Coding is quickly becoming one of the most sought-after skills in the world. Computer languages are so important that they are even being taught at an early age on schools. Perhaps you didn’t get the change to learn coding when you were younger, but you want to get into it now – what is the best way to learn coding and potentially even learn software development? We spoke with TechQuarters, one of the top IT services companies London-based SMBs partner with for managed services and outsourced IT support. Over the last decade, TechQuarters has seen steadily increasing interest in software development among businesses – even businesses that aren’t directly working in tech sectors.
It is generally agreed that IT is necessary for survival in the business world, and the ability to code and develop your own software is a skill many businesses want – it has so many benefits, such as enabling an organization to develop custom solutions, or develop bespoke services for customers.
Stormotion developed a mobile app for a historical museum. It is built using GraphCMS system, is Android and iOS compatible, and has GoogleMaps integration.
With all this in mind, how does the individual user go about learning coding?
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The best way to learn coding?
There isn’t specifically a ‘best way’ to learn coding. People from all over the world have gone on to become world-class coders and developers by following wildly different paths compared to their fellows.
Courses / Schools
TechQuarters personally recommends the use of a coding course. This is the best way to learn coding the right way, because you will be able to learn from skilled professionals with lots of experience; there will be structured curriculums and lessons. It can be easy to learn bad habits if you don’t learn coding properly, so an official course is ideally the best approach.
There are so many excellent courses and schools for coding available online:
- Coursera: a highly academically oriented training platform. Coursera has a vast array of very well-structured coding courses. Coursera was founded by professors from Stanford (an ivy league school), so you know that the courses are very viable.
- Pluralsight: This is an online school dedicated specifically to coding, IT and development. It has an excellent array of topic ranging from fundamental coding languages, all the way up to cyber security and machine learning. It offers a fun, highly visual way of learning.
- Udemy: This platform is another that is not only focused on coding. It has hundreds upon thousands of courses on a highly diverse range of topics. However, it also has the widest variety of coding courses available online.
Self-Taught
Of course, some people might not have the budget to go the training course / school route. But luckily, there are plenty of free learning resources and tools that can enable you to become proficient in coding.
To start with, you should decide what area of coding you are most interested in. Do you want to be a full-stack web developer? Do you want to build mobile apps, web apps, desktop apps? Are you more interested in front end or back end? Perhaps you are most interested in DevOps? These are just a few of the different disciplines of the software development and coding worlds, so its important to pick a focus, as this will make learning easier.
When you’ve found out what area you want to major in, it is much easier to figure out what tools and resources you need. You can find out what languages are used in the field you are focusing on; what is more, plenty of the fundamental tools needed for software development (like code editors) can be found for free. Once you have the tools, the focus, and the path forward, it is very easy to find free resources and tutorials, and then you can essentially build your own curriculum of learning to help you on your way to becoming a coding professional.
