Beginner looking to learn to code

Hello, I've been looking into changing careers and was wondering if any of the GB community has any experience with online programs that teach you how to code. From my searches I have found MANY options. It's really hard to know which one will be worth it for me. Some offer "free trials" that need your credit card information (a real turn off for me) and some are very expensive (7K+ for some). Basically I don't want to plunk down a bunch of money only to find out that this is not for me, or maybe I go through the course and then have trouble finding a job because I wasn't taught the right thing, or enough of the right thing.

These courses do not offer a full college degree, but rather a series of glorified job training courses to get you certified so you may find a job afterwards. I'm trying to avoid a full 4 year college program, but if that is ultimately what would best suit a beginner (I'm a 37 year old full time dad) than I could look into that as well.

Like I said, I am a total beginner at this stuff, but really need a change as far as my career is concerned. I am curious if anyone here has any experience using these programs, and if you liked it and were able to find a job afterwards. I'm looking to just get my foot in the door, so QA is totally ok with me as far jobs are concerned.

I've looked into many options, but these are currently at the top of my list:

Tech Academy:

https://www.learncodinganywhere.com/

Treehouse:

https://teamtreehouse.com/

Udacity:

https://www.udacity.com/

So if anybody has any info on this kind of thing, it would be helpful. I mainly want to know if someone has taken theses courses as a beginner, and if it was worth it for finding employment afterwards. Of course, any other information someone may have would be helpful as well.

Thanks for your time!

I'm currently trying to learn too. I've been on Lynda.com and the courses there have been well explained and pretty interesting so far. Though a more experienced programmer will be able to tell whether they are as good as they seem.

Scratch.mit.edu was great to help me get started.

I've really enjoyed digging deeper into Apple's swift playground and messing around with the concepts in Unity.

It's worked better than any amount of reading or watching videos has for the past bunch of years for me.

@mercutio123: Yeah, I forgot to put Lynda.com into my list, but I have looked into that one as well. I specifically looked into the "become a software quality assurance engineer" section. Considering this may be the job I would immediately qualify for, it seemed like a viable option for me. Glad you like it so far.

I dig Codecademy quite a bit for learning the basics. I used it to learn web development stuff before I took the class in university. They do step by step tutorials and have mini-projects for you to work on. It's quite hands-on. I like it more than anything else I've tried. They have small examples followed by questions.

I find videos to be a waste of time when learning the basics of programming. For programming, I find reading and then doing things yourself/tinkering much more useful than watching someone else doing it, especially because it's very easy to miss things in more detailed videos. The only situation where I find videos somewhat useful is for situations where you have to use specific programs/UIs (for example, finding stuff in the Unity menus, things like that).

I get the impression that it's an already way too crowded and competitive field, and if you're in the US there aren't too many jobs available as most have gone overseas anyway, but don't let me discourage you.

https://www.udemy.com/collection/expand-your-programming-knowledge/

I'm not sure about the overall quality but I've watch a few of the videos for unity game creation and they were decent.

I hear good things about Code Academy although I've never used it myself. You mention QA as being the first step but it would be more likely you'd get IT work in tech support before QA. Some businesses will have tech support doing a bit of QA anyways.

First thing first though you should figure out the learning path you want to take. What sort of development do you want to do? What language do you want to start in? What are required skills in the workplace? From there it might help to narrow down finding online tutorials that suit where you want to go.

Btw there are countless other threads on the forums here that ask about starting out to learn how to code. You'll find some discussion there that might help you get an idea about where you want to start.

This is basically true (extremely competitive).

This is massively false.

Any in-browser programming sites are very helpful. I use Codecademy, which tasks you with writing and running your code in an environment in your browser. However, I don't like their instructional style when you are not a paid user, and there is no error reporting, so your code either works, or it doesn't. The instructional style is usually "now, enter the following: [block of code]", and once you run it, it moves on and shows you what it did. I personally prefer to be told what I am doing as I do it, rather than doing something and learning why it worked afterwards.

However, if you are a Premium user, they have a number of extensive projects after you complete subjects in a course that task you with almost single-handedly writing the whole app from scratch. The repetition and subtle guidance (which decreases with each subsequent project) increased my learning speed immensely over just the initial courses. As a Premium subscriber, you can also get online help if you ever run into a problem or just don't understand the subject well.

I've seen several other in-browser developing environments (khanacademy.com is the only one I definitely remember), and I personally like them the most. The videos on Lynda.com are often extremely good for explaining concepts (which is a huge part of learning how programming works), which I feel like Codecademy sometimes fails at, but actually writing the code is crucial to learning. Good luck!

I too am considering a temporary career change into coding, and to soon after follow into user research if possible. Should I focus more on script-based languages, or overall web development?

@ghost_cat: dabble in everything. SQL, NOSQL, Data Science, UX, Java, Python, Powershell, etc. Of course if I want somebody to code in Java, I’m looking for a good Java developer, but for QA, BSA, UX, Product Management, Architecture, Im looking for someone that isn’t good at only one thing, I’m looking for someone with a lot of experience in different technologies and who I can give a project to and they can develop something in say Python, quickly. If they have to use google for help, I don’t care, you don’t need to be a genius coder, you need to be capable and willing to learn.

Indeed. It all depends on where you are. If you are at one of the popular places to go to get a programming job, it could be a challenge because there are a lot of people there trying to get a high paying job so the competition is fierce, but outside of them there is often more demand than supply (because so many people go to San Francisco or Vancouver or Kitchener/Waterloo or any of the other big tech hubs in hopes of making way more money). Where I'm looking to apply right now, there've been places that have advertised jobs for the last few months with almost no local applicants. Sure these jobs don't pay as well outright and aren't as glamorous as a Google or wherever, but they pay pretty decent for the area in most cases and are good for gaining experience.

My first point of advice is don't pay for a class, at least not yet. Not because they aren't worth it but because there are sooo many different languages that offer different things for or are for different types of platforms that paying for a class and finding out you hate the language would suck.

• First I would focus on what are things that interest you and find out what languages they're coded in. Ex. Android Apps are in Java, iOS in Swift, Web based programming is a lot of different languages depending on what you're trying to do, etc. If you want the basic answers of what language to start with Python is the default choice but there's never a right answer, it's all preference.
• Once you have an idea of what you like Google some basics on the language you might end up using. Once you've read through the basics, search for some exercises to do online. If you end up doing something for Java or Python there's a good one that will compile your code to see if it works and sometimes provide solutions. http://codingbat.com/python.
• After you're comfortable with the language and doing simple things like taking in user inputs, solving basic logic problems and know the syntax (at least a little) then you can move forward with what you want to build. If it's phone apps there are great tutorials created by Google or Apple to get you started. If it's video games then the game engine you decided to pick will have tutorials as well.
• From there it's kind of up to you what to do. If you hit a wall when you're working on a project, or if the barrier to understanding a language is too hard, then an online course can be helpful. It's certainly helped me in the past for doing more complex stuff for android. Usually I gravitate to getting books first because they're a quicker reference and they're cheaper (depending on the book); then I buy an online class. NOTE: MIT has free online courses that come with lecture videos (not all the time), HW assignments and lecture notes. It's a mix of electrical engineering and computer science so just skip the EE stuff and focus on the CS ones. https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science/

No matter what don't get discouraged if you don't get programming at first. A lot of it just comes with time and once you learn one language that knowledge transfers over to other languages as well, the syntax might be different but the ideas are the same. So if you spend time learning something and feel like you aren't enjoying it, that time won't be wasted. You can take that knowledge and bring it to a different programming language.

Best of luck and feel free to message me if you have any questions about getting started. FYI, I'm not software engineer, I mess around with coding for fun but my focus is lower level languages for microcontrollers and FPGAs(C coding/VHDL) so I can't be too much help, sorry.

I am always so impressed with what the GB community brings to the table! Thanks everyone who replied with helpful information. I don't really have anyone to bounce this stuff off of IRL, so being able to have some folks to discuss it with is very helpful. I have a lot to think about here but I think now I'm able to get going in some sort of direction. The hardest part of starting something brand new is knowing how to start, so I thank you all again for the help. If anyone else has any more to add, I'm all ears.

@ozzie: All of what you said was great. Thanks for tons of great info.

@rebel_scum:Thanks! I'm Still not sure what are the right questions to ask, but your response was helpful. Also, those are good questions to ask myself that I never thought of before.

@crommi: Cool, thanks for the info. Yeah, I'm still so new to this thought of changing careers that I'm still not sure where or how to start. I only mentioned QA because I was under the impression that it was an entry level position. Gonna check out MVA for sure! Building a portfolio is probably a good start, and a good way to see if I even like the work.

@ben_h:Thanks, I'll check that out!

Grok learning is a very strong option. The people behind it have pedigree in teaching and curriculum design for universities, talented high school student programs, etc; many of their staff were formerly academics or engineers at places like Google; and their system is seeing widespread adoption in Australian schools amidst a very ambitious ramping-up of the teaching of computer science skills in the national curriculum. They claim that the first two modules of their courses are available for free, which will hopefully give you a good sense of whether programming is a good fit for you. The language of choice is Python, which is a simple and relatively uncluttered language that's suitable for a variety of tasks.

That said, in the long run you'll probably need to commit to a degree to get into a software engineering career that pays you actual money. There is far more to building robust software than knowing how to program in a variety of languages and how to use a bunch of libraries. You need to understand software design, algorithm theory, systems programming and OS internals (UNIX et al), testing methodologies; you should probably know some theory of computation, network theory, database systems, language and compiler theory, etc, and even if you teach yourself all of this stuff, it'll still be very difficult to convince recruiters or other decision-makers that you have these skills without having the piece of paper to show for it. Even those recruiters who are just looking for someone who can glue a bunch of web libraries together tend to be picky enough to vet applications for degree qualifications just to thin the ranks, because they tend to have that luxury. Even graduates are typically seen as a burden for dev shops to take on, as they tend to contribute less than other team members for a long time as they learn the systems and environment, and they drag other, established engineers off the job to instead mentor the graduate.

I don't say anything in that previous paragraph to discourage you, but I do think that talking about taking a web course to learn to program in the same breath as you talk about employment prospects is a sign that you may need to temper expectations.

I came across this post a while ago that was helpful for me:

https://www.reddit.com/r/learnprogramming/comments/6fto5j/how_to_start_learning_to_code_when_you_dont_know/

I liked Code Academy but didn't always feel like I was fully grasping the concepts at times so I switched to Free Code Camp. I have come across a few tasks where I wasn't sure quite how to put the pieces together, but that's nothing a quick google search didn't help.

Edit: Apologies for formatting, I'm on mobile.

Just about ready to be a "professional" programmer then!

I cant speak to the overall quality of there product but freecodecamp is one that I came across several times while looking into coding myself (not an "expert" by any stretch I basically know enough to break everything") but it may be worth looking into.

And while I dont want to discourage anyone from using it I found a lot to be desired in Code Academy, there were several of there tutorials that said I did what the task asked but I clearly had not, and once you start questioning A test on a site you start questioning all of them.

It may also be worth keeping an eye on the Humble Bundle Books store, I got a grip of Python books off of there for like ~15$ and they seem to somewhat regularly throw up stuff like that.

I recently started my own journey to "learn how to code" (as in, like, last month). I already have some experience and was mainly looking to get serious about it. Codecademy doesn't quite fit on my list because it feels really cool when you're doing it, but doesn't translate to skills you can immediately apply. At least for me, it didn't feel like I was actually able to make much of anything after completing their various courses.

If you're into web development, there are AMPLE free resources online (there are free resources for all kinds of programming but web seems to dominate). For example, my favorite of them is FreeCodeCamp. It features an in-browser editor akin to Codecademy, and a lot of similar "tweak my code slightly to do this small thing." However, it separates itself by offering a lot of algorithm practice and projects (all of which are free) which don't hold your hand. The step between doing their exercises and projects is a bit steep as you go on, though, and might turn some people off. With that said, taking leaps and Googling heavily is what programmers do, so maybe that's a good choice on their part.

Upskill Courses is a video-based web development series (focusing more on Ruby/Rails) and has you coding along via a web-based IDE. I've not gone through the whole series yet but it appears to have a gentler learning curve than most. Beyond that, you can sometimes grab a Lynda subscription for free if your local library or work offers it, so check that out.

Right now there's also an "Intro to Computer Science and Programming using Python" course going on via edX. It's taught by a MIT professor and is filling in a lot of gaps in my programming knowledge. Basically, I knew how to do things, but never received the underlying education as to WHY stuff is the way it is or how it actually works. This course is rather fast-paced and asks a lot of a total newbie - but it offers a tremendous chance to learn a lot in a short period of time. Python, like most languages, also offers skills that will transfer to other languages once you learn it.

Finally, a lot of people dig the classes on Udemy (if you're able to learn via video tutorials). Please note that if you want to buy a class to always wait until it is $10-$15. There are sales all the time!

I'm a Software Engineer in the US. I also write/give technical interviews and recruit from college campuses for my company. While the field is certainly competitive, and companies want people to know their stuff before they get the job (most technical interviews are coding challenges where you have to write code by hand in front of an interviewer), there is extremely high demand for competent engineers. I don't remember the actual statistic, but currently the demand for engineers in the US far exceeds the amount we are graduating from colleges, which is one reason why there are so many initiatives to get kids and adolescents interested in technology. The primary reason I signed up for a Computer Science major in college is because everyone I knew and the university staff all said that if I could graduate with something close to a 3.5 in CS, I'd be set for a very long time, and so far that's been the case.

So while I'd say it definitely isn't easy to get into, if you have the talent for it, there are tons of companies who will take you.

I'm getting a lot of awesome recommendations from this thread, too, so thanks everyone who has contributed cool resources like Grok Learning and FreeCodeCamp!

Not sure if this is sarcastic or not, but there's no shame in hitting StackExchange to solve a problem now and then. Wasting time insisting on solving a problem in isolation, out of pride alone, is just that: wasting time. No dev I've ever spoken to scoffs at the idea of Googling for a solution. Additionally, some solutions are so perfect and widely-used that it actually makes sense to learn how everyone else is doing it, and use that method from now on, rather than coming to that conclusion on your own. Languages all have nonsensical quirks that others have already come across and solved for. No harm in learning from collective experience.

Google won't write your code, but it will help you finish. Do it if you need to, and don't feel bad about it!

I don't do much coding these days, but I do a lot of powershell scripting in my day-to-day tasks - Google is great.

This. One of the most valuable skills you can learn as an aspiring programmer is to learn how to find answers and solutions online. No need to reinvent the wheel if it can be avoided.

This is absolutely true. If you're an outsider to programming, you might think this is a joke but it's true. Nobody expects you to have all the answers all the time. And there's a high chance that the problem you have right now, someone also had it in the past. "No need to reinvent the wheel again."

We always teach this to all the new colleagues: "If you're stuck on a problem and tried to bang your head against it for more than 15 minutes, either ask someone for help or look it up online. There's no shame in it."

Just to clarify, my day job is programming (C++) and while I was making a joke I agree with all these sentiments. My day to day work would be a lot tougher without Google and Stack Overflow, and I have the luxury of being surrounded by talented programmers to ask for help in person. Without that, while you are learning on your own, being able to search for and find solutions online is a valuable learning tool.

I agree with the last couple posts. I wrote a fair amount of C++ code while working at a small company as the only programmer to put myself through university. No one around me had ANY knowledge of programming whatsoever so online tools became more than invaluable. Just be sure that you respect any rights/license details with a given piece of code you encounter.

Just get a book and start learning the basics. Make sure you completely understand what's going on before proceeding to the next subject. Think about / imagine the data going through the system. Avoid relying on online tutorials/videos/stackoverflow.com unless you're absolutely stuck and there is nowhere else to go, and if you do - promise yourself it will be a while till next time. Don't dabble in various languages. Don't start with something too high level - Python is nice, but it is probably not something you should start out with. Avoid programmer blogs and comment sections.

Then find out what area you'd like to pursue, and go for it!

Follow this "recipe" and avoid wasting your time like what most of my classmates did during three years worth of CS.

I've been learing C# to help my role as a UX Designer/Developer and it's been pretty empowering to be able to affect code directly and have it play nice with Unity. Previously I've had experience coding with .css and ActionScript though the thing you'll find with coding is that the languages all share some kind of commonality - which is helpful if you have experience in one language which will aid in another. Last year I started dabbling in mobile phone app dev using an old Windows Phone and found that resources from Microsoft were pretty easy to come by - there were excellent video tutorials and - of course - Visual Studio Community. The interesting thing is that I used .xaml to help style a lot of projects on the device as well as some C# and as mentioned above, .xaml shared some commonality with .css.

Best thing to do with learning any language is to just get stuck into it and start looking for tutorials - I know there's a few tutorial samplers up on YouTube for courses which are worth looking at. Recently I got hold of a Udemy C# Absolute Beginners course - I'd consider myself intermediate, but still learnt from going back to basics. Even professionals refer to online resource like Stack Overflow to get help on issues and apps like Visual Studio have inline error checking and debugging resources to help with your coding even more. You should concentrate on a simple project like a minigame or app and go from there.

Good luck!

Hey have you thought about what kind of programming you'd like to do? Most companies split their engineers into front-end and back-end (or full-stack, which is both). I would read up on these because whichever you choose will likely determine what languages will be the most useful to invest your time into learning.

@coldblood: Hey, I've been using Treehouse for the past month learning HTML, CSS and Javascript and I've found it to be really useful. The downside is after 7 days free it's $25 a month, but I've found the lessons, videos, challenges and useable projects after each section really valuable. They do loads of different courses and "tracks" as they call them where they pool relevant disciplines together. Depending on what your looking for, and how you like to learn it's worth a shot :)

Again, thanks to all of you folks who had helpful information. GB really does have a great community and I don't take that for granted.

Since I'm such a noob it was hard for me to ask the right questions. Its a situation where I don't know what I don't know, so its hard for me to know where to start with stuff, so thanks for being patient with me. ?

I guess square one for me is to just find all the free, or low cost info I can, start learning the very basics of a language, go through some lessons, and see if I even like it, or if its really for me.

I guess my only question is, what language is a good one to start with? Seems like a subjective question to me, but any info would be great. Also, I will finally have some time to myself this weekend so I can start diving into this stuff, so I may have an answer to my own question by the end of the weekend.

Thanks again, everyone.