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The FDE curriculum

The question bank answers what to practise. These answer what to learn, and in what order. Each course is a reading path through the work a Forward Deployed Engineer actually does, with the questions and concepts that go with it. Free lessons in every course, no card needed.

Grounded in real Forward Deployed Engineer interview loops and written to a senior-engineer editorial bar.

START HERE, FREEConnect a software capability to a working customer workflow25 min · no account needed→

The main path

Work these in order.
beginner11 modules · 35 lessons · ~27.5 hours10 free to read

Foundations of Forward Deployed Engineering

What a forward deployed engineer actually does, and the first week of an engagement done properly: finding the real problem, reading a system you did not build, scoping something shippable, and saying it clearly to the person paying for it.

  1. 01The role3/3 free
  2. 02Discovery3/4 free
  3. 03Reading systems3/3 free
  4. 04Code that survives in someone else's system1/3 free
  5. 05Data that fights back4
  6. 06Modelling their world3
  7. 07The proof of concept3
  8. 08Your first AI feature4
  9. 09Operating what you shipped3
  10. 10Saying it3
  11. 11Capstone2
READ FREEConnect a software capability to a working customer workflow25 min →
advanced11 modules · 34 lessons · ~25.5 hours3 free to read

The FDE Engagement

Run a customer engagement end to end: technical discovery with a buyer in the room, an integration that survives their systems, a deployment somebody else can operate, a security review you pass, a production AI feature behind an eval harness, and the value conversation that decides whether any of it mattered.

  1. 01Technical discovery2/3 free
  2. 02Enterprise integration1/3 free
  3. 03A model of their world4
  4. 04Deploying in their environment4
  5. 05The security review3
  6. 06The model in production3
  7. 07When the answer is a model3
  8. 08Agents with authority3
  9. 09Proving it was worth it4
  10. 10The craft around the work3
  11. 11Capstone1
READ FREEUse the sales call to establish what you can actually deliver20 min →

Going deeper

Take these when the work demands them.
expert10 modules · 31 lessons · ~29 hours2 free to read

Hard Deployments

The deployments that break people: open-weight models on hardware you did not buy, environments with no internet, one platform serving tenants who must never see each other, an engagement already on fire when you arrive, and the arithmetic that decides all of it. The hardest material on this site.

  1. 01Serving on hardware you did not choose1/4 free
  2. 02The air gap3
  3. 03One platform, many customers4
  4. 04Cost and latency across a portfolio3
  5. 05Autonomy over long horizons3
  6. 06Rescue engineering1/4 free
  7. 07Reliability across a portfolio3
  8. 08Extracting a platform from field code3
  9. 09The practice3
  10. 10Capstone1
READ FREEBudget weights, resident cache and runtime memory in consistent units30 min →
ALONGSIDE THE COURSES
The must-know questions →The concept curriculum →Interview prep by company →All FDE interview questions →