Apply for PBA Campus Bali by July 02

PBA-X

Polkadot Blockchain Academy Resources

This page contains essential knowledge for all candidates preparing to join the on-site Polkadot Blockchain Academy Campus. The resources listed below are mandatory reading and practice material for anyone seeking to participate in the programme.

 

By engaging with these resources ahead of time, you’ll be better prepared to follow the Academy curriculum, participate in hands-on classes, and collaborate effectively with fellow students and instructors.

Theory

The content below spans from introductory concepts to the more advanced topics taught at the Academy. Whether you’re just beginning your journey or looking to deepen your understanding of Cryptography, Blockchain, Substrate, FRAME, or Polkadot’s architecture, you’ll find everything you need to build a solid foundation here.

These resources are accompanied by our open-sourced slides that are being presented in every campus.

Coding

PBA Campus has specific coding prerequisites. Throughout the classes, students will engage in extensive hands-on work, and depending on the track chosen, certain skills are essential to keep up with the rigorous pace.

 

These coding requirements vary by track, as outlined below.

For the dApps (aka Polkadot Hub) track, a basic familiarity with Rust and a strong grasp of TypeScript is mandatory.

Since the dApps track heavily involves interacting with the Polkadot ecosystem using TypeScript, we also advise you to explore the Polkadot API (PAPI) documentation and walkthroughs.

To help you prepare, we recommend starting with the Rustlings exercises to build foundational Rust skills in a hands-on way. For a deeper understanding of Rust in the context of blockchain, take a look at the Rust book and the Rust by example resources.

These resources will help you understand how Polkadot’s TypeScript tooling works, and how to interact with chains programmatically – essential knowledge for the track ahead.

To see how your Typescript and rust skills will be applied during the Campus, we strongly recommend completing the following two tutorials.

 

The Polkadot API: An Introduction to multi-chain will provide a basic understanding on how PAPI is communicating with Polkadot blockchain.

 

The Rust State Machine tutorial walks you through building a simple blockchain-like state machine using Rust.

 

Together, these exercises provide practical context that mirrors what you’ll be doing during the Academy, giving you a clear understanding of how both languages are used in Substrate-based development and dApp interactions.

As a participant in the protocol (aka Polkadot Cloud) track, you’ll be diving deep into Substrate and runtime development, so having an advanced understanding of Rust is essential. To sharpen your skills and align them with the demands of the Campus, we recommend working through the Rust book and the Rust by example resources.

You should also explore the Polkadot Develop docs where you’ll find practical examples and documentation that connect Rust concepts directly to runtime engineering.

These resources will give you a strong command of how Rust is used within the Polkadot SDK, and prepare you to contribute meaningfully to protocol-level challenges during the Academy.

To see how your Rust skills will be applied during the Campus, we strongly recommend completing the following two tutorials.

The Rust State Machine tutorial walks you through building a simple blockchain-like state machine using Rust.

 

Together, these exercises provide practical context that mirrors what you’ll be doing during the Academy, giving you a clear understanding of how both languages are used in Substrate-based development and dApp interactions.

 

Note: If you would like to deep dive even more into Rust and Polkadot-SDK you can try your skills with the optional tutorial of Substrate Kitties: Build Your Own NFT Marketplace. This is a more advanced walkthrough in the depths of Rust with Substrate that will show you how it is, to build with Polkadot SDK.