Snowpal Education: Pragmatic, Affordable Courses (#1 to #50)
Pragmatic courses that are hands on and affordable. While our main focus is Software Development, our courses span the spectrum and cover a broad range of topics from Finance to Entrepreneurship.
We offer a number of courses that are both available on the Web and on our Mobile Apps (iOS/Android). The idea is to keep things succinct and not break your bank. Given that we both build software products and do investments on a daily basis, it only made sense to share our learnings with the community.
If you are looking to hone your skills in the fields of Software Development and Architecture, and/or Business and Finance, you will find our courses interesting and of immense value. This page lists courses 1 through 50.
If you are a course creator who’s looking to monetize, we will host your courses for FREE and split the revenue from the sale of your courses (your share is 80%).
Published Courses
1. Build a Custom Course
Our predefined courses are affordable and ready for consumption and that’s good. Sometimes, you want a course that is custom made for you and we are happy to do that for you. More details.
2. Book an hour (or day) with Krish
Have a question? Feel stuck with an engineering problem? Need a code review? Don’t you worry. We are here to help. Book some time with our CTO. More details.
3. Manage Projects on GitHub
It’s seamless to track issues closest to repos, and we find that it is quite easily to manage repo-level projects directly on GitHub. More details.
Length: 37 minutes
4. Build a Website on Canva
There’s no dearth of website building tools and but there is no beating Canva when it comes to ease of use, richness and quick publishing time. You can do 80% of what you want to do in 20% of the time, and we highly recommend it. Take a look at one of our websites built using Canva. More details.
Length: 43 minutes
5. AWS API Gateway - Introduction
According to AWS, “Amazon API Gateway is a fully managed service that makes it easy for developers to create, publish, maintain, monitor, and secure APIs at any scale”. At Snowpal, we use AWS API Gateway quite heavily and we’ll share some of those specifics with you in this course. More details.
Length: 32 minutes
6. How to use Postman API Client
Most developers prefer to use Postman to build or consume APIs and why not, given the popularity of Postman as an API client. We’ll show how we use it to build our APIs. More details.
Length: 46 minutes
7. Flutter Mobile App Caching
Keeping the number of requests made to API Servers to a necessary minimum is going to help improve UX dramatically. Snowpal’s Mobile Apps use caching extensively and you will benefit in learning that architecture. More details.
Length: 31 minutes
8. AWS Machine Learning with No Data Experience
In one of the AWS Summits we attended, we were introduced to this topic and thought it would help other AWS enthusiasts to learn a bit about this from us. More details.
Length: 33 minutes
9. Implement Mind Map Chart (amCharts)
Our Web and Mobile Apps support a variety of charts and all of them were implemented using amCharts, a fantastic Charting Library. In this course, we’ll show you how to create some cool charts using amCharts. More details.
Length: 26 minutes
10. Securing Microservices in an API Gateway
Snowpal APIs are available on AWS Marketplace, and are implemented leveraging a multitude of AWS Products. In this course, we’ll take a look at some of the many things we do to secure our services. More details.
Length: 32 minutes
11. Implementing Web Services in Golang
Golang is a wonderful language and is growing in popularity. We’ll implement a few web services in Golang to get a good sense of the language and its dependencies (including, but not limited, to setting up a development environment, finding the best IDE, etc). More details.
Length: 28 minutes
12. Implementing Web Services in Ruby
At Snowpal, we are a Polyglot development shop where we use a plethora of languages and technologies. We’ve used some for a little while and others for a long while. Ruby falls in the latter category :) So, come learn with us and we’ll implement a few web services in Ruby. More details.
Length: 22 minutes
13. Update Apps to latest FCM APIs and SDKs
We use Firebase Cloud Messaging API to implement Push Notifications on our Mobile Apps. Every time there is an update to these APIs, it requires a fair bit of plumbing and understanding to ensure that the system continues to function as expected. We’ll walk through the steps of a specific upgrade but that learning should hold you in good stead for future upgrades. More details.
Length: 19 minutes
14. Flutter App: Class Hierarchy (with a working example)
Snowpal Apps are implemented using Flutter. We evaluated many different frameworks before picking Flutter, and while we like many things Flutter, in this course, we will be focusing on one aspect of it — Class Hierarchy. More details.
Length: 31 minutes
15. Vimeo + Canva: Create and Edit Video, then Add to Showcase
We use Vimeo to host a number of our production videos (used on our Web and Mobile Apps). In this course, we’ll do a bit of video editing and add those videos to a Vimeo Showcase. More details.
Length: 36 minutes
16. Flutter App: Directory Structure
If you know the roads, driving becomes a whole lot easier. Similarly, setting up a pretty solid and extensible directory structure is imperative to creating a long lasting repo. Let’s take a look at the Directory Structure of Snowpal’s Mobile App. More details.
Length: 40 minutes
17. Architect a web application
There’s many ways to skin this cat so we’ll explore one of the many ways of architecting a web application. Snowpal’s Web App has been in production for many years and is used by thousands of end users. We’ve an interesting architecture that you would enjoy learning about. More details.
Length: 34 minutes
18. Integrate Kanban in web application
One of the many views we support in Snowpal’s Web Application is Kanban. We integrated a basic Kanban library that provided the skin (and not much more, to be honest) and added a ton of functionality on top of it. We’ll show you how we did it. More details.
Length: 35 minutes
19. Designing UI & UX for a New Feature on Web App
Snowpal’s Web App provides a long list of features and every time we enhance an existing feature or add a brand new one, we do our very best to keep the UI/UX experience both good for the end user and consistent across our app. In this course, we’ll take a specific feature and talk about some of the UI/UX decisions. More details.
Length: 30 minutes
20. Creating products on AWS Marketplace
Snowpal APIs are published on AWS Marketplace. We have our Professional Services products published there as well. AWS changes their UI a bit frequently and their process tends to change along with their UI changes. We’ll walk you through a creation so you know how to go about doing it. More details.
Length: 43 minutes
21. Authenticating subscribers using API Key & Product Code
Snowpal APIs can be seamlessly integrated in no time and all you need to do is subscribe to one or more of the APIs and use the API Key and Product Code sent in an email. If you are implementing (or consuming) APIs, this course should help you quite a bit. More details.
Length: 28 minutes
22. JSON Data Modeling: A simple example
There’s many ways to exchange data between systems but none is as popular as JSON. So, learning how to model using JSON is imperative for a smooth, seamless, scalable exchange. More details.
Length: 31 minutes
23. SQL vs NoSQL: Which way to go?
There is no right or wrong way, and there is no single answer. However, the decision to pick the type of database is as crucial as any as it is pretty much a point of no return, if you will. We use both SQL and NoSQL databases at Snowpal, and our decision is driven by the nature of problem we solve, and the microservice we build. In this course, we’ll socialize a few items that typically help us make our decision. More details.
Length: 66 minutes
24. Flutter App: Implement Tabs
Tabs are one of the most used UI components so we figured we’ll share a quick course that walks you through a tab implementation in Snowpal’s Mobile Apps. More details.
Length: 18 minutes
25. Asynchronous Messaging with RabbitMQ
If you intend to use RabbitMQ or Kafka for asynchronous messaging, you will benefit from this course that delves into Snowpal’s implementation. We do a number of things asynchronously, and created an architecture that continues to stand the test of time. More details.
Length: 45 minutes
26. Multi Tenant Architecture: Options
Multitenancy is a necessity to serve multiple customers. All of Snowpal’s microservices support multitenancy so each of our AWS subscribers can integrate a backend service that is isolated to a tenant (including the data layers). We’ll help you understand a few options available when it comes to architecting a multitenant system. More details.
Length: 50 minutes
27. Serverless Applications: AWS SAM Specification
Serverless Applications have been around a while and AWS Sam is extremely popular. Snowpal systems comprise of several AWS Lambdas, and they work alongside our traditional apps (ones that aren’t serverless). If you would like to know how to implement AWS Serverless Applications, check out this course. More details.
Length: 48 minutes
28. Amazon DynamoDB - An Introduction
NoSQL databases come in various flavors, and Amazon DynamoDB is one of them. While you can connect to any database while building Serverless Applications on AWS, using DynamoDB makes life a whole lot easier. So, you definitely want to learn to use it. More details.
Length: 48 minutes
29. LIVE Coding: Implement a new Notifications Feature
LIVE Coding makes a lot of developers nervous, especially if they aren’t particularly used to Pair or Mob Programming, or haven’t been subject to very many LIVE coding interviews. The intent of this course is to help alleviate those fears. More details.
Length: 37 minutes
30. Social Media Login (OAuth 2.0)
Snowpal Project Management App supports Social Media login via Microsoft, Google, Facebook and Apple. It takes a tiny bit of time to understand the nuances of each provider and their dependencies. Don’t you worry. We’ll show you how to implement Social Media sign in for each of these 4 major providers. More details.
Length: 56 minutes
31. RevenueCat - Pricing Integration
Snowpal Mobile Apps support In-App Purchases for a few different items — to access some powerful features, and to purchase courses. We’ve implemented in-app purchases by integrating with RevenueCat. If you would like to learn about how to support in-app purchases, you should buy this course. More details.
Length: 46 minutes
32. Dependencies in Development Environment
A stable and solid development environment goes a long way in reducing time to market for a new system (and even for an existing system where you are adding new features). Doing just about everything locally saves a ton of development time. So, if you find yourself deploying to a server all too often to test your changes, check out how you can do things a bit more efficiently. More details.
Length: 40 minutes
33. Interfaces in Go (Golang)
Golang is a powerful language and introduces many different interesting constructs — interfaces is one of them. They are unlike any other interface and we use them all over the place in our microservices. Let’s take a look at an interface so you know what they are and how to use them in Golang. More details.
Length: 55 minutes
34. Develop AWS Lambda Applications locally
If you are building SAM Applications, you want to find ways to do most (if not all) of the work locally while you are doing the development. More often than not, we see developers deploying to AWS and twiddling their thumbs while they wait for the deployments to complete, and that is a sheer waste of time. We do all of our Lambda development locally and only deploy to our lower environments when it is time for integration. More details.
Length: 32 minutes
35. Understanding REST APIs
REST has been around a long time and despite GraphQL becoming popular over the years, REST APIs haven’t lost much ground, if any. Outside of core engineering, REST actually makes communication within the team much easier when it comes to requirements. If you are wondering how, it is time to buy this course! More details.
Length: 34 minutes
36. (ST 101) Stocks: Get Started with Trading
Schools and Colleges do not appear to educate students with a lot of necessary life skills. Investing is one of them. Even if you are not intending to be a day trader, knowing the fundamentals of trading platforms is important so you do not feel lost and have more than one way to earn a living. We’ll teach you a lot of the basics. More details.
Length: 53 minutes
37. (ST 102) Stocks: Buy, Sell, Short, Cover
If you are looking to become an investor or a trader, you should know a decent bit about Buying, Selling, Shorting and Covering securities. We’ll teach you about them on real trading platforms. More details.
Length: 54 minutes
38. (ST 103) Stocks: Find the best companies
Before you invest in any security, you should know quite a bit about it. But, before you start researching a security, you first need to find it since there are thousands of companies out there. We’ll show you one way to do it. More details.
Length: 66 minutes
39. (ST 104) Stocks: Portfolio Management, Day Trader vs Investor, Charts
How to manage portfolios? What are paper trades and how are they different from real trades? How is day trading different from investing? How should I look at financial charts? We’ll provide some answers to these questions. More details.
Length: 67 minutes
40. (Weaviate) Open Source Vector Database
Vector Databases are one of the newest kinds of databases, and if your familiarity is limited to SQL and NoSQL databases, and you intend to build AI Applications, you should learn everything you can about Vector Databases. Weaviate is a Vector Database that we like. More details.
Length: 90 minutes
41. Running a SaaS Business
Snowpal offers many different products and services, and our B2B product is primarily SaaS-based. Given that, we can offer a few thoughts and guidelines on how to run a successful SaaS Business. More details.
Length: 80 minutes
42. (ST 105) How to Research Stocks
This is a follow up to Course #38: ST 103: Stocks: Find the best companies. We’ll pick up from where we left off and delve deeper into financial metrics and related items to help find better companies to potentially invest in. More details.
Length: 60 minutes
43. How to Play Texas Hold ‘em Poker
Poker is a fun game when played for recreational purposes (aka, using play money). Some of us like to play the game every so often to provide an escape from the reality of life. If you are looking to learn the basic rules of poker, this course should come of some use. More details.
Length: 40 minutes
44. Product Management, and how it’s changing
Product Management has changed quite a bit in the recent year given the advent of AI. If you are a product manager who wants to learn the new ways or are someone who’s looking to make a career in product management, come learn with us and explore how we do it at Snowpal. More details.
Length: 50 minutes
45. (ST 106) Day Trading Stocks - Part 1
Day Trading is not for everyone. Definitely not. But, some of them feel like we were born to do this. Or, need to do it to open up a second revenue stream. If you believe you fall in one of those categories, or simply want to learn what it takes to be a day trades, this course should help you get acclimated somewhat to the crazy world of day traders! More details.
Length: 65 minutes
46. (ST 107) Day Trading Stocks - Part 2
This is a follow up to Course: (ST 106) Day Trading Stocks - Part 1. We’ll pick up from where we left off and continue to get more familiar with the nuances, challenges and requirements of day trading. We’ll take some real trading platforms and tools to help guide our learning experience. More details.
Length: 58 minutes
Watch on Mobile App
You can purchase our courses on Snowpal Mobile Apps (available on App and Play Stores). So, the next time you are at the airport and you’ve a half hour after check-in, spend that time wisely!
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