Learning in Public

Sharing your progress publicly is a deliberate part of every DataTalks.Club zoomcamp. Posts you share earn leaderboard points and help build your portfolio.

For platform mechanics (link submission UI, link limits per submission type, misuse policy), see Course Management Platform: Learning in Public.

For where learning-in-public points fit on the leaderboard, see Leaderboard.

Why share publicly

As Alexey Grigorev explains in his Substack post, sharing publicly brings:

  • Reinforcement: explaining to others helps you internalize the material.
  • Accountability: public commitment keeps you consistent.
  • Feedback: others can correct your misunderstandings.
  • Networking: connect with like-minded people.
  • Portfolio: build a visible track record.
  • Opportunities: jobs and collaborations can find you.

Past graduates have used learning in public to land roles at major companies and to negotiate raises. One Data Engineering Zoomcamp participant, Michael, shared his homework on LinkedIn for learning-in-public credit and the result was an 11% raise.

How it works

After completing a unit, module, homework, or project:

  1. Write a short post about what you learned.
  2. Include the course hashtag (#dezoomcamp, #mlzoomcamp, #mlopszoomcamp, #llmzoomcamp, etc.).
  3. Tag DataTalks.Club and the lead instructor.
  4. Submit the post link through the course platform when submitting your homework, project, or peer review.

Each accepted link earns 1 leaderboard point.

What to share

  • Your project work: architecture, dashboard, deployed model, screenshots.
  • Insights from each module: what you learned, how it changed your thinking.
  • Challenges you faced and how you solved them. Failure stories often resonate more than success stories.
  • Time spent vs results achieved.

Writing a good post

Templates are a starting point. The most engaging posts are personal.

Tell a story:

  • Why you are taking this course.
  • A specific challenge you overcame.
  • How this skill connects to your career.

Add your perspective:

  • What surprised you, what you found difficult.
  • A concept explained in your own words.
  • Your debugging process.

Show, don’t tell:

  • Screenshots of your work (pipelines, dashboards, code, deployed services).
  • A short screen recording of your project running.

Tools for capturing screens:

  • Windows: Snipping Tool.
  • Mac: Cmd + Shift + 5 for screen recording.
  • Linux: SimpleScreenRecorder.

A 30-second video is often more engaging than a long text post.

Templates

Each course’s homework folder includes example posts you can use as starting templates. See your course’s resources page or homework README for direct links to current cohort templates.

Real examples

Actual learning-in-public posts from Alexey’s Agents Crash Course (different course, same approach):