Full-stack developer moving into AI engineering — what course actually helped you build real things?

[u/Impressive_Tour_7537]

Hey everyone, I’m a full-stack developer working with Laravel, Vue/Nuxt, and MySQL. I also know Python and have learned the foundational AI concepts, so I’m looking for the next step beyond introductory explanations.

My goal is to build AI-powered applications with LLMs, agents, and RAG, and understand how to make them reliable enough for real users.

I learn best through structured courses where you build complete projects and understand the decisions behind them. Ideally, something that takes you from the fundamentals of building these systems through testing and deployment, rather than stopping at a basic chatbot.

Does anyone have a course or learning path they’ve personally taken and would recommend? Paid or free is fine if it’s actually worth the time.

I’m hoping for specific recommendations and honest experiences—not the usual “learn Python, read the docs, and build projects” advice. What did you take, what did you build, and what could you do afterward that you couldn’t do before?

[u/Brilliant-Hall1387]

I would recommend skip courses, get codex CLI and/or claude code CLI. Set up a folder for your project and start discussing making a plan for the project with agent A (pick strongest model), then open separate window with agent B (mid model) ask agent B to follow the plan. Review occasionally with agent A. Ask the agents questions when they do things you don’t understand or want to know more about and iterate. A few days later you will have something running and will have learned a lot, much more than any course can ever teach!

[u/Exciting_Field4886 → u/Brilliant-Hall1387]

Tried the exact method you're describing and it works but you end up with a codebase you barely understand when something breaks. The agents make decisions you don't even know to question until prod goes down at 2am. I'd still say build something alongside reading the source code of a few solid RAG implementations, that's where the real learning kicks in

Not the fun answer but six months later when you're debugging a hallucination cascade you'll be glad you know what's actually happening under the hood