Learning To Code Before Joining A Coding Bootcamp
Tags: learning, beginners, programming
Published: 2023-08-12 20:17:57


Joining a coding bootcamp can be both daunting and frustrating if you don't play your cards right, especially when joining an accelerated program. The bootcamp I decided to dedicate myself to is [Flatiron School](https://flatironschool.com/)'s software engineering program, which helps its students become job-ready in about four months if you decide to enroll in the accelerated program. 

Now, you may be thinking that four months is way too little time for someone to go from zero programming experience to being job-ready and **you'd be right**. 

Luckily, I was in no rush to pay for the expensive tuition bill, so as I saved my money month after month, I also scoured the internet for online resources that people recommended. This blog is meant to detail some of my favorite resources. 

## Codecademy


Aah [codecademy](https://www.codecademy.com/).. this was the first place where I learned to code. I flew through the fundamentals of HTML and CSS and thought to myself,

> "Look mom, I'm a programmer now!"

Boy, was I wrong. Little did I know, programming languages and markup/sheet style languages are two completely different animals. When I stepped into the world of JavaScript, my dreams were absolutely crushed and I found myself coding less and less as I struggled to grasp each lesson. But I would always find myself coming back for more frustration. 

## Scrimba

I first heard about [Scrimba](https://scrimba.com/#) when I was looking through YouTube videos about people who changed career paths into software engineering. I was extremely impressed by the website's ability to allow users to code things **directly into** the lecture video. Amazing! Here is an example of what I'm talking about: 

{% embed https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDIlR71omg4 %}

Throughout the various videos, the instructors go over all of the fundamentals of programming with JavaScript. Following along during the coding challenges and projects in the videos allowed my mind to finally "click" when it came to programming. 

## Harvard CS50

Not many people know this, but Harvard offers a free class that anyone can take to truly understand the ins and outs of computer science. The instructor, David Malan,  (unsurprisingly) is extremely passionate about teaching the world of computers and does an exceptional job at using real life examples to help truly understand what a computer is doing under the hood. 

{% embed https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oqjcKenCH8&list=PLhQjrBD2T380F_inVRXMIHCqLaNUd7bN4&index=4 %}

The first few lectures are taught in C. Not C#, not C++, but C. The reason David started with C is to help his students understand how computers store memory by manually having to allocate it yourself in code (a.k.a. dynamic memory allocation), which allowed me to have a much deeper appreciation for higher-level programming languages that do all of this for you automatically. 

All of the lectures are available on YouTube, but Harvard also offers a way to participate in the assignments of the class via [EDX.org](https://www.edx.org/learn/computer-science/harvard-university-cs50-s-introduction-to-computer-science?utm_source=google&utm_campaign=19322989673&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=harvard%20cs50&hsa_acc=7245054034&hsa_cam=19322989673&hsa_grp=146273875324&hsa_ad=642047721501&hsa_src=g&hsa_tgt=kwd-334019831226&hsa_kw=harvard%20cs50&hsa_mt=e&hsa_net=adwords&hsa_ver=3&gclid=CjwKCAjw29ymBhAKEiwAHJbJ8rEGByZ8KM4lfQJ1tuJgMS5ZkhHpMUVjzl3tEd1BKzB-iVjmbHUUVhoCFGUQAvD_BwE). The assignments linked to the classes allow you to actually put what you learned during lectures into practice by coding the solutions to different problems and testing your code to confirm that it runs correctly. 

## Conclusion

Out of all of the resources that I've outlined thus far, Harvard CS50's course may be the one that I recommend the most. Between the instructor's passion for teaching, the course's thorough content, and the ability to participate in assignments, it serves as a great tool to get started in your coding journey. Plus, it feels great to pretend that you're a student at Harvard.