Cover your knowledge gaps in Ethereum development and solidity programming

Advanced Solidity Bootcamp

The longest and hardest training course for Solidity programming. Developers at top Web3 companies have taken this bootcamp to cover their knowledge gaps in Ethereum development and Solidity programming.
Next Cohort : 6th January 2025 10:00AM EDT
Apply now

Advanced Solidity Curriculum

Last Updated : March 2024

22-25 Weeks
Module 1
Advanced Tokens Topics, Bonding Curves, Staking Algorithms

Duration: 2 weeks

Topics: ERC 1363, ERC 777, the Synthetix staking algorithm, ERC721 NFTs, rounding bugs, frontrunning vulnerabilities, sandwich
attacks, bitmap airdrops, non-standard ERC 20 tokens, bonding curves

Tokens and staking form the basis of DeFi, so we will start here. Although every developer learns the ERC 20 standard
early on, many have an incomplete knowledge which can lead to bugs. We teach what security issues to watch out for. Two
fundamental DeFi primitives are introduced: the most popular staking algorithm, and the bonding curve.

Module 2
Automated Market Makers

Duration: 4 weeks

Topics: Uniswap V2, token vaults, time weighted average price oracles, protocol fees, modernizing Uniswap V2, flash loans

Swapping tokens is one of the most fundamental primitives in smart contracts, so we spend a month diving into it here. Uniswap V2 is the most forked DeFi protocol in history, so by learning it thoroughly, you will have a strong insight into hundreds of other codebases. See our Uniswap V2 book.

Module 3
Fuzzing and Mutation Testing

Duration: 2 weeks

Topics: Slither, Vertigo RS, mutation testing, invariant tests in Foundry, Echidna

Unit testing isn’t enough. To create stronger guarantees for smart contracts, we need tools that can catch bugs we aren’t looking for. You will get lots of hands-on practice applying these tools to dapps you built earlier in the bootcamp.

Module 4
Smart Contract Security

Duration: 4 weeks

Topics: read-only reentrancy, msg.sender spoofing, faulty business logic, price manipulation attacks, access controls, input sanitization, CTF exercises

This is a month of CTFs and live security interviews. This will train you to look for behaviors the devs weren’t intending to be in the smart contract.

Even auditors and competitive audit contestants get stuck sometimes in this week.

Module 5
EVM, Assembly, and Gas Optimization

Duration: 5 weeks

Topics: Yul programming, Huff Language, EVM, calldata parsing, contracts built from the ground up in Yul, real world solidity gas optimization

Learn from the leading educators how to write gas optimized contracts. Our gas optimization book is the unrivaled resource for how to gas optimize contracts, and our best-selling video course on gas optimization has influenced dozens of live apps.

Module 6
Proxies

Duration: 2 weeks

Topics: Transparent Upgradeable Proxies, UUPS, ERC 1967, Gnosis Safe, Delegatecall, ERC 1167 Proxy Clones, Metaproxies, Beacon Proxies

Delegatecall is probably one of the most tricky aspects of Solidity, something many experience developers have an incorrect understanding of. To get a sense of the level of depth to it, see our solidity interview questions related to delegatecall.

Module 7
Applied Elliptic Curve Cryptography

Duration: 3 Weeks

Topics: Gasless trades, EIP 712, ERC 20 Permit, elliptic curve signature vulnerabilities

Gasless transaction is an important primitive used by Cowswap, UniswapX, 1inch, and many others. Digital signatures are also an important part of giving certain users privileges. However, they contain unique vulnerabilities if misused, so competent Solidity devs must know what pitfalls to avoid.

Module 8
DeFi Lending Protocols (Bonus)

Duration: 3 weeks

Topics: Price oracles, collateral and liquidation, DeFi interest rates models, governance, token reward incentives, Compound Finance, AAVE

Brought to you by the authors of the Compound V3 Book, you will learn every nut and bolt of this iconic protocol, then use your knowledge to quickly get up to speed on other lending protocols.

Note: this module is only available to students who complete parts 1-7

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Engineers at top Web3 companies and others have studied at RareSkills

The RareSkills Advantage: Quality, Efficiency, and Support

Our training philosophy optimizes the balance between self-study and institutional education, ensuring you learn more in five months than most professional Solidity developers do in a year.

Advanced Curriculum

We constantly update and improve our curriculum.

Cohort of 5

Experience a close-knit learning environment.

Weekly Live Classes

Interactive classes are more effective than watching videos.

1:1 Code Reviews

Identify and address knowledge gaps while improving your coding skills.

Expert Instructors with Weekly Live Classes

Our instructors are industry experts with extensive experience in smart contract development and auditing. They are dedicated to helping yousucceed through one-on-one mentorship, code reviews, and weekly live office hours.

Jeffrey Scholz

Jeffrey Scholz

Jeffrey is the instructor of the only two expert-level Ethereum development courses on Udemy, both of which are bestsellers. His blog on Ethereum development has significantly influenced major projects in the web3 space.

gmhacker

gmhacker

Goncalo Magalhäes (gmhacker) is an aerospace engineer working as a smart contract security researcher. He's now the Head of Security at Immunefi.

Shung

Shung

Shung is a Smart Contract Auditor at Kebasec and an Associate Security Researcher at Spearbit, renowned for his expertise in blockchain security. He has previous experience as a protocol developer at Pangolin.

Jesper Kristensen

Jesper Kristensen

Jesper Kristensen is a Web3 builder and entrepreneur with a Ph.D. and MS. in Applied and Engineering Physics and Computer Science from Cornell University. Founder of the Panoptic protocol.

Philogy

Philogy

Philippe Dumonet is an experienced smart contract developer and auditor with over three years of experience. He has worked for various companies and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs).

What Does It Take to Join Our Bootcamp?

Solidity Experience

You should have at least one year of experience in Solidity. This is an advanced course that builds on the basics, so previous experience is crucial for keeping up with the pace and complexity of the topics we will cover.

Time Commitment

We expect our applicants to commit approximately 25 hours per week for their studies. This dedication is essential to fully engage with the course material and maximize the benefits of our comprehensive curriculum.

Collaborative Spirit

We believe in the power of community in enhancing learning experiences. Students who are ready to support and learn from their peers make the best students for our bootcamp.

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Onboarding Process

Submit an Application
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Entrance Exam
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Student Interview and AMA
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Decision
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Payment
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Access to Calendar events, Slack & Course material
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Day 1 of class
Next Cohort : 6th January 2025 10:00AM EDT
Apply Now

Hear from Our Alumni

Our students, from Web3 technical founders to lead solidity developers, have seen tremendous success after completing our bootcamps. With over 8 figures of funding collectively raised by our alumni for their technical Web3 startups, their achievements stand testament to the quality of our programs.

Adam Boudjemaa
"Overall, I would highly recommend this program to anyone looking to take their skills to the next level."
I recently completed the Advanced Solidity program, and I wanted to share my thoughts on the program with you. To begin with, I must say that I was thoroughly impressed with the program. Despite having five years of experience in Blockchain, I learned a great deal from it. The program covered a range of topics, including EVM bytecode, security, testing, mutation, assembly, and optimization, to name a few. What I particularly loved about the program was its emphasis on real-world applications. We identified and addressed security issues that could potentially occur in smart contracts, making the program all the more practical and relevant. Overall, I would highly recommend this program to anyone looking to take their skills to the next level. The team behind it is incredibly knowledgeable, and they have a great way of making learning fun and engaging. Thank you for equipping me with the necessary skills, and I look forward to applying what I've learned in my future endeavors.

Adam Boudjemaa

Blockchain Technical Lead | Co-Authored ERC-3643 Standard
Harikrishnan Shaji
"It's awesome to know how things work under the hood and Rareskills helped me achieve that."
I joined a web3 company about a year ago and had to write some Solidity contracts as part of the job. I quickly realised how important it is to really understand how the EVM and Solidity works if you wanted to deploy real production grade contracts for users. I wanted a structured learning program which went really deep into the weeds and found Rareskills!The course really exceeded my expectations. Each module pointed you to great resources you should learn from + had difficult assignment questions you could only solve if you understood the resources really well. Each week also had a call with the instructor and all the others in your class which was super fun. I really enjoyed discussing what I learnt and clarifying my questions with all the other students. The weekly 1-1 calls with the instructor was great too! Your code gets properly reviewed.It's awesome to know how things work under the hood and Rareskills helped me achieve that. I can notice security issues, understand audit reports, write and debug yul, think of gas optimisation and a lot more quite easily. The confidence of knowing things a lot deeper like this is quite nice.Be prepared to put in a significant amount of work and time into the course though. The modules are not easy. But thats what makes it fun!

Harikrishnan Shaji

Blockchain Developer
Cyan Pascual
"Rareskills is the best investment I’ve made so far."
Rareskills is the best investment I’ve made so far. I was surrounded by people who love to learn. I was directly mentored, skill-wise and career-wise, by instructors from big tech companies. And, I was able to nearly 10X what I was making just two years ago thanks to the bootcamp’s job interview prep, and their network and reputation.The bootcamp itself was a grueling cycle of studying tough concepts and complicated systems, and then implementing what we had learned through a mini-project. It really helped that there were weekly guided discussions with other students and the instructor wherein you can help each other understand the topics for that week so you don’t fall behind too much.As a freelancer for most of my career, I felt that the 1-on-1 weekly code reviews was the most valuable part of the bootcamp — especially since the instructor, Jeffrey Scholz, is a former Yahoo Senior Software Engineering Manager. The insights and advice given about how I code and my problem solving approach really helped me develop not just as a Solidity developer, but as a Software developer in general.Besides the code reviews, there were also supplementary web3 career consultation sessions with Koyuki Nakamori, the Head of Engineering at Ava Labs. Her insider knowledge of what web3 companies are looking for, what the job interviews were going to be like and how to prepare, and what exactly to expect once hired were instrumental to the job hunting part that came after the bootcamp.Rareskills’ help extends all the way to job interview preparation through interview practice sessions with Gayantha De Zoysa, the Head of Growth for Rareskills. The sessions helped me gain confidence, know what to avoid doing and what to aim to do during the interviews.The culmination of my experience at Rareskills was when I had finally received a job offer for $80,000 a year. For someone living in a third world country, this was huge compared to what developers typically get paid for locally, which is literally almost 10 times less. If you’re a talented yet underpaid developer working in a third world country, this could be a great way to enter the Western job market.

Cyan Pascual

Solidity Engineer
Josh Robar
"I landed a great job as a Solidity Engineer before even finishing my final assignment."
This course delivers on its promises! I landed a great job as a Solidity Engineer before even finishing my final assignment. I felt confident during each of my interviews and had a portfolio of unique and impressive projects to showcase. The amount of learning packed into 4 months is incredible and I now have far more knowledge and experience than the "4 months" of Solidity implies.The curriculum is a good balance of theory and practical knowledge and provides a solid basis for a familiarity with Solidity, the EVM, and smart contract security that most beginner developers couldn't claim. The progression was logical, and each week the assignments were just challenging enough to frustrate but ultimately always doable. I felt a sense of pride for each project I completed that I've never felt during "code-along" style courses. Often the course work inspired me to experiment with ideas of my own.The weekly meetings and code reviews are invaluable. I cannot emphasize enough how useful it was to have so many opportunities to have my questions answered, or to receive feedback on ways to improve my Solidity code. Beyond even the technical aspect, it was great to have someone knowledgeable to talk to about my career and get help with everything from my resume to the interview process.I would recommend this course to any developers who are interested in making the transition to web 3 and are prepared to put in a few months of hard work to get there. I have seen for myself that the material, projects, and coaching here are enough to get you hired if you're willing to put in the effort.

Josh Robar

Blockchain Developer
Suthan Somadeva
"With Rareskills expertise I was able to fast track my way to acquiring the necessary skills to become not only an employable solidity developer but one who is above the curve"
For those of you who are looking to land a job as a Solidity developer, but are struggling to find the correct path to follow. I wanted to take a moment to highlight a program I undertook that not only enabled me to acquire an expert level of understanding about Solidity and the EVM, but also provided me with connections that allowed me to land a job at a prominent DeFi startup, all within 6 months.The RareSkills Solidity Bootcamp provides a dedicated learning environment to pursue becoming a solidity developer with a curriculum put together by industry experts who have years of experience in the field. With such a fast-growing space, it was often a doubt in my mind whether the materials I was self-studying were relevant. However, with their expertise I was able to fast track my way to acquiring the necessary skills to become not only an employable solidity developer but one who is above the curve.The 1:1 sitdowns with industry experts such as Jeffrey Scholz, an ex-yahoo engineer who is a technical advisor for startups and VC firms with over half a billion dollars in assets, and Koyuki N., the Director of Market Intelligence at Avalanche, also provided a wealth of insight into not just technical skills but also soft skills that are arguably just as important.Being that the program is highly selective, you will only meet people who are just as passionate, if not more so, about the blockchain field. Which vastly helps you stay motivated to keep learning and looking into new concepts you would not have otherwise considered on your own. In my cohort, I met Jesper Kristensen, a Blockchain Entrepreneur and previous head of research at a blockchain research firm who is a cofounder at the DeFi protocol where I now work.If you were like me and don’t know the next step to continuing your solidity development journey, I would highly recommend you give this program a shot. As it definitely overshot my expectations!

Suthan Somadeva

Solidity Developer
Sergey Tsvetkov
"The most valuable part is weekly coaching calls which helps you a lot to go through any roadblocks."
Bootcamp puts you in a place where you have to write a lot of code. So there's no way for you not to get good even midway through. On the other hand, the theoretical support is really good - instead of trying to bite more than they could chew, they just provide relevant resources.The most valuable part is weekly coaching calls which helps you a lot to go through any roadblocks.So this is a must-have for anyone looking for serious education in Solidity.

Sergey Tsvetkov

Solidity Developer
Himad Mouhtar
"A well-thought-out, up-to-date and relevant curriculum that covers every aspect of web3 development (testing, security, development, best practices"
This is a great example of what a BootCamp should be. A well-thought-out, up-to-date and relevant curriculum that covers every aspect of web3 development (testing, security, development, best practices). Fascinating discussions. Blockchain concepts that felt like black magic are crystal clear now thanks to Jeff’s mentoring.I’m a software engineer with over 6 years of experience, and in my opinion, the course is certainly not entry-level. Assignments were increasingly challenging, although nothing that couldn’t be solved after some time. The mentors were always helpful when I or other students got stuck during those assignments.Unlike other SWE fields, Blockchain is still fairly new and information is scarce, so having a place that collects everything that I needed to be able to land a job was a huge time-saver, not to mention the connections that were made in the process. I encourage anyone pursuing a web3 career to seriously consider RareSkills Web3 development Bootcamp.

Himad Mouhtar

Solidity Developer

Pricing

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Course Fee $7000
Pay Upfront: $6,000 (1,000 discount)
Pay Monthly: $1,400 per month x 5
  • 22 x Weeks Live Classes
  • 15 x 1-on-1 Code Review & Mentoring sessions
  • Pre-course material
  • Course Material (Lifetime access)
  • Weekly Office Hours (Lifetime access)
  • Access to the RareSkills Slack and Discord Community (Lifetime access)

Save 2% if you pay with USDC or USDT

FAQs

What is different about the RareSkills bootcamp?

We don’t do lectures — we do interviews that force active learning.

Our instructors do not read off slides or spend significant time doing coding demos. You could simply watch that on a recorded video of them doing that, so we don’t see much value in that. Instead, the instructors will spend a significant amount of time asking you challenging questions and asking you to explain your thought process while pointing out gaps in your understanding. The considerable amount of back-and-forth is why we limit our cohort sizes.

Yes, the process will initially be uncomfortable, but when was progress comfortable?

About half of our classes are the students working through Solidity challenges / CTFs, with the instructor providing appropriate guidance.

We are the only paid bootcamp with freely available learning material.

Many bootcamps try to “hide” their learning materials to encourage you to pay for it.

We believe everyone benefits when quality learning materials are freely available.

The most influential security researchers read our materials and say they are the best:

https://twitter.com/bytes032/status/1748561397368176937

https://twitter.com/realjohnnytime/status/1756265535241666733

https://twitter.com/0xcuriousapple/status/1732385098669142402

You get your code audited by some of the top auditors in the industry.

We encourage you to look up our instructor bios. They’ve prevented hundreds of millions of dollars in hacks collectively. We partner with the absolute best instructors.

Brag to me about student accomplishments.

The results you will get from this bootcamp will strongly depend on how much effort you put in. If you put in 100% effort on your own, we can help you get 110% learning results by working with us.

We don’t take credit for other people’s work.

That said, here are some:

giraffe0x got a job at Spearbit while at RareSkills (one of the most respected auditing firms in the industry)

JustEmil6 (hacker name honeymewn) placed in the top 10 in a contest on Sherlock on his first attempt.

Sashik placed top 5 in a Code4rena contest while a student at RareSkills.

Darian Chan got a job as a Blockchain security engineer at Coinbase through a connection in the RareSkills community (of course, our training helped also)

Please see our testimonials for more.

Our academy has trained protocol leads, CTOs, technical founders, heads of research, lead auditors — in the field of blockchain. That is, we don’t train a senior engineer at a web2 company and say we’ve trained a senior engineer. We’ve trained senior Solidity developers and higher.

Collectively, our students have raised tens of millions of dollars with over a hundred million dollars in combined valuation.

There are no gimmicks in the brand logos we put on our website or the claims we make about our accomplishments.

The very best in the field still come to RareSkills to level up.

However, getting results in your career and skills is 100% your responsibility.

We only share these examples to demonstrate we know what we are talking about when it comes to getting a job or career progression in the industry. It is a testament to the quality of our program that highly talented and disciplined engineers join RareSkills to add value to their self-study plan.

You do not have to be “top of the industry” to join us. We are not a gate-keeping elite club, and we do not wish to be. We want to accept your application, and if we don’t, we’ll tell you what to do for the next few months so you can become ready to join. But you do need to show you are serious; we cannot force you to put the work in.

Why pay for this course if you have so much free material on RareSkills?

Joining the RareSkills’ bootcamps will not give you access to “secret alpha” that we set aside for our customers — we don’t have any “extra special learning materials.”

The whole point is that joining a hand-picked group of fellow learners and working with an instructor will actively challenge your understanding of the subject rather than passively give you a presentation.

Some of our instructors charge over $10,000 per week to do security reviews, so getting access to them for a lot less is a good deal!

We understand our price point is not viable for some, but if you still want to benefit from RareSkills (for free!), work through our books and discuss them on our Discord.

On the other hand, if you join our bootcamp, thanks for your support! We would not be able to publish all the resources we do without you!

Do you guarantee a job?

Let’s look at some cold, hard statistics: about 1-2 Solidity jobs get posted every day, but (conservatively) 5,000 developers are actively studying to join the industry. Additionally, thousands more qualified developers were laid off during the 2022-2023 bear market.

At current rates, it would take 7 years for all of them to find their first job. (5,000 devs / 60 jobs per month / 12 months per year). This also assumes no additional developers try to switch to Solidity and ignores that very little hiring happens in December due to holidays.

Guaranteeing a job only shows a disconnect from reality.

Of course, we hope the job market will be better someday, but we do not control that.

This is why the majority of our students are already employed Solidity developers. The learning does not stop just because you have a job!

Let’s drop some names: Solidity engineers at Compound, Consensys, Bancor, Lido, Chainlink (and others we forget to mention) took our Solidity bootcamp (not our ZK bootcamp, which has attracted an even more impressive roster) as employed Solidity devs who already had the dream job.

The total locked value our students manage is well over a billion dollars.

It stands to reason we are an authority on the subject regarding careers in web3.

How long will it take to learn Solidity?

A motivated and experienced developer can learn the language in a week. However, getting to the point where you have enough expertise to build contracts that manage other user’s money safely, it can easily take a year of study and practice.

I’m not ready to take this bootcamp; how can I prepare?

Your first option is to join our Dapp Bootcamp. But if you’d prefer to learn on your own for free, we recommend first:

Go through our Solidity tutorial and do the accompanying Solidity exercises.

Finish at least six of the projects suggested on our list of Solidity beginner projects.

How long does it take to become a Solidity developer?

We recommend being prepared to study and practice for a year before you can be competitive enough to get a Solidity developer job.

Back in 2017, there were very few resources on how to learn Solidity, so just being able to program a token made you a rarity.

There are more developers applying for Solidity jobs than there are Solidity developers — this industry is competitive.

We’ve helped dozens of engineers get their first job as a Solidity developer, so it is certainly not impossible. But we’ve seen that most engineers aren’t motivated enough to sustain heavy study for the length of time required to break into the industry. Be sure this is something you really want.

Most engineers underestimate the persistence it takes to outcompete hundreds of other applicants for the same job.

It’s okay to study Solidity as a hobby; some of our students do. But have realistic expectations about what employers expect in 2024.

Is Solidity still in demand?

Senior Solidity engineers who have experience managing millions of dollars in crypto safely are in high demand. However, there is almost no demand for Solidity engineers without production experience. During the bull run of 2020 to early 2022, thousands of developers were onboarded to become smart contract engineers. During the bear market of late 2022 to 2023, many of them lost their jobs. As of 2024, there are more qualified Solidity engineers than there are roles for them.

Most of the students who take this bootcamp already have jobs as Solidity developers. If you do not have prior professional Solidity experience, you are still welcome to apply, but make sure you have sufficient time to handle the workload.

Do you accept engineers without prior professional experience in Solidity?

We do, but we strongly caution you to join only if 1) you enjoy the subject, 2) you have a long-term view about the value of working in blockchain, and 3) you are not looking for a “quick” salary boost.

I’m an engineering lead, and I want to train my team.

Please contact us to set up a custom program that works for you.

I already know a significant amount of materials here, but I want to learn EVM and Digital Signatures. Can I take a fraction of the course?

You’re not alone. That’s why we included this question! Yes, you can. During the interview call, please let our team know your intention, and we will only charge you for the portions you are interested in taking.