Hi, if you’re looking to learn how to code, and you’re wondering what you’ll need to get started you’re in the right place.
Learning to code is a large and complicated undertaking. It’s worth considering your options before you get into the thick of it. And even though you might hear a lot of people brag about how they’re “self taught” they could just as easily say that they’ve learned from a combination of: books, videos, coworkers, mentors, formalized school (even if it’s just a few classes) and good old fashion practice. That is to say, especially with something like coding, it’s good to take a lot of approaches, and if any of them are not right for you, trying something else could easily help.
Speaking of help, there’s a lot of it available for free, and a whole lot of it available for a price. If you end up choosing to take an online course, or going to college, you may just need a loan in order to learn to code. However, and especially if you’re just testing out the waters, there are easier and faster ways to “give it a try” and see how you feel.
The case for learning to code at a school.
What are the advantages of going to college, or going back to college to learn to code. Well, you’ll have a lot of support. In each class, teachers, and tutors will be available for you to answer questions and help you through their assignments. Most likely you’ll have a collections of text books that you can use for reference after you have your degree, and while learning. You may also have a lot of peers, or other students that can help, or who you can help.
Everything you’ll be learning will be structured, in order, and set up in a logical progression.
However, it’s not all positive. After all, you will need to pay, and if you’re not careful, that cost can be steep. Community college, night classes, or other programs that do not require nearly as much money as some of the more expensive options might help with the cost.
There’s also the cost of time. College can take a long time, and if you’re going for a bachelors degree, we’re really talking about 4 years in school. On and off, sometimes being on track, sometimes not being in session. Having large parts of your day taken up by classes, is kind of nice if you’re in a time in your life where you don’t need to support anyone. But supposing you’re someone who has responsibilities, this can be a steep requirement.
You can of course go to school and work part time, or work full time and go to school part time. But those are the major areas that I see as positives and negatives for going to a formal school.
Pros:
- Structured
- Organized
- Teachers and tutors
- Deadlines
- Libraries
Cons:
- Costly
- Time consuming
- Energy intensive
- Takes commitment
The case for taking online classes.
I went to school, and took online classes. So I might be biased, but I really like this option. Taking a class that’s online, and paying for it. Really gives you a good middle ground between having it all laid out, with teachers and deadlines for homework, and giving you a chance to do things on your own.
There are plenty of options when it comes to this. There are websites like https://www.codecademy.com/, or https://teamtreehouse.com/. There are books you can pick up that’ll teach you Beginners Java, or JavaScript the good parts. Tech education is a big business. So you can take your pick. Some of these are free, some of them cost money. Some are series on Youtube others free ebooks you can download.
Pros:
- Can be as free or expensive as you want. (You choose the quality)
- Fast, you can go as fast as you like.
- Flexable, you can go as slow as you like.
- You choose your media type. If you like to read, or watch videos, you can do either or both.
Cons:
- Unstructured
- No one will punish you for slacking off
- There are almost unlimited starting points, and it can be overwhelming
- No one chooses for you, so you’ll have to make some decisions.
- Inconsistent quality
- Getting stuck makes it harder to ask for help. Since you don’t have mentors built in.
- You’ll need to google a lot of things as you get up to speed.
The case for learning on your own.
Learning on your own, is more of a catch all. You’ll still be “learning on your own” even if you do get your degree in Computer Science at a University, or if you take a bunch of online classes. Either between classes, after class, or after your degree is finished. Learning on the job is something you’ll be doing for the rest of your career (hopefully) and learning how to do new things is a big part of programming as a profession, or as a hobby. So you’ll never really be done. What you really get to choose between is. Taking classes and learning on your own, or just learning on your own.
Pros:
- You’ll be doing this for the rest of your time coding
- There is no cost
Cons:
- You may spend time thrashing as you don’t know where to look next.
- Trial and error can be painful without help
- You’ll need to use stack overflow and google with skill, or you’ll get very stuck starting out this way.
What are the most common ways to learn to code?
According to Stack overflow’s yearly survey shows that 59% of people used online courses. And 53% of people used school. And of course some used both.
https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2021#section-experience-learning-how-to-code