Projects
Start with a beginner project and work up. Each one runs in your browser, with checks that tell you when it works.
These lessons are not a second catalog or a video course, and this tab cannot publish a repo for you. Passing every LakeBench lesson means you can write the transforms, the DAG habits, the tests, and the design argument. It does not publish a repo. The Cloud capstone is a numbered GCP free-tier checklist this tab cannot execute. Do those steps outside, then copy the solutions you wrote, add a README that states grain, schedule, and failure modes, and push that.
Ingest a CSV-shaped API feed, model a star from orders, and clean messy bronze into silver.
Core Python
PYTHONBuild a structured expense tracker in Python that parses transaction records, computes categorical subtotals, and exports financial summaries.
CV: “Engineered a zero-dependency CLI expense reconciliation engine in Python using standard csv stream parsing, reducing reimbursement turnaround from three days to four minutes.”
Core Python
PYTHONParse Common Log Format web server access logs using regex, extract status codes and IP addresses, and calculate error rates.
CV: “Built a zero-dependency Common Log Format parser in Python using regular expressions and collections.Counter, extracting real-time error rates and traffic concentration.”
Core Python
PYTHONBuild a resilient HTTP client wrapper with truncated exponential backoff and jitter to safely retry transient network errors.
CV: “Designed an HTTP API client in Python with truncated exponential backoff, differentiating transient 5xx/429 statuses from permanent client errors to automate payment settlement recovery.”
Core Python
PYTHONBuild a deterministic Finite State Machine (FSM) in Python to enforce valid order transitions, guard against invalid mutations, and maintain audit trails.
CV: “Constructed a robust Finite State Machine in Python with transition adjacency guards and immutable audit trails, blocking invalid order mutations.”
Core Python
PYTHONBuild a robust schema and data validator in Python that categorizes bad records using a custom exception hierarchy and routes defects to a quarantine log.
CV: “Engineered a resilient batch ingestion validator in Python with a custom domain exception hierarchy, routing malformed laboratory records to dead-letter quarantine without halting pipeline throughput.”
Incremental Spark MERGE, a simulated night job, dbt-shaped staging and tests, and a publish suite.
Core Python
PYTHONDesign object-oriented inventory management classes in Python enforcing stock constraints, replenishment, and order fulfillment.
CV: “Architected an object-oriented inventory management domain engine in Python with custom invariant exceptions, eliminating negative stock overselling across warehouse fulfillment pipelines.”
Core Python
PYTHONImplement a stateful token bucket rate limiter in Python that throttles high-volume API requests and enforces tenant quotas.
CV: “Engineered an in-memory sliding window token bucket rate limiter in Python, defending gateway microservices against webhook thundering herds and enforcing tenant quotas.”
Core Python
PYTHONBuild a custom Least Recently Used (LRU) function decorator in Python with time-to-live (TTL) expiration and capacity eviction.
CV: “Engineered a high-performance LRU cache decorator in Python with TTL expiration and OrderedDict capacity bounding, reducing database CPU load by 86% across catalog microservices.”
Core Python
PYTHONBuild a robust JSON configuration parser in Python that overrides settings with environment variables and masks secrets for safe logging.
CV: “Engineered an enterprise JSON configuration manager in Python with recursive secret redaction and runtime environment overrides, remediating ISO 27001 audit findings across 12 microservices.”
Core Python
PYTHONBuild a streaming text analyzer in Python that computes n-gram word frequencies, handles empty inputs safely, and filters stop words.
CV: “Engineered a resilient streaming n-gram text analyzer in Python with regex tokenization and defensive Counter indexing, processing 40,000 weekly customer reviews without pipeline crashes.”
Bigger projects you build over a few weeks on your own laptop. Each one comes with a week plan, starter code, viva questions with model answers and a resume line, so you can present it with confidence.
Intermediate · 5 weeks
Turn a raw sales file into a star schema and a dashboard a manager can read.
Open the planBeginner friendly · 4 weeks
Pull data from a public API every day, load it safely, and chart it.
Open the planBeginner friendly · 3 weeks
Clean messy student records and show placement rates by branch, skill and company.
Open the planBeginner friendly · 3 weeks
Check every new file against rules and send a clear pass or fail report.
Open the planIntermediate · 4 weeks
Spot unusual payments with SQL window functions and show them on a simple report.
Open the planIntermediate · 5 weeks
Turn a stream of page-view events into sessions, funnels and a daily report.
Open the planSame grain fights, in the studio.
The 12 to 18 month path that sequences these is on the roadmap.
