Wanna be a self-taught front-end developer without burning a lot of money? Here are some good resources.
Ever wondered about the right path to being a skilled front-end developer? You might have come across many resources; some of them look legit but can burn your pocket, whereas some are free but unorganised. I have been learning online for the past few years and here are some of the best resources to help you be a skilled front-end developer.
🪤 The content trap!
Just opened YouTube and searched for a tutorial. Wasn’t relevant but I have found this cool one in suggestion though. Wait, there is one more that is also teaching me X tool. Nothing significant after spending hours and just to realise I am confused now.
Does this sound familiar to you? No guilt, this happens with everyone. The amount of content we have available on the internet is more than enough to get you lost in there. When you are learning anything, the content should be organised and clear. Every instructor has their own way of explaining things that might not match with yours, and they don’t even know your prior experience with that problem/skill.
✅ Organised learning
Every engineer has a preferred way of learning. Some might like text, while others enjoy the audio-visual format. I have arranged some of them in categories to let you choose your favourites.
🎥 YouTube Resources
As this is one of the most popular platforms and has free resources, it’s easy to waste your time here. However, there are some creators having good content. I am not going to pick all of them but just a few(so you don’t get more confused again 😉). Here are some useful channels and playlists. These are in no particular order, pick what is suited to your learning style.
freeCodeCamp
If you have been coding even for a few months now, you must have gone through any of the resources from freeCodeCamp. This channel has content on almost every topic. It included a series of JavaScript, Python, HTML and CSS, Machine Learning, Data Science, Node.js etc. Hours-long programming crash courses on this channel are also helpful if you want to have it all in one video.
The content quality of this channel is top notch and you can see many people praising it often. I highly recommend this channel to everyone.
Traversy Media
Brad Traversy is really good at explaining things to newbies as well as experienced programmers. This channel has many crash courses on HTML, CSS, JavaScript, React.js, Angular, Node.js, Vue.js and many more.
Programming with Mosh
Like Brad, Mosh is very beginner friendly. You will see him coding from scratch and he will be explaining things assuming you don’t know anything about. Mosh also has many programming crash courses as single videos. There is content on HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Python, React.js, Angular, MySQL and whatnot.
The Net Ninja
Looking for a place to get all the organised playlists of JavaScript, TypeScript, Node.js, Vue.js, Flutter etc? If yes, this is the channel you were waiting for. Check out the first video of his Modern JavaScript Tutorial playlist and you will see how detailed that is. He teaches you the basics and delivers master-level content.
Web Dev Simplified
If you like a more simplified approach and want to learn all things web dev, this is your place. Be it making a calculator using JavaScript or learning CSS positioning in under 10 minutes, he got you covered.
Akshay Saini
I have just got to know about this channel and it’s awesome if you are starting up with JavaScript and want someone to explain easy and practical way. Akshay’s Namaste JavaScript playlist is very popular among new devs, especially in India. He also has good content on interview preparation.
Fireship
Want to know something about everything? Have an interest in all the latest build tools and frameworks? Fireship is the place to be at. However, this channel doesn’t have very well organised content and won’t be beginner friendly but have good videos to understand some concepts in a short amount of time.
🎓 Udemy Courses
No need to spend thousands on boot camps and certifications when you have skilled instructors with very well-arranged courses. The roadmap of these courses is well thought out and takes you from an absolute beginner to a skilled programmer.
You don’t need to spend a lot here. Just wait for the sale(which happens at least once in a month) and you can get it for less than $10.
I won’t be explaining each course in detail here and suggest you check the introductory videos of these courses yourself. Watch some of the free view lectures and understand the best suited for you.
Note: Some of the content may be repeated in these courses as creators are mentioned above in the YouTube resources list too.
The Web Developer Bootcamp 2022 by Colt Steele
The Complete JavaScript Course 2022: From Zero to Expert! by Jonas
Advanced CSS and Sass: Flexbox, Grid, Animations and More! by Jonas
JavaScript: Understanding the Weird Parts by Anthony Alicea
Modern JavaScript From The Beginning by Brad Traversy
Modern JavaScript (Complete guide, from Novice to Ninja) by The Net Ninja (Shaun Pelling)
After you have finished a few of these courses and found your favourite instructor, just go through the other courses they have published and see if you like to enrol there as well. Mostly these instructors have courses on different web technologies such as React.js, Angular, Vue.js, Python and many more.
📖 Books
You might be thinking about how one can learn from books. Well, I am not recommending you anything technology-specific here. That you can anyway learn from the other resources mentioned in the article.
A good software engineer is not only responsible for writing code. There are other skills as well that make you go further in your career path. Here are some books that you can read to be a better programmer and follow the growth path.
- The Pragmatic Programmer by Andrew Hunt and David Thomas
- Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code by Martin Fowler
- Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship by Robert C. Martin
📝 Documentations
Nothing can beat well-written documentation. If the new tool or framework is not well documented, the chances of people ignoring it are very height. The one, who chooses to create videos or blog about new technologies goes through the documentation first and learns the basics of it. You can often find detailed features in the documentation that were missed in your favourite tutorial. Here are two of my favourites.
🎬 Conclusion
In this internet age, we have many options to learn from. You don’t need to spend a lot of money to be a skilled web developer. It’s just about finding the right resource and some willingness to learn. Choose any of the options above and find your kind of resource and enjoy the learning process.
Remember, you will make mistakes here and there and that’s okay. Everyone does. The goal should be improving yourself day by day.
If you have found this useful, share it with others. I would like to know your favourite resources as well. Comment here or reach out to me on Twitter. Happy Coding 🧑💻