Well put together responses from this community. it definitely presents many challenges to learn code. It is just a matter of persistence. I am telling this myself everyday. Let’s not quit, despite all the challenges at FCC.
What will 1 year from today look like???
Just my perspective.
Hey Robert. Henry here, Full stack web developer and android developer. I have always been geared more towards Object Oriented Programming, I guess that’s why for the longest time I hated JavaScript and drifted more towards Ruby on Rails and Java. This year I decided to learn JS and I found the FCC site.
All the points you raise are completely valid. And I get the frustration, especially when you are starting out. It’s hard. CODING IS HARD. And it doesn’t get any easier, it’s just that you get better.
Now, to go through each of the points you raised (In no particular order). You mentioned about “Copy and Pasting Codes”. Here’s the thing about development. It’s not the syntax that is important but the logic. This is what I mean, you might have copied and pasted the code; but the fundamental question is…did you understand the logic behind the code? Because more often than not, you will repeat this code so many times and eventually the syntax will stick…once you have mastered the logic. GOOD DEVELOPERS READ AND UNDERSTAND OTHER DEVELOPERS CODES. its how you start learning.
Now, the learning apple pie by looking at a bag of sugar. That’s how coding is when you are starting out. Whether you go to treehouse, lynda.com or pay for a bootcamp; you will get frustrated. Important is to understand that it takes time to be good at it. You’ll look back to this thread and laugh.Trust me.
Now, FCC is not perfect. You are absolutely right. And it is not meant to provide you with all the knowledge in learning JS. The whole goal is to jump start you into the development world. Some tricks will come with experience and learning outside, while others will come with instincts. JUST REMEMBER, CODING IS ABOUT THE LOGIC AND NOT THE SYNTAX…
It never gets easy, you only get better at it…
That’s how I’ve been doing it as well. I did the tutorials on w3schools so I have a pretty good idea of the basic coding vernacular which at least cues me into what I should be looking for.
It is my favorite site so far for actually getting a taste of coding and what I can create. I would recommend codeacademy and w3schools tutorials before this platform and I definitely recommend this platform for helping you learn and motivating you to learn since you see the results of your efforts and what you’ll be doing day to day if you decide to go full-time programming route; seems like anyways
I’m the same. I like back end so I follow a bunch of tutorials like the ones offered by Mozilla plus some suggestions by dev mastery:
way to be a fangirl … wave that flag instead of fixing the bugs in the challenges … all is well, the forum is full, as is the wiki’s, with a bunch bugs in these challenges and projects. But that’s okay, you keep up the great work of burying the issues.
I get that constructive criticism is useful but why would someone speak out against Free Code Camp as anything but awesome for making an attempt to open the door for everyone who wouldn’t otherwise even know where to begin. They open a door and it is up to the student to pass through. EgoDominusVos should go back to trolling YouTube videos or something. Way to go P1xt for earnestly speaking up for this platform and community that clearly does add value. FreeCodeCamp is awesome and, regardless of the opportunities for improvement, has played an important role in advancing my learning as a developer.
I do not believe this is just a “quiz site.” I’m sure this has already been mentioned in many ways, but it’s worth repeating. You only get out of something what you actually put into it. Meaning you reap what you sow. I don’t mean this in a mean way, but by design (and maybe it was just a pleasant accident) the content is meant to make you ask questions.
The entire “Read, Search, Ask” mentality is probably one of the biggest soft skills anyone can learn from this site. Languages and architectures will come and go. The soft skill is one you can take to the bank for a lifetime investment.
So it’s clear that you, as I have and most anyone who’s put a moderate amount of time in to FCC, have determined that there are exercises that bring up the need to use the “Read, Search, Ask” method.
The good news is that you are asking the questions, which means you already understand the need to inquire instead of just walking away. How many people will not even read these posts and replies because they encountered the same thing you have and just left it all together. I hope you haven’t or aren’t planning to. FCC is, from what I can tell, unique in their approach to teaching aspiring web developers.
They are not 100% perfect and why I still rely on other resources such as codecademy.com, or even fun game sites that teach coding as well like codingame.com or codecombat.com to name a few.
Also, get used to reading the official specifications for languages. I’m sure you are already familiar with regulations in electrical codes as an electrician and may not be willing to trust all your knowledge on what someone else tells you about it. The same thing applies here. Sometimes we just have to go back to the original source.
Good luck my friend!
I’m baffled that you say you can’t learn anything from FCC. I am a first time coder only 3 weeks in, and I have learned a huge amount. When i get stuck I search for an answer and keep moving. They don’t hold yor hand, you need to apply yourself. If that means stopping while you fill in from W3 or Code Academy, then just do it. I am learning a frame of reference that will make me a qualified coder if i put in the work, and i will have a certification.
A college program in software engineering is no different. You just do what you have to do to finish…or quit.
I’ve been quite impressed by FCC so far. I’ve tried a few other courses (CodeAcademy, MOOCs) but what I like about FCC is it feels more like a programme because:
(1) It has an intended output/aim to build your skills in the real world
(b) It helps you be surrounded by community while learning.
Coding is a lot about troubleshooting and figuring things out as you go. It is hard. Which is why I feel a good community with a common vision really helps.
scary but true, you have to learn to read reference material, and contribute to a project, there will be a lot of “firsts” and you have to enjoy the struggle and adversity of breaking into the field, keeping up your progress, maintaining skillsets, etc.
I haven’t been here very long, and I’m in the middle of the Basic JS section. I found FCC after learning HTML & CSS elsewhere. I tried JS almost a year ago, and had to put it aside because I wasn’t quite getting it.
Anyway, I’m not going to say FCC is this or that, or try to explain anything. You have plenty of that happening in this thread. I just wanted to say that about 3 weeks ago, I got stuck in the middle of JS. The instructions seemed to come out of left field asking me to complete exercises on a topic that hadn’t even been mentioned prior to that. After a while of trying to figure it out (and yes- searching), I became confused and a little frustrated, and honestly, I felt stupid. (No, I didn’t “Ask”. What’s the point in having the answer if I don’t know how to solve it.) I had read everything when I joined this site, and I completed all exercises from the beginning to that point. However, until your post, I didn’t completely realize this was intentional and that I wouldn’t be at least exposed to a little information on each topic/section prior to the exercises. I had already gone to other sites to find the best JS course (for me), but after reading your post and the many comments, the whole thing suddenly made more sense and I no longer feel stupid.
I want you to know, @robert194w, that your bag of sugar comment really made me laugh because I could COMPLETELY identify with it, but reading it also made me feel like I wasn’t alone. Thank you, and thanks to the those who commented as well. My view of the site is completely different now, so now I can make full use of FCC as it was intended. 
I absolutely agree with all you said, but even more with your constructive attitude. You made THE GUIDES! Which some how are the answer to my prayers for a … guide 
FCC is awsome and hopefully it will keep improving. It is nice to be here.
Cheers!
@jamesperrin This is why learning with FCC is better. It gives you just enough clues not too much, then rest is up to the developer to solve it. They even mention several times that as you learn more, return back to projects or problems and solve them with new learned skills.
@robert194w, As someone who have tried tons of ways to learn (self learning), I can assure you FCC feels better after a while. It is no perfect place, like you won’t get all the information about a project or a challenge, they only give you user stories and some hints.
Imagine you are building an app that allows people to enter information about a school or university and system has to choose the country of the school and then set some defaults about it, like the currency or anything that can be inferred by the country relationship, and each school has to have programs which have their own fields as well, tuition fee, application fee, and all these info has to be inferred from the country through school. And what is even more you have to have a way for programs to share data between them so you don’t enter duplicate information for a similar program in several schools. It gets even more complex…
Real world is no perfect place, you won’t have someone on youtube with exact project to show you how to build stuff, generally you would go through several steps to just build MVP, then as FCC says build as you learn more.
If you check all popular websites via web archives you will see in the past they look like a mess, and probably have fewer services, now look at them. Every time they research, learn, experience, web improves just like one’s skills and experience.
If you need to learn more and come back later for more FCC I would suggest you to try Pluralsight since they currently have 3 months free access if you sign up to https://www.visualstudio.com/dev-essentials
Good Luck
You’re badly mistaken if you think FCC was a one-stop shop. It provides a framework to work off of and a solid community of like-minded people, but the majority of learning takes place outside the site.
Love the bag of sugar analogy. Haha!
Still can’t believe people are complaining about a free resource that actually does a lot better job than many of the paid resources out there. You don’t get hand holding once on the job, so it’s best to ‘learn how to learn’ as soon as possible.
Sink or swim was LITERALLY how I learned to swim as an adult. Although I had to be saved a few times along the way, I was never hand-held. And I made it through Naval Dive School a year later. Sometimes you just gotta jump in the deep end.
I also didn’t find this approach useful.
You may find this thread helpful, especially when it comes to JavaScript:
https://forum.freecodecamp.com/t/computer-guide-get-job-ready-with-1-fcc-cert-3-projects-2-courses-and-10-books/64027
The first set of books recommended is about how JavaScript works and the CS50 covers basics of computer science.
Also, for html and CSS, there’s a free course by W3C on EDX.
I like learning while doing, it’s easier for me to learn this way.
To be honest however, the front end was easy only because i had previous coding knowledge.
For the backend bit i have to check lots of other sites to understand the details better.
That being said, this site is still far better than paid sites. I’ve had and have membership with some paid tutoring sites and they are horrible. Most of the info that is useful to me so far is all freely accessible over the internet on sites like tutorialspoint for example, there are more i use btw.
Oh and some of the staff on paid sites that are supposed to help you have no mood in helping you. You’re better of just searching on stack overflow and even less appealing pages like yahoo answers are generally more helpful.
The only good way to move forward in my experience is to just keep trying on your own. You can’t just blindly rely on others or learning materials.