With generative AI threatening to replace 300 million jobs worldwide, you may have some doubts about the occupation you’re studying for. Or, perhaps, coding is just something you’ve always wanted to try – but you can’t spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on an online or in-person bootcamp.
Whatever your reasons for opening this page are, you’re in luck. You can learn coding for free with all the online resources out there. All you need to do is pick one and make it a point to use it every day to develop your skills!
But let’s be honest, between your coursework, internships, part-time jobs, and social obligations, finding the time to learn coding can be challenging. This is where the phrase “do my essay for me” comes into play. By delegating some of your tasks, such as your essays, to reliable professional writing services, you can carve out the time you need to focus on mastering coding. It’s about balancing your responsibilities and prioritizing learning new skills. Just ensure that the services you use are reputable and uphold the highest academic integrity standards.
Don’t have the time for learning to code on your own? If the piles of homework on your desk are to blame, you can always hire essay writing services online to get rid of it! That’s how you can make time for diving into the world of programming – using the seven resources free below.
FreeCodeCamp
FreeCodeCamp has been around since 2014, and it’s more than just an online resource. It’s a full-fledged learning platform for people from all over the world. Every bit of information is presented as an exercise; you have to write and run code right in the browser to continue to the next lesson. Plus, you can get a public certificate by completing several projects!
This platform also doesn’t disappoint with the variety of courses you can find there. As of now, FreeCodeCamp offers courses on:
- Responsive web design
- JavaScript
- Front-end development libraries (Redux, React, etc.)
- Data visualization
- Relational databases
- Back-end development and APIs
- Quality assurance
- Scientific computing with Python
- Data analysis with Python
- Information security
- Machine learning with Python
- College algebra with Python
W3Schools
While FreeCodeCamp can take your skill level from a complete beginner to intermediate (at least), sometimes, it’s lacking in theoretical knowledge. But this is where W3Schools comes in.
Consider it a Wikipedia for coding: it contains tutorials and breakdowns of functions, variable types, classes, etc. This goes for almost every programming language and framework you can think of (JavaScript, Python, Java, PHP, Bootstrap, and more). You’ll also find some examples and exercises on every W3Schools page.
Coursera
If you’ve ever looked into online courses, you’ve come across this name: Coursera. It’s one of the largest MOOC platforms out there. You can find courses from leading universities and companies alike on subjects ranging from art and design to – you guessed it – programming and computer science.
Coursera is home to online courses from the likes of Google, IBM, and Meta. Here are just some of the courses you can find on this platform:
- Introduction to Software Engineering (IBM)
- Foundations of Cybersecurity (Google)
- Foundations of AR (Meta)
As for the pricing, it’s free to audit online courses (meaning you can complete them in full), but certification will cost you extra.
edX
Another multi-purpose MOOC platform, edX was created by Harvard and MIT to share knowledge for free. Now, both tech giants and leading universities have their courses on this platform. Computer science and programming are popular subjects on edX, so you may even struggle to choose just one course to focus on without help from the best research paper writing services !
Here are some of the online courses currently offered on edX:
- Introduction to ChatGPT (edX)
- Data science: R basics (Harvard University)
- Databases: relational databases and SQL (Stanford University)
Codecademy
Codecademy is a spiritual sibling of FreeCodeCamp. Its lessons are practice-driven, with the learning environment bearing a striking resemblance to a real IDE. Its courses are many and include:
- SQL
- JavaScript
- HTML
- Intro to ChatGPT
However, Codecademy isn’t 100% free: it’s freemium, instead. You don’t have to pay for basic access to introductory courses, but advanced courses require a subscription. There are two paid plans, Plus and Pro, starting at $17.49 and $29.99 per month, respectively. Pro comes with a 35% student discount, though!
Harvard’s CS50 (YouTube)
Most lists omit this YouTube channel for some reason, but it’s a treasure trove for anyone looking to learn computer science. CS50 is a Harvard introductory course on computer science, and the university uploads recordings of the lectures to its YouTube channel.
If you’ve ever tried to read a book on algorithms and binary code and almost fell asleep or felt your brain strain in the process, these lectures are a must-watch for you. Taking place on a theater stage, they show instead of telling, and the lecturer manages to make the toughest concepts easy to understand with analogies.
CS50 lectures are also comprehensive enough to be a solid intro to the world of programming. For example, CS50 2022 covers, among other things:
- C
- Data structures
- Memory
- Python
- SQL
- HTML, CSS, JavaScript
- Cybersecurity
- Flask
MIT OpenCourseWare
While you can find many of MIT’s courses on edX, MIT OpenCourseWare is a huge library that exceeds edX courses by and large. That’s because MIT OpenCourseWare gathers all materials from the university’s undergraduate and graduate courses – and makes them available for free. And since it’s MIT, many of those courses revolve around computer science and programming.
Here are just some of the courses that you can find on MIT OpenCourseWare:
- Introduction to machine learning
- Mathematics for computer science
- Collaborative data science for healthcare
Honorary Mention: Stack Overflow
Stack Overflow is a forum where developers from all walks of life help each other out when it comes to coding issues. If you’re serious about programming, this is where you can seek help whenever you run into an issue and you need an experienced developer’s help.
In Conclusion
Learning to code on your own is feasible, and you can grow into a professional developer without gaining a bachelor’s or master’s degree in the field. However, teaching yourself a certain skill requires a great deal of motivation and discipline.
If you know you might slack off after a week or two, here are several pieces of advice to help you see it through:
- Set aside time for coding every day. School may have taught you that it’s efficient to study a subject for 1-2 hours twice a week. But it’s not necessarily true. Instead, dedicate 15-30 minutes a day to learning with bite-sized lessons and exercises – and you’ll see progress faster.
- Try different approaches and resources. Some people will find CS50 lectures the most interesting and efficient way to study. Others will love FreeCodeCamp’s bite-sized lessons. So, find what works for you.
Have a schedule. If you’re a procrastinating type of person, scheduling your study sessions can help you avoid this pitfall. Use your calendar and set reminders for those.