4 top free resources for developing coding superpowers

Originally published at vickylai.io.

I’m frequently asked for my opinion on how to get started on being a freelance developer. If you’re hoping to live the life of a remote working digital nomad, whichever career you choose, having a little coding expertise in your back pocket will be a big benefit.

Here’s a quick list of resources that you should definitely look at first if you’re hoping to gain some coding superpowers for free. I’ve used all of these personally and I’m happy to answer any questions if you have them — just ask.

freeCodeCamp (freecodecamp.com)

An amazingly high value curriculum that can take you from zero to full-stack. This is always my top recommendation for someone looking to test the waters and see if a development career is interesting enough to pursue. The toughest part about learning to code on your own is getting stuck and not having quick help — this is the problem that I think freeCodeCamp (FCC) solves best by allowing you to immerse yourself in a hugely supportive social community. Through their Gitter chatroom, you can get quick advice if you get stuck on a challenge, and even team up with someone to tackle projects in-depth. The FCC community is lively and diverse with people from all over the world, and they even have IRL meetups.

HackerRank (www.hackerrank.com)

Solve challenges tailored for every level of coder over a variety of relevant topics. Enter competitions and increase your chances of getting hired. I love HackerRank especially for its algorithm and statistics challenges — if you’re hoping to get into data science, this is an area that you’ll need to be especially sharp in. Seasoned developers return to HackerRank to hone their skills and enter competitions that can win you swag and get you noticed for jobs.

Stack Overflow (stackoverflow.com/)

Even seasoned developers have questions. This is the top search hit that comes up when you Google that error message you thought only you were getting. If you’re shy about asking a question you can’t find the answer to — don’t be! Simply asking it will be of help to the next person who comes looking for the exact same solution.

The Odin Project (www.theodinproject.com/)

A curriculum for web developers built on a collection of resources designed to take you from “What’s the Internet?” to web dev hire. For those specifically interested in web development, there’s a community here for you. The Odin Project (TOP) has accessible tutorial videos that can really flesh out your knowledge of Ruby on Rails, Javascript, jQuery, HTML5 and CSS3 — all your web dev essentials.

So dive in — it’s free! Good luck on your journey to coding superpowers — I’ll see you in the chat rooms!

Have one I missed? Let me know!

See more stuff about coding and stick-man drawings at vickylai.io.