PROJECT · 0003 · ARENA GUIDE

The ARENA curriculum, in route order

Stack ARENA 3.0, submodule-pinned + TARA Learning Plan v2 · Output 13 route entries · 7 visuals · Receipts fill from the vault

What does the ARENA curriculum actually teach, in the order a part-timer should learn it, and what makes each idea click?

This is the study guide for TARA — Technical Alignment Research Accelerator, cohort 2: one entry per ARENA part, in the route order the program's learning plan prescribes. Every entry has the same anatomy: the mental model, a visual built for that idea, ARENA's real exercise list with its own timed budgets, what the part unlocks, and a receipts section that fills from the program vault when the week closes. Start at the first row below and simply work down.

The entries — study them top to bottom

PART 0.0 · W36 · START HERE

Einsum is a contract between dimensions

the picture: contraction schematic · exercises: einops operations, ~45 min

PART 0.2 · W37 · CORE

You build ResNet34 by hand before anyone hands you a model

the picture: interactive convolution, step through the nine windows · exercises: eleven, ~3–3.5 h

PART 0.3 §1 · W38 · LIGHT

Momentum buys the crossing; plain descent buys the zigzag

the picture: two real descent paths on a canyon · exercises: four optimizers, ~70–100 min

PART 1.1 · W38–39 · CORE

Ten exercises build a transformer around one stream

the picture: the exercise map · exercises: ten plus one optional, ~2–3 h

PART 1.2 · W39–40 · CORE

Mech interp reads the activations, not the outputs

the arc: hooks, attention patterns, induction heads, ablations · no picture yet, lands with receipts

PART 3.1 · W40 · CORE

An eval is a threat model with a scoreboard

the picture: the eval anatomy · exercises: five, ~2.5–3.5 h

PART 3.2 · W41 · CORE

Eval datasets are generated, not found

the build: prompts, variance, concurrency, scorer-first · exercises: seven, ~1.8–2.7 h

PART 3.3 · W42 · CORE

Inspect turns an eval into a record you can argue with

the build: datasets, solvers, scorers, logs · exercises: six, ~1–2 h

PART 3.4 · W43 · CORE

An agent is a loop, not a model

the picture: the agent loop · exercises: six, ~1.5–2 h

PART 3.5 · W44 · CORE · GATE WEEK

Control assumes the model is trying to fool you

the picture: backdoors vs monitors and protocols · exercises: the heaviest set, W44 track-choice gate

PART 4.2 · W45 · CORE · API-ONLY

Misalignment is measured, not assumed

the work: shutdown resistance and alignment faking on real APIs · exercises: six, ~1.5–2.5 h

W46 · LIGHT · PICK ONE

Week 12 is a fork, and either road is one session long

the fork: SAE literacy or intro to RL · decided at the W44 gate

PART 4.3 §1–2 · W47 · LIGHT · GATE WEEK

Reasoning models say more than they do, so measure the gap

the work: chain-of-thought faithfulness measurements · exercises: six, ~1–1.5 h · W47 proposal gate

The route, week by week

W36	0.0 prerequisites `[light]` — verify, don't redo	kickoff
W37	0.2 CNNs & ResNets `[core]` + 0.0 §2 recap	Session 1 — full coverage
W38	0.3 §1 optimizers `[light]` + 1.1 §1–2 `[core]`	transformer begins
W39	1.1 §3–4 `[light]` + 1.2 §1–2 `[core]`	foundations milestone
W40	1.2 §3 hooks `[core]` + 3.1 intro to evals `[core]`	threat model
W41	3.2 dataset generation `[core]`	capstone env spec v0
W42	3.3 running evals with Inspect `[core]`	—
W43	3.4 LLM agents `[core]` (§4 `[light]`)	check-in prep
W44	3.5 AI control `[core]`	GATE — track choice
W45	4.2 science of misalignment `[core]`, API-only	intent amendments
W46	1.3.3 §1 SAEs `[light]` or 2.1 intro to RL `[light]`	pick by track
W47	4.3 §1–2 interpreting reasoning models `[light]`	GATE — proposal
W48–49	ARENA slot → build	capstone + demo day

Everything not on this table — ray tracing, hand-built backprop, VAEs and GANs, five optional interpretability sets, all of RL past 2.1 — is a written-down skip with a reason, revisited at the W44 gate. Nine of the curriculum's 32 parts carry the whole program.

The first picture

The flagship entry visual: convolution as a window that walks — user-paced, one output cell per window position.

Artifacts

data/raw/README.md — provenance: ARENA 3.0 pages (pinned `81533b2`) + Learning Plan v2
charts/*.html — seven single-file visuals: einsum contraction, convolution step-through, optimizer descent paths, transformer exercise map, eval anatomy, agent loop, control protocol
posts/*.md — thirteen guide entries covering the whole core route, receipts filled as weeks close

The sibling project 0002-tara is the week-by-week diary the receipts flow into; its posts stay draft until the owner approves them.