No disrespect intended, but is this just a quiz site?

Hello, I used to feel exactly like you. But as I worked I learned that this is only meant to be a guideline. This guide is free of charge, and it will teach you the basics that will build a foundation for you to learn. Remember to take one step at a time. If you do not feel comfortable, with an exercise, then use the many resources that are at your disposal, to gain a better understanding of the assignment. There are a plethora of websites that offer examples for free. Sign up for them and take their courses. Some sites go in greater detail. If you want to learn more, then you may use a paid option that may lay things out better for you. But why pay for something you can learn for free? The most profound way to learn is by repetition. You will have mastered the material once you can complete a challenge without reference. But you will not need to master the material to land a job, a basic understanding of how to solve problems is all you need. If it takes you 100 hours to complete a challenge, then pat yourself on the back for the dedication. You have learned an adequate to solve problems.

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P1xt refused moderator status because she felt it might interfere with her criticizing FCC when she feels they’ve got it wrong. It’s not that she’s a fangirl–it’s that you’re whining.

Stop having a sandy p**** and get back to studying and learning. If you don’t like something you can find other resources and communities.

I cannot believe that of all people, anyone is accusing you of “burying issues”. Quite the contrary. If everyone had your attitude or were willing to take even 1% of your advice, this thread would not be here.

I did find it a bit like those origami instructions that you confidently sail through until step three, which is indecipherable. But I love trying to figure it out on my own–and then there is the lovely, even somewhat anarchist coding community that helps you at no personal gain. It is amazing.

Basically, it is like journalism: the real skill you need is figuring out where to look and who to ask when you’re beginning to waste time. I love it, though it can be maddening.

Think of it as a practice site… One where you will get tips on what to do, but might have to reach out for help from others, or research something yourself… the map makes a great set of steps (topics) to know about but some/many require deeper dives…

I’m 100% new here and have browsing the web to learn about Coding. I can tell you that Ive learn more about coding from FCC then all of the other place combine. Yes FCC method is non traditional where as they don’t give you something to read, video to watch, then hopefully you know how to do something. FCC method: Show you how to do this = You do it. Boom I know how to do that specific thing. As you learn more and more, thing make more sense and you can use all the Little stuff you just learn and put it into something big.

To go from Your Example. FFC dont teach you how to make Apple Pie, They teach you how to make the filling, by showing you how to cut up the apple, how to mix the sugar and flour. They teach you how to make the crust. How to set the Temperature of the oven. After that you can make any type of pie you want by swapping the ingredient.

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Im most drawn to this statement: and then there is some project/problem which is indecipherable and requires 100 hours of research to find an inadequate solution.

I suspect you are being impatient and jumping ahead. If you go through FCC’s curriculum in order, by the time you get to these big problems they will have explained most of the necessary parts. Programming is a new way of thinking, and takes time to digest/comprehend. Be patient dawg.

Yeah, I agree with everything said before. This site doesn’t teach you how to code; it teaches you how to learn to code. Sites like codecademy and Code School might have nice interfaces, but you don’t really deeply learn anything. Have you ever gone through an in-browser tutorial, learned a new skill, but when you go to your own editor, you’ve completely forgotten how to do it?

That’s where the projects come in. They give you a chance to research the tools you will need to complete the assignment.

I use FCC mostly as a networking tool. Even though I can’t remember the last time I worked on the challenges, I’m here on the forum almost every day.

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Some great discussion already here.
I would say no this is not a quiz site. I can understand that its a big learning curve, but any site that can get me making a calculator, 4 apps using various apis’s and confident enough to attempt to build a functioning website in less than 2 months(weekends mainly), gets the thumbs up from me. As many have noted extra research on your own is required(google). Maybe that should be made clear in the material?

Disclaimer - I did a CS degree nearly 2 decades ago so I’m not coming completely new to this.

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Hmm, I always thought it was clear. But I went through the materials a few iterations ago…

Possibly it’s not quite so prevalent anymore?

Used to be the read-search-ask was shown on each exercise and along with a link to applicable MDN materials… and there was an intro the projects that showed a gif of someone punching a computer (or pulling out their hair or something) and mentioning the challenge of finding out for yourself how to do it… the frustration and eventual satisfaction

Like I said, I haven’t checked out the material for over a year comprehensively… so it may not be emphasized as much… for instance I do know the original material emphasized ‘pair-programming’ and I rarely hear mention of it now… there was even a exercise to log into some tools that allowed you to screen share, and you could add someone’s name to a challenge and they would get credit for completing it as well…

Everything evolves but sometimes we lose something in the translations.

Side note: I’ve almost never expected one site, thing, tool, exercise, project or etcetc to be the silver bullet that satisfies all of my needs.

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Yes, FCC does seem like they are teaching how to swim by giving you yellow ducky floaters,have you splash around a bit in the kiddie pool and then telling you to now go dive into the ocean from a helicopter!

I started out working on the basic js algos on FCC but got stuck. Then I discovered fullstack academy prep. It’s a free online course.You work on the problems but they also explain how they worked them out step by step, solving the problem and refining it.
For example see https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=40&v=A8aEBx4DZUE
and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_d8Z3hjPIc&feature=youtu.be

I was able to use the same techniques that I learned in that course to solve the FCC problems. For example, fullstack prep has a palindrome problem that is much easier than FCC’s. Since I was able to solve that simpler problem, I used that as a basis for solving the FCC version and used the techniques I learned to solve unrelated problems, such as the caeser cipher.