Follow the river and you will find the C

We present a one-semester transition course intended to bridge the gap between a Java-based introductory sequence and advanced systems courses. We chose to structure our course as a series of lab assignments that, while independent, are also milestones in a single main project, writing a web server from scratch. By anchoring the course on a single real-world application, we were able to provide depth, instill good programming practices, give insight into systems, and generate excitement.