Solana development by 2026

Set up a complete Rust development environment using rustup, cargo, and the Rust analyzer.

Install and configure the Solana CLI tool suite.

Install the Anchor framework and initialize a new Anchor project.

Declare and use variables with immutable and mutable bindings.

Distinguish between scalar types (integers, floats, booleans, characters) and compound types (tuples, arrays).

Define and call functions with parameters and return values.

Implement control flow using if/else expressions and loops (loop, while, for).

Explain the ownership model, including move semantics and the Copy trait.

Use references and borrowing to access data without taking ownership.

Define and instantiate structs to create custom data types.

Implement methods on structs using `impl` blocks.

Define enums to represent a value that can be one of multiple possible variants.

Use the `Option` enum to handle the potential absence of a value.

Apply pattern matching using `match` and `if let` to control program flow based on data structure.

Use the `Result` enum for recoverable error handling and propagate errors with the `?` operator.

Create and manage dynamic collections with `Vec`, `String`, and `HashMap`.

Use slices to reference a contiguous sequence of elements in a collection.

Define and implement traits to specify shared behavior for different types.

Use trait bounds to write generic functions that accept parameters of different types.

Describe the Solana account model and distinguish between executable (program) and non-executable (data) accounts.

Explain the concept of rent and its role in the Solana economic model.

Describe the structure of a Solana transaction, including instructions, accounts, and signatures.

Identify the components of a Solana instruction: `program_id`, `accounts`, and instruction `data`.

Write a basic Solana program entrypoint that processes an instruction.

Deserialize instruction data within a program using the `borsh` library.

Read and interpret `AccountInfo` data passed to a program.

Manually validate account ownership and signer privileges in program logic.

Serialize and write data to an account's data buffer.

Build and deploy a native Solana program to a local ledger or devnet.

Interact with a deployed program using the Solana CLI.

Define program instruction handlers and their context using Anchor macros.

Define custom account structures using the `#[account]` attribute for automatic serialization/deserialization.

Specify and validate instruction accounts using an `Accounts` struct.

Implement security checks by applying constraints like `signer`, `mut`, and `has_one` to accounts.

Initialize new accounts using Anchor's `init` constraint and `payer`.

Write and run integration tests for an Anchor program using its TypeScript client.

Explain the concept of a Cross-Program Invocation (CPI) for program-to-program communication.

Perform a CPI to the System Program to create a new account.

Perform a CPI to the System Program to transfer SOL between accounts.

Explain the purpose of Program Derived Addresses (PDAs) for creating program-controlled accounts.

Derive PDAs using seeds and a program ID, and explain the role of the bump seed.

Initialize a new account at a PDA address using Anchor constraints.

Sign a CPI using a PDA by calling `invoke_signed`.

Describe the architecture of the SPL Token program, including mints and token accounts.

Perform a CPI to the SPL Token program to create a new token mint.

Perform a CPI to the Associated Token Account program to create a token account for a user.

Implement program logic to mint new tokens to a token account.

Implement program logic to transfer tokens between two token accounts.

Describe the role of the Metaplex Token Metadata program for NFTs.

Perform a CPI to the Metaplex program to attach metadata to a token mint.

Use Anchor's `#[account(discriminator)]` to manage multiple account types within a single program.

Implement a versioning strategy for program state to facilitate data migrations.

Upgrade a deployed Solana program using the Solana CLI.

Manage the upgrade authority of a deployed program.

Explain common data migration strategies for upgrading program accounts.

Review a program for common security vulnerabilities like improper authority checks, account confusion, and integer overflows.

Use Anchor's account constraints to mitigate common security risks like re-initialization and type confusion attacks.

Measure the compute unit consumption of a program's instructions.

Identify and refactor high-cost operations, such as deserialization and excessive logging.

Optimize a program's compute usage by refining data structures and serialization methods.

Set up `@solana/web3.js` in a frontend project to connect to a Solana RPC endpoint.

Fetch and deserialize on-chain account data into a structured object.

Construct a transaction with one or more instructions in TypeScript.

Use an Anchor-generated client to build program instructions and transactions.

Request a transaction signature from a connected wallet and send it to the network.

Confirm a transaction and handle different commitment levels (processed, confirmed, finalized).

Subscribe to account changes using WebSockets to get real-time updates.

Integrate the `@solana/wallet-adapter` libraries into a React application.

Implement a UI component for wallet connection and disconnection.

Manage and display the connected wallet's public key and connection state.

Fetch and display the native SOL balance and SPL token balances for the connected wallet.

Build a UI form to gather user input for a program instruction.

Construct and submit a program transaction based on user input from the UI.

Provide UI feedback for transaction submission, confirmation, and error states.

Integrate a client-side caching library (e.g., SWR or React Query) to manage fetching and caching of on-chain data.

Implement a global state management solution (e.g., Zustand or React Context) for wallet and user data.

Design and implement a state machine to model the lifecycle of a transaction (e.g., composing, signing, sending, confirmed).

Handle transaction submission errors from the wallet or RPC and display user-friendly feedback.

Implement optimistic UI updates for a smoother user experience while waiting for transaction finalization.