Become a Forward Deployed Engineer
Everything you need to work as an FDE: the role and what companies ask for, the engineering base, discovery, fitting into customer systems, shipping AI, working with customers, getting hired and the interview. Practise on real field tasks as you go.
68 lessons · about 23 h
Start here
Your roadmap
Pick where you're starting from for a week-by-week plan of lessons, practice and things to show.
Practise like an FDE
- Code LabField coding tasks in Python, checked stage by stage in your browser.
- Field LabThe documents and messages an FDE writes, graded against a strong FDE's version.
- Customer RoomRun a first meeting with a customer played by AI, and get a scorecard.
- Take-home projectsBriefs like real FDE take-homes, with what reviewers look for.
- Python playgroundOpen Python in your browser for trying ideas, free for everyone.
The FDE role
What forward deployed engineers do, where the role came from, how it differs from other jobs, and what companies ask for.
Why would a software company send its engineers to sit inside a customer's office?
Basic20 min · 1 practice exerciseHow did a job invented at one data company become a top AI hiring title?
Basic20 minIf they all talk to customers, what makes an FDE different?
Basic20 minWhat does an FDE actually do from Monday to Friday at a customer site?
Basic20 min · 1 practice exerciseWhen there's no sprint board, how does anyone know you did a good job?
Basic20 minWhat exactly do companies ask for when they hire an FDE?
Basic25 min · 1 practice exercise
Foundations for the field
The engineering base every FDE needs: Python for real work, APIs, Git, the terminal and cloud, containers, messy data and debugging in production.
Which parts of Python do you use every day when the job is wiring systems together?
Basic20 min · 1 practice exerciseWhat happens between your code and someone else's API, and why does it fail at 2 a.m.?
Basic20 min · 2 practice exercisesHow do you change code safely in a repository you didn't write and don't own?
Going deeper20 min · 1 practice exerciseThe customer gives you SSH access and says it's all on that box. Now what?
Going deeper20 minHow do you ship code into a company whose servers you've never seen?
Going deeper20 min · 1 practice exerciseWhy does the customer's clean export break your script on row 4,812?
Basic20 min · 2 practice exercisesHow do you find a bug in a system you can only see through its logs?
Going deeper20 min · 1 practice exercise
Discovery and decomposition
Find the real problem behind the request, break a vague goal into parts you can build, and scope a first project that can succeed.
What should you ask in the first hour with a customer, and what should you never promise?
Going deeper20 min · 1 practice exerciseThe customer asked for a chatbot. What do they actually need?
Going deeper20 min · 1 practice exerciseHow do you turn 'use AI to reduce delays' into pieces you can build this month?
Going deeper20 min · 1 practice exerciseWhy do the best first projects look almost boringly small?
Going deeper20 minWhat goes on the one page everyone signs before you write any code?
Going deeper20 min · 1 practice exerciseWho can quietly stop your project, and how do you find them in week one?
Going deeper20 min · 1 practice exercise
Fitting into customer systems
Learn a customer's systems fast, connect to them through APIs, files and pipelines, and pass identity, security and privacy reviews.
How do you map a company's systems in your first week when nobody has the full picture?
Going deeper20 minShould you call their API, wait for their webhook, or pick up a file every night?
Going deeper20 min · 2 practice exercisesHow do you move a customer's data every night without losing or doubling a single row?
Advanced20 min · 2 practice exercisesWhy is 'log in with our company account' the first thing every enterprise asks for?
Advanced20 minWhat changes when your software must run where you can't reach it?
Advanced20 minWhat will the customer's security team ask, and how do you pass quickly?
Advanced20 min · 1 practice exerciseCan you send a customer's data to an AI model, and where is it allowed to live?
Advanced20 min · 2 practice exercisesHow do you connect to a system older than you that nobody is allowed to touch?
Advanced20 min
Shipping AI into a customer's company
Pick good AI use cases, build search, agents and MCP servers over private data, prove quality with evals, add guardrails, control cost and roll out safely.
How do you tell a customer their AI idea is a weak one, and offer a better one?
Going deeper20 min · 1 practice exerciseHow do you build an assistant that only shows each employee what they're allowed to see?
Advanced20 min · 1 practice exerciseWhen should an AI agent act on its own, and when should it only draft?
Advanced20 min · 1 practice exerciseHow do you give an AI model safe access to a customer's CRM, tickets and files?
Advanced20 minHow do you prove an AI system works before the customer finds out it doesn't?
Advanced20 min · 2 practice exercisesWhere does a human check the AI's work, and how do you stop bad answers?
Advanced20 minYour demo answers in four seconds for a few paise. What happens at 50,000 requests a day?
Advanced20 min · 1 practice exerciseHow do you switch on AI at a hospital or bank without betting it all on day one?
Advanced20 min · 2 practice exercisesWhat keeps an AI system good six months after you've left the customer?
Advanced20 min · 1 practice exercise
Coding the FDE way
Read unfamiliar code fast, fix what others wrote, build in stages as requirements change, demo early, write glue code that survives, and turn field work into product.
How do you become useful in a 200,000-line codebase by the end of day one?
Going deeper20 min · 1 practice exerciseHow do you find the bug in code you've never seen, without breaking three other things?
Going deeper20 min · 1 practice exerciseHow do you write code that survives the customer changing their mind every week?
Going deeper20 min · 1 practice exerciseWhat makes a demo convince a sceptical CTO in fifteen minutes?
Going deeper20 minWhy does integration code that worked in testing fail on its first night in production?
Advanced20 min · 2 practice exercisesWhen should the clever script you wrote for one customer become a feature for all of them?
Advanced20 min · 1 practice exercise
Working with customers
Explain technical work to executives, write updates people read, push back without losing trust, handle frustration and incidents, and bring field lessons back to product.
How do you explain a two-week delay to a CEO in two minutes?
Going deeper20 min · 1 practice exerciseWhat makes a weekly update the one email a busy customer actually reads?
Going deeper20 min · 1 practice exerciseHow do you refuse a customer's request and leave them trusting you more?
Going deeper20 min · 1 practice exerciseThe customer is angry, on a call with their boss, and partly right. What do you say?
Going deeper20 min · 1 practice exerciseHow does a six-week project quietly become a six-month one, and how do you stop it?
Going deeper20 min · 1 practice exerciseYour system failed at the customer's busiest hour. What do you do first?
Advanced20 min · 1 practice exerciseHow does what you learn at one customer make the product better for everyone?
Advanced20 min
Getting the job
Roadmaps from college and from other roles, a portfolio that proves FDE skills, a CV that gets shortlisted, where to find roles, and what offers and careers look like.
Can you become an FDE straight out of college, and what should you build first?
Basic20 minWhich of your current skills already count, and what's the fastest way to close the gap?
Going deeper20 minWhat projects make a hiring manager think 'I'd send this person to a customer'?
Going deeper20 min · 1 practice exerciseHow do you rewrite your CV so every line reads like customer impact?
Going deeper20 min · 1 practice exerciseWhere are FDE jobs hiding when most aren't called FDE?
Going deeper20 min · 1 practice exerciseWhat should you ask before accepting an FDE offer, and where do FDEs go next?
Going deeper20 min
The FDE interview
How FDE interviews work and how to prepare for each round: decomposition, learning, re-engineering and coding, take-homes, customer system design and behavioural.
Why do strong engineers fail FDE interviews they expected to pass?
Going deeper20 minHow do you answer 'design a system to improve traffic in Bengaluru' with no code at all?
Advanced20 min · 1 practice exerciseHow do you show you can learn a new library in 20 minutes while someone watches?
Advanced20 min · 1 practice exerciseHow do you debug 300 lines of unfamiliar code against the clock?
Advanced20 min · 2 practice exercisesWhat separates a take-home that gets an offer from one that merely works?
Advanced20 min · 1 practice exerciseHow is designing for one customer different from designing for a billion users?
Advanced20 minWhich stories should you have ready, and how do you tell them so they prove you're an FDE?
Going deeper20 min · 1 practice exercise
Field case studies
Six deployments from the first meeting to go-live: what was asked, what was found, what was built and what went wrong.
How would you automate 38,000 tickets a month when many of them contain patient data?
Advanced20 min · 1 practice exerciseHow do you build a policy assistant when compliance won't accept mistakes?
Advanced20 min · 1 practice exerciseThe customer said 'use AI to reduce delays'. What did they actually get?
Advanced20 min · 1 practice exerciseHow do you keep two systems that disagree about who works here in agreement?
Advanced20 min · 1 practice exerciseHow do you read numbers off scanned hospital bills, and know when not to trust them?
Advanced20 min · 1 practice exerciseWhat happens when you let an AI agent update a sales team's records?
Advanced20 min · 1 practice exercise