# PHP backend roadmap 2026

Build a dependable CRUD API, understand security boundaries, and document a small backend portfolio project.

## Weeks 1–2 · PHP and HTTP
Learn variables, arrays, functions, strict comparisons, request methods and status codes. Keep secrets outside the public directory.

- [ ] Build: Create an endpoint that returns a fixed JSON list of library books.
- [ ] Review: Set the correct content type and explain the difference between 400, 401, 403 and 404.

## Weeks 3–4 · Data modeling
Model books and loans separately. Understand primary keys, foreign keys and uniqueness before writing queries.

- [ ] Build: Draw the schema and create realistic sample data, including an unavailable book.
- [ ] Review: Explain what happens when a referenced book is deleted.

## Weeks 5–6 · Safe CRUD
Use PDO prepared statements for values, validate on the server, and escape output for its destination.

- [ ] Build: Add create, update and delete operations with field-level validation.
- [ ] Review: Test missing fields, duplicate records, unexpected types and SQL-like text.

## Weeks 7–8 · Identity and permissions
Learn password_hash, password_verify, secure session handling and CSRF protection for cookie-authenticated changes.

- [ ] Build: Give members access to their own loans and librarians permission to manage books.
- [ ] Review: Changing a record ID must not reveal or update another member’s loan.

## Weeks 9–10 · Reliability
Use transactions for related writes, structured logs and tests around failure paths. Do not expose stack traces publicly.

- [ ] Build: Prevent two requests from checking out the same last copy.
- [ ] Review: Demonstrate rollback when a multi-step operation fails.

## Weeks 11–12 · Delivery
Document endpoints, configuration and migrations. Use a supported PHP runtime and test backups by restoring them.

- [ ] Build: Release the book-loan API with example requests and automated checks.
- [ ] Review: Run setup on a fresh database; confirm secrets and personal data are absent from the repository.

Portfolio outcome: Campus book-loan service with authorization, validation, pagination, concurrency handling and an API contract.

https://www.egotechworld.com/recourses/backend-php-roadmap-2026.php