excel as a developer
in 2025 and beyond!

mukesh murugan
@iammukeshm
 codewithmukesh

Containers & Orchestration

Very important for backend developers to make your deployments
so much easier.

Learn about the benefits of Docker and containerization.

Learn Docker & Docker Compose.
Dockerfile. (it’s good to know although you might move to
Aspire)
Built-in containerization feature from .NET 7 and above (you no
longer need a Dockerfile).
Multi-Stage Docker Builds.
Docker Hub & CLI commands.
Docker Networking.
Try to build a docker image of your .NET application, push it to
an image repository like DockerHub, and Run the container
locally or on Cloud Platforms like AWS or Digital Ocean.
Have an understanding of Kubernetes and kubectl commands
(optional).

mukesh murugan
@iammukeshm
 codewithmukesh

Observability
Building large systems requires you to have an efficient way to
track your system state, logs, and metrics.

Monitoring
ELK Stack
Serilog + SEQ
Prometheus
Graffana Dashboards
Open Telemetry in .NET
Cloud Logging Providers like Cloudwatch.
Metrics Collection and Cloud Insights.
OpenTelemetry Collectors.

mukesh murugan
@iammukeshm
 codewithmukesh

Cloud
Cloud is unavoidable in 2025 and beyond. Almost all B2B and B2C
SaaS products are hosted on a Cloud Provider like AWS, Azure, or
GCP.

At a senior level, it is mandatory to have a good grasp of cloud

technologies.
AWS has a better market share.
Learn AWS Lambda, S3, EC2. ECS, Kinesis, IAM, SQS, SNS,
DynamoDB, and other core services.
Serverless Knowledge is crucial.
Get yourself cloud-certified.
Have good experience in designing cloud-based systems
and infrastructure.
Once you are familiar with Manual deployments into the cloud,
learn to automate it.
Learn Automated Cloud Infrastructure Deployments or IAC
Tools like Terraform, AWS CDK, or Pulumi.

mukesh murugan
@iammukeshm
 codewithmukesh

CI/CD
CI/CD (Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment) is a
software development practice that involves automating the
process of building, testing, and deploying code changes.

GitHub Actions (Easy to get started, and it’s FREE).

AWS Code Pipeline
Azure Pipeline
Jenkins
Learn Scripting / Python for automation tasks.
Learn to Create Deployment / Build Pipelines that run tests on
the cloud and deploy them onto your infrastructure/containers
/ virtual machines.

mukesh murugan
@iammukeshm
 codewithmukesh

Improve your Soft Skills!

Improving soft skills is essential for developers, as it not only
enhances collaboration and communication but also contributes
to overall professional success.

Work on expressing thoughts and ideas concisely and

understandably.
Spend time reading documentation.
Develop a system to prioritize and manage tasks efficiently.
Build an online presence, and improve your network.
Learn from the Top Content Creators in your space.
Build a portfolio website for yourself. Start writing blogs, and
make sure to document your progress. This might be helpful to
someone.
Build a Solid Resume.
Stay open to new technologies, methodologies, and ways of
working.
Enhance your analytical skills to approach problems logically
and systematically.
Volunteer for leadership roles or lead small projects to build
leadership skills.
Keep up with industry trends and advancements to remain
relevant and valuable.

mukesh murugan
@iammukeshm
 codewithmukesh

Learn to work with AI!

"AI won't replace you, but developers who know how to work with
AI will!"

Nowadays, integrating AI tools into your workflow is not just a

luxury but a necessity for staying competitive and productive. With
the rapid advancements in AI technology, tools are becoming
more accessible, versatile, and capable of automating mundane
tasks, analyzing large datasets, and enhancing decision-making
processes.

AI Tools can help generate source code, explain code, generate

documentation, and help solve problems way easier for
developers. It’s all about learning to ask the right questions.

ChatGPT / Claude.
GitHub CoPilot.
Cursor AI for source code generation.

mukesh murugan
@iammukeshm
codewithmukesh

Congrats!
You are just one interview away!

mukesh murugan
@iammukeshm
codewithmukesh

LEARNING NEVER REALLY STOPS!

Keep adding more to your roadmaps and stay
up to date

mukesh murugan
@iammukeshm
codewithmukesh

.NET Zero to Hero

Advanced Course (FREE)
Build Production-Ready .NET Solutions with Confidence and Level Up Your Career.

We’ll begin with the fundamentals and progressively dive into

advanced topics such as Authentication, Logging, OpenTelemetry,
Validation, CQRS, Vertical Slice Architecture, Docker, integrating
External Identity Providers, and much more!

By the end of this course, you’ll have the expertise to design, build,
and deploy robust, scalable .NET Web APIs like a pro.

Course Link in Description!

mukesh murugan
@iammukeshm
 codewithmukesh

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