System Programming From First Principles
Most developers never touch the lower layers of computing. They write JavaScript that talks to frameworks that talk to libraries that eventually—somehow—make pixels appear on screens. Which is fine, honestly. But there's something different about understanding how computers actually work at the metal level.
This program starts where most courses end. We don't just use operating systems—we build them. Instead of calling APIs, you'll write the code that makes those APIs possible. It's six months of working directly with memory, processors, and hardware interrupts.
You'll write bootloaders, implement file systems, and build schedulers that decide which processes get to run. By month four, most students are debugging kernel panics like they're hunting typos. That shift in perspective? That's what we're after.
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The Learning Path
We structured this around building actual systems—not toy examples. Each phase builds on the previous one, and by the end, you'll have written thousands of lines of C and assembly that actually control hardware.
Memory Architecture and Direct Hardware Access
First two months are about understanding how computers store and retrieve data. You'll write memory allocators from scratch, work with different addressing modes, and learn why pointer arithmetic isn't just syntax—it's how programs navigate physical RAM. We spend time on cache hierarchies because they matter more than most algorithms.
Process Management and Concurrent Execution
Month three shifts to how operating systems juggle multiple programs. You'll implement your own scheduler, handle context switches, and deal with race conditions that only appear under load. This is where theory meets reality—when your code deadlocks at 3 AM, you learn debugging in ways no textbook can teach.
File Systems and Storage Layers
Building a file system sounds abstract until you realize it's just carefully organized bytes on a disk. You'll design inode structures, implement journaling for crash recovery, and optimize read patterns. Students often say this module clicks everything together—suddenly the whole stack makes sense.
Network Protocols and Driver Development
Final stretch covers how systems talk to each other and to hardware. You'll write network drivers, implement TCP/IP layers, and handle interrupts from real devices. This phase is intense—you're debugging timing issues at the nanosecond level while maintaining correct protocol state.
Real Hardware, Real Constraints
Every assignment runs on actual ARM boards. When your code crashes, the board crashes. When you write buggy memory management, you see corruption happen in real-time. It's frustrating at first, but there's no substitute for seeing your abstractions meet physical reality.
Project-Based Progression
Each month ends with a working system component. Month two? You have a functioning memory manager. Month four? A basic OS kernel that boots and runs programs. These aren't demos—they're real implementations you could theoretically ship if you were building embedded systems.
Who This Works For
You need comfortable C programming skills coming in. Not expert level, but you should know pointers, structs, and manual memory management without constantly checking documentation. If you've written a few thousand lines of C and understand why segmentation faults happen, you're probably ready.
People who do well here tend to be curious about the layers below their usual work. Maybe you're a backend developer who wants to understand what happens when you call malloc(). Or an embedded engineer who needs deeper OS knowledge. Some students are just intellectually curious—they want to know how things actually work instead of treating computers as magic boxes.
What Success Actually Looks Like
Graduates typically move into roles where low-level knowledge matters: operating systems teams, embedded development, database internals, or performance engineering. A few have joined companies working on virtualization or container runtimes. One student now works on firmware for industrial robots.
But the real value isn't just career stuff. After six months of system programming, you see software differently. You understand why certain design decisions get made, what the performance implications are, and where abstractions leak. That perspective sticks with you regardless of what you build next.
View Graduate OutcomesWeekly Lab Sessions
Every Thursday evening we work through problems together. Someone's scheduler isn't preempting correctly. Another person's file system corrupts data under concurrent writes. These sessions are where you learn from each other's mistakes—and there are always plenty of mistakes to learn from.
Code Review Culture
All implementations go through peer review before submission. You'll read other people's kernel code, spot their bugs, and defend your own design choices. It's uncomfortable at first—having your memory allocator critiqued feels personal—but it's how you learn to write maintainable low-level code.
Performance Profiling Focus
Starting month three, every project includes performance analysis. You'll use profilers, read assembly output, and learn why your clever algorithm actually runs slower than the naive version. Understanding performance at the instruction level changes how you think about code permanently.