LEVEL 01 · Basic
Solana Foundations
Understand the network, protect your keys, and read on-chain evidence.
Read the Basic Solana glossary
Read and practice without a connection
This free pack contains the lesson explanations, diagrams, guided practice, self-checks, references, and the optional local lab files listed in each lesson. It contains no scored checkpoints, level-exam questions, answers, or completion records. Those are available online through a free learner account; reading never requires an account or a wallet.
Source pages need an internet connection to open. Some included Devnet exercises also need a connection when you choose to run them. Never enter a recovery phrase or private key into a lesson or lab.
Your 8-lesson learning path
- 01
1. Solana, SOL, and a shared ledger
Explain Solana’s validator, Proof of History, consensus, SOL, wallet, and shared-ledger roles, including how cluster-specific Alpenglow migration changes consensus.
- 02
2. Wallets, keys, and safe signing
Distinguish wallet connection, scoped message login, transaction signing, and submission, and review unsafe requests.
- 03
3. Networks and transaction explorers
Check a transaction on the correct cluster.
- 04
4. Accounts, mints, and token balances
Distinguish wallet, mint, and token-account roles, and explain Token-2022 extension design constraints.
- 05
5. Instructions, fees, and finality
Explain what signing, submitting, confirming, and finalizing mean.
- 06
6. Build and test a first local program
Build a small Solana program from the official starter and explain what a local LiteSVM test proves.
- 07
7. Foundations capstone: verify a Solana transfer
Trace a SOL or token transfer and report what the transaction and resulting account state establish.
- 08
8. Staking, validators, and the stake-account lifecycle
Explain how native SOL delegation supports stake-weighted consensus, distinguish a stake account's total balance from its effective delegated amount, identify stake-account authorities, and trace activation, deactivation, rewards, and withdrawal without making an investment claim.
AFTER THIS CORE PATH
Explore more Solana courses.
The Solana developer portal keeps a wider catalog of Foundation and community courses for focused topics beyond this Academy. Those courses are maintained separately, so check each publisher for its current materials and requirements.