Everything is fast paced nowadays. With so many popular languages and frameworks, tools, and libraries out there, it is getting more challenging to be ahead in the game as a software developer. So knowing the best platforms for you is essential for your growth. In this article we will discuss and share all Essential Online Platforms for Developers we advise you to check out to serve you as a support system and guidance throughout your career. We as developers can never stop learning.
Coursera
Coursera offers a wide variety of courses on programming languages, machine learning, computer science, software development, etc to increase your knowledge. Not all courses are free, however, it is affordable and worth the cost, as Coursera’s courses are from World’s leading Universities like Harvard, MIT, Yale, Cambridge, and more from all over the world, available for everyone!
Free codeCamp
If you are tight on money, or you believe that learning should be free, Free codeCamp is the platform for you. Free codeCamp provides full youtube courses, podcasts on Spotify, and other platforms and courses on their own website. And one of the most amazing perks of joining Free codeCamp is its supportive community on social media like LinkedIn and Facebook.
MIT OpenCourseWare
This website is an absolute favorite for many developers and many people who are looking to understand engineering and computer science concepts, fundamentals of programming, and software development from one of the best institutions in the world of engineering. MIT OpenCourseWare provides free access to high-quality undergraduate and graduate courses, however, they don’t offer certificates after finishing them. These courses are taught by renowned experts in computer science and computer engineering.
StackOverflow
StackOverflow is the developer’s savior and for any computer engineering major or computer science student, basically, it is everyone’s go-to when something goes wrong in your code.
It is a huge community where you can find someone with the same error message in their code with an answer or you can ask a question and an experienced developer will reply to you. You can also engage in other people’s questions and try to solve them. Also in interviews for new jobs or when sending your CV, it is a bonus to have your StackOverflow account, it means that you are engaged within the community and have a good knowledge in the field. StackOverflow gets tens of millions of visits each month.
W3Schools
W3Schools is a free online learning website you probably have already heard about before. It is a great resource for developers at any level. It is perhaps best known for web development tutorials and is one of the world’s largest online resources for web development, design, and related topics. Aside from tutorials, W3Schools also provides tutorials, articles, and books that are useful for all developers. Not only that, the website also got an API that allows developers to integrate its content into their mobile or web apps.
Medium
Medium is the most popular platform with a lot of programming and software development-focused articles, resources, and tips from very experienced leaders in the industry. The content posted on Medium is not beginner friendly, however, it is a really useful resource for programmers where you can find advanced concepts that are explained very well by industry experts in the field. It is more of a blogging platform than a programming platform, where authors share their careers, hobbies, and lives as a programmer/engineer.
Have you ever heard about Reddit? It is a giant network of communities or as Redditors call them “Subreddits” that you join. It is filled with endless conversations and a sea of ideas, interests, hobbies, and of course subreddits for developers, programmers, and software engineers.
So many never ending conversations, you can dive in and learn so much from, you can even get to know more about your community as you can DM a fellow Redditor and if you don’t want to sign in, you can definitely stay anonymous. Start exploring by joining subreddits r/programming, r/AskProgramming, r/LearnProgramming, and r/Coding as they have more than 5 million members.
Codewars
Codewars is an e-learning platform for software development and programming. Suppose you are looking for a platform to learn in a gamified way with a lot of challenges. However it is not really beginner friendly, you might feel lost if you are. If you have a bit of experience or knowledge and are looking for challenges to help you learn more, it is the platform you should give a shot at.
Each project on the platform is a coding challenge, called “kata”, the more you solve or complete, the higher your rank. You could also compare your solutions with other coders’ solutions to the challenge!. Coding on Codewars is free and the courses are done by the community, it also supports learning more than 30 core languages and 26 beta languages.
LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional social networking site designed for the business community. Find the right internship or job and connect with professional and experienced developers and programmers. Learn more about your missing skills and what you need to succeed in your career. LinkedIn is a platform that helps you represent your work, your progress, and your new projects. You can find your community with LinkedIn as you can connect, comment and chat with people of like mind and with similar values or professional goals. You can find your next dream job or your next mentor. Networking or finding your community is important for any software developer or aspiring to be one and LinkedIn is a place to turn to for advice regarding careers, projects, or sometimes personal.
Upskill
Upskill is a great learning platform with free coding courses which include: HTML & CSS, Bootstrap, Ruby on Rails, JavaScript & jQuery, and more. Everything in Upskill is project-based which helps you to get hands-on experience with your skills instead of just learning concepts and not being able to implement them. This also helps to understand how to work with real-life problems when learning how to code. And don’t forget to add these projects to your CV and portfolio as that helps your job hunting.