---
title: Quick Start
description:
  Learn Solana development basics. Create your first program, understand
  accounts, send transactions, and explore PDAs and CPIs using Solana Playground
  - no installation required.
h1: Solana Quick Start Guide
---

Welcome to the Solana Quick Start Guide! This hands-on guide will introduce you
to the core concepts for building on Solana, regardless of your prior
experience.

## What You'll Learn

In this tutorial, you'll learn about:

- Solana Accounts: Learn how data is stored on the Solana network.
- Sending Transactions: Learn to interact with the Solana network by sending
  transactions.
- Building and Deploying Programs: Create your first Solana program and deploy
  it to the network.
- Program Derived Addresses (PDAs): Learn how to use PDAs to create
  deterministic addresses for accounts.
- Cross-Program Invocations (CPIs): Learn how to call other programs from within
  your program, enabling complex interactions and composability between multiple
  programs on Solana.

The best part? You don't need to install anything! We'll be using Solana
Playground, a browser-based development environment. This means you can follow
along, copy and paste code, and see results immediately, all from your web
browser. Basic programming knowledge is helpful but not required.

Let's dive in and start building on Solana!

## Solana Playground

Solana Playground (Solpg) is a browser-based development environment that allows
you to quickly develop, deploy, and test Solana programs!

Open a new tab in your web browser and navigate to https://beta.solpg.io/.

<Steps>
<Step>

### Create Playground Wallet

If you're new to Solana Playground, the first step is to create your Playground
Wallet. This wallet will allow you to interact with the Solana network right
from your browser.

#### Step 1. Connect to Playground

Click the "Not connected" button at the bottom left of the screen.

![Not Connected](/assets/docs/intro/quickstart/pg-not-connected.png)

#### Step 2. Create Your Wallet

You'll be prompted to save your wallet's keypair. Once you are ready, click
"Continue" to proceed.

![Create Playground Wallet](/assets/docs/intro/quickstart/pg-create-wallet.png)

You should now see your wallet's address, SOL balance, and connected cluster
(devnet by default) at the bottom of the window.

![Connected](/assets/docs/intro/quickstart/pg-connected.png)

<Callout>
  Your Playground Wallet will be saved in your browser's local storage. Clearing
  your browser cache will remove your saved wallet. Your Playground Wallet
  should only be used for testing and development. Do not send real assets (from
  mainnet) to this address.
</Callout>

Some definitions you may find helpful:

- _wallet address_: a 32-byte public key from a Ed25519 keypair, generally
  displayed as a base-58 encoded string (eg.
  `7MNj7pL1y7XpPnN7ZeuaE4ctwg3WeufbX5o85sA91J1`). The corresponding private key
  is used to sign transactions from this address. On Solana, an address is the
  unique idenifier for a user's wallet, a program (smart contract), or any other
  account on the network.
- _connected cluster_: the Solana network you're currently interacting with.
  Common clusters include:
  - `devnet`: A development network for developer experimentation
  - `testnet`: A network reserved for validator testing (do not use as app
    developer)
  - `mainnet-beta`: The main Solana network for live transactions

</Step>
<Step>

### Get Devnet SOL

Before we start building, we need to obtain some devnet SOL.

As a developer, SOL is required for two main use cases:

- Creating new accounts to store data or deploy programs on the network
- Paying transaction fees when interacting with the Solana network

Below are two methods to fund your wallet with devnet SOL:

#### Option 1: Using the Playground Terminal

To fund your Playground wallet with devnet SOL. In the Playground terminal, run:

```shell title="Terminal"
solana airdrop 5
```

#### Option 2: Using the Devnet Faucet

If the airdrop command doesn't work (due to rate limits or errors), you can use
the [Web Faucet](https://faucet.solana.com/).

- Enter your wallet address (found at the bottom of the Playground screen) and
  select an amount
- Click "Confirm Airdrop" to receive your devnet SOL

![Faucet Airdrop](/assets/docs/intro/quickstart/faucet-airdrop.gif)

</Step>
</Steps>
