Master the deep algorithms and architectures that power all modern software.
Logic, graph theory, combinatorics, and computability theory.
Dynamic programming, B-Trees, Graph algorithms, and complexity classes.
CPU design, pipelines, caching, and instruction sets (RISC-V/x86).
Lexing, parsing, ASTs, and language design.
Concurrency, scheduling, memory management, and file systems.
Consensus (Paxos/Raft), vector clocks, CAP theorem, and distributed databases.