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My Favorite Free Resources for New Programmers

Ali Spittel on August 13, 2018

Last week, I shared my tips for new developers and how to start coding. I also wanted to share my favorite free resources for learning how to code....
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Debashis Dip

Personally I felt like most of the resources we find online are great, However Harvards CS50 course teaches a student from the ground to the top. Great emphasis on algorithm, thinking and in some ways teaching how to learn and think in cs.

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Charles Joseph

Could you drop a link to this? Thank you

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Debashis Dip
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Abdifatah Mo

Do know where to find this course in youtube?

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Debashis Dip
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David Chase

Thats a really good one :)

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zarulyakuza

freenode.net port 6666

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tux0r

I usually recommend to check the "awesome list" for your programming language:
github.com/sindresorhus/awesome/bl...

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ssharizal

FreeCodeCamp should be here.

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Ben Halpern

I'll also toss in dev.to as a tool. Obviously I'm biased, but If you come actively seeking help, you will find it comes to you a lot of the time.

Check out @brendazam for an example of someone using the platform really well in this regard.

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[Deleted User]

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Brenda Limón

Been a beginner learning online is hard, too many questions and a lot of information. Having a community as Dev.to allows me to ask without been judged and get the support that I need to stay focused. Ben and Ali you both are an inspiration, thanks for all your content. Hugs & Husky love 🐶👩🏻‍💻

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Ali Spittel

Totally agree! Going to add in a communities section right now!

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JustinK • Edited

I added a Google custom search for devdocs.io, it's a really handy resource full of documentation for pretty much every language or framework. Plus it works offline!

Also, dev.tube/ is basically the Netflix of dev videos, very handy.

And once you're ready to start looking for a coding job, I recommend pramp.com, which pairs you up with other students to practice interview-style coding challenges.

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Ogechi Ike

I would add Practical Javascript and MongoDB University to the list. Gordon Zhu's course is one of the best introductions to Javascript that I've ever came across and MongoDB University is great source for intro to NoSQL databases.

university.mongodb.com/courses/cat...

watchandcode.com/courses

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Donita

I love watch and code! It helped me drastically!

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ssharizal

Free Programming books from StackOverflow
goalkicker.com/

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Sereio-do-Brejo

Wow !
I never heard about it before !
Thanks a lot!

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Adrian B.G. • Edited

I have some folders of bookmarks for this purpose, as I don't have the time now to go trough them I would like to add:

Do not throw all these resources to a new starter, filter them based on on the developer experience and future, and share them when needed.

I have 2 main categories or mentees:

  • devs that have the time, resources and desire to want a career - spend at least a few months to learn CS and a strong typed language, before jumping in the web chaos ecosystem
  • devs that want to land a job and get a quick start: help them choose one language and crashcourse it, jump quickly to libraries and "real" projects.

The main idea is that, CS and other soft skills will add value on the long run, and they can build a strong foundation to build upon. The downside is that it will not bring much value at the beginning, unless you aim for a big tech company that build tools for other devs, and work at a more low level (instead of building products for end consumers).

Also some big categories are missing from here I think (not much just the big picture):

  • environment and tools (how linux and browsers works, bash, Git, linters, IDE's vs editors, etc)
  • security - unfortunately most courses and tutorials do not touch this subject so we have to supply the info as the newbie advances.
  • team work - how software teams and projects are organized
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DeChamp

Been coding for 24 years now, start at age 11 and now 35. Love that I still learn new things from new programmers. Really appreciate you sharing your resources!

I would love to suggest adding Udemy to the list. They always have "sales" where you can get their courses for less than $20 bucks. They are highly well done and an amazing resource.

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Shripathy 🚀

Awesome resources but I think this is going to be one of those article that's gonna be in my bookmarks but I rarely open it. Thanks for the list :)

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DevLorenzo
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Jhossymar Contreras

Codingame.com is another site for Code Challenges

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Lea Reimann 🦄

Jep, I wanted to recommend that too :D Challenging and fun at the same time! :)

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Marta

I like and would recommend some of the already mentioned. Others I didn't know them. If you speak Spanish, I'd also recommend CodigoFacilito 😊

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Wernich ️

i've found quite a few interesting and helpful tutorials on css-tricks.com/ ;)

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Stephen Chiang

I like You don't know JS . Great free reading from your phone while queuing.

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The Javascript Ninja • Edited

Great list of resources; well researched. In addition, my blog, thejavascriptninja.com, has some awesome Javascript learning content that you might want to check out if you're interested. Awesome job, keep up the great work.

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Krishan111

Mam can you guide me on, which library from smtplib or send_mail should I use to send emails through a django website.
Thanks

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Dinesh Pandiyan • Edited

Adding to this collection,

If someone wants to keep updated on front-end tips and news - smashingmagazine.com

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Maruf Alom

You forgot "THIS IS SPARTA sorry CS50!!"

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Paul Lefebvre

A free PDF for new programmers: Introduction to Programming with Xojo

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Evgeny Pogrebnyak

Why a new programmer should learn an exotic language?

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Paul Lefebvre

Learning to program does not mean "learning a language". It means learning the concepts behind programming that you can apply to any language. Starting with a language that is simpler can make it easier to learn these basic concepts and prevent frustration (and even giving up entirely on learning to program). Once you've learned the concepts it makes it much, much easier to learn other languages. In general, most programmers know several different programming languages.

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Ogechi Ike • Edited

I would add Shay Howe's HTML & CSS tutorials and P1XT's Guides to the list:
learn.shayhowe.com/advanced-html-css/
github.com/P1xt/p1xt-guides

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KLGF (she/her)

Thank you so much Ali! This is very helpful.

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Sharoz Ijaz

what is the best place to learn JavaScript

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Deepak Raj

Website to Learn Python, Machine Learning And Data Science.
bit.ly/codeperfectplus

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Tim Smith

I LOVE listening to the Syntax podcast with Wes Bos and Scott Tolinski. They are full-stack devs who talk about all kinds of things. syntax.fm/

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Stephen Chiang

You don't know JS is also great to bookmark and read from phone whole queueing.

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Johan

Another ones

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Hamihimself

Thanks

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Nick Taylor

Another one I love for JS katas is es6katas.org.

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Arvind Padmanabhan

As an introduction, developers can also check out Devopedia at devopedia.org/ . There are not many JS articles there at the moment but lot of useful CSS articles.

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MOHIT TATER

Geeks for Geeks is another good resource for computer science puzzles and problems. Mostly useful for interview prep.

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Abdur-Rahmaan Janhangeer
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/\/\att /\nderson

Udacity? Some excellent (free) courses there...

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Margo Breäs

Sometimes it's hard to discover all those possibilities to get better at Python, so thank you for this list of resources!

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Sharoz Ijaz

what is the best place to learn JavaScript??

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DevLorenzo

I created my list of cheat sheets too - dev.to/devlorenzo/the-ultimate-com...

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Na Jm

Awesome Paaa jiiii