Go Course: From Zero to Ninja 2026

Complete Go (Golang) course updated to 2026 with 132 chapters organized in 19 parts, covering everything from Hello World to Go Assembly, WASM, and major Go projects like Docker and Kubernetes. Includes best practices, design patterns, the entire standard library, golang.org/x/ packages, and the latest language features (Go 1.23, 1.24, 1.25, 1.26).

Author: Marlon Barreto (mbarretot@hotmail.com)

Prerequisites

• Basic programming knowledge
• Go 1.24+ installed (download)
• Code editor (VS Code with Go extension, GoLand, or Neovim)

Course Structure

Part I: Language Basics

#	Topic	Description
001	Hello World	First program, go run, go build, basic structure
002	Variables & Constants	Data types, declarations, zero values, inference
003	Operators	Arithmetic, logical, comparison, bitwise
004	Conditionals	if/else, ternary pattern, early return
005	Loops	for, range, break, continue, labels
006	Switch	switch/case, type switch, fallthrough
007	Functions	Parameters, returns, variadic, closures, defer
008	Pointers	Memory addresses, references, nil
009	Strings	Strings, runes, bytes, unicode, strings package
010	Collections	Arrays, slices, maps, common operations

Part II: Data Structures Deep Dive

#	Topic	Description
011	Slices Deep Dive	Internals, capacity growth, memory layout, subslice gotchas
012	Maps Deep Dive	Internals, Swiss Tables (Go 1.24), iteration, nil vs empty
013	Sort Package	sort.Slice, sort.Interface, binary search, custom comparators
014	Container Types	container/heap, container/list, container/ring
015	Slices, Maps & Cmp	Modern slices/maps/cmp packages (Go 1.21+)

Part III: Types and OOP

#	Topic	Description
016	Structs	Definition, fields, embedding, methods
017	Interfaces	Definition, implicit implementation, composition
018	Type System	Alias, wrappers, type assertions, type switch
019	Enums & Iota	iota, enum patterns, String()
020	Generics	Type parameters, constraints, when to use
021	Method Sets & Receivers	Value vs pointer receivers, interface satisfaction rules
022	Interface Internals	iface/eface, nil interfaces, comparable constraint

Part IV: Error Handling

#	Topic	Description
023	Errors	error interface, errors package, wrapping
024	Panic & Recover	When to use panic, recover, defer
025	Error Patterns	Sentinel errors, custom errors, best practices

Part V: Code Organization

#	Topic	Description
026	Packages	Visibility, init(), internal, vendor
027	Init & Blank Identifier	init() execution order, _ patterns, side-effect imports
028	Modules	go.mod, versioning, dependencies, workspaces
029	Project Patterns	Standard layout, clean architecture, DDD

Part VI: Concurrency

#	Topic	Description
030	Goroutines	Creation, scheduling, WaitGroup, WaitGroup.Go()
031	Channels	Buffered, unbuffered, directionality
032	Select	Multiplexing, timeouts, default
033	Context	Cancellation, timeouts, values, propagation
034	Sync Package	Mutex, RWMutex, Once, Pool, Map, Cond
035	Concurrency Patterns	Worker pools, fan-in/out, pipelines

Part VII: Testing

#	Topic	Description
036	Testing	testing package, table-driven tests, subtests
037	Benchmarks	Benchmarking, b.Loop(), profiling
038	Mocking	Interfaces, testify, gomock
039	Fuzzing	Fuzz testing, corpus, coverage

Part VIII: Standard Library Essentials

#	Topic	Description
040	I/O Patterns	io.Reader/Writer, bufio, streaming, fs
041	Strings & Strconv	strconv deep dive, strings.Builder, Cut, Fields
042	Bytes Package	bytes.Buffer, bytes.Reader, zero-copy techniques
043	Time	Parsing, formatting, timezones, monotonic clock
044	Regexp	Patterns, named groups, RE2, performance
045	Encoding	JSON, XML, gob, CSV, binary, base64, hex
046	Templates	text/template, html/template, FuncMap, composition
047	OS, Exec & Processes	os/exec, signals, environment, process management
048	Flag Package	Custom flags, FlagSet, subcommands, env fallback
049	Path & Filepath	path vs filepath, Walk, WalkDir, Glob
050	Unicode & UTF-8	utf8, utf16, rune classification, encoding/decoding
051	Hash Functions	fnv, crc32, crc64, adler32, maphash
052	Structured Logging	log/slog deep dive, handlers, groups, performance

Part IX: Standard Library Advanced

#	Topic	Description
053	Math Big & Bits	big.Int, big.Float, math/bits, rand/v2
054	Archive & Compress	tar, zip, gzip, zlib, flate
055	Crypto	AES, RSA, ECDSA, hashing, TLS, certificates
056	Net Mail & SMTP	Email parsing, sending, net/rpc
057	Text Processing	text/scanner, tabwriter, mime/multipart
058	Go AST Parser	go/ast, go/parser, go/token, building linters
059	Advanced Testing	testify, gomock, integration tests
060	Testing Stdlib	testing/iotest, fstest, golden files, fixtures
061	Runtime & Debug	runtime/debug, metrics, trace, binary inspection

Part X: Modern Go Features

#	Topic	Description
062	Iterators	Range over functions (Go 1.23+), iter package
063	go:embed	Embedding files, assets, templates in binary
064	Build Tags	Conditional compilation, cross-platform
065	Go 1.24 Features	Swiss Tables, generic aliases, FIPS 140-3
066	Go 1.25 Features	WaitGroup.Go(), JSON v2, synctest
067	Go 1.26 Features	SIMD experimental, crypto/hpke

Part XI: Advanced Language

#	Topic	Description
068	Reflection	reflect package, use cases, performance
069	Code Generation	go generate, stringer, mockgen, sqlc
070	Unsafe	unsafe.Pointer, uintptr, valid use cases
071	CGO	Calling C from Go, callbacks, performance
072	Go Assembly	Plan 9 assembly, SIMD, optimization
073	Plugin & Expvar	Go plugins, expvar monitoring, /debug/vars
074	WebAssembly	WASM, syscall/js, WASI, TinyGo, wazero

Part XII: Design Patterns & Architecture

#	Topic	Description
075	Design Patterns	Functional options, DI, graceful shutdown
076	Resilience	Rate limiting, circuit breaker, bulkhead
077	Event-Driven	CQRS, event sourcing, saga, outbox
078	API Design	Versioning, OpenAPI, pagination, ETags
079	Security	OWASP, input validation, secure headers

Part XIII: Web & Networking

#	Topic	Description
080	Networking	TCP/UDP, TLS/mTLS, DNS, net package
081	Web Backend	net/http, chi, fiber, middleware, REST
082	HTTP Client	Timeouts, pooling, retries, middleware
083	WebSockets	Real-time communication, gorilla/websocket
084	gRPC	Protocol Buffers, services, streaming
085	GraphQL	gqlgen, schema design, subscriptions
086	Authentication	JWT, OAuth2, OIDC, password hashing
087	CLI Applications	cobra, bubbletea, TUI
088	Desktop Apps	fyne, wails, native GUI

Part XIV: Data, Databases & Messaging

#	Topic	Description
089	Databases	database/sql, pgx, gorm, migrations
090	Redis & Caching	go-redis, cache patterns, invalidation
091	Message Queues	Kafka, NATS, RabbitMQ, event-driven
092	Data Processing	gonum, arrow, parquet, ETL
093	Images & Audio	image stdlib, gocv, bild, beep, oto

Part XV: golang.org/x/ Ecosystem

#	Topic	Description
094	x/sync	errgroup, singleflight, semaphore
095	x/net & x/crypto	http2, html parsing, ssh, bcrypt, argon2
096	x/text	transforms, language tags, collation, normalization
097	x/oauth2 & x/term	OAuth2 flows, terminal I/O, raw mode
098	x/sys & x/mod	Platform syscalls, semver, modfile
099	x/tools	go/analysis, custom analyzers, goimports

Part XVI: Production & Deployment

#	Topic	Description
100	Performance	Profiling, escape analysis, optimization
101	Observability	Logging, metrics, tracing, OpenTelemetry
102	Debugging	Delve, race detector, memory leaks, pprof
103	CI/CD & Tooling	Makefile, GitHub Actions, goreleaser
104	Deploy	Docker, Kubernetes, cloud-native
105	AI & ML	gonum, gorgonia, langchaingo, ONNX
106	Final Project	Complete integrator project

Part XVII: Major Go Projects

Each chapter studies a real-world Go project: architecture, patterns, optimizations, Go philosophy, and includes a simplified working version.

#	Project	Description
107	Docker	Container runtime, namespaces, cgroups, layered FS
108	Kubernetes	Controller pattern, reconciliation loops, informers
109	etcd	Raft consensus, distributed KV, WAL
110	Terraform	DAG dependency resolution, IaC, plugin architecture
111	Prometheus	Pull-based metrics, time-series DB, PromQL
112	Grafana	Plugin architecture, dashboards, data sources
113	Caddy	Automatic HTTPS, module system, clean API
114	Hugo	Content pipeline, template engine, static site generation
115	Traefik	Dynamic reverse proxy, provider pattern, load balancing
116	CoreDNS	Plugin chain, DNS server, middleware composition
117	Consul	Gossip protocol, service discovery, health checking
118	Vault	Secrets management, seal/unseal, encryption
119	CockroachDB	Distributed SQL, range partitioning, transactions
120	NATS	Pub/sub messaging, request/reply, queue groups
121	Minio	S3-compatible object storage, erasure coding
122	Gitea	Full-stack Go web app, Git service
123	Badger/BoltDB	Embedded KV: LSM tree vs B+ tree
124	Cilium	eBPF networking, kernel-level packet processing
127	Ollama	Local LLM serving, model management, streaming API
128	TiDB	Distributed SQL, Raft consensus, MySQL compatible
129	Istio	Service mesh control plane, xDS, mTLS, traffic routing
130	Milvus	Vector database, similarity search, HNSW index, AI/RAG

Part XVIII: Advanced Testing & Modern Features

#	Topic	Description
131	Property Testing	Property-based testing, testing/quick, generators, shrinking
132	JSON v2	encoding/json/v2, strict mode, omitzero, migration from v1

Part XIX: Philosophy & Mastery

#	Topic	Description
125	Go Proverbs	Go philosophy, common mistakes, idiomatic patterns
126	Mastery Path	Career paths, community, contributing to Go, resources

How to Use This Course

1. Sequential: Follow chapters in order for maximum learning
2. By topic: Jump to specific topics as needed
3. Practice: Each chapter has progressive examples

Running the Examples

# Navigate to chapter
cd 001_hello_world

# Run directly
go run main.go

# Or compile and run
go build -o program
./program

Code Conventions

• Early return: Always prefer early returns over nesting
• Error handling: Handle errors immediately after the call
• Naming: Short and descriptive names (idiomatic Go)
• Comments: Only when code is not self-explanatory

Go Versions Covered

Version	Release	Key Features
Go 1.23	Aug 2024	Range over func, unique package
Go 1.24	Feb 2025	Swiss Tables, generic aliases, FIPS 140-3
Go 1.25	Aug 2025	WaitGroup.Go(), JSON v2, synctest
Go 1.26	Feb 2026	SIMD experimental, crypto/hpke

Coverage

• Language: Variables, types, functions, pointers, structs, interfaces, generics, errors, concurrency
• Standard Library: 100+ packages covered (io, fmt, strings, bytes, strconv, time, regexp, encoding, crypto, net, os, hash, math, archive, compress, text, mime, testing, runtime, debug, log/slog, container, sort, slices, maps, cmp, flag, path, filepath, unicode, plugin, expvar, go/ast)
• golang.org/x/: sync, net, crypto, text, oauth2, term, sys, mod, tools
• Web: HTTP server/client, gRPC, WebSockets, GraphQL, REST APIs
• Data: databases, Redis, Kafka, NATS, RabbitMQ, CSV, JSON, XML, Parquet
• Apps: CLI, desktop, AI/ML, images, audio, data processing, WASM
• Architecture: Design patterns, DI, CQRS, event sourcing, resilience
• Security: OWASP, JWT, OAuth2, OIDC, crypto, TLS/mTLS
• Production: Performance, profiling, observability, deploy, CI/CD
• Major Projects: Docker, Kubernetes, etcd, Terraform, Prometheus, Grafana, Caddy, Hugo, Traefik, CoreDNS, Consul, Vault, CockroachDB, NATS, Minio, Gitea, Badger/BoltDB, Cilium

Additional Resources

• Effective Go
• Go Code Review Comments
• Go Blog
• Go Playground

License

MIT License - Free for educational and commercial use.