Introduction to Go Training

Day One

Welcome To Go Training: Meet Your Instructor And Get Started

In this introductory module, you’ll be introduced to your instructor and the course materials that will guide you through the Go training. You'll find contact details for your instructor, access to the course content, and instructions on setting up your development environment. We'll ensure you’re prepared for a smooth learning experience, with access to all course updates and materials for life. Additionally, you’ll learn how to access further resources and support. Before diving in, we encourage everyone to introduce themselves and share their goals for the course.

Go Language Essentials: Building Blocks Of Effective Code

In this chapter, we will explore the essential components of the Go programming language. You will learn how to use the keywords, operators, and delimiters that form the foundation of Go, along with the idiomatic ways to structure your code. We will also delve into data structures, including how Go handles default values (zero values) and the characteristics of structs. This chapter covers Go’s treatment of strings, UTF-8 encoding, and the different types of string literals. Finally, we will examine how to declare variables and constants, and introduce the use of the iota keyword for efficiently handling constant definitions. This chapter sets the stage for mastering Go by equipping you with the knowledge of its core language features.

Break

Tea/Coffee Break.

Mastering Arrays And Iteration In Go: Exploring Arrays, Loops, And Common Iteration Patterns

This chapter provides an in-depth exploration of arrays and iteration in Go. You will learn the fundamentals of arrays, including their fixed size and type, how to create and initialize them, and how Go handles array indexing. The chapter also covers common loop constructs, including for loops, range loops, and control mechanisms like continue and break. You'll also gain hands-on experience with two-dimensional arrays, iteration patterns, and using Go’s range keyword to simplify array iteration. By the end, you'll have a solid foundation for working with arrays and iteration in Go, setting the stage for more advanced data structures.

Mastering Slices For Dynamic Data Structures: A Deep Dive Into Slice Manipulation And Memory Efficiency

This chapter takes an in-depth look at slices in Go, a powerful tool for working with dynamic data structures. You’ll start by understanding the basics of slice creation, initialization, and iteration. Then, you’ll explore advanced techniques for growing, shrinking, and manipulating slices without unnecessary memory allocation. Key topics include the append function, slice internals, and memory management techniques like copying and deleting from slices. Additionally, you will learn about Go's new slices package, which provides enhanced tools for sorting, searching, and managing slices efficiently. By mastering slices, you’ll be able to work more effectively with Go’s dynamic data structures.

Day Two

Working With Maps For Key-Value Storage: Utilizing Maps For Dynamic Collections And Efficient Data Access

This chapter delves into Go’s powerful map data structure, a flexible key-value storage system essential for dynamic collections and efficient data retrieval. You’ll learn the fundamentals of map creation, initialization, and iteration, as well as techniques for updating, deleting, and checking the existence of values. With hands-on exercises, you’ll explore how to handle map errors, avoid common pitfalls, and manipulate complex data types stored in maps. By mastering Go maps, you will efficiently manage dynamic collections and improve your data access strategies.

Pointers And Memory Management In Go: How Pointers Work In Go And Their Role In Efficient Memory Usage

This chapter introduces pointers in Go, demystifying their role in memory management and efficient data handling. You’ll learn the difference between passing by value and passing by reference, how to declare and use pointers, and when to leverage pointers for better performance and flexibility. The chapter will also explore the security implications of pointers, the basics of pointer dereferencing, and how Go’s memory management techniques avoid common pitfalls seen in other languages. Through practical examples and exercises, you will gain a deeper understanding of when and how to use pointers effectively in Go.

Break

Tea/Coffee Break.

Defining And Using Functions In Go: Creating Reusable Functions, Including Variadic Functions And Closures

This chapter explores the fundamentals of functions in Go, guiding you through creating reusable functions with multiple arguments and return values. You will learn how to define variadic functions that can handle a dynamic number of arguments, utilize closures to capture external variables, and understand methods for attaching functions to types. Additionally, the chapter delves into advanced concepts like deferred function calls, error handling, function types, and the use of init functions to perform pre-execution setup. Through practical examples, you'll build the skills needed to create flexible, efficient Go functions.

Day Three

Interfaces And Polymorphism In Go: Understanding Go’s Approach To Interfaces And Dynamic Behavior In Type Systems

Interfaces in Go provide a way to specify the behavior of an object: If something can do this, then it can be used here. This chapter will take a look at how to use interfaces to abstract that behavior. Concepts such as the Empty Interface, satisfying multiple interfaces, and asserting for behavior will be covered. Additionally, this chapter will cover the difference between value and pointer receivers and how they affect the ability to satisfy an interface.

Break

Tea/Coffee Break.

Embedding And Composition For Code Reuse: Using Go’s Embedding Feature For Cleaner, More Modular Code

This chapter delves into Go's powerful embedding and composition mechanisms, which allow developers to build cleaner, modular, and reusable code without traditional inheritance. Instead of subclassing, Go enables embedding types within structs and interfaces, promoting fields and methods automatically. You will explore how embedding works, how method promotion simplifies code, and how to handle collisions and method overriding effectively. This chapter also covers how embedding can be used to satisfy interfaces, making your code more versatile and maintainable through practical examples.

Day Four

Error Handling And Best Practices (Dealing With Errors, Panics, Recover)

Go's approach to error handling is simple but powerful, emphasizing clear control flow over error-prone constructs like try/catch. In this chapter, you will learn how to effectively manage errors in Go using idiomatic patterns. The chapter covers basic error handling, creating and returning errors, and best practices such as wrapping errors for better context. You will also explore advanced topics like custom error types, sentinel errors, and the use of Go's panic and recover for managing unexpected failures. By the end, you'll have a deep understanding of how Go’s error model leads to more reliable and maintainable code, while learning when and how to use recovery mechanisms for graceful error handling.

Concurrency Fundamentals In Go: Understanding Go's Approach To Concurrency With Goroutines

This chapter introduces Go's unique approach to concurrency, focusing on goroutines as lightweight, independent functions that enable efficient concurrent programming. You will explore how Go's concurrency model encourages communication through channels rather than shared memory, making code faster, more robust, and easier to scale. The chapter also covers the differences between concurrency and parallelism, the role of Go's scheduler, and how channels simplify communication between goroutines. Additionally, you’ll get a glimpse into the potential pitfalls of data races and Go’s powerful race detector.

Break

Tea/Coffee Break.

Leveraging The Sync Package For Concurrency Control: Utilizing The Sync Package To Handle Complex Synchronization Problems

In this chapter, we will explore how Go’s sync package provides powerful tools to manage synchronization between goroutines, ensuring safe access to shared memory. You will learn how to utilize synchronization primitives like WaitGroups, Mutexes, and RWMutexes to coordinate concurrent operations effectively. Additionally, we will cover common concurrency issues such as race conditions, deadlocks, and bugs, and demonstrate how to debug them using Go's race detector and other tools. This chapter will equip you with the knowledge to handle complex concurrency problems, making your Go programs more robust and efficient.

Day Five

Concurrency With Channels: Safe Communication Between Goroutines

This chapter delves into Go's powerful concurrency mechanism using channels to enable safe communication between goroutines. You will learn how to implement basic and advanced channel usage, including buffered and unbuffered channels, how to signal completion, and gracefully shut down applications. The chapter will guide you through practical examples and best practices for avoiding common concurrency pitfalls, making it easier to build robust, concurrent applications that scale efficiently.

Break

Tea/Coffee Break.

Understanding The Context Package: Managing Request-scoped Data, Deadlines, And Cancellation With The Context Package

The context package in Go is essential for managing request-scoped data, timeouts, and cancellations across various parts of your application. This chapter provides an in-depth look into how Go's context package helps simplify managing concurrent operations. You'll learn how to propagate values like user data across goroutines, handle timeouts to ensure efficient resource management, and gracefully cancel operations when required. By the end, you’ll understand how to avoid common pitfalls and implement the context package to build robust, scalable Go applications.

Beyond The Classroom: Go Resources And Continued Learning

This chapter provides valuable resources to help you continue your journey with Go after the course. It includes links to official documentation, community support channels, recommended books, and video tutorials to deepen your understanding. Additionally, you’ll find ways to stay engaged with the Go developer community through Slack, mailing lists, and social media groups. We also introduce the Gopher Guides team, provide contact information for further training or consulting services, and share how to reach your instructors. Lastly, we encourage you to provide feedback to help us improve our offerings.

Optional (time permitting)

Testing Basics: Writing And Running Unit Tests

This chapter introduces the fundamentals of testing in Go, with a focus on writing and running unit tests using the built-in testing package. You'll learn how to structure tests, the importance of naming conventions, and how to utilize the *testing.T type to create effective test cases. Key concepts such as the difference between Error and Fatal, crafting meaningful failure messages, and organizing internal vs. external tests are explored. Additionally, we'll cover useful helper functions, alternative testing packages, and provide practical examples to help you develop reliable, maintainable tests for your Go applications.

Table-Driven Testing For Flexible And Scalable Tests

Table-driven testing is a powerful and efficient way to create clean, reusable, and scalable tests in Go. By defining test cases as data in tables, you can minimize duplication and easily extend test coverage by adding new cases. This chapter covers how to implement table-driven tests, demonstrating how to isolate test logic, reduce redundancy, and ensure your tests remain organized. You will also learn advanced techniques like running sub-tests, parallelizing table-driven tests, and handling setup and teardown logic for enhanced performance and clarity

Managing Modules And Packages In Go: Organizing And Scaling Large Applications

This chapter provides an in-depth guide on managing Go modules and packages to support the scalability of large applications. You'll explore best practices for organizing Go codebases using packages, learn about Go's module system for dependency management, and understand how to troubleshoot package dependencies effectively.

The chapter covers:

• Go Packages: An introduction to Go’s package structure, naming conventions, and best practices for organizing code in packages for maintainability and clarity. It explains the significance of capitalization for scope and visibility and touches on security considerations when exposing or hiding variables and types.
• Modules in Go: A comprehensive look at Go's module system, introduced to manage dependencies in a scalable, reliable way. Learn how to initialize modules, manage dependencies, and maintain clean module files using commands like go mod tidy. It also discusses advanced features like go.sum, module proxies, and module-specific caching for reliable builds.
• Versioning and SIV: Explore how Go uses Semantic Versioning (SIV) to handle different versions of modules, especially for major versions (v2+), and how to apply strategies for handling versioning issues to maintain backward compatibility and module integrity.
• Go Workspaces: An introduction to Go workspaces (introduced in Go 1.18) for managing multiple local modules efficiently without disrupting your workflow. This removes the need for temporary "replace" directives in go.mod.

By the end of this chapter, you’ll have a solid understanding of how to structure large Go projects, manage dependencies seamlessly, and use Go’s powerful module and package management tools to build scalable applications.

Building And Compiling Go Applications

In this chapter, we dive into the mechanics of building and compiling Go applications. Go’s ability to produce efficient, statically linked binaries across multiple platforms makes it an excellent choice for various deployment environments. You will learn how to use the go build and go install commands to compile your Go code into standalone executables. We will also explore how to embed build metadata like version numbers and commit SHA-1 hashes into binaries using linker flags. Additionally, the chapter covers build tags, a powerful feature that enables platform-specific compilation and fine-grained control over how your code is built. By the end of this chapter, you will be well-equipped to compile Go applications for both development and production, with support for cross-platform distribution.

Tooling

Go ships with a strong suite of built-in tools. This chapter will go over the most common tools and how to use them in your daily development workflow. In addition to the tools that ship with Go, there are a set of very important linters and vetters that can catch runtime bugs as well as significantly improve code quality and performance. This chapter shows what those tools are and how to use them.