PHP Absolute Beginner → Job Ready ~24 weeks

PHP: From Absolute Beginner to Job Ready

PHP remains one of the shortest routes from no experience to a paying web job, for an unglamorous reason: the volume of existing PHP in the world means there is constant demand for people to maintain and extend it. This path aims at where those jobs actually are - a Laravel application with a database, deployed somewhere real - rather than at the language in the abstract.

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Free to start · no credit card · the outline below is an example, yours is generated around your goals

What this path covers

  • Modern PHP fundamentals
  • Laravel
  • SQL and Eloquent
  • Security basics
  • Portfolio application
  • Interview preparation

Sample curriculum

An example outline for going from absolute beginner to job ready in PHP. Your generated course adapts this to your experience, target level and available study time.

  1. Month 1 - Language Fundamentals

    Variables, types, control flow, functions and arrays in modern PHP with strict types on from the start. Running PHP locally and reading its error output.

  2. Month 2 - Objects and the Web

    Classes, interfaces, namespaces and Composer, plus how a request actually reaches your code: forms, superglobals, sessions and why user input is never trusted.

  3. Month 3 - Databases and Tools

    SQL fundamentals, PDO with prepared statements, Git and GitHub from zero, and a first PHPUnit test suite.

  4. Month 4 - Laravel

    Routing, controllers, Blade, Eloquent, migrations, validation and authentication - introduced now, after the plain PHP that makes the framework legible.

  5. Month 5 - The Portfolio Application

    One complete application: authentication, a real database, file uploads handled safely, tests, meaningful commits, and a public deployment with a database behind it.

  6. Month 6 - Job Readiness

    PHP and Laravel interview questions, explaining your schema and architecture aloud, reading unfamiliar and older PHP, and a CV aimed at web agency and product roles.

PHP absolute beginner-to-job ready questions

Will I be maintaining legacy code in a PHP job?

Very likely, at least partly, and it is worth going in expecting it. That is why this path spends time on reading older PHP rather than only writing new code - being comfortable in an unfamiliar older codebase is a large part of the actual work.

Is WordPress worth learning alongside?

It widens the job pool considerably, since WordPress work is a large share of PHP employment. It is a different skill set with its own conventions, so treat it as an addition once the fundamentals and Laravel are solid rather than a substitute.

Is six months realistic for a first PHP job?

It is one of the more achievable six-month targets, given the size of the market and the fact that a deployed Laravel application is a legible portfolio piece. Ten focused hours a week and a real deployment is the shape that works.

Where to go next

Next step in PHP PHP: From Beginner to Intermediate Another PHP path PHP: From Intermediate to Advanced Another PHP path PHP: From Beginner to Advanced Same level in Ruby Ruby: From Absolute Beginner to Job Ready Same level in SQL SQL: From Absolute Beginner to Job Ready

Ready to start PHP?

PHP is the language a large share of the web still runs on, and it has changed a lot. Tell LearnForge where you are now and where you want to get to, and it builds the course around that.

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