no. 1 career-focused php training course in grinnell

● How the web works (HTTP, client–server)
● Installing XAMPP/WAMP, PHP CLI
● PHP syntax, variables, data types, operators
● Echo/print, comments, coding standards
 

● Conditionals and loops
● Functions (params, return types), scope
● Built-in string/array functions
● Include/require, code organization
 

● GET vs POST, request lifecycle
● $_GET, $_POST, $_REQUEST, $_SERVER
● Input validation & sanitization
● File uploads, handling errors
 

● Indexed, associative, and multidimensional arrays
● Array utilities (map, filter, reduce)
● Iterators, foreach patterns
● Practical data structures in PHP
 

● Embedding PHP in HTML
● Templating basics, layout reuse
● Intro to AJAX/Fetch with PHP backends
● Basic Bootstrap integration
 

● Reading/writing files, CSV, JSON
● File permissions & paths
● DateTime, timezones, formatting
● Logging and simple config files
 

● Database design & normalization
● CRUD with PDO (prepared statements)
● Joins, indexes, transactions
● Error handling & DB abstractions
 

● Sessions and cookies in depth
● Login/logout, password hashing (password_hash)
● Remember-me, CSRF tokens
● Role-based access control (RBAC)
 

● Classes, objects, constructors, destructors
● Inheritance, interfaces, traits
● Namespaces, autoloading (Composer PSR-4)
● SOLID principles for PHP
 

● Exceptions, try/catch, custom exceptions
● PHP error levels & logging
● Unit testing with PHPUnit
● Test data, mocks, code coverage
 

● SQL Injection prevention (prepared statements)
● XSS, CSRF, clickjacking defenses
● Input filtering/validation best practices
● Secure file handling & headers
 

● Designing REST endpoints
● JSON request/response patterns
● JWT-based authentication
● Versioning, rate limiting basics
 

● Composer init, require, autoload
● Popular libraries (Guzzle, PHPMailer)
● Env management (dotenv)
● Semantic versioning
 

● MVC, routing, controllers, Blade
● Eloquent ORM, migrations, seeders
● Form requests, validation, policies
● Queues, events, notifications (overview)
 

● Opcode cache, HTTP caching
● Query optimization, pagination
● Redis basics, queue workers
● Profiling tools (Laravel Telescope/Debugbar)
 

● Environments (.env), config caching
● Nginx/Apache setup, PHP-FPM
● Git workflows, CI/CD overview
● Docker basics for PHP apps
 

● Plan real-world feature set & schema
● Implement auth, CRUD, search, pagination
● API endpoints + frontend integration
● Final review, testing, and deployment checklist