# Go Web API Course — Full Index

This course teaches you Go by building a real authentication API: chi
router, MySQL, Redis-backed sessions, password login, "Sign in with
Google", rate limiting, structured logging, and Docker — from an empty
folder to a containerized, production-shaped service.

It assumes **zero prior Go knowledge**. If you've never written a line of
Go before, start with the three "Go Basics" lessons below — everything
after that leans on them constantly.

## Go Basics (do these first if you're new to Go)

| File | Covers |
|---|---|
| `00-go-basics-1-syntax-and-types.md` | Installing Go, `go run`/`go build`, variables, basic types, `if`/`for`/`switch`, `fmt.Println` |
| `00-go-basics-2-functions-structs-pointers.md` | Functions, multiple return values, structs, methods, pointers (`*`/`&`) |
| `00-go-basics-3-interfaces-errors-concurrency-packages.md` | Interfaces, error handling, slices & maps, packages & modules, goroutines, JSON basics |

## The Project Lessons

| # | File | Builds |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | `lesson-01-project-skeleton-chi-routing.md` | Project layout, chi router, graceful shutdown |
| 2 | `lesson-02-structured-json-logging.md` | `log/slog` JSON logging, request-logging middleware |
| 3 | `lesson-03-config-and-mysql.md` | Env config, MySQL connection pooling |
| 4 | `lesson-04-user-model-repository-pattern.md` | Domain models, the repository pattern |
| 5 | `lesson-05-password-login-bcrypt.md` | bcrypt password hashing, register/login handlers |
| 6 | `lesson-06-sessions-scs-redis.md` | Server-side sessions backed by Redis |
| 7 | `lesson-07-google-oauth.md` | "Sign in with Google" (OAuth2 Authorization Code flow) |
| 8 | `lesson-08-auth-middleware.md` | `context.Context`, reusable auth-guard middleware |
| 9 | `lesson-09-rate-limiting-security.md` | Rate limiting, CORS, cookie hardening |
| 10 | `lesson-10-docker-wrapup.md` | Docker, docker-compose, full course review |

## How each lesson is structured

Every project lesson (1–10) has two parts:

- **Part A — standalone playground.** A tiny, throwaway program that
  teaches the *new* concept in isolation, with nothing else going on. You
  build and run this in its own scratch folder.
- **Part B — apply it to the project.** The same concept, now wired into
  the real, growing `go-simple-api` project, building on the previous
  lesson's code.

Each lesson also has a **"New Go concepts in this lesson"** box near the
top, pointing back at the specific Go Basics section you should understand
first. If something feels unfamiliar, that's the place to go check.

## What you'll have by the end

A real, working Go web service with:
- Password-based registration/login (bcrypt-hashed passwords)
- "Sign in with Google" (OAuth2)
- Server-side sessions stored in Redis
- MySQL-backed user storage via a repository pattern
- Structured JSON logging (ready for Grafana Loki / Alloy)
- Rate limiting and basic security hardening
- A Docker Compose setup running the whole stack with one command

Go at your own pace. Each lesson builds directly on the file state left by
the previous one — if you get lost, the companion `go-simple-api` code zip
(from earlier) has the final, correct state of every file at the end of
the whole course.