I first came across Flavio Copes a few years ago while searching for clear, practical guides on web development. He's a seasoned software engineer, author, and educator, well known for breaking down complex topics into approachable, easy-to-follow tutorials. One thing that really stood out to me early on was that Flavio makes many of his books available for free if you sign up for his newsletter.
What I didn't realize at the time, however, was that Flavio is also the creator of The Valley of Code - a comprehensive and completely free learning resource for programmers, with a strong focus on web development.
I recently rediscovered the site through one of his newsletters and noticed that it has been significantly updated. The Valley of Code is now modern, polished, and fully up to date, both in design and in content.
The site is organized into thirty sections, covering everything from fundamental concepts to more advanced topics such as networking and databases. These sections are clearly aimed at people entering the field, making them ideal as structured introductions for aspiring developers or anyone looking to strengthen their foundations.
If you’re learning web development or brushing up on the basics, The Valley of Code is worth a look. It's well-structured, easy to follow, and completely free - a high-quality resource that's great to see shared openly with the developer community.
Top comments (5)
This is a great shout — Flavio has a real talent for making fundamentals feel approachable without dumbing them down.
I’ve always appreciated how much emphasis he puts on foundations rather than chasing frameworks, and The Valley of Code reflects that really well. The fact that it’s structured, up to date, and fully free makes it especially valuable for people just starting out.
Resources like this age well because they focus on concepts that don’t change every six months.
Definitely a solid recommendation for anyone building their base 👍
Thanks, Dominik. I made the post hoping it would be useful to others on their webdev journey!
You definitely hit that goal — posts like this are especially valuable because they focus on foundations and mental models, not just tools or frameworks.
I’ve been thinking a lot about the same problem recently, which is why I put together a ChatGPT Tutorial for Beginners (2026 Edition) — less about prompts, more about how to reason, ask better questions, and avoid shallow learning when using AI.
Resources that help people build how to think rather than what to type tend to age the best. Thanks for sharing this one — it’s a great reference for anyone early in their journey 🚀
Cheers, Dominik. Always appreciate your feedback. Will have to check out your post too - sounds really rather interesting!
Cheers! I appreciate that — and no rush at all, it’s very much a “read when useful” kind of post 🙂
Either way, keep sharing resources like this. Thoughtful curation is just as valuable as writing tutorials, especially for people still building their footing in web dev.