Learn .NET
in a real development environment.

Desktop app for learning C# and .NET 10. Full IntelliSense, a real debugger, and an AI tutor that actually reads your code.

Regular price: $59 Price now: $39, one-time Windows 10/11 7-day refund

DevJourney running on Windows: the course sidebar on the left, the lesson text in the middle, and Program.cs open next to the built-in HTTP request panel on the right.
DevJourney screenshot: the app window with a lesson on the left, the C# code editor on the right, and the AI helper nearby.

Pay once. It's yours forever.

One-time license, free 1.x updates, lessons and compiler work offline

Local tooling

Editor, debugger, and compiler: the tools you'll use at work.

Microsoft's Roslyn, the C# engine behind Visual Studio and VS Code, plus your local .NET SDK. Errors show up as you type; Run compiles code on your machine.

Pick a feature

DevJourney · IntelliSense─ □ ✕
1class Rectangle
2{
3 public double = 0;
4
5 // add SetDimensions here
6 void (string width) {
7 this.width = ;
8 }
9}

Hover the underlined code

AI tutor

Bring your own AI: free tier or paid, no extra cost.

DevJourney drives OpenAI's Codex CLI and Anthropic's Claude Code CLI, the same tools professionals use, locally as a subprocess that sees your code and your lesson. A paid plan is optional: the free tiers work too, with no markup on top.

Pick an integration

AI Assistant

☁ GPT-5.4 Mini

Send the question

Scratchpad

Try one line of C# without starting a project.

Open the scratchpad from the top bar, pick a starter and press Run. No dotnet new, no folder to name, no project file. It runs on the same Monaco editor, Roslyn diagnostics and local .NET SDK as the lessons, and notes are saved on your machine, so last week's experiment is still where you left it.

  • Six starters Console, LINQ, async/await, xUnit, EF Core + SQLite and a Minimal API. Each one compiles and runs as it is.
  • Notes stay put Saved locally in SQLite. Order them by last change or date created, and filter by name once there are too many to scan.
  • Web notes run too A Minimal API note starts Kestrel and puts a request panel under the editor, so GET /ping never leaves the window.
Untitled — C# Console─ □ ✕
Program.cs
1// Quick scratchpad — write anything and press Run.
2Console.WriteLine("Hello from the scratchpad!");
3
4var numbers = new[] { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 };
5var sum = numbers.Sum();
6Console.WriteLine($"Sum: {sum}");
Ready to run

No output yet.

Pick a starter, then press Run

670+ lessons. 60 chapters.

Nine parts walk you from Console.WriteLine through OOP, LINQ, async, testing, and EF Core to Web APIs, and end on a task-management app you build. It doesn't stop at syntax either: delegates and events, integration testing, performance, security, deployment, and application architecture each get a chapter of their own. A tenth part is a bonus interview-prep track. The whole course, over 670 lessons, is available in full in English and Polish.

10 parts 60 chapters 670+ lessons
  • 01What Is Programming?
  • 02Meet C# and .NET
  • 03Your First Program
  • 04Values, types, and variables
  • 05Operators, strings, and expressions
  • 06Control flow
  • 07Methods
  • 08Collections basics and error handling
  • 09Project: Word Frequency CLI
  • 10Classes and objects
  • 11Inheritance and polymorphism
  • 12Interfaces and abstract types
  • 13Structs, records, and enums
  • 14Project: Mini Library
  • 15Generics
  • 16Collections deep dive
  • 17Delegates, lambdas, and events
  • 18LINQ
  • 19Project: Sales Report (LINQ)
  • 20Asynchronous programming
  • 21Project: Mini Pub/Sub
  • 22Modern C# Features and Patterns
  • 23Projects, Packages, and Tooling
  • 24Files, Streams, and Serialization
  • 25Application Building Blocks
  • 26Unit Testing with xUnit
  • 27Project: Markdown → HTML
  • 28Project: TDD String Utils
  • 29Database fundamentals
  • 30EF Core Foundations
  • 31Modeling data and migrations
  • 32Advanced data access
  • 33Saving, transactions, and performance
  • 34Project: Forum Threads
  • 35Introduction to Web Development
  • 36Your first ASP.NET Core API
  • 37Your First Web API
  • 38Routing and Middleware
  • 39Minimal APIs and Controllers
  • 40Binding, Validation, and Content
  • 41Consuming HTTP APIs
  • 42Authentication
  • 43Authorization
  • 44Cross-Cutting Concerns
  • 45Documentation, Versioning, and Real-Time
  • 46Integration Testing
  • 47Debugging and Performance
  • 48Security Essentials
  • 49Deployment and Operations
  • 50Application Architecture
  • 51Project: TaskTracker, production-ready
  • 52TaskTracker
project

Project: TaskTracker

A web app for task management: ASP.NET Core Razor Pages + EF Core + SQLite, with an xUnit test suite. Multi-file editor, built-in HTTP client to test the endpoints.

  • 53C# and .NET Recall
  • 54OOP, SOLID, and Patterns
  • 55Data Structures and Algorithms
  • 56Async, Concurrency, and Performance
  • 57Data, SQL, and the Web Stack
  • 58Live Coding and System Design
  • 59Project: The Take-Home API
  • 60Project: The Refactoring Take-Home

PROGRAMMING & AI

Yes, it's still worth learning to code.

The question everyone's asking: if AI writes so much of the code, why learn it yourself? Because AI raised the value of understanding code; it didn't remove it. Five honest reasons:

Further reading: The 70% problem (Osmani) / How I use LLMs (Willison)

  1. You can't review what you can't read

    AI produces a plausible answer in seconds. Deciding whether it's correct, secure, and worth shipping is the job now, and that takes someone who reads code fluently.

  2. When generated code breaks, understanding gets you out

    Re-prompting a bad fix tends to add two new bugs. Reading a stack trace and stepping through a debugger is how you break out of the loop.

  3. AI extends the programmer, it doesn't replace one

    It multiplies the output of someone who knows what they're doing. It can't supply the judgment from nothing; experienced instincts are exactly what pull the best results out of it.

  4. Fundamentals are the moat now

    Once AI commoditizes the obvious code, your edge is what it's bad at: architecture, data modeling, performance, security, tradeoffs. That knowledge is worth more, not less.

  5. Learn it yourself first, then let AI accelerate you

    Let AI do your thinking while you learn and you end up with a black box you can't debug. Build the mental model by writing the code yourself, then hand the boring parts to the machine.

THE JOB MARKET

AI writes the code. Knowing whether it's any good is what gets paid.

Five ads of the kind that actually circulate, assembled from real requirement lines and published salary data. Open any of them to see what the work is day to day, and how much of it you already have after this course.

These are US figures from Built In's self-reported data, which leans toward funded tech companies in expensive metros, so read them as the upper half of the market rather than the middle. What holds everywhere: back-end work is the largest slice of the market, it pays above the general developer average, and the ads here are what it looks like from the inside.

$144K
median software developer base pay, US
$183K
median back-end developer base pay
$155K
median ML engineer base pay

Source: Built In, US tech salaries 2026. Self-reported base pay, equity excluded.

Example ads

Green: covered by the course. Grey: what the employer adds on top.

The companies in these ads don't exist, and the pay is a median from market reports, not a promise. That's also why there's no apply button: these are not openings.

The course doesn't hand you a job. It gives you what these ads ask for. The portfolio, the CV and the interviews are your half of the road, and you walk in with something concrete.

Example

Junior .NET Developer

logistics company · 200+ people · hybrid

$102,500 average base, under 1 yr $144,000 role median, all levels

What the job actually is

You fix bugs in a system you didn't write. Reproduce the ticket, step through it in a debugger, check that your change didn't move something three layers away. A model writes that endpoint in ten seconds, and you're the one who spots that the queue drops messages on retry.

What the course gives you

C#, OOP, LINQ and async, reading stack traces, a step debugger, compiling with your own SDK, EF Core and an ASP.NET Core Web API: most of what this ad is asking for.

Built In, software developer, US, 2026.

See the curriculum

Example

Mid ASP.NET Developer

software house · 40 people · remote

$173,388 average base $223,712 total comp

What the job actually is

You ship endpoints someone else will maintain: validation, authorization, migrations, tests. Half the job is reading code you didn't write, and that is exactly the skill being paid for here.

What the course gives you

ASP.NET Core Web APIs (minimal API, controllers, middleware, validation, authentication), plus EF Core 10, xUnit, integration tests and deployment. That's parts VI to VIII.

Built In, back end developer, US, 2026.

See the curriculum

Example

Senior .NET Engineer (AI/ML)

fintech · 900 people · hybrid

$162,080 average base $212,022 total comp

What the job actually is

You put a model inside a system that already works: queues, cost ceilings, caching, and tests for something that isn't always deterministic. The model's answer looks right and is sometimes wrong, and you're the one who knows when.

What the course gives you

The foundation all of it sits on: C#, async, Web APIs, testing, plus the architecture and security chapters in part VIII. The AI layer goes on top of that later: it's a two-to-three-year direction. For scale: in Poland the senior .NET median is 20,500 PLN against 23,500 in the AI/ML category.

Built In, machine learning engineer, US, 2026.

See the curriculum

Example

Internal applications developer

machinery manufacturer · 6-person IT team · on-site

$145,521 average base in-house salaried, not contracting

What the job actually is

You keep the applications the company runs on: the warehouse, the production line, the reports the board reads. Requirements come from people on the shop floor, not from a product owner. Nobody is rewriting it in a fashionable stack, because it has worked since 2013.

What the course gives you

C#, OOP, EF Core, the debugger and work on a real .NET project, plus TaskTracker, a web app built end to end. Built In has no separate figure for in-house work, so the number is the general software developer average.

Built In, software developer, US, 2026.

See the curriculum

Example

Unity Developer

game studio · 25 people · on-site

$116,251 average base $65K–$214K reported range

What the job actually is

You script behaviour in C#, fight the frame budget and the profiler, redo the same task a third time because the design changed. Usually in an office, usually for less than the enterprise job pays, and usually because someone genuinely wants to make games.

What the course gives you

The language itself: C#, OOP, collections, async, the debugger. Exactly the part Unity assumes you already know. The engine, gameplay and graphics come later from Unity's own docs; here you get the language all of it runs on.

Built In, game developer, US, 2026; posting share: Just Join IT 2026.

See the curriculum

Editor and tooling

  • Monaco editor — the same editor core VS Code runs on
  • Roslyn IntelliSense — completions, hover docs, signature help, go-to-definition
  • Compiler diagnostics as you type, with quick fixes and formatting
  • Your own .NET SDK compiles the code — no sandbox, no cloud runner
  • Step debugger — breakpoints, step into, step over, step out
  • Locals, Watch and Call Stack panels, plus conditional breakpoints
  • The debugger turns on in chapter 8 and stays available on 200+ lessons after it
  • Open in IDE — VS Code, Visual Studio, Rider or Zed, in one click

AI tutor

  • Codex CLI or Claude Code — driven locally, as a subprocess
  • Runs on the plan you already have; the free tiers work, with no markup on top
  • Reads the lesson, your file and the compiler error before it answers
  • Explain, Debug and Hint buttons, plus a menu on any code you select
  • Explains the mistake instead of pasting the answer

The course

  • 670+ lessons across 60 chapters and 10 parts
  • From Console.WriteLine to ASP.NET Core Web APIs, on .NET 10 and EF Core 10
  • Exercises graded against real program output, not a checkbox
  • Guided lessons that walk one step at a time
  • Quizzes, concept lessons, visualizers and Mermaid diagrams
  • A hint ladder — a nudge first, the solution last
  • Glossary — hover a term for its definition; the app marks the ones you've met
  • The whole course in English and Polish, switched inside the app

Real project work

  • Project: TaskTracker — ASP.NET Core Razor Pages + EF Core + SQLite
  • Multi-file project explorer, with snapshots you can restore
  • xUnit suites where the tests passing is the grade
  • Built-in HTTP client — call your own API without leaving the window
  • Web lessons boot a real Kestrel server, with live logs
  • dotnet ef migrations and dotnet watch, run from inside the app
  • Scratchpad with six starters — console, LINQ, async, xUnit, EF Core, Minimal API
  • Interview track — rapid-fire drilling plus two timed take-home projects

What you own

  • One payment — no subscription, no seats, no renewal
  • Free updates through the whole 1.x line
  • 7 days to get your money back, no questions
  • One machine, moved by you — deactivate here, activate there
  • Lessons and NuGet packages ship inside the app — exercises compile with nothing to download
  • The app works offline — the licence is checked periodically
  • Completion certificate — a PDF with a hash anyone can verify
  • Free demo — all of Part I, with nothing stripped out

The app

  • Windows 10/11 desktop app that updates itself
  • Keyboard shortcuts throughout, and a Ctrl+P file switcher in project work
  • Light and dark themes, or follow the system
  • Resizable panels — lesson, editor, output and AI, sized how you want them
  • Progress kept in a local SQLite file on your own disk

One price. Everything included.

−33%

Regular price: 59
Price now: 39 USD
Buy license

7-day refund, 1 machine, free 1.x updates

Or start with the demo — Part I is free
  • 670+ lessons across 60 chapters
  • Project: ASP.NET Core TaskTracker
  • AI tutor via Claude Code / Codex CLI, on your existing plan
  • Step debugger + HTTP client
  • Activation on 1 machine
  • Completion certificate (PDF + hash)

Frequently asked questions

Windows 10/11.
Yes. DevJourney uses your local .NET SDK to compile. The app detects it automatically. If you don't have it yet, a link to Microsoft's installer is provided.
One license = activation on 1 machine. You can deactivate it on the old machine and move to a new one without contacting support.
You pay once. No subscription. You get all future content updates within the 1.x line. A future 2.x might be a separate product, but your 1.x never shuts off.
No. DevJourney integrates with OpenAI Codex CLI and Claude Code CLI, so you use the subscription you already have (ChatGPT Plus / Pro or Claude Pro / Max). The call is a local subprocess, so there's no server in the middle.
Yes. "Open in IDE" opens the project in VS Code, Visual Studio, Rider, or Zed in one click. The project is just a normal .NET directory, no weird format.
TaskTracker, a complete ASP.NET Core Razor Pages web app with a SQLite database, full CRUD, and an xUnit test suite. Multi-file editor, built-in HTTP client to test endpoints. Not a toy, but something you can actually show.
7 days from purchase, no questions. Email contact, full refund.
After completing all 52 chapters you get a PDF certificate with a verification hash, and anyone can verify its authenticity on the site.
All of Part I — 30 lessons — plus sample lessons from later parts. Nothing is stripped down: IntelliSense, the debugger, and the AI tutor all work. Buying unlocks the remaining chapters in the same app.

Try the demo. Buy it if it clicks.

The download has started

DevJourney_1.0.0_x64-setup.exe · 1.0.0

If Windows warns you

"Windows protected your PC" is not a virus detection. SmartScreen trusts the certificate an installer is signed with, and this one is still earning its reputation through a download count.

In the warning: More info → Run anyway.

Confirm it yourself

Check this download on VirusTotal

Or in PowerShell, where you downloaded it:

Get-FileHash .\DevJourney_1.0.0_x64-setup.exe

Should print:

7cd001be4463317f601b8bb2eed78537982a3559c92f06e96288434c79931fd6