Learning Resources - My favourites

As mentioned in my previous post: My learning style consisted of reading, understanding and being able to give the knowledge back. Nevertheless, learning a programming language is all about the practice. So here are the resources I use to learn:

1. Get some theory

My starting point was reading Web Development books. Allthough there are tons of books, I pretty much enjoyed reading "Learning Web App Development" by Semmy Purewal. The book covers basic HTML, CSS, Javascript and also explains how a Server and Databases work. Each chapter ends with exercises and it's easy to follow along the explanations.
"HTML&CSS" and also "Javascript&JQuery"by Jon Duckett are nice to have aswell. The books are full of basic code examples and pictures of the output.
Watching YouTube tutorials is also a good method to get the basic understanding for how things work. There are a lot of channels available, I personally enjoy the stuff at Coding Tech to learn more about how things work and the projects from Florin Pop. But the YouTube universe is large and there are a lot of coding tutorials to follow along or just learn the basic theory from. Just dig into it.

2. Get some practice

A really good learning resource are the Free Code Camp tutorials. From basic HTML to advanced topics (like APIs), Free Code Camp got you covered. You learn by following along step-by-step explanations and at the end of a learning path you build your own projects to earn a certificate. Free Code Camp is free, but you have the option to donate a certain amount of money to keep the project alive, which considering the amount of practice and knowledge you get out of it, is really worth it (in my opinion).
Free Code Camp also has a YouTube channel and it's quite worth to take a look at.

I also learned using Codecademy, different Udemy courses, edX, Lynda... It was an actual course overflow, so I had to reduce it and got attached to Pluralsight. Since Coding Bootcamps are not available in my hometown or nearby, I decided to get on a full-year subscription at Pluralsight and really enjoy the large library, exercise courses and tutorials. Some tutorials though are quite outdated, so I make sure to stick to the newer ones. BUT to make it clear, it was my choice to pay for a learning page, with edX, Codecademy and Free Code Camp you have really great free resources available.


3. Get connected

Follow your favourite devs on Twitter! Don't know any devs yet? Dig into Twitter and follow them. Many Developers, tech movements and companies are on Twitter. Get connected, read what people are talking about to get to know what's "hot" in the industry or just watch Developer tweet about their personal experience or current work. Don't be scared...and that's coming from me: I silently followed different devs for months until I had the guts to one day comment on stuff. And again: That's totally fine! The dev community in general is just awesome and so supporting (at least that's my experience). This also shows you, that everyone started small, no matter where they are now. It personally keeps me motivated.

4. Last but not least: Challenge yourself

Again Twitter: Participate in the challenges. Wether it's #100daysofcode or even #hacktoberfest. Gain practice by participating in challenges. I have to admit, that I tried the #100daysofcode challenge for 2 times now, and always stopped at about 20/30 days in due to time issues (shame!shame!shame!), BUT I will try and try again until I finally get it done one day...
Oh, but I can proudly say that I participated at Hacktoberfest 2019. Another way to challenge yourself, which I just recently discovered are the challenges at Codepen. I can't do every challenge now, because some are quite tough, but I do the ones I can do. The spirit always is: Do what you can and never give up!


I hope there is someone out there, who finds value in this post. I tried my best to give an overview about the resources I used and still use. Happy coding