AI Engineer Roadmap 2026

Source: Shruti Codes on X — March 21, 2026
Tags: #domain/ai #domain/learning #status/reference

"Never chase frameworks, they come and go. Master the fundamentals."

A curated roadmap from an AI engineer who made the switch 2 years ago.

1. Master Python

Strong coding foundations still matter — even in the age of vibe coding.

• Harvard CS50p (best place to start): https://pll.harvard.edu/course/cs50s-introduction-programming-python

2. Learn Vibe Coding

You're not competing against AI. You're competing against developers who use AI better than you.

Vibe coding isn't replacing your skills — it's multiplying them.

• Getting started with Claude Code
• Claude Code: Best practices for agentic coding
• Build with Andrew (deeplearning.ai)

3. Understanding LLMs

Three videos by 3Blue1Brown — arguably the best visual explainers of LLMs:

1. How LLMs work
2. Transformers Deep-dive
3. Attention in transformers
4. How LLMs store facts

🔗 https://youtube.com/watch?v=aircAruvnKk&list=PLZHQObOWTQDNU6R1_67000Dx_ZCJB-3pi

4. LLM Research / Build Your Own

Neural nets zero-to-hero by Andrej Karpathy — the greatest series by the greatest teacher in the world.

🔗 https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAqhIrjkxbuWI23v9cThsA9GvCAUhRvKZ

5. AI Agents

Read Anthropic's guide before jumping into the agent hype:

"To build an agent, you don't need complex frameworks or libraries, but rather composable patterns"

• Building effective agents

6. Applied AI

• Multi-AI Agent Systems with CrewAI (Coursera) — practical, teaches agents-as-humans-working-together
• Claude Agent SDK — full harness: agentic loops, tool use, coding workflows

7. Project-Based Learning

90+ open-source AI engineering projects covering LLMs, RAGs, and real-world agent applications:

🔗 https://github.com/patchy631/ai-engineering-hub

8. Books (Free)

• AI Engineering by Chip Huyen: https://github.com/chiphuyen/aie-book
  • Also: AI Engineering Book
• AI Agents Book
• MCP Book

All three: visual illustrations, 100K+ downloads, completely free.

Summary