What you do to level up depends on your level now. Novice: Keep the scope small. Try not to get confused. Concentrate on small successes and learning the bas

What you do to level up depends on your level now. Novice: Keep the scope small. Try not to get confused. Concentrate on small successes and learning the basic "rules". Beginner: After building a base, branch out and expose yourself to areas where the "rules" are different. Intermediate: You have a base and you also have some idea that there is more to the world than your base. Write a lot of code. No, really a lot. Read a lot of code -- twice as much as you write. Become an "expert" in an area and create an understanding of why the "rules" are the way they are. Advanced: You are an expert at something, but you realize that you have only scratched the surface. Question all the "rules". Throw them away. Make new ones. Explore the world searching for abstractions that you missed before. Write a ridiculous amount of code. No, I mean epic amounts. Read 4 times as much code as you write. (My negative alter-ego adds: Despair as you realize that you aren't so much looking for a needle in a haystack as a needle in a dung heap. Despair even more when you realize that the dung heap was made by you). Novice Again: You have mastered a few subjects. You have rewritten the rules. You now have reached a state where you can clearly see that you understand nothing of consequence. Keep the scope small. Try not to get confused. Concentrate on small successes and learning the basic "rules". Note that it may take a lifetime to reach the final stage and I would say that the vast majority of programmers don't reach it. Scale your expectations accordingly. Finally, to comment on your question about whether your should review your Coursera course or dive deeper in your Python / Django stack: Write a lot of code. Doesn't matter what. Hey, how about implementing something in Python on the topic of your Coursera course? But not a toy -- write at least 10,000 lines.