The 7-day Convex bootcamp
Seven sessions, roughly 60–90 minutes each. You can compress it into a long weekend or spread it over two weeks; the ordering matters more than the pace.
#Design principles
Concept before syntax. Convex's API is small. The reason people bounce off it is not the API — it is that they carry Postgres/REST assumptions in and the model doesn't fit. Day 1 spends the whole session on the model and writes zero application code.
One video per day, maximum. Watching is not learning. Each video sits after the reading and before the build, positioned as "watch if fuzzy, then go build." Total required viewing across the whole bootcamp is about 3h 40m — deliberately less than a single long-form tutorial, because the hours belong in the build tasks.
Every day ends with something running. Not a completed tutorial — a thing you built, that you could not have built the day before.
Checkpoints are blind. Each day closes with questions you answer without scrolling up. If you cannot, the day is not banked. This is the only honest signal you have.
Failure is on the syllabus. Days 2, 4 and 6 deliberately walk you into the most common production traps under controlled conditions, because a bug you have personally caused is worth ten warnings you read.
#The plan
| Day | Topic | The one idea | Video | You ship |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The mental model | The database pushes; you don't poll | bare minimum 10:30 + why care 17:38 | A running deployment and a one-page written model |
| 2 | Schema, documents, indexes | An index is a decision you make when you design the table | Beginner Pt 1 8:16 | A typed schema + a query you proved uses an index |
| 3 | Queries, mutations, reactivity | A mutation is a transaction; reactivity is a consequence, not a feature | Complete Crash Course 38:34 | Live multi-window CRUD, no WebSocket code |
| 4 | Actions, scheduling, crons | Determinism is the line: cross it and you lose transactions | Beginner Pt 2 — Actions 4:58 | A third-party API call, persisted, on a schedule |
| 5 | Auth and access control | Every public function is a public HTTP endpoint | SaaS Starter Kit 50:42 | Real auth + per-user data isolation you tried to break |
| 6 | Next.js App Router | SSR and liveness are two different asks | Next.js + ShadCN build 59:53 | A server-rendered page that is still live |
| 7 | Production | Correct at 50 rows is not a claim about 500,000 | Beginner Pt 3 — Scale 5:24 | Pagination, a component, a deployed app |
#Prerequisites
TypeScript you can read without flinching, React with hooks, and a terminal. You do not need SQL, and if you have a lot of it, budget extra attention for Day 1 — strong relational instincts are the main thing that has to be re-pointed.
#Before Day 1
npm create convex@latestSign in, let it create a dev deployment, and leave npx convex dev running in a terminal
tab for the whole bootcamp. Watching the dashboard update while you edit files is a
meaningful part of the learning, not a side show.
#How to use the checkpoints
Answer out loud or in writing, without scrolling. Then check. Score yourself honestly:
- All correct → next day.
- One miss → re-read that section, then move on.
- Two or more → redo the build task before advancing. Convex compounds; Day 5 is unpleasant if Day 2 is shaky.