Do you fancy getting into web development, but have no idea how to get started? We’re living in the wonderful times of knowledge sprawling through the web, becoming accessible and often free to anyone who asks for it. But the overwhelming number of free online resources has a clear downside to it as well, since it can be difficult to find a noteworthy or suitable page in the sea of websites. This is the main reason, why we thought of getting the best of these resources together and making your choice that little bit easier.
Now, if you really do not know anything about the general idea behind coding, you’ll need to know that the very first step will always be learning HTML and CSS. It’s often advised that in order to stay motivated in the learning, one of the back-end languages should be learned at the same time, so that you get a real feel of what it is that your pretty site or web application will do. Without it, the site will only have the looks, and your motivation can drop. Some of the popular back-end development languages are Python, Java, PHP, Ruby on Rails and Django.
The choice of the most suitable method of learning the right language may depend very much on your preference.
There are full-blown websites for on-line learning, such as:
Codeacademy - a completely free on-line courses, covering HTML with CSS, Rails, AngularJS, Ruby on Rails Authentication, Javascript, jQuery, Python, Ruby and PHP. There are built-in test and validate pages for you to try the skills as you go.
Code School provides free access to 10 introductory courses and offers a paid extension for the advanced material.
Free Code Camp - a place to get the basic knowledge of HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Node.js and Angular.js for free.
The Odin Project is a page for people to learn HTML, CSS, Ruby, Ruby on Rails, JavaScript and jQuery for free and with cooperation with others. This is one way to make sure you won’t run out of motivation.
Quackit - a great page with free step by step courses in HTML, CSS, JavaScript, ColdFusion, PHP, VBScript, SQL, MySQL, SQL Server, Microsoft Access, XML and AJAX. All simple and with no registration required.
From among the more intriguing sites, we can propose:
Code Mentor - it’s a paid 1:1 mentoring site, with prices from $10 for 15min
Code Combat for those who fancy learning by making on-line multi-player games
or Viking Code School, which takes on applicants, teaches a full web developer skill set and later assists in finding them jobs. It’s not free, however.
You can also benefit from browsing a systematically built database for the best courses, sorted by subject (front end, back end, databases, API and mobile) and including links to websites, offering free courses on all languages: Bento.
Whatever you do, there is no way to say that learning web development is difficult to start with, is there? All the best of luck to those who dare to try!