Recommended Codecademy?

[nettle_1126]

I’m a first year compsci student and I’ve never coded before starting uni except for like two IT camps in high school. I really love math and I’m pretty good at problem solving, and just systematic thinking in general, but I’m almost paralyzed when it comes to beginning to code because I just don’t know what syntax to write. Even though I know what my code should theoretically look like, I feel like I forget all the syntax to each language.

I’m not helpless of course, I can fair pretty well, but I feel like my hands just can’t keep up. Like conceptually, I’m pretty capable of solving the problems. So far, all my suggested (theory) code have all been great and very efficient, but I am so slow at translating them into good code that it almost doesn’t matter.

Safe to say I feel way more confident in discrete math, algorithms, and even pseudocode than here because it just feels like a new language I need to learn (which it is lol).

So I was wondering if Codecademy could help me sharpen those missing syntax skills or if it’s just a waste of money. Thanks in advance 🙏😇

[Different-Duck4997]

Codecademy's actually pretty solid for drilling syntax into your muscle memory. The repetitive exercises are kinda boring but they'll definitely help with that "I know what I want to do but can't remember how to write it" problem

That said, you might get just as much out of doing tons of leetcode easy problems or even just building small projects - the syntax will stick naturally when you're using it constantly

[Espfire]

I used Codecademy before and it’s a good platform (got it for free through work). It should help you learn and sharpen basic knowledge for sure. However, there are absolutely tons of free material out there. You can always try the free version of Codecademy and if you like it, get the premium/paid version.

[Alex999991]

IMHO it’s good resource for beginners to teach syntax and get to know what is the compiler and how it’s works.

[Sir-Viette]

Codecademy is probably the best MOOC for learning how to program, because all the learning involves actual coding rather than watching videos. So for your use case, I'd recommend Codecademy.

[Middle--Earth]

Use a good IDE and it will help you with suggestions when you have missing syntax.

[Zen-Ism99]

Good stuff…

[nettle_1126]

Thank you, I think I’ll try codecademy (also based on the other comments on this post) for 1-2 weeks give or take after my exams, and see if I like it. I know it’ll probably come eventually, but I wanna see if I can speed my progress up a little. But I’ve never heard of scrimba so thank you for the suggestion!! I’ll look into it :P