How long should a portfolio project take?
A beginner project is usually one to two weeks of part-time work, an intermediate project three to four weeks, and an advanced project five to eight. These are rough ranges; double your first estimate if you have not built something similar before.
Rough ranges
- Beginner: 1 to 2 weeks, one core skill, small scope.
- Intermediate: 3 to 4 weeks, auth or persistence, deployed.
- Advanced: 5 to 8 weeks, concurrency, reliability or scale concerns, with tests and a write-up.
Why estimates are wrong
Most overruns come from setup, deployment, data modelling and the last 20 percent of polish, not from the feature you were excited about. Plan time for these explicitly.
A simple way to estimate
- List the tasks in the smallest steps you can.
- Give each task a time in hours, rounding up.
- Add 30 percent for things you cannot foresee.
- Divide by the hours per week you really have, not the hours you hope for.
When to stop
If a project passes its planned time by half, cut scope instead of extending the deadline. Finishing and presenting something smaller is worth more than still working on it next month.