No longer reserved for supergeeks, coding is becoming a necessary skill for small business owners, digital marketers, and professionals in technology, finance, marketing, advertising, and beyond.
We are becoming more of a computer-driven society, and learning to write code can empower you to build your own tools, or simply improve the quality of your organization.
Whether you’re a seasoned blogger or just trying your hand at online marketing, you should make a point of learning how to code. By so doing, you can:
– reduce your overreliance on costly programmers and web designers
– communicate your strategic vision to your programmers in a more effective manner
– empower and inspire your team
– cut down on in-house IT managers
– or simply start making money online by working for others
12 Places You Can Learn To Write Code For Free
As with any kind of training when trying to learn how to code, you’ll encounter a number of associated costs, some of which may be out of your price range or budget. This doesn’t mean that the idea of starting a training program to learn coding has to go by the wayside, however, as a number of free code learning resources may be available to you.
Websites and institutions that offer free coding education online actually exist and here, we reveal the top twelve.
12. Udacity
Udacity offers a number of courses for aspiring developers. Some of these courses have been prepared by tech giants like Google, Facebook, Cloudera, GitHub, IBM, AT&T, and more. So you know they are top notch!
All the course material is available free of charge, but if you want recognition as a qualified nondegree holder then you’ll need to pay in order to receive the necessary guided assistance and mentoring.
The company partners with world renowned companies to provide amazing career opportunities for participants. That means if you become job-ready through their program, you could find yourself working for companies like IBM, Mercedes-Benz, Flipkart, Et al!
11. GA Dash
This is a free online course offering a fun way for you to learn how to write code through simple projects that you can do on your computer. Through this platform, you can easily learn how to code beautiful, intuitive websites in different programming languages, such as: JavaScript, CSS, and HTML.
The learning is delivered in the form of small projects that you have to complete in order to learn. As you complete each walk-through, you’ll get a grasp of basics of web development and ultimately learn how to create a responsive website by yourself.
10. MIT OpenCourseWare
This is a wonderful initiative of the MIT to put all of their undergraduate and graduate-level coursework online so that you can access it and learn anywhere and at any time. As an aspiring programmer, you can access MIT course materials for study areas like computer science and IT for free. Some of the introductory courses available on the portal include: MATLAB programming, C++, C, Python, and Java.
Why not log on today and learn how to code from the best?
9. Code Conquest
If you’re new to the world of coding, then this is the online learning platform you need to go to. The portal is geared toward beginners and will provide you with everything you need to have a good grasp of the basics and allow to progress to the next level as you learn.
It offers tons of free coding tutorials that you can access for free. These include tutorials on programming languages like CSS, HTML, C++, Python, Ruby, JavaScript, and PHP. They’ll help you learn how to use a specific programming language to meet your requirements.
8. edX.org
Founded in 2012 by scientists from MIT and Harvard, EdX is quickly becoming the preferred learning resource for aspiring coders. It currently boasts over 5 million active learners.
Under its ‘computer science’ section, you can access over 160 courses that could be of help to your goal of becoming a coder. Many of these courses are paid ones, but you can browse course materials and learn different programming languages without paying a cent. But, of course, you have to pay if you want certification.
Some of the topics you can learn for free on this platform include: web design and development, mobile applications, SQL, R programming, machine learning, Python, C++, jQuery, Java, C#, and more.
7. Free Code Camp
This is a camp themed platform that offers hundreds of hours (approx. 800 hours total) of coding lessons for free. The best thing about the platform is that it’s a non-profit venture and will connect you with not-for-profit organizations where you can put your newly learned coding skills to use.
All you have to do to start learning is to join the camp, which is very easy. Once you become a ‘camper’, you can start learning programming languages and topics, such as HTML5, JavaScript, CSS3, databases, D3.js, Node.js, Git, GitHub, and more.
Learning on this platform is interactive, and designed to take your coding skills to the next level. When enroll into the program, you’ll be guided through the coding challenges offered on the site and get to learn important skills along the way.
You’ll also get to meet and interact with other ‘campers’ to share experiences. There are also chatrooms through which you can meet and share with other community members online.
Once you complete your program, you’ll have an opportunity to build real apps that can be of help to non-profit ventures.
6. Udemy
This online learning platform has been around for some time, and is popular all around the world. It offers both free and paid courses in areas, such as personal development, health, fitness, lifestyle, and design and development courses.
As a learner coder, you’ll definitely be interested in their development courses, which fall under categories like: programming languages, web development, mobile applications, game development, ecommerce, databases, etc. You can easily enroll in one of their free coding courses from any of these categories to boost your knowledge.
5. Coursera
This platform is essentially an online library of programming courses taught by real professors from various institutions. There are over 1700 coding-related courses from over 130 learning institutions offered on the site. These courses include programming languages, robotics, animation, gaming, big data SQL, Python, and so on. All these classes are offered free of charge, but if you want certification then you’ll need to pay a corresponding fee – which ranges from $30 to $100, depending on the specific program.
4. Codewars
Codewars is designed to offer you a fun way to learn how to write computer code. The platform gamifies the entire coding learning experience. Through its martial arts themed interface, you’ll be given a challenge (known as “kata”), which you have to tackle in order to progress to the next level. As you play the game, you’ll be improving your programming skills one “kata” at a time.
There are many codewars that you can participate in to learn and develop your skills in programming languages, such as JavaScript, C#, Java, CoffeeScript, Clojure, Python, and Ruby. You’re also free to create your own “kata” and challenge other developers.
The platform encourages you to improve with every challenge you come across, and also provides an opportunity to interact and collaborate with the CodeWars community as you enjoy solving your “katas”.
3. Khan Academy
The Khan Academy website is, without a doubt, one of the best places to learn and develop coding skills for free as it makes the process easy and fun. The platform offers an interactive and collaborative learning environment where you’re in constant interaction with others, either an instructor or fellow students.
In this shared environment of learning, you’ll find yourself more engaged in the lessons and grasping things quicker. The easy-to-follow course sections, complete with step by step video tutorials, will give you a chance to learn all the different aspects of programming. The use of video tutorials is particularly advantageous as it helps you relate your own ideas to those of the instructor.
Through the Khan Academy website, you can learn: programing languages, such as JavaScript, CSS, and HTML, SQL animations, web design, game development, animations, database creation and management, and more. You’ll also get an opportunity to learn other different stuff way beyond coding.
Basically, the site gives you an all-encompassing computer science education for free!
2. CodeAcademy
CodeAcademy is a totally free coding education resource that teaches you different programming languages so you can gain solid technical and programming skills. At this interactive learning site, you can dive right in and start learning and practicing various coding languages and topics, such as:
– Web design and development
– PHP, HTML, CSS, Python and more
– SQL and Git
– AngularJS, JQuery, JavaScript, Java, etc.
– Ruby and Ruby on Rails
– The Command Line
You’ll find this project-based learning program extremely useful if you’re new to coding. Through its interactive user interface and well-structured courses, you’ll be able to learn and understand how to write code from scratch.
CodeAcademy has become very successful at teaching beginners recently, and is currently one of the most popular places to learn coding online. In fact, more than 25 million individuals have already learned how to write computer code through this platform.
1. Code.org
Code.org is a non-profit initiative dedicated to improving computer science education among school students from underrepresented groups. It’s one of the best places for you to learn code online for free, particularly if you’re just starting out in computer science.
The program gives you an opportunity to learn how to code through a drag-and-drop, feature-packed interactive learning experience. Though the site is geared towards kids, its self-directed tutorials, complete with lectures from big name tech leaders, can prove extremely beneficial – no matter your age.
The program is designed to give everyone the opportunity to learn how to code, with quality online coding courses for school students featuring fun games and valuable educational resources open to people of all ages.
By enrolling into the program, you’ll have access to a wide variety of tutorials, as well as free access to amazing how-to guides and videos that will allow you to get a good grasp of the basics of computer science. Why not join today and join millions of participants who are leveraging the programming knowledge shared on this site?
There you have it, the top 12 best places to learn how to write code for free. By making use of the above sites, you can learn the coding skills you need to become more employable and/or a more effective manager for your business. Visit them today and start learning so you can take control of your future.
Razvan Nichitoiu is a long time freelancer with a focus on growth hacking and learning everything it needs in order to become an Online Marketing Ninja. You can follow his progress on his website IncomeDen.net. You can also follow on Twitter and Facebook.
God bless anyone who has the skill and the patience to learn the art of coding! You’re much better than I am. I really like some of the sources that you use, particularly Udemy. On Udemy, you can learn just about anything you want. I use it often myself. You did a great job of laying out the blueprint though. Anyone who wants to learn how to code should definitely read this article!
LOL Oliver, well as you can see this was a guest post submitted to me. I can do some really basic coding but nothing brilliant.
I have actually been wanting to learn some coding myself but I haven’t gotten there yet. One day!
And yes I have had a look at Udemy before and it looks awesome. I actually wanted to create some courses!
I love the layout of your site, the information is great also I will refer back to read more and stay updated. I have used some of the sites you suggest also w3 is one that we use a lot in my computer classes good luck on your online business I can see that you follow instruction very well.
Thanks
Sherri
Hi Sherri
Thanks for your feedback, yes I have also used W3Schools before on a number of occasions and it has been incredibly helpful. Thanks for adding that one in.
I love your blog. It is packed with a ton of information of which I am happy to find.
I have had to make some changes with text of some copy and pasted content and taught myself to understand some of the simple coding. I never gave any thought to learning to code until reading your post. I may check into some of your list.
Hi Connie
It could prove to be incredibly useful to learn some coding 🙂 I am like you, I have done some basics, but not an actual course. If I need to do something specific I just look it up online.