INTRODUCTION
From Feb 2020 to Sept 2020, I took on an amazing journey to complete the FreeCodeCamp Full Stack Web Development certification. It was an exciting journey and challenging as well given it was my first time going down that path and learning most of the techs. Well, not really the first time. I had tried out the challenge back in 2017 and abandoned it after completing I think 2 or 3 HTML challenges-:) In this short article, I’ll share why I decided to take on Freecodecamp as well as my experience during those 7 months. Pull up a chair and get the popcorns. I hope you enjoy.
MOTIVATION
Up until Feb 2020, I worked as an IT trainer at Mahanaim College in Nairobi. I trained students on units such as: Introduction to ICT, Computer Maintenance & Support. For quite some time I felt like I wanted to venture fully into coding and so I tried to self learn while working. However, this would prove impossible as I would be exhausted whenever I tried to learn after work and I lacked the motivation back then. I pondered over this for quite some time until I decided to quit my job to have more time to study coding. It was a pretty risky move but I think sometimes, we need take a leap into the void and just see how things will turn out. So I put in my resignation and on 28th Feb I bid my work goodbye and left to pursue coding. At this time I had a clear goal of what I wanted to do.
WHY FREECODECAMP
There are plenty of platforms one can use to study Web Development, so why did I go with Freecodecamp? Well, around mid Feb, right around the time I was about to quit my job, I came across Florin Pop’s tweet that he’ll be taking on the Freecodecamp certification challenge and live stream the whole thing on his Youtube channel. At that time, my plan was to use just Youtube video tutorials to study. But when I saw this tweet, I became super interested in the challenge and I decided in my heart that this would be the path I want to follow. This guy motivated me to take on the Freecodecamp challenge. Thank you Florin!
So now no work, I have the time that I needed, what next? Well, login to FCC website, dive right in and get started.
WHAT WORKED FOR ME
Well, I have to mention that the challenge is not just a piece of cake. One needs determination and patience to be able to push through learning and having fun at the same time. There are certifications that made me scream at my computer countless times when my tests would not pass while others made me want to abandon this whole coding thing and reevaluate my career choices. However, challenges are there to overcome and mountains are there to climb. Here’s what worked for me:
1. Youtube Tutorials
Whenever I found myself floundering at a concept, I would take a break from FreeCodeCamp and search it out on Youtube Tutorials and take some time to study and grasp it. It’s amazing that we live in an age where we can look up anything online. The cumulative knowledge of this world is online, just a couple clicks away. There are many amazing Youtube channels that explain these concepts clearly. Here are some of the channels I used:
Freecodecamp
Florin Pop
Traversy Media
Thenewboston
JavaScript Mastery
Clever Programmer
I found that taking time off whenever stuck at something and looking it up on Youtube allowed me to learn it a bit deeper and try it out before embarking on my journey.
2. More Projects
Freecodecamp has 5 projects at the end of every certification that the learner is required to complete before acquiring the certificate. This is one of the reasons why I love this platform. After completing the 5 projects and getting the certificate, I would take a couple of weeks before moving on to the next section to redo the 5 projects and other related projects just to make sure I grasp the concepts in that section. This really worked for me. I found myself getting familiar with the concepts since I would do more than 10 projects per certification and this gave me confidence moving to the next section.
3. 7 Days 7 Websites
Another great initiative by Florin Pop. I still remember this! Florin created this challenge for developers to create one project a day for 7 days and had a website where developers would submit and view their projects and a lot of people took part in this. I also wasn’t left behind. This gave me an opportunity to practise my newly acquired skills from FreeCodeCamp creating simple projects for 7 days straight. I took some time to look at other developers’ submissions and try recreating their websites as part of my learning.
4. Twitter Dev Community
I don’t know if there’s any better community in the world! There are amazing people here that would congratulate you on the steps you make studying. I used to share my progress here and lots of people would congratulate me and this really motivated me to keep going. Tweets from devs such as Danny Thompson have helped me stay motivated and keep pushing as he shares his journey especially his transition into tech. Really inspiring! If you are starting out your journey into development please consider joining Twitter dev community. Thank me later.
5. Consistency
Consistency is the key to success. After doing the Freecodecamp challenge for a couple of weeks, I started getting indulged into it and it started becoming interesting and therefore I did not have to struggle to maintain consistency. Whenever I wasn’t doing it I always felt the urge to get back at my computer and continue learning.
6. Writing down To Dos
I had a notebook throughout the 7 months I took on the Freecodecamp challenge. I always have a notebook with me where I write my To Dos and check out what I have achieved at the end of the day as I plan the next day’s To Dos. This helps me plan well and get a lot of stuff done.
7. FreeCodeCamp Forum
Fcc has an amazing forum full of devs ready to help you whenever you are stuck. I remember I was stuck in a particular challenge in the Quality Assurance certification. My tests were not passing no matter what I did. I got stuck on the same challenge for several days and I was getting frustrated but the forum came to my rescue and helped me hack it.
To all the campers, Even in death may you all be triumphant!
8. Quincy Larson
To me, the founder of this great platform finding time to like, retweet and even comment on my tweets about my progress in the FCC challenge was super inspiring. I was so much moved to see this. Thank you Quincy! Thank you for FCC and the immense support you pour out to the community and beginners in the field.
9. Codewars
I needed a place to practice my skills in Data Structures and Algorithms and improve my critical thinking and problem solving abilities. I found Codewars. Interestingly, you can have a healthy competition with other developers in the platform as you solve the katas (What challenges are referred to in Codewars). We created a clan in Codewars with some dev friends and competed amongst ourselves. This helped me improve my knowledge of Algorithms a great deal.
CONCLUSION
To me FCC is the perfect platform for anyone looking to get started in coding. Whenever anyone comes to me for an advice on where to start learning coding, I immediately point them towards FCC. The curriculum is systematic, you get to challenge yourself by building 5 projects at the end of each section, you have some cool certificates you can show to friends and family and an amazing community to support you throughout the journey. The amount of knowledge and skills you attain after going through this curriculum is insane. You’ll have a clear goal on what to learn next and how to do it after going through the FCC.
Before doing the challenge, I found it really hard to learn. I would just jump around technologies Python, Laravel, Django, etc This way, I couldn’t master even one technology. It turned out I was just wasting a lot of time and not really learning at all. I learned a lot of stuff in the 7 months. Of course learning goes on forever especially for us developers. It’s amazing that we live in an era where we can achieve almost everything with technology and I’m super excited to continue learning to gain new skills and improve my problem solving abilities. FreeCodeCamp is the best thing ever in my Web Development journey.
Happy coding!
Cover photo by: https://unsplash.com/@czapp_arpad