I’ve always been someone that needs to understand everything to be able to grasp a new concept. While I wish I learned differently, I ended up reading a whole lot of books, watching videos and doing outside practice problems throughout the course. If you find yourself looking for extra practice or explanations, here is what worked best for me.
Great Practice Resources: Name: Ruby on Rails Tutorial by Michael Hartl Unit/Language: Rails cost: free link: https://www.railstutorial.org/ What you do: If you need help getting going with your Rails project, this site is a goldmine. You’ll build a whole application where you are shown line by line what is being done and why. The things you learn can easily be applied to other apps. Start at chapter 3 and go to the end. What you practice: -User signup, login flow -How to remember users across sessions, -Account activation -Deploying your Rails app live -Rendering has-many relationships -Writing tests(super helpful)
Name: Exercism.io Unit/Language: Loads cost: free link: Exercism.io What you do: We all know codewars.com. Exercism is similar; however the problems are more structured, and you work your way through problem sets. You can sign up for two different modes. In one, you receive help from mentors that provide suggestions on how to improve your code. If you just want straight problems to solve, then this site is worth checking out.
Name: freeCodeCamp Unit/Language: HTML, CSS and Javascript cost: free link: https://learn.freecodecamp.org/ What you do: A ton of mini-lessons. The material is not as in-depth as the flatiron curriculum, but if you are looking for targeted practice for a part of the course you are working on then, this is worth checking out.
Name: PURE REACT by Dave Ceddia Unit/Language: React cost: 50 bucks link: https://daveceddia.com/pure-react/ What you do: I was initially skeptical of this guy. I couldn’t find much of an online footprint, and with the number of low-oxide blogs(not us of course…) and self-published books, I wasn’t sure what I was getting into. Eventually, I found him as a lecturer on Egghead and was sold. This was definitely worth my money.
Best Resources for Theory: 1.) Egghead.io I am a big fan of this site. It’s a bunch of experienced developers that bundle a ton of great info into short 2-10 minute clips. For example, there is a series on Redux which is given by Dan Abramov. If you live under a rock, then he is the person that invented Redux. The other courses are excellent as well, and they make a point of imparting as much knowledge as possible in the shortest time-frame.
2.) Eloquent Javascript - https://eloquentjavascript.net/ A great book that ties together all the theory you’ve been learning and then goes a level or two deeper. Marjin Haverbeke, the author, writes in a way that makes this textbook material funny and informative.