Below is the in-depth listing of all the steps of the ASP.NET LifeCycle -- which I consider to be essential knowledge for any person working in ASP.NET.

If you haven't read the associated article , introducing and describing the essence of the ASP.NET LifeCycle, and the main parts to keep an eye out for in the following chart, you can find it in the Articles Section.

If you decide to skip the article and just plunge in, read the comments on the right step... You should be paying special attention to when ViewStating is being turned on, and when it is being turned off: this is useful for reasons discussed in this other article about CompositeControl and property wiring...