Ever since I launched my intro course on React at Scrimba, I've gotten weekly requests from people asking me to create an advanced follow-up course, many of whom have told me that my course was what finally enabled them to grasp React. So over the past six months, I've been working towards giving my students a follow-up course.
Today I'm super excited to finally launch The React Bootcamp — the best and biggest course I've ever created.
Click here to get to the course! (<-- link)
In this article, I'll explain how the course is laid out, how it's built pedagogically, and give you some tips for how you can get the most out of it.
Reaching a hirable level in React
First of all, the goal of this course is to turn you into a hirable React developer. So your first question is probably: how do I know what level is hirable? While there's no black and white answer to this, I have a pretty good idea of what it takes. Over the last six years, I've helped hundreds of students turn into professional front-end developers at V School, the coding bootcamp where I work as the Director of Education. One of our primary focuses in the course is React, and while many of our students end up in dev careers doing something different, many of them end up working in React.
I've seen again and again what kind of skill-level a student needs to have in order to get a job. In this course, I aim to teach you those exact skills.
It's an ambitious goal, and it requires a ton of work from you. You have to dedicate a lot of time and return to the course again and again, as this isn't the type of content you binge-watch once. Secondly, you have to do the interactive code challenges I give you throughout the course. They're even more important than the lectures themselves.
With that in mind, let's have a look at the content itself.
The content: 118 lectures, nine modules
The course contains 118 lectures spread across nine modules. Each module covers one or more core concepts needed on the path of becoming a professional React developer. Here they are:
Introduction
Performance
React Context
Capstone Project
Redux
Some of the bullet points above are links that will take you to the first lecture of the section. That should give you an impression of some of the modules.
In total, the content clocks over 12 hours. However, it's going to take you a lot more than 12 hours to get through this course. This isn't just because you should re-watch the parts you struggle to understand, but also because I'll constantly be stress-testing your skills by giving you interactive challenges, which brings me to the next section.
How the interactive challenges work
The unique thing with Scrimba is that you're able to interact with the code directly inside the screencast. This is unlike any other learning platform out there.
The interactivity is what makes Scrimba the ultimate code-learning tool.
It's almost as if you and I are pair programming together. From my previous React course, I know that students love these challenges. So in this course, I'm focusing even more on this type of interactivity.
Here's how it works: Whenever I teach a concept that I know a lot of students will struggle to grasp, or easily forget, I'll simply ask you to perform a coding challenge directly in the player. You'll hit the pause button and start coding immediately. When you're done, you can hit the play icon again, and I'll show you how I solved it.
Click on the image below to see one of the interactive code challenges. It should give you a better impression of how it works:
You can solve your solutions so that you have something to go back to later as well.
How to succeed with this course
The next thing I want to talk about is how you should approach this course, as you'll have a much greater chance of succeeding if you do it the right way. These tips are rooted in my personal learning philosophy, which I've developed over the years as a teacher at V School.
1. The easy way is the hard way, so do the challenges!
It might seem a bit counter-intuitive, but the easiest way to learn a new skill is actually by forcing yourself to do it the hard way. This means that you're going to have to be comfortable with the feeling of failure, the feeling of being bad at something.
The code you write in the interactive coding challenges is probably going to be bad, and you'll feel like you're not skilled enough to solve them. However, they're absolutely critical if you are to actually learn these concepts. So while the seem hard there and then, they're actually the easiest way to get better.
While it seems easier to just sit back and watch tutorials, and skip ahead to my solutions, it's much harder in the long run, as you won't actually learn it.
2. Spaced learning and repetition is key, so don't binge-watch!
While it can be tempting to binge-watch a course, it's not the best way to learn. Your brain needs time to process all the new information, and you'll retain much more if you space it out over a longer period of time, ideally weeks, or even months.
I'd recommend you to set off an hour or two per day (or whatever suits your schedule), and then commit to doing it every day. This way, you'll get into a habit of improving your coding skills.
Repetition is also key. So rewatch sessions when you feel you need a refresher or even go back a couple of lessons every time you return to the course. Finally, a good way to repeat what you've learned is to apply it in projects on your own. You can do that in-between course session, as it'll allow you to stress-test your skills in a different context.
3. Learning shouldn't be lonely, so join the Slack channel!
Finally, learning is always easier when done in collaboration with others. Because of this, we've created a dedicated Slack channel for the course. In it, you can connect with other students, and also ask me questions if you're stuck.
I'd strongly recommend you to take advantage of this. Share your wins in the channel, cheer for others, and you'll feel less lonely when you're sitting hour after hour and churning through the material.
This course will never be completed
On my end, this course will never be finished. I plan to update it on a regular basis with new content. Not only when React launches changes in their APIs so that certain casts need to be renewed, but also with whole new subjects or even sections.
For example, within the next couple of months, I'm going to add a new section about testing. This comes at no extra cost for the people who've already bought the course, you have full access to the updates as well. However, for people who haven't yet bought the course, the list price might increase, as the value increases as well.
What are the pre-requisites?
You should know HTML, CSS, and JavaScript before taking this course, and you should also know basic React. If you're completely new to React, you're better off starting with my free intro React course first. That'll teach you the core concepts that I'm assuming you already know when enrolling in this one.
As for your JavaScript skills, you should be familiar with functions, classes, arrays, objects, and ES6 syntax shouldn't scare you either, as we'll be using that in the course. Scrimba has a free course on modern JavaScript by freeCodeCamp, and if you've completed that one, and understood it, you're good to go for my course as well.
What does it cost?
The list price is $99. However, during the launch period, you'll get it at a 60 percent discount for $39. This is a one-time payment. You pay once and have access to the course forever. There are no constraints in terms of timing or location, take the course whenever and wherever you want. I'd recommend you to take advantage of the offer during this launch period, as the price will increase after it's over. And as I add more content, the list price itself might even increase.
Good luck, and looking forward to meeting you in the Slack channel :)
Bob
Top comments (2)
Happy to hear this Bob. Can't wait to start this course.
where can i get the course for 39?