Phenomenal FREE Platforms To Learn Coding

If you are new to the world of coding, it makes sense to start by teaching yourself using free resources online. Also, if you familiar with many things it's always good to research or improve in new technologies.

By taking advantage of these free resources, you can learn what you want and don’t waste money upfront. Once you’ve gone through enough free coding platforms you know what you want and can specialize in that field of coding.

FreeCodeCamp and The Odin Project

FreeCodeCamp

One of the best websites to improve your coding is freeCodeCamp. It contains numerous exercises based on different topics and languages for practice. Also, this website provides a means to get certified based on your skills by taking their test.

I would highly suggest having a look at their website here and starting to learn.

The Odin Project

The Odin Project is a platform where everyone can learn coding in Ruby on Rails and JavaScript. The platform is designed for people who could not attend an intensive coding school or had access to good computer science education.

The Odin Project follows these beliefs:

  • Education should be free and accessible
  • You learn best by actually building
  • Motivation is fueled by working with others
  • Open source is best

I personally think that this project is mandatory for every person who wants to learn any of the two programming languages.

Here is a link to the website


Furthermore, I found a video from Dorian Dominguez where he perfectly describes why FreeCodeCamp and The Oding project are the most important resources to learn to code and why he always recommends these resources:

Exercism

Exercism is a platform that exists to help as many people as possible to attain fluency in ANY programming language. It provides many concept exercises to improve your coding skills.

They say:

We want to help anyone get really good at programming, regardless of their background, through a mixture of practical-learning, practice and mentorship.

The best thing about this website is that it publishes all information, and all tutorials for free. Also, you are able to keep track of your progress. Additionally, you can opt in as a mentor and share your knowledge with other people.

Exercism contains tutorials/exercises for 55 different languages that you want to master: Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, Go, and many more.

Here is a link to the Exercism website.

Since 2020 they also have a YouTube channel where they show tutorials from time to time:

Codecademy

Codecademy was started with the goal to give anyone in the world the ability to learn the skills they need to succeed in the 21st century.

To achieve this goal Codecademy provides ~15 courses in different programming languages. Many of them are free but some are only included in the Pro version which cost 18$ a month.

Screenshot of codecademy.com taken by the author

At the moment many free courses are available within the catalog. You can start a quiz here to find out which course is best suited for you.

hackr.io!

To be clear, this isn’t a coding platform itself, but it’s a great resource for community-curated programming courses. You can simply search for the programming language you want to learn and you’ll get a list of the best courses, tutorials, and books that are recommended by coders and available online.

Screenshot of hackr.io taken by the author

Here is a link to the website

Bonus 1: WarriorJS

Legend tells of a legendary sword, forgotten in the ruins of an abandoned tower. Thousands of warriors have set off on a quest for the sword, whose bearer would become enlightened in the JavaScript language.

WarriorJS is a learning platform for JavaScript that teaches you JavaScript while you playing a game. This game is designed for new or advanced JavaScript programmers and will put your skills to the test!

Screenshot of WarrioJs.com taken by the author

Here is a link to the website

Bonus 2: Elevator Saga

This is a game of programming! Your task is to program the movement of elevators, by writing a program in JavaScript.

Elevator Saga is a game where you have to use JavaScript to transport people with an elevator in an efficient manner. While progressing through the different stages you have to complete even more difficult challenges.

Only efficient programs will be able to complete all challenges.

Here is a link to the website

Closing Notes

Within this article, I showed some cool coding platforms that you can use to start with coding. Taking advantage of any of the free coding resources out there is definitely the way to go when you are just starting.

If you want a Gamification approach to learning to code you should check out this article:

Learn JavaScript while Playing Games — Gamify Your Learning
Using Gamification To Amplify Your Software Development Skills And Learn JavaScript.

Also, if you only want to learn Python I have gathered some resources (videos, books, and websites), and listed them in this article :

How To Start With Python Programming
Do You Want To Start With Python? I Have 7 YouTube Channels, 5 Books, 5 Websites Covering Everything You Need To Know.

I hope you find any of these coding platforms helpful and find a suitable platform to start your learning.

I would love to hear your ideas and thoughts. If you can provide another free coding platform don’t hesitate to comment here. Also, if you have any questions, please jot them down below. I try to answer them if possible.

Feel free to connect with me on Medium, LinkedIn, Twitter, and GitHub.