CodeByBlazej reports finishing The Odin Project’s Foundations course in 111 consecutive days, from January 22 to May 11, 2024. The self-reported total was 440 hours 20 minutes—about 3 hours 58 minutes per calendar day—with a JavaScript calculator as the final project.
That is an impressive consistency case study, not evidence that everyone can finish The Odin Project in 111 days or become job-ready in that time. Foundations is the starting stage; the full curriculum continues into a JavaScript or Ruby on Rails full-stack path.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
What happened in the 111 days?
The dates, hours and project list come from the author’s personal account, rather than an independently audited time log. He began on January 22, 2024 and finished Foundations on May 11, 2024.
| Measure | Reported result |
|---|---|
| Calendar span | 111 consecutive days |
| Total study time | 440 hours 20 minutes (approximately 440.33 hours) |
| Average across calendar days | Approximately 3 hours 58 minutes per day |
| Milestone | Foundations completed |
| Final project | JavaScript calculator |
The author says he used 25-minute Pomodoros with five-minute breaks, kept at least one hour of learning on every day, took notes in Obsidian and completed the projects independently without ChatGPT or similar coding tools. Those are reported methods, not requirements imposed by The Odin Project. The original account is available at CodeByBlazej’s article.
#1 Best Overall
- COMPARTMENT CAPACITY & POCKETS:Separate laptop compartment fits 17/15/14/13 Inch Macbook/Laptop.Separate compartment Fits Maximum 9.7” iPad.Main compartment roomy for tech electronics accessories,3-5 days clothing,5 A4 Books.Front compartment with 2 Pockets for power Bank and Shaver,2 Pen pockets and key fob hook.Pocket for socks and gloves.Front hidden zipper pocket fits papers.2 mesh pockets for water bottle and compact umbrella.Strap pocket fits bus card and Metro Card,One glasses hold strip.
- COMFY&STURDY: Comfortable airflow back design with thick but soft multi-panel ventilated paddingand Lightweight material, gives you maximum back support. Breathable and adjustable shoulder straps relieve the stress of shoulder. Foam padded top handle for a long time carry on.
- FUNCTIONAL&SAFE: A luggage strap allows backpack fit on luggage/suitcase, slide over the luggage upright handle tube for easier carrying. With a hidden anti theft pocket on the back protect your valuable items from thieves. Well made for international airplane travel and day trip as a travel gift for men .
- BUILD-IN USB PORT : The backpack comes with built in USB charger outside , built in charging cable inside, offers you a convenient way to charge your phone when you are walking, riding.
- DURABLE MATERIAL&SOLID: Made of Water Resistant and Durable Polyester Fabric with metal zippers. Ensure a secure & long-lasting usage everyday & weekend.Serve you well as professional office work bag,slim USB charging bagpack,college backpacks for men women.THIS ITEM IS NOT INTENDED FOR USE BY CHILDREN 12 AND UNDER.
What did the schedule really look like?
Weekdays around a full-time job
The author describes working roughly 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., arriving home around 4:30 p.m., doing some blogging and then studying Odin work from about 5 or 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. Exercise and walking followed, with occasional extra 15-to-30-minute sessions.
Longer weekend blocks
Weekends supplied most of the volume. He often started around 7 a.m., completed four Pomodoros before 10 a.m., paused for breakfast and household tasks, then returned to study through the afternoon and sometimes the evening. He reports about 20 Pomodoros over a weekend—roughly 10 focused hours before break time is counted.
This explains why “at least one hour every day” is an incomplete description. The minimum protected the streak; long weekend sessions brought the average close to four hours per day. The author also notes that living alone and having no children reduced scheduling constraints. A parent, caregiver, shift worker or person with a long commute should not treat this timetable as a normal baseline.
Recommended Free Tools
The five Foundations projects
The author completed the same broad sequence shown on the current Foundations course page.
Rank #2
- LOTS OF STORAGE SPACE&POCKETS: One separate laptop compartment hold 15.6 Inch Laptop as well as 15 Inch,14 Inch and 13 Inch Laptop. One spacious packing compartment roomy for daily necessities,tech electronics accessories. Front compartment with many pockets, pen pockets and key fob hook, makes your item organized and easier to find
- COMPANY WITH YOU ANYWHERE: This backpack is Personal Item Backpack Size for frontier: 18 * 12 * 7.8 inch, meets most airlines. Made for flight travel and daily commutes, with organized pockets for clothes, a bottle, an umbrella, and tech accessories. Under seat backpack size easy to carry on and keeps your hands free—helping you feel prepared, calm, and accompanied from departure to arrival and enjoy your trip
- FUNCTIONAL & SAFE: A luggage strap allows backpack fit on luggage/suitcase, slide over the luggage upright handle tube for easier carrying. With a hidden anti theft pocket on the back protect your valuable items from thieves. Well made for international airplane travel and day trip as a travel gift for men
- COMFORTABLE USING: Designed for all-day comfort using, this laptop backpack for men features a soft padded back panel with thick yet breathable multi-layer ventilated cushioning that provides excellent support and helps reduce pressure on your back. The adjustable shoulder straps are breathable and ergonomically padded to ease shoulder strain, while the foam-padded top handle ensures a comfortable grip for extended carrying
- STURDY MATERIALS & SOLID: Made of Water Resistant and Sturdy Polyester Fabric with metal zippers. Ensure a secure & long-lasting usage everyday & weekend.Serve you well as professional office work bag,slim bagpack, back to college backpacks. 15.6 inch travel laptop backpack for daily using and organize
Recipes
A first exercise in HTML structure, headings, paragraphs, links, images and organizing multiple pages. “Finished” should mean creating the pages and navigating them without copying a finished repository.
Landing Page
This introduces CSS layout and Flexbox. The difficult part is translating a visual reference into containers, spacing, alignment and responsive behavior.
Rock Paper Scissors
JavaScript fundamentals become interactive: variables, conditionals, functions, loops and user input. Beginners often discover that understanding a lesson is different from designing the program from a blank file.
Etch-a-Sketch
DOM manipulation and event handling drive a grid-based drawing interface. The project exposes problems with selecting elements, creating nodes, listening for events and changing styles at runtime.
Rank #3
- Durable design: Laptop backpack features a durable, water-repellent snow yarn polyester fabric and streamlined design with a padded interior to protect your laptop, notebook and other important stuff
- Comfortable fit: This compact backpack has a quilted back panel and fully adjustable shoulder straps making it comfortable for all day use, plus a quick access front zippered pocket for extra storage
- Laptop backpack: Perfect for daily commuters, college students and all types of travelers; accommodates laptops up to 15.6 inches
- Convenient storage: In addition to the laptop compartment, there are separate pockets for mobile devices, business cards, and other daily tools in quick-access compartments. The main compartment offers extra space for magazines, notepad and other laptop accessories
Calculator
The capstone combines HTML, CSS and JavaScript, including interface state, button events, arithmetic logic and edge cases. Completing it shows that the learner can connect the earlier topics; it does not establish mastery of production application development.
What Foundations covers—and where it stops
The current curriculum is free, open source, community maintained and project based. It combines original lessons with curated material from around the web, and uses local development tools rather than hiding all setup in a browser sandbox. The official FAQ describes Foundations as the entry point before choosing Full Stack JavaScript or Full Stack Ruby on Rails.
- Command-line basics and a local development environment
- Git and GitHub workflows
- HTML and CSS, including Flexbox
- JavaScript fundamentals, problem solving and DOM manipulation
- Projects that can become the starting point for a portfolio
- Debugging, documentation reading, deployment concepts and independent research
Foundations does not mean the learner has completed React, Node.js and Express, PostgreSQL, Ruby, Rails, authentication, substantial testing or full-stack production deployment. The next paths add modules, npm, Webpack, JSON, object-oriented programming, APIs, testing and larger projects. Their exact contents can change; use the current paths page as the reference.
Free tools Windows power users keep installed
One-click scans. No signup required.
Is 111 days realistic?
It is possible for someone who can sustain nearly four hours of average daily study and protect long weekend blocks. The account does not show that 111 days is typical, an official estimate or a reasonable deadline for most beginners.
Rank #4
- Fits Most Standard 17" Laptops: This 17 inch laptop backpack has a separate laptop compartment for 15.6, 16, and most standard 17 inch laptops and tablets. Please note: it may not fit oversized or extra-thick gaming laptops. The main compartment is roomy for work files, school books and travel clothes. Designed for men, it works well as an office backpack, school bookbag, and laptop backpack for daily use
- TSA Approved Backpack: The TSA-friendly laptop compartment opens from 90 to 180 degrees, helping speed up airport security checks and making this backpack school for men convenient for airplane travel. Sized at 18.5" x 13" x 7.9" with a 30L capacity, it fits in overhead bins for carry-on use. The travel-ready design helps keep your laptop and essentials organized for smoother travel, work, and college use
- Multiple Pockets for Organized Storage: The front of the laptop backpack 17 inch features a large zippered pocket for daily essentials and a quick-access pocket for smaller items like cards. Side mesh pockets hold a water bottle or umbrella. A back anti-theft pocket helps store wallets and passports. This 17.3 inch computer backpack keeps your belongings organized and easy to access
- Travel Friendly and Comfortable Design: This 17 laptop backpack features a trolley sleeve on the back, allowing it to fit over a luggage handle and free your hands during travel. A breathable back panel helps keep you comfortable while walking and commuting. Adjustable padded shoulder straps and a comfortable handle provide added comfort for daily carry. Recommended age range: 5 years old and up
- Water Resistant and Multipurpose: This 30L work backpack for men is made of water-resistant 600D polyester fabric with organized storage for work, college, and travel. It is suitable for office work, school use and short business trips as a tsa large laptop backpack. It is also practical gifts choice for adults men, college graduations, and thoughtful gifts for Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, and other speical days, like birthdays and holidays
- Transferable: a daily minimum, time tracking, focused sessions, project completion and deliberate review.
- Not transferable as a promise: the exact date, total hours or amount of weekend availability.
- Not demonstrated: job placement, professional mastery or completion of the full curriculum.
A learner with 30–60 minutes a day can still make progress, but should measure completed concepts and projects rather than comparing calendar days. Prior HTML or JavaScript experience may shorten some lessons; a complete beginner may need more time for setup, terminology and debugging.
Why the method worked
- Fixed minimum: one hour kept the habit alive on difficult days.
- Focused blocks: Pomodoros reduced the temptation to multitask.
- Visible tracking: recorded hours made the workload concrete.
- Searchable notes: Obsidian provided a place to capture commands, concepts and solutions.
- Independent struggle: projects were attempted before seeking a finished answer.
- Recovery time: walking and exercise remained part of the routine instead of being treated as wasted time.
The practical lesson is systems over motivation. Comprehension will fluctuate; the useful question is whether the learner returns, investigates the error and tries again.
The hard parts beginners should expect
- Installing tools and understanding the terminal
- Learning Git and GitHub without a graphical safety net
- Moving from guided examples to an underspecified blank page
- Forgetting syntax between lessons
- Reading documentation written for people with more background
- Debugging without immediately copying a solution
- Maintaining momentum while working or caring for others
The official installation guides and community support are part of that process. When asking for help, include the relevant lesson, code, exact error or command and what you already tried; the project’s question guide treats this as a core professional skill.
The Tool Desk
Outbyte Driver Updater FREEScan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Outbyte PC Repair FREEClear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →How to use AI without outsourcing the learning
The author reports using no ChatGPT or comparable coding tools for these projects. That is one learning experiment, not a universal rule. A safer modern workflow is:
Best Value
- Tech Backpack: Pack all your essentials in the 1900 ScanSmart 17-inch laptop backpack specifically designed to speed you through airport security by allowing laptop-in-case scanning
- Secure Storage: This laptop backpack for men and women features an enhanced laptop compartment with zippered access for a 17-inch laptop and a padded TabletSafe tablet pocket
- Effortless Organization: Computer bag includes a main compartment with an accordion file holder and a RFID-protected organizer compartment with a removable key/fob clip and multiple divider pockets
- Multiple Pockets: Add-a-bag trolley strap slides over telescopic handles, 1 front and 2 side quick-access pocket secure essentials, and 2 mesh side pockets accommodate water bottles and umbrellas
- Comfortable To Carry: Lay-flat laptop bag includes ergonomically contoured, padded shoulder straps, adjustable compression straps, airflow back padding, and a reinforced, molded top handle
- Attempt the problem and read the error message first.
- Check official documentation and The Odin Project community.
- Ask an AI tool for a concept explanation, debugging questions, test cases or code review—not a complete submission.
- Rebuild the idea yourself and verify every line.
- Do not keep code you cannot explain, modify or recreate later.
Who should try The Odin Project?
It is a strong fit if you want a free, flexible curriculum; prefer building to watching; can work independently; are willing to use a terminal; and want practice with Git, debugging and research. It is less suitable as a sole solution if you need a certificate, guaranteed mentorship, formal grading or job placement. The curriculum is in English, and the FAQ says a non-Windows-based operating system is preferable, although Windows users are not automatically excluded. You still need a computer and internet access even though tuition is free. See the current FAQ before starting because setup instructions and external resources change.
A more realistic pacing plan
| Plan | Weekly time | How to use it |
|---|---|---|
| Light | 5–7 hours | Short weekday sessions; one modest weekend block |
| Steady | 10–15 hours | Regular practice plus time to revisit difficult concepts |
| Intensive | 20–30 hours | Several focused blocks most days, with planned rest |
None of these schedules guarantees a completion date. Keep required lessons and projects in sequence, and treat optional resources as supplements rather than reasons to skip foundations. The project’s explanation of course sequencing is at How This Course Will Work.
What comes after the calculator?
Continue into one of the full-stack paths if your goal is broader web development. The JavaScript route eventually adds tooling, APIs, testing, databases and Node.js; the official Node lesson recommends completing the JavaScript course first (Node.js: Getting Started). Refine the five Foundations projects, publish readable repositories and document what you learned, but do not present Foundations alone as employment readiness.
Verdict
The 111-day account is valuable because it makes consistency and workload visible: 440 hours 20 minutes, five projects and a calculator completed while working full time. Its real message is not that The Odin Project takes 111 days. It is that a self-directed learner who protects focused time, solves problems independently and keeps returning can produce tangible results. Use the routine as a model, adapt the pace to your life and judge progress by understanding and finished work—not by matching someone else’s calendar.
Quick Recap
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
