Some few years ago, it was difficult for individual to learn how to code, coding was left for geeks. But the case is different today. As most entrepreneurs, freelancers and marketers will tell you, learning how to program can help you succeed.
Some of the reasons was that there were few websites offering programming lessons, and the websites charge huge amounts to teach programming. But today, a lot of websites offer coding classes for free, and also provide career opportunities for their candidates.
In this article, we will consider some of these websites and how you can benefit from them.
- FreeCodeCamp
- Codecademy
- CodeChief
- Coursera
- Codewars
- Udacity
- Khan Academy
- edx
- Treehouse
- The Odin Project
- HankerRank
- Sitepoint
- Coderbyte
- Codingame
- CodeHS
- Pluralsight
- MIT OpenCourseWare
- General Assembly
- SoloLearn Inc
- W3Schools
- A List Apart
- Udemy
- Linkedin Learning
FreeCodeCamp
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freeCodeCamp offers potential students a combination of two of the above methods: a coding Bootcamp and self-learning. This unique resource has become increasingly popular. freeCodeCamp members have gone on to work at companies like Google, Spotify, and Apple. As the name implies, this resource is completely free.
freeCodeCamp is a nonprofit organization that is donor-supported. Their goal is to help people learn to code for free. They achieve this through lessons, videos, articles, and study groups around the world.
Read Also: How Much Money Can You Make Coding?
There are several freeCodeCamp certifications offered in a broad range of studies and with over 1,800 hours worth of material. Over 40,000 people have graduated since 2014. And many have found careers at top tech companies.
freeCodeCamp is stark to the point of almost feeling like an older web page. This disguises some very intelligent design. There are few images or distractions and no advertisements. The layout of every page is deliberately simple. It’s only you, the lesson, and code.
It provides a focused learning experience, showing progress and providing a clear place to start. When taking the lessons, there is no need to return to the main list. Each lesson flows smoothly into the next.
The teaching style is direct, with a clear design, much like a college course. The lessons are as clear as the site’s design. They present new ideas as though you’ve never heard them before with plenty of examples.
One downfall of the lessons is the simplicity. Having simple lessons is great for those just starting in code. And later lessons expand upon the content. Yet, there are often so many ways to use code that the lessons can appear a bit slow.
But this is a problem for most other online coding bootcamps and courses. Generally, the best way to learn to code is by getting hands-on experience coding. And freeCodeCamp does provide some opportunities. There are projects at the end of every lesson. And courses focus on many of the important skills every good programmer should master.
freeCodeCamp offers six certifications. Each requires about 300 hours of study. There is also a technical interview prep course. All courses consist a series of subsections with a number of lessons. Each lesson teaches a single concept. Then, you complete a short challenge. Each course ends with 5 projects to show what you’ve learned.
You can take the courses in any order. But they are laid out in a clear order. The site teaches students crucial skills for software developers, and the courses focus on web development. They cover the following:
- Responsive Web Design: This course covers web basics like HTML and CSS, along with applied design and sections dedicated to CSS flexbox and grid.
- JavaScript Algorithms and Data Structures: This course teaches both JavaScript and programming in general. It covers both basic programming concepts like debugging or object-oriented and functional programming along with JavaScript specific lessons like ES6 and JavaScript Algorithms.
- Front End Libraries: This freeCodeCamp course teaches several front end technologies including jQuery, React, Redux, and Bootstrap.
- Data Visualization: This course focuses on visualizing data, an essential skill for data scientists and analysts, with technologies like D3, JSON APIs, and Ajax.
- APIs and Microservices: This course teaches students to use APIs with technologies like Npm, Node, Express, MongoDB, and Mongoose.
- Information Security and Quality Assurance: This course covers skills essential in the market, using Helmet JS for security testing and Chai for QA testing.
But these free courses and certifications from the freeCodeCamp platform aren’t the only learning resources they offer. On freeCodeCamp’s YouTube channel, you can find free courses and tutorials on a variety of coding topics, including the in-demand programming language, Python.
This resource is closer to DIY education than coding bootcamps. freeCodeCamp only provides lessons, and while comprehensive, creating a schedule is on you. If you’re an excellent self-learner, able to keep a good schedule, and find joy in programming, this could be a good option for you. Teaching yourself to code is certainly a viable route for breaking into tech careers if you possess these traits.
Codecademy
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Codecademy is a popular online learning platform hosted on the cloud. They provide what before the Internet could only be achieved through book study or a full University education. CodeCademy.com is almost a no-cost platform, providing expertly created courses for a variety of computer programming languages.
It makes learning to code and designing websites easy and interesting. You can learn a wide range of programming skills, such as JavaScript, CSS, Python, etc. with Codecademy. Above all, all the courses are free! There is no overhead of a class schedule, specific course times and exorbitant loans to pay. However, recently incorporated paid plans offer access to advanced learning resources and live support.
CodeCademy.com was founded in 2011 and currently boasts over 25 million distinct current and former users of the service. A pair of Columbia University students developed the site to bring code instruction into the information age. Catering to the beginning learner, CodeCademy offers 12 distinct coding tracks:
- Python
- Java
- PHP
- JavaScript
- jQuery
- AngularJS / React.js
- Ruby
- SQL
- HTML / CSS
These offerings are free; however, CodeCademy offers a “pro” option that allows tailored lessons and tutorials for the user as well as live tutoring. To access the features on CodeCademy.com, you create a learner profile and then begin your track in one of the languages above.
Overall, CodeCademy is a good entry-level coding website for the language modules it offers, even if the material seems tedious at times. For those on a budget looking to develop the basic skills of a language, it does shine. CodeCademy does cover the basics and some more advanced features of the languages to a certain depth, although lack of depth in any one language is notable.
CodeCademy appears to be a comprehensive tool for learning coding. In the sense that it provides the concepts inherent in the language, it is comprehensive. There is just not enough material, and the lessons don’t cover enough ground in their breadth to give you a rich understanding of the languages.
CodeChief
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CodeChef is a competitive programming website. It is a non-profit educational initiative of Directi, aimed at providing a platform for students, young software professionals to practice, hone their programming skills through online contests Apart from this, the ‘CodeChef For Schools’ program aims to reach out to young students and inculcate a culture of programming in Indian schools.
Monthly Programming Contests
CodeChef hosts three programming contests every month, in which users can participate and compete for prizes and a standing on the contest leaderboard. The Long Challenge is a ten day long contest featuring 8 questions of varying difficulty. The Long Challenge commences on the first Saturday of each month.
The Lunchtime is a contest that was primarily started for school students to hone their programming skills. This 3-hour contest takes place on the last Saturday of every month featuring a set of 4 questions. The third contest is the Cook-Off which takes place on the second-last Sunday of every month and consists of 5 questions to be solved over a 3 hour duration.
Winners in these contests are rewarded with CodeChef Laddus (goodie points) that can be redeemed for goodies and CodeChef merchandise.
SnackDown
SnackDown, CodeChef’s annual flagship coding competition was first held in 2010. The competition was based on the ACM-ICPC style team contest and invited participants from across the globe. After a gap of five years, SnackDown made its comeback in 2015, followed by SnackDown 2016 and SnackDown 2017.
SnackDown 2017 concluded with Oleg Merkurev of Ural Federal University and Aleksei Daniliuk of NRU Higher School of Economics from Russia claiming the title and winning a cash award of $10,000. The first runners up title was grabbed by Ryuta Kawai and Kohji Liu from University of Tokyo, Japan.
CCDSAP (CodeChef Certified Data Structures and Algorithms Programme)
CCDSAP is a certification programme by CodeChef which tests candidates’ proficiency in data structures and algorithms. The programme offers three difficulty levels, namely Foundation, Advanced, and Expert. The first CCDSAP certification exam was held on November 19, 2017 followed by the second and third exams on 21 January 2018 and 18 March 2018.
Go For Gold
The Go For Gold initiative was launched by Directi and CodeChef with an aim to help an Indian team win gold at the ACM-ICPC World Finals. As part of this initiative, any Indian team at the ACM-ICPC World Finals securing a higher rank than the current highest secured by an Indian team will be awarded the Go For Gold cup and a cash prize calculated using their ‘golden formula’.
Host Your Contest
CodeChef allows schools, universities, corporate institutions to host their own programming contest on the CodeChef platform. Corporates can use the CodeChef platform for various purposes like campus/lateral hiring, internal employee engagement, branding, employee re-skill programs.
Coursera
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Coursera is an online learning platform with a focus on higher education. Much like its competitors Udemy, MasterClass, and Skillshare, Coursera is completely online and covers a wide range of topics.
What sets Coursera apart?
Coursera provides college-level instruction from professors at accredited institutions. Essentially, you gain access to real classes, many of which have been tried and tested at brick-and-mortar institutions.
If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to ponder ancient philosophy with a specialist in the field…now’s your chance.
Plus, for a reasonable fee, you can earn a certificate indicating that you’ve completed a course.
Coursera has partnered with universities such as Yale, Johns Hopkins, Rice University, Princeton, the University of Michigan, and many more. The education you receive will be excellent. With over 4100 courses available, you’re sure to find something that strikes your fancy.
Coursera can help you attain a variety of goals, including:
- Gaining additional skills to stay up-to-date at your job or find a new one.
- Honing your skills in critical thinking, analysis, and argumentation.
- You’ve always had an interest in Egyptology, modern art, or zoology, or any other subject covered by Coursera (there are a lot).
- Or you’re simply itching to learn something new while you’re in COVID lockdown.
Whatever your reasons, we believe that Coursera has something to offer you.
To understand Coursera’s pricing model, you first have to realize that they currently offer 5 learning options:
- Individual Courses
- Specializations
- Professional Certificates
- MasterTrack Certificates
- Degrees
Each learning program varies in length, difficulty, and cost.
The pricing structure is a bit convoluted, but here are your main options:
- Individual course certificate: Courses usually cost between $49 and $99 as a one-off payment.
- Specializations and Professional Certificates: These run on a subscription basis, typically between $39 and $79 per month.
- MasterTrack Certificates: The starting price is around $2000.
- Degrees: Expect degrees to cost $15,000 and up.
Codewars
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Codewars is a community-created online platform to practice code challenges, which they refer to as “kata” (a term that usually denotes “a system of individual training exercises for practitioners of karate and other martial arts”). The kata have all been written by users who author kata to teach various techniques, solve kata with solutions that enlighten others, and comment with constructive feedback. The leaders moderate the content and community.
Challenges are in 20 different languages and 12 languages are currently in beta. Users can solve directly in their browsers. Kata are ranked to approximate difficulty. As users complete higher ranked kata, they progress through the ranks and they are matched with more relevant challenges to their skills.
There is also an opportunity to compare solutions with others and discuss optimal solutions or ask questions to the community. Finally, users can create their own kata based on their interests and experience levels, which the community members can solve and give feedback
There are 2 audiences for Codewars. Software engineers who have a strong interest in specific languages and some experience will find that the kata on Codewars help them advance their skills and learn new ways to optimize their solutions. The community is strong, so they can find smart people to discuss their issues and make changes to their code.
The second audience is companies who are looking to assess software engineering candidates in pair programming sessions. Codewars is attached to Qualified.io, which can be used for coding assignments and live coding sessions by hiring managers.
Udacity
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Udacity, like many others, is a MOOC-based platform. MOOC stands for Massive Open Online Courses – this means that Udacity provides an online learning experience to anyone that would wish to sign up on the website and start learning.
Udacity saw the light of day all the way back in 2011. Funnily enough, it is actually a spin-off of free computer science classes that were at that time offered in Standford University. The platform offers a wide variety of different features
Udacity has a couple of unique features, namely the Udacity Nanodegree and the Udacity Nanodegree Plus. Since there are many people that question “is Udacity Nanodegree worth it?” and are looking for Udacity Nanodegree Plus reviews, these features are worth exploring a bit further.
- Udacity Nanodegree. The Nanodegree that Udacity offers is a form of learning where you pay a payment each month and study a particular subject for around 6-12 months, after which you receive a certificate of completion. Many people ask are Udacity Nanodegrees worth it – it’s a tough question to answer! Students do receive a lot of information and get the ability to learn a particular IT-based skill rather thoroughly. However, it probably all depends on your own preferences and expectations. So, are Udacity Nanodegrees worth it? Well, they won’t guarantee you a job like the Nanodegree Plus does… Or, rather, did.
- Udacity Nanodegree Plus. The Nanodegree Plus was a special form of learning that the students over at Udacity could partake in. The main distinguishing feature of the “Plus” program was that Udacity guaranteed* you a job after you’ve successfully finished the desired program. Now, you may notice that I have placed an asterisk at the end of that word – because there always is one, isn’t there? Udacity guaranteed you’d get a job… OR it would refund you the course price in full. Even though this might be somewhat reassuring, it still doesn’t really make up the time spent learning, at the very end. But you don’t need to worry about “is Udacity Nanodegree worth it?”, at least when it comes to its Pro version – as of December 5, 2017, Udacity no longer allows new participants in the program (in other words – it’s discontinued). There is a lot of speculation online for why that’s the case, but no one has a clear answer.
These are the two main features that the platform offers. If we’d look over at some of the user Udacity reviews on these specific features (now – feature), we can see that students are generally satisfied with both the amount and the quality of choices found on the platform.
When it comes to the actual prices for Nanodegrees, however, things take a quick leap. A Nanodegree course costs $200 USD a month, and (as I’ve mentioned earlier) can last anywhere from 6 to 12 months. This means that the price of a Nanodegree on Udacity could go up to $2400 USD.
Khan Academy
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Khan Academy is free—not to be confused with freemium or ad-supported. To use Khan Academy, you don’t even need an account. As a website, Khan Academy is available anywhere there is an Internet connection, which includes about forty percent of the world’s population, and, thanks to a grant from Google’s Project 10^100, much content has been translated for anyone who uses a widely-spoken language. (Khan Academy even offers French, Portuguese, and Spanish versions of its site).
On Khan Academy, everyone is a student at one time or another. In addition to searching for keywords, you can also explore the following subject offerings: Math, Science, Economics and finance, Computing, Test prep, Partner Content, College Admissions, Talks and Interviews, and Coach Resources. Some subjects are more complete than others.
For example, Math has resources for every grade K-8 (U.S.), foundational materials for areas such as geometry and algebra, and more than a dozen options for high school (and beyond), ranging from basic algebra to differential equations. Arts and the humanities, meanwhile, caters to art historians, and to a lesser degree musicians and historians.
Lessons are highly interactive. As the instructor describes and types code on one end of the screen the effects become immediately visible on the other end. The same is true whenever you take control. Your errors are also quickly addressed and explained.
That focus on hands-on learning, along with clear directions and a relaxed pace, makes Khan Academy’s coding lessons a great starting point for people who know absolutely nothing about the subject. There are even experimental courses on using JavaScript to draw, courses you can complete with just a touch screen.
edx
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- Founded by leading U.S. universities Harvard and MIT. Unlike the other course providers, edX is a non-profit organization. It has many good and often free courses on a wide range of topics.
- Navigating the courses is a bit more complicated than with its direct competitor Coursera, especially within the discussion forums. Ultimately, however, it is just a matter of getting used to the format.
- The video lectures of most courses are accessible via YouTube and are available to download for offline learning.
- Many courses are available for free without a certificate (choose “Audit” when registering).
- First-time users of the edX platform can get confused with the many different names for the course series, such as MicroMasters, Professional Certificate, XSeries, Online Master’s Degree and Global Freshman Academy. However, most differences are due to marketing. The MicroMasters and the Master’s Degree also enable students to get academic credit at U.S. universities.
- The course availability can also be confusing for learners. Many edX courses will eventually be “archived“. This just means that the course is still accessible, but it is no longer actively supervised by the respective university (i.e., no exams or certificates available).
- In some cases, users have criticized that receiving certificates can take a long time. For courses that run over several weeks, certificates are usually issued at the end of the course. Some courses include a manual exam evaluation by the course team.
Treehouse
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Treehouse offers a variety of coding classes for beginners and advanced coders, and its built-in tools make it easy to follow along. The website couldn’t be simpler to use: You can easily find courses, see your progress, and access the student forum right from your dashboard.
The forum is a great resource for when you’re struggling with a coding exercise and need a helping hand, especially if you’ve been staring at the same code snippet for a very long time.
Treehouse offers a basic plan for $25 per month that includes access to learning videos and student forums, as well as code challenges to test your skills. It also offers a Techdegree Plan for $199 per month for those who want to get certification. The Techdegree Plan includes a custom curriculum, real-world projects, an exclusive Slack channel, peer reviews, and a proctored final exam. Each offers a free seven-day trial.
The Odin Project
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The Odin Project was created to provide a complete path for students to become employed as web developers while working with other students along the way.
Students start with the course Introduction to Web Development, before moving on to Web Development 101 and more in-depth modules including HTML, CSS, Javascript, Ruby, Rails, Git, databases and more. The tutorials are completely flexible, allowing students to work through each lesson or jump to different lessons/projects.
The Odin Project is open source and is best for beginners, or those who have tried other resources without success, who want to work as a web developer, do freelancing work, build a startup, or learn to build a website.
HankerRank
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HackerRank was the first company from India to be backed by the tech investor Y Combinator and has now grown to become the leader of technical skill assessments for developers. Many of the top tech companies use HackerRank when giving coding challenges and performing technical interviews for their candidates.
They also have practice questions for software engineers looking to learn new languages and skills or for those who want to prepare for upcoming technical interviews. Their questions are classified by skill level in data structures, algorithms, and general math and in a variety of languages. HackerRank also has a variety of contests and a job board.
HackerRank has two main audiences. The first is companies who are looking to hire developers. They use the platform to test their candidates on technical questions. The second is software engineers who are looking to advance their skills and practice for these technical interviews. Since they have questions of varying skill levels, anyone who has some background in software engineering should be able to benefit from HackerRank.
For users, HackerRank is free. They make their money from the companies that use their platform to assess candidates. Users do need to sign up for a profile in order to access the questions, but there is no application process.
Sitepoint
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You may have heard of Learnable, which has been fully absorbed into its parent company, SitePoint. Learnable’s offerings are now available with a SitePoint Premium account ($99 per year), which is actually less expensive than before ($15 per month or $180 per year). You can still access a huge library of ebooks, as well as video and screencast classes.
Like many online coding schools, SitePoint uses a subscription plan. While there is a lot of content available for free, you must pay $99 per year in order to access ebooks, classes, and other premium content. If you opt for the free 14-day trial, though, your subscription will be renewed to a $15-per-month plan, which adds up to $180 per year. The trial requires a credit card, and your subscription will auto-renew after two weeks if you don’t cancel.
The Premium plan includes more than 5,000 premium videos and more than 80 ebooks, as well as the ability to download courses and earn course certificates. It also offers live Q&A and chat with experts and live support.
You can pause and resume your subscription at any time, though you have to “renew” your pause every month, which is a small hassle. However, SitePoint will send you a reminder three days before your pause expires. Treehouse also lets you pause and resume subscriptions.
SitePoint’s library is regularly updated with new classes and ebooks. In addition to coding classes, SitePoint also has a path called Business Skills for Internet People, which includes courses on building a web-design business and project management for freelance developers. Treehouse offers some non-coding classes, including one on starting your own business, but if you need both business and coding classes, SitePoint may be the better choice.
Coderbyte
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Coderbyte is a cloud-based pre-employment testing solution that helps companies conduct coding assessments for technical positions. It comes with an activity dashboard, which enables administrators to configure system settings, monitor activity logs, send invitation links to potential candidates, and view completion status on a centralized platform.
Coderbyte allows businesses to define multiple qualification criteria for applicants, detect plagiarism in tests, and generate performance reports to rank candidates using predictive analytics. Users can utilize the built-in challenge library to create customizable assessments with multiple choice questions (MCQs) and skill-based questions. Plus, it provides managers with tools to create user profiles with details such as candidate name, email and joining date, and capture screen recordings of ongoing and completed coding tests to streamline recruitment operations.
Coderbyte lets enterprises add business logos, custom subdomains and official emails to the platform, enhancing customer experience with the brand. The solution also enables users to automate and improve onboarding processes by integrating with various third-party applicant tracking systems (ATSs).
Codingame
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The goal of CodinGame is to help programmers improve their coding skills by solving problems, learning new concepts, and getting inspired by other strong developers. Their challenges are gamified and can be played with multiple people, which gives it the feeling of fun rather than learning. Users can choose to work in any of their 25+ languages and can participate in online contests for prizes.
Users create a profile, which they use to access challenges and contests. They can also set their profiles as open to new opportunities, so employers can find them through the system and approach them about job openings. This program is currently in beta testing. They also have a forum for community members to chat about languages, questions, and share information.
For software engineers who have some coding experience and are looking to advance their skills, CodinGame is a good source. The program makes the lessons more fun and offers multiplayer activities, including contests.
They also have a connection to Tech.io, which is a knowledge-sharing platform for developers, where users with less experience can learn different languages or programs in a playground. That being said, the challenges are CodinGame are not for beginners as they require some background knowledge before you can participate.
CodeHS
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CodeHS tries to make high school a better place by giving educators easy tools for integrating coding classes into their curriculums. Even if your high school days are long behind you, you can still access plenty of coding lessons using the program.
Most of the best features are behind strangely structured paywalls, for organizations and individuals alike, but whether you choose to pay the $25 per month fee or just stick to the free intro courses, CodeHS is a great place to start your coding education.
CodeHS offers free coding classes for both schools and single users. Schools can enroll students in the full Intro to Computer Science course and track student progress without spending a dime of taxpayer money. Individuals can take the same introductory classes.
Read Also: Tips To Make Huge Income Online With Website Design
CodeHS’s classes tackle subjects like how to write JavaScript and the educational programming language Karel. Karel’s initial metaphor of commanding a dog on a grid is kid-friendly and easy to grasp while still resembling real coding more than Code Combat’s video game version of similar concepts.
CodeHS’s game development lessons are deeper yet easier to understand than Crunchzilla’s Game Maven course. You can even code your own version of Tetris, which is pretty much a perfect game.
Pluralsight
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Pluralsight was founded in 2004 by Aaron Skonnard, Keith Brown, Fritz Onion, and Bill Williams. The initial idea of the company was to offer face-to-face training to companies. Only in 2007 did they pivot the business and turned it into a distance training platform (with recorded video lessons).
In 2011, the company began to show exponential growth. It has become one of the best-known learning platforms on the market, ranking among the best companies to work for (in the small and medium-sized company category). In 2018, it went public on NASDAQ.
The company is headquartered in Utah, has over 1,400 employees and its classes are taught by over 1,500 expert authors. More than 70% of Fortune 500 companies have been trained on their platform and their territorial reach goes beyond 180 countries.
On Pluralsight, individuals and companies with a desire to learn tech skills can nurture and develop their careers, expand their knowledge and explore a wide range of courses.
They offer courses covering the major areas of Software Development, IT Ops, Data Professional, Architecture & Construction, Manufacturing & Design, Cloud Computing, Machine Learning/AI, Business Professional, Information & Cyber Security, and Creative Professional.
Pluralsight Free Trial is a great way to start learning on the platform. Pluralsight’s pricing model is based on monthly or annual subscriptions (they don’t offer single course payments, which is a bit disappointing, but we’ll leave this subject to another post).
MIT OpenCourseWare
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MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW) is a web-based publication of virtually all MIT course content. OCW is open and available to the world and is a permanent MIT activity. MIT OpenCourseWare is a free publication of MIT course materials that reflects almost all the undergraduate and graduate subjects taught at MIT. – OCW is not an MIT education. – OCW does not grant degrees or certificates. – OCW does not provide access to MIT faculty. – Materials may not reflect entire content of the course.
General Assembly
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General Assembly offers short and long courses in web and mobile development, product management, data science and more, online and in-person, across 15 campuses in 4 continents. Focusing on the most relevant and in-demand skills across data, design, business, and technology, General Assembly is confronting a skills gap and providing access to opportunities in tech. General Assembly offers a breadth of different course offerings and classes range from full-time immersive courses for learners that want to switch to a new career, to part-time courses for learners that are looking to improve their career trajectory by acquiring a new skill set, and mentor-led online circuits for a more flexible way to acquire foundational skills.
To apply for an immersive bootcamp, applicants need to submit an online application, then connect with a General Assembly admissions representative who will evaluate whether the course is a fit for an applicant’s experience and goals. Applicants then complete an admissions assessment to ensure they are prepared for the rigor of the curriculum. Once a student is accepted and has paid a down payment, their spot will be secured.
General Assembly career coaches work with students to create their career path, improve technical interview skills, and build a personal brand. Graduates can attend GA-hosted hiring events and meet hiring managers. The careers team partners with companies for course development and graduate placement and helps companies stay competitive in today’s digital landscape. Additionally, General Assembly has made a commitment to affordable and accessible education combined with an education-to-employment approach that helps to create a diverse talent pipeline.
In addition to long-form course offerings, General Assembly courses are also available as short form bootcamps (1-2 day workshops) as well as evening and weekend classes.
SoloLearn Inc
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SoloLearn is a series of free apps that allows users to learn a variety of programming languages and concepts through short lessons, code challenges, and quizzes. Lessons are written with the beginner in mind, so anyone can learn to read and write their own code. SoloLearn is available for free download for iOS on the App Store and for Android on Google Play. SoloLearn courses can also be accessed online.
SoloLearn has lessons for the following programming languages and concepts. Users can take as many lessons as they want for free.
- Web development (HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, JQuery)
- Python
- Java
- Kotlin
- C++
- C
- C#
- PHP
- SQL
- Algorithms and data structures
- Ruby
- Machine learning
- Design Patterns
- Swift
- Git
W3Schools
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W3Schools offers classes online only. This school offers training in 12 qualifications, with the most reviewed qualifications being HyperText Markup Language (HTML) Developer Certification, Certified HTML/CSS Developer, and Certified SQL Developer. Time to complete this education training ranges from 1 hour to 20 hours depending on the qualification, with a median time to complete of 20 hours. The cost to attend W3Schools ranges from $95 to $200 depending on the qualification, with a median cost of $100. When asked how they paid for their training, most reviewers responded, “I paid for it myself”.
The most commonly reported benefits of attending W3Schools are “Affordable” and “Good career preparation”, but respondents also mentioned “Flexible class hours” and “Good teachers” as notable benefits.
A List Apart
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A List Apart is a fantastic blog that recently released version 5.0 which brought a great new design. A List Apart explores the design, development, and meaning of web content, with a special focus on web standards and best practices.
A List Apart has a difficult review process for their articles that insures well written, helpful articles from established industry professionals. It covers a range of topics beneficial to those learning web design, with some topics having 100’s of posts that cover the category. Categories include Process, Content, Industry and more.
Udemy
![](https://i0.wp.com/megaincomestream.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/udemy.jpg?w=640&ssl=1)
Founded in 2010, Udemy is an online learning platform that can be used as a way to improve or learn job skills. While there are courses you have to pay for, there are plenty of free programming courses, which are taught via video lessons, such as Programming for Entrepreneurs — teaching Django- the #1 Python Frameworks, APIs, HTML, CSS, + Payments.
Linkedin Learning
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LinkedIn Learning is an MOOC provider. MOOC stands for Massive Open Online Courses. So, in this aspect, LinkedIn Learning is very similar to platforms like Udemy, Coursera and other well-known online course providers.
The site (LinkedIn Learning) itself is a subsidiary to LinkedIn. The “learning” version of the site is designed to help people learn useful and even essential skills that would help them do better in building their career paths in the current job market. The website provides courses on various different topics, starting from business and technology, all the way up to creative and artistic ones.
Back in 2015, LinkedIn purchased Lynda.com – a MOOC provider with a huge database of courses. All of the content that Lynda possessed (and still does) has been transferred (shared) with LinkedIn Learning. Even though all of the courses and learning paths are still available on Lynda.com, the site itself advises people to go to LinkedIn Learning
Finally
Learning to code used to mean hours and hours of expensive education. But, with all of the free coding resources available today you can learn to program in record time, with zero money up-front.
Of course, there is a multitude of paid programs and courses available as well. But the free resources are more than enough to get you started and develop the foundational knowledge to succeed as a programmer.
You don’t have to go through every single course or program on the list above, but instead, pick the ones that seem the most exciting and dive in.