Learning
Programming
Languages, fundamentals, and the long-form courses worth finishing.
Where to start
From nothing, The Odin Project and freeCodeCamp both take you all the way to building things and are genuinely free rather than free-to-sample. CS50 is the better choice if you want computer science rather than web development. Everything in Reference is something you will come back to for years rather than work through once.
From nothing4
Complete paths, not tasters.
- freeCodeCampStart hereFree
Thousands of hours of certification tracks with in-browser exercises. Nonprofit, no upsell, portfolio-worthy projects.
- The Odin ProjectStart hereFree
A full-stack curriculum that makes you set up a real local environment rather than coding in a sandbox, which is the part most courses skip.
- CS50x: Introduction to Computer ScienceStart hereFree
The best-produced introductory CS course there is. Starts in C on purpose, so you meet memory before you meet a garbage collector.
- Full Stack OpenCoreFree
React, Node, GraphQL and TypeScript as one continuous project. Demanding, and the closest free equivalent to a bootcamp.
One language properly7
- The Python TutorialStart hereFree
The official one. Dry, short and correct — a better first week than most paid Python courses.
- JavaScript.infoCoreFree
Deep and current, covering the language and the browser. Better than most books and kept up to date.
- Eloquent JavaScriptCoreFree
A book about programming that happens to use JavaScript, with exercises in the page. After the basics, not before.
- The Rust Programming LanguageCoreFree
Known as "the book". Unusually well written, and the ownership chapters are worth reading even if you never write Rust.
- Go by ExampleCoreFree
Annotated programs, one concept each. The fastest way into Go if you already program.
- TypeScript HandbookCoreFree
The official reference. Read the narrowing and generics chapters; they are where the value is.
- Learn X in Y MinutesCoreFree
One annotated file per language. Not a course; the right page when you must read code in something unfamiliar today.
Reference and craft6
- MDN Web Docs: LearnStart hereFree
The reference for HTML, CSS and JavaScript, with a structured path. If a tutorial disagrees with MDN, trust MDN.
- Pro GitCoreFree
The whole book, free. The plumbing chapter is what turns git from incantations into a model you can reason about.
- Refactoring GuruCoreFree tier
Design patterns and refactorings with diagrams and code in several languages. Clear without being shallow.
- ExercismCoreFree
Practice problems in 70-odd languages with human mentoring. The mentoring is the point — it is where you learn idiom.
- The Twelve-Factor AppStart hereFree
Still the clearest statement of what makes an application deployable. Short enough to read in one sitting.
- Google Engineering PracticesCoreFree
How to review code, and how to write a change that is easy to review. Short, specific and widely adopted.
About this list
17 resources, checked automatically every week so dead links do not sit here unnoticed. Nothing on this page is sponsored and none of these links pay us — which is the only reason a recommendation on it is worth anything. Every link goes to the original source, and we take nothing with you when you leave.