Other resources outside of freecodecamp?

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Hello all. I’m new to code and I’ve gone through the html/css course. I found it helpful as it was actively building things, whether it be a cat photo app website or a penguin etc. Sure these are primitive but it’s building something. I’m struggling with the JavaScript portion. I know this is a pro freecodecamp site, but have any of you had any success with other resources outside of freecodecamp? It’s helpful for me to have context when I’m learning code as opposed to a problem where I get a random number from an array. I understand that it’s important but I find if it’s related to a project, it makes more sense to me.

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As you go though the Javascript FreeCodeCamp course you will find more project based exercises. Such as the card counting and the record collection lessons.

However, I do know that exercism is more project based in its Javascript course. Such as building a program to estimate lasagne cooking time.

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Here is a list of projects you can check out

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I have a few sites I usually recommend that can be useful as references or “exploration”-sort of places where you can learn more about random things.

  • mdn - excellent reference material that is well linked and very thorough. I’d go here if you ever are unsure about something web-dev related
  • dev.to - Another software developer community, I usually recommend because it doesn’t have a paywall, many ads, does a lot for the open source community and has solid moderation, so it can be “less abrasive”.
  • devdocs.io - A pure reference site created and maintained by FCC itself! This site can be used as a way to get local references “offline” via the PWA feature.
  • codewars - a “code challenge site” that I personally find to be easier, and “more gamified” than other similar ones like hackerrank. The main thing I like about it is the challenges can be straight forward, and you can see other peoples solutions, so you can learn something even if you give up.

Finally I’d also recommend leveraging pre-existing freeCodeCamp resources outside of the main curriculum:

Some of the above can help with actual reference/learning, others can help you just “learn random stuff”.

Good luck, keep learning, keep building :+1:

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I really appreciate all the reply’s and links. This has been very helpful. Thanks everyone

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FCC isn’t so great for learning JS from scratch. Two other very strong resources for this are LearnWebCode, and The Odin Project. I didn’t understand javascript after a year of toying with it through other online courses until I found LearnWebCode. I just use FCC more to test my knowledge, and get a certificate. FCC has lots of exercises to test knowledge, but doesn’t really TEACH anything. Brad, the guy behind LWC is a true teacher, and you WILL learn (he also does courses on other front-end tech, including React, and WordPress development as well).

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Everyone’s experience is different. Personally, I think fCC does a pretty good job teaching JS specifically because it doesn’t hold your hand and baby step you the way other resources do. Everything you need in any given challenge is covered in previous challenges, but you don’t get ‘here is all the steps and syntax’ far more complex problems. You are expected to think about and experiment to solve the more complex challenges.

Everyone has different preferences. Some learners like more baby steps and hand holding. Our new curriculum that we’re working on will try to provide more context and ease the transition from basic syntax to more complex problem solving without doing the thinking for you.

JS is far harder than HTML and will take much more time and work to learn, especially if JS is your first programming language. In any case, you will need many resources once you are working on larger prok, and MDN and framework documentation is a great place start looking.

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@kcambrephoto , I’d recommend also checking out the free Scrimba course on JavaScript.

I’ve had some of the same thoughts and feelings as you since finishing the RWD course and starting JS, which is why I recently asked about when the new project-based JS course is coming out. Unfortunately, the answer I got was that it’s going to be a while. I’d like to come back to FCC to learn JS when I feel more ready for the current course or the new one comes out. In the meantime, I’ve been looking into a lot of alternatives, and I’ve narrowed down my choices to Scrimba and the Odin Project, which I think I might end up combining. I also like the way that JavaScript.info explains concepts, so I might use that as a supplemental resource as well.

After going through the JavaScript Basics module on FCC, I just did the first project /module on Scrimba’s free JavaScript intro course, and I’m finding it a huge breath of fresh air — much more my style of learning than anything else I’ve encountered so far, beside the new FCC RWD course. Not only is it project-based, but it also shows you right from the start how JavaScript, HTML, and CSS can all work together and make a webpage dynamic, interactive, etc. The first project is just a simple little counter app, but building that felt infinitely more meaningful, engaging, and “sticky” (as in making things stick in my brain) than going through a series of discrete, atomistic, de-contextualized, one-off challenges.

On top of that, the teacher also breaks down concepts, procedures, syntax, etc. and explains the underlying premises of things in a much more patient, expansive, and beginner-friendly way than FCC does with JS (the language of which can be quite terse, enthymematic, and opaque from a beginner’s standpoint, IMO). To me, this is one of the most fundamental aspects of good teaching (and communication in general, for that matter): adopting the perspective of the student/audience, trying to see the subject matter from their standpoint, and calibrating your language and level of explanations to take into account their level of understanding and knowledge, rather than your own.

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Thanks Daniel! That info is really helpful and I appreciate you taking the time to let me know about those. I plan to check out Scrimba soon

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