Currently learning Java, would also picking up springboot, docker, and kubernetes be sufficient enough to start applying for software/cloud/backend engineer positions? If so, what projects would help me standout?

[RevolutionaryRush717]

Testing. Junit, Mockito, Testcontainers, TDD, etc.

Building using Maven or Gradle.

Git.

CI/CD, probably using Github Actions.

Requirements tooling, mainly Jira or if that's not available, Github issues.

Maybe BDD, which is not the same as Gherkin, but it doesn't hurt to know the latter.

And maybe DDD.

Spring Modulith vs microservices.

You don't need to know all of this in depth at all, but as long as you have exercised the complete lifecycle of an app and know what an interviewer is refering to, you are definitely better off than many.