10 free resources to self-improve as a developer

Programming is one of the highest paying skills in the 21st century. Find out how to start your programming career without spending a dime.

For the past few years, the number of jobs in the tech space has increased exponentially, this was further accelerated by covid-19 pandemic. Due to a large demand of online jobs, we have also seen a rise in number of bootcamps and other developer focused resources.

As a novice developer who is just getting started in the industry, sifting through a pile of resources can be time consuming and inefficient. In this article we explore the most useful resources I found across the web to boost your learning without breaking the bank.

1. Exercism

image.png Exercism is a free online portal that teaches you over 60 programming languages and provides in-depth exercises to test your learning. It also provides mentors if you get stuck on a particular problem and you can see how other community members solved the problem.

2. The Odin Project

The Odin Project is a coding education platform created by an Open-Source community. The curriculum is regularly updated, divided in modules and presented in a logical order for easy accessibility.

3. freeCodeCamp

freeCodeCamp is another great website to start learning about different development related fields. It contains in-dept courses on web-development, data visualization, qualtiy assurance, machine learning, and more. It even provides resources to prepare for an interview.

4. Project Euler

Project Euler is a hidden gem, it contains problems that are language agnostic and get progressively harder to solve. It develops your problem solving abilities and helps you get familiar with syntax of programming language of your choice.

5. CodinGame

image.png CodinGame presents coding exercises as adventure based games - you write code to meet an objective and pass the level. In my opinion, this is not suitable for people who are learning to program for the first time, however if you are brushing up your skills or just trying out a new language, you should definitely check this out.

6. Developer Interviews

I might be biased towards this because I used to work at Console Ltd. but I think this developer interview series is one of the greatest resources that helps you break into the industry. It provides you a holistic view of how some of the most successful programmers started their career, what language they used, how they tackle problems and what hardware they use on a daily basis.

7. Soft Skills Engineering Podcast

Having great programming skills increases your chances of getting interview, not passing it. Soft Skills Engineering Podcast discusses some of the key skills people tend to overlook while preparing for an interview or a pay raise.

8. A Question of Code

A Question of Code answers some of the common questions junior developers have when starting out their careers. Each episode takes an interesting question that the host asked in his first year of learning to code and delves deeper into the answer in order to help those starting out with their first steps in programming.

9. Console DevTools Podcast

Console DevTools Podcast hosts discussions with different developers on developer centric topics. Topics include security, decentralization, infrastructure and embedded systems.

10. roadmap.sh

roadmap.sh contains community curated roadmaps and guides that out the career progression framework of different developer jobs. These roadmaps are well crafted and serve as a good roadmap for learning new things.

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