---
url: /academy-handbook/foundation/week-3/index.md
---
# Week 3 — Smart contracts, tokens and DApps

  

> **Core question — how do blockchains become programmable, and what can a
> program on a blockchain actually do?**

Week 2 ended with Ethereum as a shared state machine and contracts as accounts
made of code. This is the week you write one, deploy it, and call it.

| Part | Page | Reading |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | [What a smart contract actually is](./part-1-what-is-a-smart-contract.md) | 30 min |
| 2 | [The minimum Solidity you need](./part-2-solidity-minimum.md) | 25 min |
| 3 | [Remix lab: deploy your first contract](./part-3-remix-lab.md) | 60 min hands-on |
| 4 | [Tokens, standards and real applications](./part-4-tokens-and-standards.md) | 20 min |
| 5 | [Security, approvals and permissions](./part-5-security-and-approvals.md) | 25 min |

**Anchor Mission:** [Week 3 mission](./anchor-mission.md) · 100 points

## The arc

```mermaid
flowchart TD
  P1["<b>1 · What a contract is</b><br/><i>a program that lives at an address</i>"]
  P2["<b>2 · Minimum Solidity</b><br/><i>enough to read and write one</i>"]
  P3["<b>3 · Remix lab</b><br/><i>deploy it yourself, on testnet</i>"]
  P4["<b>4 · Tokens and standards</b><br/><i>why contracts interoperate</i>"]
  P5["<b>5 · Security and approvals</b><br/><i>what you are trusting now</i>"]
  P1 --> P2 --> P3 --> P4 --> P5
```

::: warning Part 3 is the heaviest page in the Foundation
Budget up to an hour with nowhere to be. You will deploy a real contract to a test
network. Nothing costs money, but the first deployment is the point at which the
whole programme stops being abstract — give it proper time.
:::

## What this week is not

You are not becoming a smart contract developer in five days. You are becoming
someone who can **read a contract, deploy a simple one, and reason about what it
can and cannot do.**

AI assistance is explicitly allowed: the goal is to understand what you deploy,
not to type every line yourself.

Deliberately **out of scope** and left to Further Exploration or advanced study
beyond the current programme:

| Not covered | Where it belongs |
|---|---|
| AMM maths | Further Exploration |
| Liquidation mechanics | Further Exploration |
| Advanced DeFi strategy | Advanced study beyond the current programme |
| Oracle architecture | Further Exploration |
| Gas optimisation, assembly, proxies | Builder Deep Dive |
| Formal verification, audit methodology | Advanced study beyond the current programme |

::: tip Everything required is testnet only
You will deploy to the same test network you used in
[Week 1 Part 7](../week-1/part-7-your-first-transaction.md). No real funds, ever.
:::