Coding Bootcamp Europe: Global Hackathon Winner, Superteam, and Turbin3 Teach You How to Code in 3 Days

“If I did it, you can do it too! There’s no better day than today to start the grind.” These motivational words come from Leo, the winner of the latest global Solana hackathon.

Now, he is teaming up with Superteam Germany and Turbin3 to guide you through an intensive three-day coding bootcamp designed to jumpstart your software development journey on Solana.

Full Stack Web Development Was Yesterday; Here You Can Shape the Future

Just two months ago, I spoke with a freelance web developer who shared how easy it once was to land high-paying jobs in web development. Times have changed in the tech world, she said, prompting her to learn new tech skills to stay competitive.

We met during the Solana hackathon at Buildstation, where she was exploring Web3—the next generation of the internet based on blockchain technology. To future-proof her career, she decided to explore blockchain development.

Her goal was to improve her coding skills and make herself more hirable for the future.To be honest, I am probably way too deep in this exciting bubble to accurately tell you what the job market in Web2 (the traditional internet) looks like right now.

But considering that Solana is hitting an all-time high right now, the fact that Web2 companies are slowly approaching blockchain projects for partnerships again, that institutional investors are starting to come in, and that countries are beginning to open their eyes to the possibilities of these technologies, it might be worth exploring.

From my experience, learning new skills is always a win, and every Solana developer I met agreed with me that the way of working, the community, and what they learned is way above everything they could imagine when they started—including me.

Now you might wonder where to get started. For many Web3 software developers, it was hours of studying, learning, and eventually participating in one of the hackathons.

I don’t want to lie; for beginners or even experienced blockchain developers, switching from one blockchain to another can be challenging. Luckily, Solana has hit the point where the first success stories are being written, and the OGs (original gangsters, or early adopters) are happy to give back and teach you how to get started.

Software Development Success Stories: Meet Your Champion Instructors

Behind this upcoming developer course are several inspiring figures: Leo, the winner of the last global Solana hackathon and DevRel at Metaplex; Björn, Developer Relations (DevRel) at Superteam Germany; Nick, Head of Engineering at Dialect; and André, a dedicated teacher and developer at Solana Turbin3.

All four of them will meet in December in Berlin to show you how to build your own applications on the Solana blockchain. They will be joined by multiple high-skilled mentors from the Superteam Germany community to support the attendees throughout the bootcamp.

Nick: The Engineer Who Brings Blockchain to Life Through Blinks

The first time I met Nick was when Superteam Germany was struggling to get enough mentors for the Buildstation Berlin, because all the Superteam OGs were hustling at Breakpoint in Singapore. Björn had not much hope to get someone as busy as Nick to hop on the next plane to Berlin to mentor our hackathon participants.

Back then, Nick not just said yes and saved the hackers, he also postponed his own vacation to save the day. He came to Berlin, held workshops, gave office hours and he and Björn made what might be the most legendary crypto picture ever (iykyk).

No wonder that Superteam Germany didn't hesitate to make him an official member. He quickly became an invaluable part of the community.

When Björn reached out about teaching at the Developer Bootcamp in Berlin, Nick was (again) happy to help. He will be teaching participants how to leverage Blinks – shareable links with beautiful, automatic UI rendering.

What makes Blinks special isn't just their ability to rapidly create great UIs, but how they make Solana development with TypeScript incredibly approachable. That's exactly why they chose this technology and Nick to kick off Day One of the bootcamp.

If you want to see blockchain magic in action while learning from someone who can make complex concepts feel simple, you won't want to miss his session.

André: The Passionate Educator Fueling Solana Development

I was in one of André's courses, and I honestly think he's one of the best teachers I've had. With his proficiency in Rust and C++, André inspires and educates, fueling the passion of many in the Solana ecosystem.

He cares about his students and does whatever he can to help them grow and learn—even if it means sitting quietly in a breakout room with a grin to encourage us to work together on finding a solution.

With his sense of humor that really made the lessons enjoyable and his countless contributions to Solana open-source projects, he is not just indispensable to Turbin3's Solana coding boot camps but also to the whole ecosystem.

He's the kind of teacher Björn might have appreciated back when he started his coding journey.

Björn: From Early Mornings to DevRel at Superteam Germany

Björn was working full-time in his former job when he decided to learn how to code, just to follow his dream to start his own tech startup. He bought a simple Udemy course and started grinding.

When he realized that after a full day of work plus extra hours it was too hard to focus, he shifted his schedule and spent his most productive morning hours learning how to code. In the following months, he woke up at 3 a.m. every day to learn everything he needed to launch his own application.

In the following years, as he evolved in his startup journey, where he took care of the full stack development for his company, built multiple web and mobile applications, until he finally participated in one of the Solana hackathons, where he got absorbed into the Solana community and found his passion as DevRel at Superteam Germany.

No wonder that he was touched when he talked about Leo’s story live on camera in the Jup&Juice Podcast.

Leo: From Turbin3 Student to Metaplex DevRel

Leo started his journey just 1½ years ago in one of Turbin3’s intensive programs. He fell in love with Solana development, and after graduating from the first course, he immediately signed up for the next one.

I don't think he has ever stopped exploring Solana and improving his tech skills. Whatever question I asked him about Solana, he could answer. The first time he actually didn't know the answer was when I asked him where he finds the time to do all these impressive things.

To be honest, it was probably a stupid question—like asking a professional soccer player where he finds the time to practice soccer. It's his passion—the moment when you forget to... Well, he's Italian, so he probably doesn't forget to eat, but I am pretty sure time doesn't matter when he is exploring the possibilities of Solana.

And so his journey went on from a student at Turbin3 to a mentor, to a DevRel at Metaplex where he now shapes the developer experience in the NFT space.

He proved that if you really love what you do, you can achieve anything. Even winning a hackathon in your spare time. And now he wants to teach you how to achieve this for yourself and asked Björn if Superteam would support him with a full developer workshop in Berlin.

Of course, he found a receptive audience in Björn with that. Just a few days later, they created the outline for the developer bootcamp, set the dates, rented the location, and got the support of Superteam Germany, Metaplex, and Turbin3.

Beyond Basic Coding Bootcamps: Why This Course Is Different

This isn’t your typical coding course. It’s a coding bootcamp that exists to give back to the Solana community, bringing together some of its best developers to guide you as you take your first steps into blockchain development.

Unlike the typical online software engineering bootcamp, this one is intensive, hands-on training, which takes place in Berlin and will have an online stream for those who can't participate in person.

They host it because they want to give back and support the Solana ecosystem.

Supported by Leaders of the Solana Tech Industry

We all know how it is to get started, and we all got support from the community, Superteam, and Turbin3. This course is hosted by some of the best developers in the Solana ecosystem, and they all want to help you get started, and to say it in Leo’s words: “If I did it, you can do it too!”

That’s why Superteam Germany agreed to organize this event. If you don’t know Superteam Germany, it’s the Solana community in Germany. They dedicate their resources and efforts to support Solana builders, startups, and enthusiasts.

They do everything from hosting events and providing resources to connecting projects, investors, institutions, and developers—all with the goal of supporting the Solana ecosystem.

One of those initiatives is, for example, Buildstation Berlin, where they support blockchain startups that participate in the global Solana hackathon. In the last hackathon in September, Superteam Germany projects achieved top placements globally.

Then there is Metaplex, the trusted standard for NFTs and tokens on Solana, which not only managed to convince Leo to work for them and lend him out to do this bootcamp here in Berlin but also agreed to be a sponsor for the upcoming three-day developer bootcamp.

We're also thrilled to have Dialect, the team behind Blinks, sending their Head of Engineering Nick to kick off the bootcamp. Their innovative blockchain links technology has become an important tool for making Solana development more straightforward and accessible.

And not to forget the special guests from Turbin3, which is the Solana coding school. They constantly produce some of the best developers in the ecosystem. But here is the deal: you cannot just buy yourself into one of those coding courses.

Turbin3 hosts free courses, and you have to apply to participate in their live online classes. They will send some of their mentors to the bootcamp for your personal support. Since the courses are normally online with participants all over the world, learning from them in person in Berlin is really special.

More Than Just Data Science and Smart Contracts: What You'll Learn

Before diving into the course lineup, a quick note for Solana beginners: what other blockchains call “smart contracts” are referred to as “programs” on Solana. Since this course is aimed at Solana newbies, I used the term smart contract once here but will now continue talking about programs.

The upcoming developer course is a three-day tech bootcamp where you will learn how to build applications on Solana.

Day One: Foundations & Setup

You will learn the basics of Solana, how programs work, what an account is, and do your first interactions with the Solana blockchain using TypeScript.

Yes, you heard right; there are a lot of things you can do by just using TypeScript. Solana has great libraries, such as web3.js or spl-token, that you can use as a simple npm package to sign transactions, mint tokens, and much more.

In fact, most simple applications can be written without even touching Rust by using programs that are already deployed and ready to use. You will also set up your development environment so you are ready to grind on day two.

Day Two: Solana Program Development

On day two, you will get your hands dirty with Anchor. Anchor is a framework on top of Rust that helps you write and deploy Solana programs fast. Here, you will learn how to write a Solana program using Anchor and deploy it to the Solana devnet.

Day Three: Deep Dive into NFTs

This day is dedicated to NFTs and what you can do with them. There is a wide range of NFTs that you can use on Solana, such as compressed NFTs (cNFTs) that cost you almost nothing to mint, over MPL-404 that bring the liquidity of fungible tokens to non-fungible assets (better known as hybrid DeFi), all the way down to highly configurable NFTs that have their own backend using Metaplex Core.

After every lesson, you will get the chance to implement it yourself and have experienced mentors to help you if you have questions.

Please note that this course does not teach programming basics. You should have some experience in software development.

While you should have some experience in software development, like JavaScript or TypeScript, you don’t need any experience with blockchain development or Rust. This course will cover essential software engineering skills needed for blockchain development, ensuring you gain industry-relevant knowledge.

So if you are a developer curious about blockchain development, grab your laptop and sign up for this course. If you want to familiarize yourself with the Rust syntax before this course, you can check out the Rust Book.

How to Sign Up

To register for the bootcamp, please visit Meetup. Spaces are limited, so be sure to sign up soon!

Final Thoughts

Many of us wish there had been such a bootcamp when we started with blockchain development. Luckily for you, those who put in the hard work back then are now happy to teach you what they know.

So don't miss the chance to accelerate your journey and join this thriving, supportive community. Whether you’re transitioning from Web2 to Web3, sharpening your skills, or revisiting the basics of Solana, this program is tailored to help you succeed in the ever-evolving tech landscape.

Remember Leo's words: “If I did it, you can do it too!” So why wait? Take the first step toward shaping the future of technology on Solana.

This is just one of many workshops and events coming up in the next few months. Follow us on X to see what's happening in the Solana community, and sign up for the newsletter so you don't miss future bootcamps and gatherings!

Feel free to reach out if you have any questions or need more information. We hope to see you in Berlin!