Laravel Mastery Roadmap

1

Foundation — PHP & Dev Environment

Before Laravel, you need solid PHP and tooling instincts.

⏱ 2–3 weeks

📦 PHP Core Tasks

Types, type hints, union types (PHP 8+)
OOP: classes, interfaces, abstract, traits
Namespaces & PSR-4 autoloading
Composer: require, autoload, scripts
Error handling: exceptions, try/catch/finally
Closures, arrow functions, first-class callables
Match expressions, nullsafe operator (PHP 8)
Readonly properties, enums (PHP 8.1+)

🛠️ Environment Setup

Install PHP 8.2+, Composer globally
Laravel Herd (macOS) or Laragon (Windows)
VSCode + Laravel Extension Pack
PHPStan / Larastan from day 1
Git: branching, conventional commits
Postman or Bruno for API testing
TablePlus or DBngin for DB management
Xdebug setup for step debugging

🎯 Practice Assignment #1 — PHP OOP CLI App

Build a CLI expense tracker in pure PHP (no framework):

Use classes: Expense, ExpenseRepository, ConsoleRenderer
Store data in a JSON file using file_get_contents/file_put_contents
Add/list/delete/filter expenses by category
Use interfaces (RendererInterface) and dependency injection manually
Goal: understand DI, SRP, and why a framework solves pain

💡 Shortcut: Don't learn "all of PHP" first. Learn PHP by building — use php -a (interactive shell) or 3v4l.org to test snippets instantly. Focus only on PHP 8+ features used in Laravel.

📚 Resources

FREE

php.net — Official Manual

Read: OOP, Closures, Fibers sections only

PHP The Right Way

phptherightway.com — industry best practices fast

PAID

Laracasts PHP for Beginners (Jeffrey Way)

Best video content — extremely practical

FREE

3v4l.org

Run PHP snippets online across versions

2

Core Laravel — The Framework DNA

Learn how Laravel thinks before memorizing its API.

⏱ 3–4 weeks

🔁 Request Lifecycle (Master This First)

HTTP Kernel → Middleware pipeline → Router
Service Container: binding, resolving, contextual binding
Service Providers: register() vs boot()
Facades — what they really are (proxies)
How the .env and config() system works

🗺️ Routing & Controllers

Route groups, prefixes, names, middleware
Resource controllers & API resource controllers
Route model binding (implicit & explicit)
Single action controllers
Form Requests for validation
Response macros

🗄️ Eloquent ORM

Migrations, seeders, factories
Relationships: hasOne, hasMany, BelongsTo, BelongsToMany, MorphTo
Eager loading — N+1 is your enemy
Scopes: local & global
Accessors, mutators, casts
Observers and model events
Query Builder vs Eloquent — when to use which

🎨 Blade + Auth

Blade directives, components, slots
Anonymous vs class-based components
Laravel Breeze for auth scaffolding
Gates and Policies
Middleware: auth, guest, verified
Sessions and flash messages

🎯 Practice Assignment #2 — Blog Platform

Build a full multi-user blog with authentication:

Users can register, login, create/edit/delete their own posts
Posts have tags (many-to-many), categories (belongs-to), comments (has-many)
Use Policies: only post owner can edit/delete
Implement pagination, search with query scopes
Admin can see all posts — use Gates
Constraint: Zero raw SQL. Everything through Eloquent.

⚡ Artisan Shortcuts You Must Know

php artisan make:model Post -mcrf

Model + Migration + Controller + Request + Factory in one shot

php artisan tinker

REPL for your app — test Eloquent queries live

php artisan route:list --name=post

Filter routes by name — essential for debugging

php artisan migrate:fresh --seed

Nuke DB & reseed — your dev best friend

💡 Hidden Gem: Read the Laravel source code at vendor/laravel/framework/src. When something seems like magic, trace it. Understanding Illuminate\Container\Container makes you 10x smarter about every Laravel concept.

3

Intermediate — APIs, Jobs & Testing

Where most devs stop. You won't.

⏱ 4–5 weeks

📡 REST API Development

API Resources & Resource Collections
Sanctum for SPA & mobile token auth
API versioning strategies (/v1/, header-based)
Fractal/Spatie Data for transformers
Rate limiting with throttle middleware
Standardized error responses (RFC 7807)

⏳ Queues & Jobs

Queue drivers: Redis (use this), DB, SQS
Job chaining and batching
Failed jobs & retry logic
Job middleware (ThrottlesExceptions, RateLimited)
Horizon for queue monitoring
Scheduled tasks with Task Scheduling

🧪 Testing (Non-Negotiable for Senior)

PHPUnit & Pest — learn Pest (modern syntax)
Feature tests vs Unit tests — know the difference
Testing HTTP endpoints with actingAs()
Mocking: Mail, Event, Queue, Http::fake()
Database testing: RefreshDatabase vs DatabaseTransactions
Factory states and relationships
Test coverage with Xdebug

📂 File Storage & Events

Storage facade: local, S3, R2
File uploads with validation
Image processing with Intervention Image
Events & Listeners (sync vs async)
Notifications: mail, Slack, database, SMS
Broadcasting with Reverb/Pusher

🎯 Practice Assignment #3 — REST API with Background Jobs

Build a Task Management API (like a mini Trello backend):

Full CRUD for boards, lists, cards with Sanctum auth
Card assignment fires a queued notification (email + database)
File attachments stored on S3-compatible storage
Activity log via Eloquent Observer + events
Write Feature Tests covering all endpoints (aim for 80%+ coverage)
Bonus: Real-time card updates via Laravel Reverb

💡 Uncommon Resource: Pest Laravel Plugin docs are underrated. Pest's arch() tests let you enforce architectural rules (e.g., "controllers never import Eloquent models directly"). Seniors use this.

4

Advanced — Performance & Architecture

This is where junior ends and senior begins.

⏱ 5–6 weeks

⚡ Performance Mastery

Query optimization: EXPLAIN, indexes, composite indexes
Caching: Redis, cache tags, cache busting strategies
Eager load profiling with Laravel Debugbar / Telescope
Chunking and lazy collections for large datasets
OPcache configuration in production
HTTP caching headers (ETags, Cache-Control)
Read replicas: DB::connection('readonly')

🏛️ Architecture Patterns

Repository Pattern — and when NOT to use it
Action classes (single-responsibility handlers)
Service classes vs Jobs vs Actions
Data Transfer Objects (DTOs) with Spatie/Laravel-Data
Pipeline pattern for complex multi-step processing
CQRS basics: separate read/write models

🔐 Security Deep Dive

SQL injection: how Eloquent prevents it (and edge cases)
Mass assignment: $fillable vs $guarded
XSS: Blade auto-escaping vs {!! !!}
CSRF: how the token system works internally
Rate limiting with custom limiters
Signed URLs for secure time-limited links
Sanctum vs Passport vs JWT — choose correctly

🧩 Advanced Eloquent

Has-One-Through, Has-Many-Through, MorphMany
withCount, withSum, withAvg on relationships
Subquery selects and joins
Custom Eloquent builders (extending Builder)
Soft deletes deep-dive (forceDelete, restoring)
Multi-tenancy with Spatie Multitenancy

🎯 Practice Assignment #4 — SaaS Starter with Multi-tenancy

Build a multi-tenant SaaS invoice app:

Teams/organizations as tenants — each sees only their data
Subscription model: Free/Pro/Enterprise with feature flags
PDF invoice generation (queued) + email delivery
Implement caching for dashboard stats (Redis, cache tags)
Telescope in dev, Horizon in staging for observability
Architecture rule: controllers max 5 lines, all logic in Action classes

💡 Hidden Gem: Study Spatie's open-source Laravel packages (github.com/spatie). They are the gold standard of Laravel architecture. Read the source of laravel-permission, laravel-activitylog, laravel-data. You'll learn more patterns there than any course.

5

Senior Patterns — Think Like a Tech Lead

Code quality, design decisions, and team-level impact.

⏱ 4–5 weeks

🧱 SOLID + Domain Design

SRP: one reason to change — enforce via code review mindset
Open/Closed: extend via contracts, not modification
Dependency Inversion: bind interfaces in AppServiceProvider
Domain-Driven Design light: bounded contexts, aggregates
Feature folders vs. MVC folders — when to switch
Modular monolith with Laravel Modules package

🔬 Testing at Senior Level

Contract testing for external APIs
Architecture tests with Pest arch()
Mutation testing with Infection PHP
Load testing with k6 or Artillery
Testing Queued Jobs in isolation
Time-sensitive tests with Carbon::setTestNow()

🚢 DevOps & Deployment

Laravel Forge + Ploi for server provisioning
Zero-downtime deploys with php artisan down + maintenance mode
Docker + Laravel Sail for team consistency
GitHub Actions CI/CD pipeline (test → lint → deploy)
Environment management: secrets, config caching
Rolling updates, blue-green on Laravel Vapor (serverless)

📊 Observability

Laravel Telescope (dev): queries, requests, jobs
Laravel Pulse (production monitoring, new in L11)
Sentry / Flare for exception tracking
Structured logging with Monolog channels
Custom metrics & alerts
Slow query logging and DB optimization loops

🎯 Practice Assignment #5 — Open Source Package

Build and publish a real Laravel package on Packagist:

Pick a pain point you've hit (e.g., audit trails, settings manager, feature flags)
Use a ServiceProvider, config publishing, Facades if appropriate
Write full test coverage with Pest + Orchestra Testbench
Add CI via GitHub Actions (test on PHP 8.2, 8.3)
Write README with usage examples
Why: This is what separates senior candidates from mid-level. Interviewers love this.

💡 Career Insight: Read the Laravel internals — specifically how the Container resolves, how Eloquent hydrates models, and how the Pipeline class works. Blog about what you find. Senior devs who explain internals clearly get hired and promoted faster than those who just "use the framework."

6

Job Ready — Portfolio & Interview Prep

Turn your skills into offers.

⏱ 2–3 weeks

💻 Portfolio Projects (Pick 2–3)

Multi-tenant SaaS with Stripe subscriptions
Real-time chat/notification app (Reverb + Vue/React)
REST API consumed by a mobile app (document with Scribe)
E-commerce with complex discount/coupon engine
Open-source Laravel package with 10+ GitHub stars

🎤 Senior Interview Topics

"Explain the Laravel Service Container" — trace it verbally
"How do you handle N+1 queries?" — specific strategies
"Design a notification system" — system design
"How would you scale this Laravel app to 1M users?"
"Walk me through your testing strategy" — feature vs unit
"When would you NOT use Eloquent?"
Live coding: design a rate-limiter from scratch

📋 Before Applying — Checklist

GitHub profile: pinned repos with READMEs and live demos
Can explain every line of code in your projects
Blog post or video explaining a Laravel internals topic
Contributed a PR to Laravel or a major package
Familiar with the company's stack (Livewire? Inertia? Vue?)
Tailored resume: "reduced query count by 60% using eager loading"

🌐 Ecosystem to Know

Livewire v3 — full-stack components (huge in job market)
Inertia.js — SPA feel without a full API
Filament v3 — admin panels (very in demand)
Laravel Octane — Swoole/RoadRunner for high throughput
Spatie packages ecosystem
Laravel Vapor — serverless Laravel on AWS

🎯 Final Capstone — Production SaaS App

Build and deploy a live, publicly accessible SaaS:

Real users can sign up (use your blog project or something new)
Stripe Checkout or Lemon Squeezy for payments
Redis queues, Horizon monitoring, Pulse dashboard
Deployed on Forge/Ploi with SSL, CI/CD, zero-downtime
Custom domain, Sentry error tracking
This is your ultimate portfolio piece. Share it on X (Twitter), LinkedIn, and in your resume.

🔗 Final Uncommon Resources

Christoph Rumpel's "Laravel Core Adventures"

Deep dives into Laravel internals — unmatched depth

Aaron Francis — Mastering Postgres / MySQL

Senior devs who understand DB are rare & valued

FREE

Laravel Daily YouTube (Povilas Korop)

Real-world patterns, interview prep, best practices

PAID

Laracasts (Jeffrey Way)

The definitive Laravel video resource — worth every cent

Freek Van der Herten's Blog (freek.dev)

Spatie co-founder — architecture, packages, real-world patterns

FREE

laravel.com/docs

Read it cover to cover at least once. Seriously.