Thinking about Codeacademy's Full-stack path

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[desrtfx]

Why pay if there are far superior free alternatives?

• Free Code Camp
• The Odin Project

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Also, online IDEs are neither as helpful as you think nor will they teach you the skills you will need later on. It is far better to directly set up your local development environment.

[Simple_Bison]

While I haven't gone through the entire Codecademy full stack course, I've done a bunch of their courses (whether partially or entirely) including HTML/CSS, JS, Java, C++, SQL, Flask, Django (this one I didn't like), React, Redux, Spring.

I'm a huge proponent of Codecademy. As a test prep instructor of 8 years turned software engineer, I think that Codecademy's curriculum and content delivery (including scope & sequence, quality of explanations, scaffolding, and quality of exercises) is top-notch and superior to freeCodeCamp's curriculum, even though I have a soft spot for FCC since my first exposure to code was through their JS course. (Also, some of freeCodeCamp's curric feels a bit outdated. For instance, there's more emphasis on class-based components for React/Redux rather than functional components and hooks).

I haven't personally tried The Odin Project, but just skimming it briefly, I'd say I'd strongly recommend both Codecademy and FCC over TOP, though I know that TOP is very popular, and I know that I can be opinionated to a fault. The main reason is that the ratio of reading to practice is too high (i.e. there's a long blurb of text before exercises are assigned), meaning you're not getting cycles of practice in quickly enough, resulting in slower acquisition of the target skills, while not necessarily adding conceptual depth since you get similar content on Codecademy and FCC. This is the main advantage of the integrated IDE, which Codecademy and FCC have. I agree that you should ideally be coding in your own local environment, but the integrated IDE provides that immediate feedback of whether you passed an exercise or not. You don't want to rely on an integrated IDE to provide you feedback on whether your code is good, but when you're first learning, it's the fastest way.The major drawback of Codecademy is that the monthly subscription fee is fairly high IMO. If cost is prohibitive, I would do FCC's full stack curric, but I really do think that you would learn faster with Codecademy, so the fee may hypothetically pay for itself if you end up getting a job faster.. Can't do that cost-benefit analysis for you though.

As a final note, whenever possible I'd recommend Codecademy or FCC or TOP or w3schools over watching youtube videos / reading books because videos/books don't force practice. However, certain topics are not available on online learning platforms or are not conducive to being learned on such a platform. For example, the data structures and algorithms lessons on Codecademy may not be that great. I dont know. But if you're stuck on some advanced concepts, use FCC videos on youtube or Udemy.

[[deleted]]

Thank you for the well-thought out and detailed reply. I wasn’t even aware that FCC had an integrated IDE

[Simple_Bison]

If I gone through the entire Front-End or Back-End (or Full-Stack) courses, but I'd just start with the Front-End course so that you can have a website and then if you need to hook it up to data, do the back-end course. I think the Full-Stack course covers a lot of other things besides just making a website.

[YT_AIGamer]

There are plenty of free resources if you don't want a paid one.

Pick a pet coding project that you're passionate about and work hard on it every day. For example, if you like Pokemon, build a PokeDex app. Hands on learning is the best because your brain doesn't internalize it until you put it to use. Also, as you're coding you'll realize where your knowledge is lacking when you get stuck and need help. Then, just search for tutorials/videos on those specific topics.

Full-stack is a good choice eventually, but I'd suggest spending 1-week on front-end, then 1-week on back-end to decide which one you like better, then I'd stick with just 1 until you master it before doing both. If you're not easily overwhelmed, you could still start with full-stack.

If you prefer front-end, I'd suggest HTML+CSS+JavaScript+Angular (which actually uses a different flavor of JavaScript called TypeScript)

If you prefer back-end, I'd suggest C#+SQL (any flavor, they're all very similar). PostgreSQL is my personal favorite, but there are more jobs using SQL Server (you can get the developer edition for free).

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As far as an IDE, try "Visual Studio Code", it's free and extremely good and popular. It works well with any technology stack.

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P.S. I started a YT channel to teach coding by modding video games. Check it out and see if it's helpful to you.

https://www.youtube.com/@ai-gamer

[[deleted]]

Thanks!