Trying to Become a Blockchain Developer: What’s the ‘first real project’ that proves I’m not just watching tutorials?

MakerInProgress · 2024-09-09T17:10:54+00:00

I want to become a blockchain developer, but I’m honestly stuck at the starting line.Everywhere I look, the advice is either “learn Solidity” or “learn Rust”, or it’s a huge “blockchain developer roadmap for beginners” that feels impossible to follow end-to-end. My fear is wasting 3–6 months on tutorials and still having no real portfolio (and then getting rejected because I can’t explain anything in an interview).If you were starting today with limited time, what path actually works in practice?Like… should I go Solidity first and build 2–3 smart contract projects (even if they’re small), or go Rust + chain side if I’m aiming for core protocol roles later? Also, what are the minimum projects that actually get interviews — the kind that show “I can debug, reason, and ship,” not just copy code?Would love a realistic answer from people who’ve hired / interviewed / built in teams: what would you expect a beginner portfolio to contain, and what’s a red flag?

Trying to Become a Blockchain Developer: What’s the ‘first real project’ that proves I’m not just watching tutorials?

MakerInProgress
@MakerInProgress

Updated: Jan 15, 2026

Views: 1.5K

I want to become a blockchain developer, but I’m honestly stuck at the starting line.
Everywhere I look, the advice is either “learn Solidity” or “learn Rust”, or it’s a huge “blockchain developer roadmap for beginners” that feels impossible to follow end-to-end. My fear is wasting 3–6 months on tutorials and still having no real portfolio (and then getting rejected because I can’t explain anything in an interview).
If you were starting today with limited time, what path actually works in practice?
Like… should I go Solidity first and build 2–3 smart contract projects (even if they’re small), or go Rust + chain side if I’m aiming for core protocol roles later? Also, what are the minimum projects that actually get interviews — the kind that show “I can debug, reason, and ship,” not just copy code?
Would love a realistic answer from people who’ve hired / interviewed / built in teams: what would you expect a beginner portfolio to contain, and what’s a red flag?

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FintechLee

@FintechLee • 1mo

From an interviewer’s side, I’ll tell you what usually signals a strong beginner vs a confused one.

Strong candidates don’t say “I learned blockchain.” They say things like:

“I built X and broke Y while testing”

“I didn’t understand gas until this contract failed”

“This design choice caused an issue, so I changed it”

That comes from building first, not reading endlessly.

You do need fundamentals — but not all at once. You need them just-in-time. For example:

Learn transactions when your contract behaves unexpectedly

Learn reentrancy when your balance logic breaks

Learn consensus basics when you ask “why did this revert differently?”

If someone spends 6–8 months only watching tutorials, it shows in interviews immediately. They struggle to explain why something works.

MakerInProgress

@MakerInProgress • 1h

I mostly agree with the “build → break → debug → explain” part, but I’ll add one nuance: the best starting path depends on what kind of blockchain dev you actually want to become.

If your goal is smart contract / DeFi roles, Solidity-first makes sense because the feedback loop is fast. You can ship a tiny contract, deploy, test, and learn from failures in days. That speed is gold early on.

But if you’re aiming for core protocol / node / infra roles, Rust-first isn’t “better,” it’s just more aligned. The catch is the beginner feedback loop is slower — you might spend weeks before you feel progress.

What I’d do if I was starting today: pick one lane for 60–90 days (don’t mix stacks).

Solidity lane: 2–3 projects + decent tests + a short README explaining tradeoffs.

Rust lane: one small “systems-ish” project (parsing blocks, indexing events, simple P2P toy model) + writeup.

And in interviews, don’t oversell. Say: “I’m early, but here’s what I built, here’s what broke, and here’s why I made the fix.” That’s the clarity interviewers love.