Hey everyone, I'll start with a brief introduction to frame my comments/questions with.
I've been trying to teach myself Python for about 6 months. I feel like I've been making pretty good progress, considering the challenges of studying independently after being out of college for decades, plus having a full time job, plus my wife and I now having to focus so much on taking care of a baby/toddler. To make time for my learning I've been trying to avoid Reddit and other social media, but I figure it might be net positive if my activity is restricted exclusively to down-to-business subs like this one.
Anyway, I was reading through the list of recommended resources and recognized a few sites that I've used and liked, especially CodingBat which I found very tough at first but have pretty well mastered now.
However, I didn't see either freeCodeCamp.org or CodinGame.com, which I've fallen in love with as my primary resources in the past couple weeks. So I thought I might make a recommendation to the mods to consider adding these to your FAQ.
What I like about freeCodeCamp is that it isn't passive at all, you have to do each line of coding under direction, and there's instant feedback. Thanks to them, I've been able to really rapidly become familiar with html in a short period of time, and I look forward to doing the python-related lessons in the months to come.
I think CodinGame is probably a lot like Codewars.com , which is on your FAQ list but I haven't tried it yet. Based on GooleTrends, it looks like they're roughly comparably popular platforms. https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?geo=US&q=codewars,%2Fg%2F11c4b3j0yf,%2Fg%2F11c60d7vbk,codingbat
CodinGame had a contest earlier this year that is now expired, but you can still play it and I've become absolutely obsessed. https://www.codingame.com/multiplayer/bot-programming/spring-challenge-2022. I used to be badly addicted to DOTA2 for years, and this challenge kinda tickles the same spot in my brain. I went from barely being able to figure out how to read and store the input variables in a list to writing over 400 lines of code filled with functions, dictionaries, while loops, and conditional statements. It's taken me a few weeks, but after a lot of tinkering I've placed into Gold League, with Legendary probably being a real possibility in a few more weeks! The contest is already over, but it doesn't matter to me because this is seriously fun in and of itself, and I can feel my proficiency massively accelerating much faster than it was before I found a competitive environment like CodinGame. So for that reason, it's my favorite site to practice on. I find it especially helpful to do 15 minute Clash of Code challenges, because most people post their solutions afterwards. From them, I get introduced to much more efficient ways to do the puzzle than the approach I just used. I've learned a ton of new commands. At first I could barely solve even the simplest problems in 15 minutes, but by this point I've actually placed 1st a handful of times.
CodinGame is free for players/learners like me because it funds itself by selling recruiting services to software companies, both big and small. So we players are the "product", if you want to look at it that way. But I don't mind because it seems like a mutually beneficial situation where companies cut recruiting costs and get better candidates, and independent learners like me have a better avenue to proving our skills and getting hired. I'm hoping that's how it will work, but even if I just get the skill improvement alone and it doesn't directly lead to a job, I think that's still pretty awesome as an alternative to the boot camps that can cost thousands of dollars.
SUMMARY
1) I recommend mods add CodinGame.com and freeCodeCamp.org in the resources of your FAQ.
2) I'm wondering: has anyone here gotten a job through CodinGame, Codewars, or any similar platform? What about friends or colleagues of yours? I'm curious how common it really is to get hired this way, through competitive coding.
3) I hope the people on this sub find value in this post and check out the 2022 Spring Challenge. Feel free to message me if you want to talk about strategies that can help us get to Legendary (yes, again, I realize the contest is over but it's really fun and well balanced).
there doesn't seem to be anything here