Essential Go for Real-World Programming - SomNOG9 Tutorials
by
Room 17
SNU
Tutorial Details
| Name | Essential Go for Real-World Programming |
| Duration | 4 hours |
| Format | 100% hands-on - you write code the entire time |
| Repository | github.com/somnog/learn-go |
Overview
Go (Golang) was built at Google with a clear mission: simplicity, blazing-fast execution, and effortless scale for backends and APIs. Today, it powers critical infrastructure at companies like Google, Uber, Cloudflare, Docker, and Dropbox. In this 4-hour hands-on tutorial, you'll go from installing Go to building and running a complete JSON web server on your machine.
What to Expect
- 100% Hands-On: No slides, no dry lectures. You write code from minute one.
- Real-World Examples: Every core concept is introduced through concrete, production-style patterns.
- Interactive Exercises: Reinforce what you learn with coding challenges at every stage.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this session you will:
1. Have a complete Go development environment running on your machine
2. Read and write Go programs using its core syntax
3. Write reusable functions and handle errors the Go way
4. Model real data using structs
5. Work with lists and key-value stores (slices and maps)
6. Build and run an HTTP server that accepts and returns JSON
Prerequisites
| Required | Not required |
| A laptop - Windows, macOS, or Linux | Prior Go experience |
| Experience writing code in any language - Python, PHP, JavaScript, Java, C - anything counts | Prior web server experience |
| Any pre-installed software - we install everything together |
How This Workshop Works
This tutorial has 6 stages. Each stage follows the same pattern:
| Step | What happens |
| Read | Short explanation |
| Code Along | Type the code as the instructor walks through it live |
| Exercise | Solve a challenge on your own (5-10 minutes) |
| Run the test | Run go test - it must pass before you continue |
Materials & exercises will be available at github.com/somnog/learn-go