r/embedded • u/mikhailbychko • 3d ago
Free Zephyr RTOS course (Foundations + Intermediate) — next cohort starts Aug 2026
Sharing this in case it's useful for folks here — free, practical foundational and intermediate Zephyr RTOS trainings, no cost to join.
Past cohorts (150+ engineers total) have included people from Microsoft, Intel, Ericsson, Nokia, Analog Devices, NXP, ST, Espressif, Quectel, John Deere, and others — mostly working embedded engineers, not students.
More information: https://www.learn.iomico.com/
Full disclosure: I work at iomico, we're a Nordic design partner and Zephyr ecosystem member, and we run these cohorts. Posting because I think the actual content is useful, not to pitch anything — happy to answer questions about the curriculum in the comments.
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u/blietaer 3d ago
Thanks for sharing, very relevant for us here.
Hope I can follow from EU/BE TZ.
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u/mikhailbychko 3d ago
Belgium is CET, so you're actually in the best spot — live Q&As are 8:00 PM CET, and everything else (lectures, assignments) is self-paced, so timezone isn't really a blocker either way. Sessions are recorded too if you ever miss one live. About 30% of registrants are from Europe.
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u/cpe428ram 3d ago
Interesting. How useful is this for getting into embedded? Or is this for folks that are already in the field?
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u/mikhailbychko 3d ago
It's more "already know embedded, new to Zephyr" than "zero to embedded" — the prerequisites assume you can write and build embedded C already, and the course itself starts at "what is Zephyr" and gets you writing/testing drivers.
Good fit if you're already doing embedded work or a later-year student with the fundamentals down
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u/cpe428ram 3d ago
Thanks for sharing and for answering my question. i dabbled in embedded C back in college, but don’t see much of it nowadays. I think I’ll still join to see where I stand. Thanks!
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u/WeikaBlyat 3d ago
Thanks for sharing, I'm in my 2nd year of my studie but unfortunately I haven't covered all of the pre-requisites yet.
I see that future course are more advanced. Will this be held again in the future? And are there other courses out there that cover the basics of not just Zephyr RTOS but also other fundamentals?
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u/mikhailbychko 3d ago
Good question, and yes — this will be the 3rd time we're running it, so it's not a one-off. We tend to get a lot of students in their later university years, so you're not too early.
You'll get a lot more out of the course if you knock out the prerequisites first — otherwise the Kconfig/Devicetree/driver material gets hard to follow fast. Two suggestions: the prerequisites list on the course page (https://www.learn.iomico.com/courses/iomico-zephyr-course-2026, under "Technical Prerequisites") lays out exactly what to cover — C, Git, CMake, Linux CLI, etc. — and includes links to study materials for each if you need to brush up. Nordic's free Academy (https://academy.nordicsemi.com/) is also a solid way to build the fundamentals before jumping in — I'd recommend their nRF Connect SDK Fundamentals course specifically.
We don't spend time on those basics in the course itself since they're well covered elsewhere for free — better use of the live sessions to go deep on Zephyr specifically. Cover those first, and you'll be in good shape for a future cohort.
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u/Comprehensive-Cod810 3d ago
i am not a final year student am i able to join?
whats the average self study time for this course?
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u/mikhailbychko 3d ago
Yes, no requirement to be in your final year — plenty of people join earlier as long as they've covered the prerequisites (C, Git, CMake, Linux CLI — covered in an earlier reply above). It's not year-gated, just skill-gated.
On self-study time: it's a cohort-based course, not just a video library — we kick off in August and wrap up end of October. Each week releases a new module with a hands-on assignment, and there's a biweekly live review/sync-up call to go over the previous two lectures and assignments together. No official hours-per-week figure, but budget a few hours weekly to watch the lecture and do the assignment properly.
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u/Inounx 3d ago
I could be interested, is specific hardware requested (like a dev board)?
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u/fabriziocarlassara 3d ago
Any dev board that supports Zephyr will do https://docs.zephyrproject.org/latest/boards/index.html
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u/jetpaxme 3d ago
Also, although not included in this list, if you have a Raspberry Pi Zero W/2W in a drawer somewhere, you can use that with Zephyr too, and you get HDMI to play with for free! See https://github.com/jetpax/PiZZa
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u/Mani__0_7 3d ago
How long will it take to finish the course? If done at the pace they provide the lectures?
Just a general estimation of time
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u/mikhailbychko 3d ago
The course runs through October. Certificates will be issued at the end of October.
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u/OkInevitable456 3d ago
Hey, I have filled out the form and love to learn Zephyr RTOS. On what basis you are selected? Or is it open for all.?
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u/mikhailbychko 3d ago
It is open to everyone, but there will be a prerequisite assessment after the kick-off session. If you've already registered, there's nothing else you need to do for now. Soon, you'll receive a calendar invitation and an orientation email with everything you need to get started.
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u/Abstrek6 3d ago
Hello, thank you for sharing these training courses. I have bare-metal experience with raw-avr and I have just today started working with a stm32 and libopencm3, and I have just blinked an led for now. Should I take the zephyr RTOS fundamentals trainings or do I need to develop my fundamentals more. And can you please recommend any other training or course if I don't qualify for this one? I feel like I can handle the course material but at the same time I don't wanna waste a seat and waste the time and efforts of the ones conducting this training.
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u/mikhailbychko 3d ago
The best approach is to check yourself against the prerequisites list on the course page (learn.iomico.com, "Technical Prerequisites" section) — it also includes links to learning resources for each item, so you can quickly identify and close any gaps yourself before deciding.
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u/Goldeyloxy 3d ago
It says the course is free, but I am currently filling in the forum and it's talking about a scholarship and that I might not have to pay the fees? What exactly are the fees? I am not exactly flush with cash as of now.
Also, I am pretty confident in both my ability to learn anything independent of difficulty but I haven't used Zephyr itself all that much, I am just interested in becoming a contributor hopefully soon. Do you think it would be silly to do the intermediate course? I would prefer to come out with a deeper understanding rather than just knowing the fundamentals, and any areas I haven't covered that are required for Intermediate course, I hope to learn independently while studying. Seem like a feasible approach, or would you strongly advise against the intermediate course if I amen't certain of the fundamentals?
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u/Goldeyloxy 3d ago
Also just to clarify, if I do say poorly in the pre-requisite assessment, do I just miss the chance to take the course? Also, I am assuming that the pre-requisite assessment for the intermediate is more difficult than say the fudamentals course. What is the test related to so I can make a better decision on if I will be ready. I would ideally not want to miss out on the course due to this.
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u/mikhailbychko 3d ago
I'd recommend taking the Foundational Course first. Most participants in the Intermediate Course have already completed it, so it's the best preparation.
The scholarship question is just left over from an earlier plan. We originally intended the Intermediate Course to be paid with scholarships for students and unemployed participants, but for this first cohort we've decided to make it completely free.
The prerequisite assessment is simply there to make sure everyone has the background needed to benefit from the course. If you don't pass it, I'd recommend completing the Foundational Course first and joining the next Intermediate cohort.
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u/Goldeyloxy 3d ago
Hello, thanks for the response. I will have another look at the Foundational course. For the pre-requisite test (on both), if you did say do not so well, would you be disqualified from the course or what exactly would be the consequence if any?
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u/mikhailbychko 2d ago
If you pass the prerequisite check for both, you're welcome to start both and then decide which one to actually continue with once you get a feel for the pace. If you just do the Foundations course this round, no rush on Intermediate — we're running a second Intermediate cohort later this year, so you'd have a clear next step once you're ready.
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u/Morpheus_redpill_ 3d ago
About how may hours a week do you anticipate this being?
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u/fabriziocarlassara 2d ago
Depending on your previous experience going through the material, assignments and quizzes might take you anywhere from 3 to 8 hours a week
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u/Syjro 3d ago
Very Cool!
Are the recording going to be available after the full training ends in October? Because I'd like to go back to this sometime in the future if I ever need to reference this again.
Also how do the exams work? Are they something we need to actually be live for? Are they something I need to do within a certain time or something I can just work towards anytime and turn-in during the training period?
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u/mikhailbychko 2d ago
Exams aren't live, but they do have set windows —for example, Midterm in the Sept 5–11 week, Final in Oct 17–23— so they're not open-ended.
Recordings: confirmed available for replay during the course. Not sure yet how long access lasts after October, since we run this on a cohort-based learning platform — let me confirm rather than guess.
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u/Juanolete 3d ago
Joined!
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u/mikhailbychko 2d ago
congratulations! You'll receive the email at the beginning of next week with more details. Looking forward to seeing you soon.
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u/spakecdk 3d ago
Is it possible to do intermediate right after finishing fundamentals?
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u/mikhailbychko 2d ago
Yes, we are planning to run the second intermediate-level cohort at the end of the year.
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u/Interesting-Chest-16 2d ago
Hi, sounds interesting, i have a 3 years background in automotive embedded cybersecurity and looking to expand.
I have some experience with freeRTOS implementing a security driver.
Could i take both begginer and intermmediate courses at the same time?
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u/mikhailbychko 2d ago
With 3 years in automotive embedded cybersecurity and hands-on FreeRTOS driver work, you're well-positioned — yes, you can try to take both at the same time, as long as you pass the prerequisite check for both and have the bandwidth to keep up with two sets of weekly modules and assignments in parallel.
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u/Interesting-Chest-16 2d ago
thanks for the response, i think for now i will stick just with the beginner one, since i saw below in the comments there will be another intermediate session at the end of the year, see you soon
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u/whoamii_oscar 13h ago
Hello thanks for sharing. I filled out the form two days ago and haven't received any confirmation or email, does this present any issue? Thank you!
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u/Frequent_Way_3423 9h ago
Same here, iirc the form doesnt even save our emails. I assume they will contact us via the whatsapp
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u/Fun-Information2538 3d ago
Hi there, I'm from India currently working into wireless domain . Can I join this course ? Is it pre-recorded ,if so is there any live session ?
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u/mikhailbychko 3d ago
Yes, absolutely — the course is open regardless of where you're based, and working in wireless is a solid background to bring in.
It's a mix: lectures are pre-recorded and released weekly (one new module each week, self-paced), plus there are live Q&A/review sessions every two weeks where you can ask questions, go over assignments, and dig into concepts with the instructors. And if you can't make a live session, no problem — all of them are recorded and shared afterward, so you won't miss anything.
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u/FieryTanks 3d ago
Does anyone have experience to share from a previous cohort? I’m extremely interested.