# Vibe Coding 101 for Software Engineers

> "There's a new kind of coding I call 'vibe coding', where you fully give in to the vibes, embrace exponentials, and forget that the code even exists." — Andrej Karpathy, February 3, 2025

A **12-week course** teaching disciplined AI-assisted development for software engineers. Learn to harness any AI coding tool — Cursor, Claude Code, Windsurf, Gemini CLI, Copilot, Bolt.new, and more — while maintaining professional engineering standards.

**This course is tool-agnostic.** Tools change every 3 months. Disciplines last decades.

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## Course Structure

| Phase | Weeks | Focus |
|-------|-------|-------|
| **Foundations** | 1–4 | Learn the tools, ship a prototype |
| **Engineering** | 5–8 | Testing, architecture, security, automation |
| **Launch** | 9–12 | Scale, multi-agent systems, ship publicly |

### 12-Week Curriculum

| Week | Title | Subtitle |
|------|-------|----------|
| 1 | [Disciplined Vibe Coding](course-materials/weeks/week-01/) | What Is Vibe Coding? |
| 2 | [How AI Coding Actually Works](course-materials/weeks/week-02/) | LLMs, Tokens & Context |
| 3 | [Ship It Week](course-materials/weeks/week-03/) | PRD → Prototype → Deploy |
| 4 | [Iteration & Code Review](course-materials/weeks/week-04/) | Context Engineering |
| 5 | [Testing AI-Generated Code](course-materials/weeks/week-05/) | Why AI Code Needs More Testing |
| 6 | Architecture & Design Patterns | Guiding AI Toward Good Patterns |
| 7 | Security & AI Vulnerabilities | Package Hallucination & Prompt Injection |
| 8 | Skills, Agents & Automation | Building Reusable AI Workflows |
| 9 | Production Patterns & Scaling | Error Handling, Logging & Monitoring |
| 10 | Multi-Agent Systems | Orchestration & MCP |
| 11 | Ethics, Governance & Feature Freeze | Ship Responsibly |
| 12 | Demo Day & Launch | Present, Ship, Celebrate |

> Weeks 1–5 are available with lecture notes and slides. Weeks 6–12 are coming soon.

### Two Milestones

| Milestone | Week | Deliverable |
|-----------|------|-------------|
| **Mid-term Checkpoint** | 6 | Working prototype + architecture docs |
| **Demo Day** | 12 | Launched product + presentation |

---

## Key Concepts

**Disciplined Vibe Coding** — Harnessing AI speed while maintaining professional standards: testing, architecture, security, and code review.

**Context Engineering** — The successor to prompt engineering. Organizing all information (not just prompts) so AI can solve problems effectively.

**The EPCV Cycle** — Explore → Plan → Code → Verify. The universal workflow for AI-assisted development, applicable in any tool.

**PRD-First Development** — Every project starts with a Product Requirements Document. AI cannot infer from omission.

---

## Getting Started

### Free Tools (Complete the Course for $0)

| Tool | Purpose | Link |
|------|---------|------|
| **Gemini CLI** | Free-tier AI coding in terminal | [aistudio.google.com](https://aistudio.google.com) |
| **VS Code** | Code editor | [code.visualstudio.com](https://code.visualstudio.com) |
| **GitHub** | Version control + CI/CD | [github.com](https://github.com) |
| **Vercel / Render** | Free deployment | [vercel.com](https://vercel.com) |

### Student Discounts

| Tool | Discount | Link |
|------|----------|------|
| **GitHub Student Pack** | 100+ free tools | [education.github.com/pack](https://education.github.com/pack) |
| **Cursor Pro** | 1 year free | [cursor.com/students](https://cursor.com/students) |

> See the full [Student Tools Guide](course-materials/resources/STUDENT_TOOLS_GUIDE.md) for all free and discounted options.

---

## Repository Structure

```
├── course-materials/
│   ├── SYLLABUS.md                 # Official 12-week syllabus
│   ├── weeks/
│   │   ├── week-01/                # Disciplined Vibe Coding
│   │   ├── week-02/                # How AI Coding Actually Works
│   │   ├── week-03/                # Ship It Week
│   │   └── week-04/                # Iteration & Code Review
│   ├── templates/
│   │   └── examples/               # 24 PRD examples across all difficulty levels
│   └── resources/
│       └── STUDENT_TOOLS_GUIDE.md  # Free-tier tool breakdown
└── README.md                       # You are here
```

Each week folder contains:

- **README.md** — Lecture content with learning objectives and key concepts
- **slides/** — Presentation slides (PDF + editable PPTX where available)
- **lab-exercise/** — Hands-on activities (where applicable)

---

## Resources

### Official Documentation

- [Cursor Documentation](https://docs.cursor.com/)
- [Claude Code Documentation](https://docs.anthropic.com/en/docs/claude-code)
- [Gemini CLI Documentation](https://ai.google.dev/gemini-cli)
- [Windsurf Documentation](https://docs.windsurf.com/)
- [GitHub Copilot Documentation](https://docs.github.com/en/copilot)
- [MCP Specification](https://modelcontextprotocol.io/)

### Recommended Reading

- [DeepLearning.AI: Agent Skills with Anthropic](https://learn.deeplearning.ai/courses/agent-skills-with-anthropic)
- [Addy Osmani: My LLM Coding Workflow Going Into 2026](https://addyosmani.com/blog/ai-coding-workflow/)
- [MIT Technology Review: From Vibe Coding to Context Engineering](https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/11/05/1127477/from-vibe-coding-to-context-engineering-2025-in-software-development/)

---

## Author

**Goker Ezberci**
- [x.com/gokerez](https://x.com/gokerez)
- [linkedin.com/in/gokerezberci](https://linkedin.com/in/gokerezberci)

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*Version 2.0 — February 2026*