Time-boxed path
Learn Software Engineer Free in 6 Months
Six months is a realistic window to build the foundation of a software engineer, not just a coder. This plan is 336 hours, about 1.9 hours a day. It starts with Harvard's CS50, the single best free course for computer science fundamentals, then moves through web foundations, Git, SQL, and a full Node.js backend. The order matters: CS50 teaches you how computers and problem-solving work before you specialize, which is what separates engineers from people who only follow tutorials.
The daily math
This plan is 336 hours of free courses spread across 180 days. That works out to about 1.9 hours a day, or roughly 13.1 hours a week if you prefer to batch it. Miss a day and you make it up on the weekend; the point is a pace you can actually keep.
The plan, course by course
Why this set, and what we left out
We led with CS50 rather than jumping straight to web development because fundamentals (memory, algorithms, how programs run) make everything after it easier. We chose a JavaScript and Node stack for the applied half so the whole path stays in one language family after CS50's broader survey. We left standalone algorithms courses like MIT 6.006 out; they are worth doing later, but six months is better spent building things than drilling theory.
The honest catch
Six months builds a strong foundation, not senior-level skill. You will understand fundamentals and build full applications, but system design, scaling, and specialization come from years of real work. This gets you to a credible junior level.