They say that you can teach yourself web development for free with all of the great resources available on the web, but honestly, there’s so much content that it can be overwhelming. Here’s my ever growing list of favorite resources. All resources are free, unless noted otherwise. Note: Last updated March 2020.
GENERAL WEB DEVELOPMENT
- FreeCodeCamp – Free project-based full stack online coding bootcamp, peer-based learning. They’ve really beefed up their offerings, with an estimated 2,700+ hours of work, followed by thousands of hours of interview prep. FreeCodeCamp is getting better all the time. If I had gone the straight JS route, definitely would have continued with FCC.
- TreeHouse – I love TreeHouse. They’re incredibly beginner friendly and cover a variety of topics, from web dev to data science, to UX design and business plans. Normally they are $25/month for the basic plan, but I lucked into a free membership via TheMuse.com. After that ended, I found out that the San Francisco Public Library offers free accounts. If you’re part of SFPL, sign up for a free TreeHouse account here.
- Codecademy – Very popular learn to code site, which I’ve found useful as a beginner, but maybe not as you get more advanced.
- Lynda.com – Lynda.com is the OG learning site. Normally $25/month for the basic option, but sign in to Lynda for free with your SF Public Library account!
- ThoughtBot’s Upcase community/ tutorials / videos – Used to be a $29 monthly subscription, but now it’s free! Setup for these tutorials can take a minute, and the material is more advanced, so it’s not the best option for just jumping in and learning to code.
- Software Programming & Coding Glossary for Kids – A great straightforward list of some basic programming terms. They also include links to some fun learn to code resources, like Scratch. While the list is targeted toward beginners, I think it could also be useful to scan if you’re getting ready for a job interview and want some practice explaining programming concepts (DNS, event handler, etc.). A reader passed this one on to me – thanks Amelia!
- And if you want more HTML specific terminology, Codecademy has a glossary as well.
FRONT END – HTML / CSS / JAVASCRIPT / ANGULARJS
- Flatiron School, my coding bootcamp has a free intro to JavaScript course
- Syntax – One of my favorite podcasts about front end web development
- Frontend Mentor – Practice your front end skills by coding up these free designs.
- SpringBoard’s Beginner’s Front-End Web Development Learning Path – Curated list of free resources. ~43 hours of work
- Flexbox Froggy & Grid Garden – The BEST way to learn Flexbox and CSS Grid.
- CSS Diner – Another gamified learn CSS site.
- Basic CSS Selector Syntax Explained Using Cats
- Can I Use – provides up-to-date browser support tables for support of front-end web technologies on desktop and mobile web browsers.
- Tony Alicea’s JavaScript: Understanding the Weird Parts & Learn & Understand AngularJS (not free, but worth the $20 or so bucks each)
- Learn CSS Layout
- Two of the best books on JavaScript are available for free – Eloquent JavaScript & You Don’t Know JavaScript
- Frontend Masters – Not free, but if you’re looking to go deep or prepare for an interview, I think the subscription price of $40/month is worth it.
BACK END – RUBY / RAILS / DJANGO
- Flatiron has a free intro to Ruby course as well. You build a tic tac toe game from scratch. This was the course that I completed to get into my bootcamp, so I have warm and fuzzy feelings toward it.
- SpringBoard’s Full Stack Web Dev learning path
- Regular Expressions with Rubular
- Why’s (poignant) guide to Ruby – a classic in the Ruby community
DATA SCIENCE – SQL / R / PYTHON
- Try SQL – CodeSchool – Great Gatsby/art-deco/movie themed!
- Try Python -I love these free intro CodeSchool courses, obviously – this one is Monty Python themed!
- SpringBoard’s Intro to Python for data science mini course
JEKYLL / GITHUB PAGES
PROGRAMMING, ETC
- ThoughtBot’s Guide to good Code Reviews
- What is Code?
- Harvard’s Super Famous Introduction to Computer Science course – THIS IS CS50x. This course is really challenging and time intensive. Someday I will finish you CS50!!!
- Soft Skills Engineering Podcast – A weekly advice podcast for software developers, covers non-technical issues
JOB HUNTING / INTERVIEWS
- The Coding Interview Bootcamp: Algorithms + Data Structures – Covers how to approach common tech screen interview questions (Palindromes, Array chunking) and data structures, all in JavaScript. I am really finding this helpful as a non-CS person.
- How to Pass a Programming Interview – TripleByte
- Udacity’s Technical Interviewing Course
- Debugging the Interview: Land a Junior Developer Job : CourseReport webinar w/ folks from the Startup Institute
- CodeWars
- HackerRank – HackerRank is kind of annoying to me, but lots of companies use HR as an initial screen
- LeetCode – Similar to HackerRank. If you’re interviewing for a programming job, you already know about LC.
- CSCareerQuestions subReddit – This community is made up primarily of computer science graduates looking for their first job at a prestigious tech company. Not applicable to me, but very interesting to watch.
- The Cracking the Coding Interview tutorial on HackerRank – Video tutorials and practice problems from the CTCI guru herself, Gayle Laakmann McDowell. She has a very pleasant video presence. It makes you feel like everything is going to be allright, you just gotta keep practicing.
- Khan Academy’s Intro to Algorithms
- List of Fully Remote Tech Companies
- List of companies that are hiring remote workers as of 2019
- The Muse released a helpful Google Sheets job application tracker , or if you’re a more visual person, you can use this Trello template, which is customized for software development job searches.
- InterviewCake – A paid resource, but you can sign up for their newsletter and get one free question per week. Good for helping you get into the right mindset for how to approach these crazy interview questions.
- Practice real coding interviews with software devs from top tech companies on Interviewing.io or amongst your peers at Pramp
- No CS Degree – interviews with self taught devs. Inspirational when you’re having a hard time with the job hunt, but also if you read enough of these, you get a better idea of how to tell your own story during an interview.