Ali Spittel

Posted on Aug 13, 2018 • Edited on Feb 18, 2019 • Originally published at zen-of-programming.com

My Favorite Free Resources for New Programmers

#beginners #learntocode #javascript #python

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. I have used or gone through each of these personally, so I can vouch for them being good quality and beginner friendly!

For HTML and CSS

A game for learning CSS selectors: CSS Diner
A game for learning CSS Flexbox: Flexbox Froggy
A game for learning CSS Grid: CSS Grid Garden
A video I made for learning CSS from zero: Learning CSS Through Creating Art
An awesome CSS Grid series by Jen Simmons: Layout Land

For JavaScript

FreeCodeCamp
A video series introducing JavaScript: Khan Academy Computer Programming
An awesome more advanced written introduction to JavaScript: A re-introduction to JavaScript
30 days of JavaScript challenges with corresponding videos by Wes Bos: JS 30

For other Programming Languages and Concepts

This site has it all -- from HTML, CSS, and JS through frameworks and other programming languages. It has a unique REPL tutorial format: Code Academy - this would be my top recommendation for where to start.
Learn a web framework -- from the command line through Python and Django and through HTML and CSS -- all in roughly a day: Django Girls - their online tutorial was where web development clicked for me -- it was very pivotal in my career!
Try Ruby code directly in your browser: Try Ruby
Github has a series of tutorials for learning both Git and GitHub directly in the browser: Try Git
A full list of resources for learning Python

For Computer Science

A series of illustrated guides to computer science fundamentals: BaseCS - there are also podcast and video versions of some of these articles!
A bunch of cheat sheets I wrote when studying for interviews: Coding Cheat Sheets
Video versions of a lot of classes including computer science classes: MIT on YouTube

For Code Challenges

Tons of challenges with difficulties attached: CodeWars
Another code challenge site with more consistency: HackerRank
Mathematical coding problems: Project Euler

Awesome beginner Libraries

Build art with JavaScript: P5 JS
Build a customized map with JavaScript: Leaflet
Build virtual reality applications with HTML: A-Frame
Build a JavaScript game: Phaser

Communities

Ask questions with the #explainlikeimfive, #help, and #meta tags dev.to
Participate in Twitter chats, listen to awesome motivational podcasts, and read helpful blog posts: CodeNewbies - they also have a Slack group!

Your Favorites

Again, these are the resources that I have used myself or gone at least gone through, so I can definitely recommend them. Since I do mostly Python and JavaScript development, these lean pretty heavily in that direction! Tweet me your favorite resources! If you liked this article, subscribe to my weekly mailing list with my favorite links from the week and all of my writing from that week!

Latest comments (52)

Lorenzo • Mar 3 '21

Thanks for sharing
I created my list too - dev.to/devlorenzo/the-ultimate-com...

The ultimate Cheat sheets compilation (200+) - 🔥🎁 / Roadmap to dev 🚀

DevLorenzo ・ Mar 2 ・ 15 min read

#productivity #webdev #beginners #javascript

Lorenzo • Mar 2 '21

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

Arvind Padmanabhan • Feb 9 '21

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.

The Javascript Ninja • Dec 12 '20 • 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.