High-quality genome assemblies are essential for understanding the biology, evolution, and functional genomics of organisms. With the rise of long-read sequencing technologies such as Oxford Nanopore, researchers can now generate more complete and accurate reference genomes, even for complex or repetitive regions. This course is designed for researchers who are new to genome assembly and want to understand the principles and practical steps involved. While several assembly pipelines and algorithms exist, informed decision-making, from defining project goals and crafting optimal sequencing strategies to assessing the final assembly, each holds critical implications for success.Also, the fields move fast; what is the best strategy today might not be the one next month. Competing technologies, regular software updates, and breakthroughs regularly reshuffle the field.Ultimately, the reward is a reference genome of the target organism that will lay the foundation on which downstream experiments can be built.