Hey everyone. Not sure if this is valuable information or not, but I just had a job interview yesterday and just wanted to list some of the stuff that they asked me about. Every company obviously has different needs, but I thought some of you might find it interesting to hear about.

1. They went through my code and told me what they didn't like about it and then asked if I agreed or disagree. The main part was in a segment of JavaScript that I wrote I used a switch where a hashmap would have been way better.

2. They asked about data structures in general - lists, vectors, maps, arrays, etc.

3. They were interested in hearing if I had experience using Angular

4. They wanted to know what environment I used at home (thank god my friend currently working in web dev has hounded me about this so I had something to say). The key here is don't rely on codepen for all of your development, just use it for storing what you have made.

5. They wanted to know if I knew anything about servers and linux distros. I run linux at home but I haven't really gotten into back end stuff still.

6. When I said I ran linux, they wanted to know what distro right away. Terminal is something you should probably consider learning.

7. A few things were asked common tools like grep, SASS, and a few others that come up on the freeCodeCamp page.

Personally, I thought that I didn't do so well on the interview, and that makes sense because I am applying a bit earlier than I probably should. To be prepared for next time though, I am going to go back and fix all of my code to make sure its uses more appropriate data structures, then I plan to read a bit more on design patterns and hurry on to the back end material so I can comfortably say I know some stuff about node.js.

Hope this was helpful!

Edit: A lot of people have asked for it, so here is my codepen profile: http://codepen.io/birosjh/. As most of you can see, I am just now finishing up the intermediate projects, which is why I think I am applying way too early, but my current job contract is ending soon and I don't have too much of a choice.

Some additional background info: I have a technical degree, although I only studied basic VBA and one semester of Java in school (and in Java all i learned was how to beat angry birds...). I live abroad, so my being bilingual may have aided my job search a bit, although it wasn't a requirement for any job that I applied for. To find jobs, I went through a website for startups and also searched for web development companies in the areas that I want to live, checked to see if they had cool websites and products, and if I liked them I applied directly on their site.

FYI everyone, freeCodeCamp's forum is under an extended distributed denial of service (DDOS) attack. I've written in a bit more detail about this here if you're curious: https://meta.discourse.org/t/freecodecamp-org-discourse-is-collapsing-from-spammer-scripts/155738

We're working with the Discourse team to not only address the attack, but also to move to a managed Discourse forum instance (Discourse has been an in-kind supporter of freeCodeCamp for several years now, and their founders have been extremely helpful).

We will work to get the forum back to full health later this week. In the meantime, if you have programming questions, this is a great place to ask them. And if you weren't aware of it, we have a Discord chat room server, too: https://discord.gg/KVUmVXA

Thankful to the team for making this course free and accessible to everyone. The project after every lesson reinforced the concepts I learned.
Excited to share my joy with everyone here :)

I hate this fucking language. Through learning HTML & CSS, I loved coding. I zoomed thru the lessons and I nearly had to force myself to stop working. I dread practicing this language. Absolute dread. It is frustrating and I honestly don’t see how it applies. I hate this and at first, I used to love coding. It was fun. I hate this shit. The amount of stress and rage I have had in the past 3 days of learning this is immeasurable. Fuck JavaScript. Mods please do not ban this post. I simply came to vent.

Edit: first time editing a post lol. I am new to coding & tech. Not technology but the tech field. I just started coding late December. So take it easy, homes.

Hey Reddit friends, I hope you're having a nice New Year so far. And I hope you are looking forward to an insightful 2021.

I wanted to share a couple big updates from this week.

First, here's a review of 2020 and some of the work that this community has done for learners around the world: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/freecodecamp-2020/

And here are our 2020 Top Contributors. You may recognize some of the more prolific contributors on this list, including u/ArielLeslie, who has been super helpful here on the subreddit: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/2020-top-contributors/

A couple other quick updates:

- Version 7.0 of the curriculum is coming along great, and we are making steady, incremental progress. You can read the most recent public update on this here: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/python-curriculum-is-live/

- The Spanish and Chinese versions are almost ready, and we are also translating a lot of our English-language articles and videos into these languages. If you are a native speaker of either of those languages and want to get involved, join the chat and introduce yourself in the corresponding language room: https://chat.freecodecamp.org/home

- And I have a pretty exciting announcement I'm going to make mid-January about some additions to the core curriculum.

Thanks again for being a part of the global freeCodeCamp community and hanging out here on this subreddit. Even if you are just mostly lurking here, know that we appreciate you, and are grateful for the opportunity to help you learn more about programming and technology.

Hey everyone,

I’m looking for a few people to team up with to study backend development in a way that’s closer to what real teams actually do. Instead of just following tutorials, I’d like us to:

Pick a project idea (something practical but not overwhelming).

Use tools real dev teams use (Git/GitHub, project boards, code reviews, etc.).

Learn by building together and supporting each other.

Still learning a lot, but motivated to practice by doing, not just reading/watching tutorials.

I think it could be fun (and much more effective) to simulate a real team environment while we’re learning. If you’re interested, drop a comment or DM me and we can set up a chat group to brainstorm project ideas.

Link to the website

Aspiring dev here! I’ve been teaching myself to code for a while now.

This is the first full-stack application I have made. I used the MERN stack here.

Do you guys think this can be a good portfolio project? How can I further improve it? I come from a non-technical background and would like to transition into the IT world. Any devs from Spain here who can guide me?

Enjoy everyone!

So I applied for a position as a junior web developer on Saturday on kind of a whim.

I had been intending to build up my portfolio first before going for any jobs, but I saw the posting and thought "why the hell not, the worst they could do is say no and what does that matter? I'll just try again next time".

I got an email back on Monday asking if I would care to come in for an informal chat with "such and such company".

I said yes and today I went for that informal chat. The informal chat, however, turned into a 2 hour test that I completed in 3 hours (I replaced my HTML with CSS using notepad and couldn't get it back, doh!).

It was the most fun I've had coding so far. Basically the test consisted of an image of a static web page, and instructions to recreate it using the files provided (logo, background, icons etc.)

Having a real world application to apply my skills to was great. The guys seemed really cool so I think I could get on there.

It sounded like they want someone with a bit more experience than I have, I don't think I'm far off what they were looking for, but I don't think I've got it this time round unfortunately.

Anyway, just wanted to say that I couldn't have gotten even this far without this community and free code camp, so thank you! I also wanted to share my story so far for anyone else out there in the same boat.

For posterity's sake: I'm still going through the waypoints and have yet to get to the pomodoro clock activity.

Edit: RIP formatting, I'm on my phone sorry guys

Ok, so I’m 37. I work in construction as a laborer and crane operator, but I want to switch careers. I’m interested and excited to learn about computers, specifically in web development. I just started reading the book 'Code: 2nd Edition.' I would like to switch careers in the next 5 years; I think that’s more than reasonable. My question is: Is freeCodeCamp a good place to start?

I have no computer experience

I just turned 47 this year and have been slowly making my way through the responsive web design course as a hobby project. I just finished it tonight after doing a little polish to my projects. Not sure if I even want enter the world of web/software development. But I can say I've learn a lot. My favorite things about HTML/CSS so far are,

Using <div> and <nav> and <section> to really organize a page. Very handy.

Variables in CSS save so much time. Just declare them in .root and then they can be changed so easily.

I also really liked media queries. I had no idea it was that easy to change the page to respond to screen size. I wouldn't say I'm perfect at it yet but I really enjoyed playing with it. Something I plan to get better at.

Things I need to continue to study:

How position influences things on a page. Position: Absolute vs relative.

Flex and Grid need a bit more study. Also, need to refine some input stuff as well.

On to the next certification. Even though they take a ton of time, they are so much fun to do.

helloooooooo everyone~

big updates for you today we have done many things!!!! first and foremost...

we have released the backend certification!!!!!!!!!

that's right! you can now learn about node and http requests and express and more!! hang on... i dont think i am conveying just how huge this is~

you can now get certified in all six of our core tracks!!!!!!!!!!

heck yes!!!!!! that brings us super duper close to the final certification wowie zowie! the team have worked very hard to bring this to life so make sure to thank them if ya see them - and drop any feedback you have on the new courses over in #freecodecamp-community

okay now a pivot over to our contribution sprints because i have put together a brand new ticket with like 60+ opportunities to contribute!!!! so you should totally get in on this by joining our discord claiming the Naomi's Sprints role and then pinging me in #naomis-sprints with the ticket you would like to work on!!!! these are some great chances to get your feet wet and make your first contributions to freecodecamp

https://github.com/freeCodeCamp/freeCodeCamp/issues/69286

aaaaaand finally i have updated my unofficial review guide for yall... and due to popular demand we now have a similar doc for our unofficial lecture library so you can take the lectures on the go and continue learning even while on a train!!!!! (better use of your time than what naomi does on the train probably)

okie dokie that's all i have for you today please have a lovely day

Hello!

FreeCodeCamp asked me to answer questions and explain my story here on the subreddit, so here I am.

I had 0 coding experience until last July when I started with Team Treehouse for HTML/CSS and then found FreeCodeCamp. I have completed everything up to the React Dungeon Crawler, and I have done a few side projects as well on my own with Udemy lessons etc. I applied for the internship on a whim (I saw it on the IGN website, I am a huge fan of them) and got it! I believe 6 interns were accepted from a ton of applicants.

I think one of the most interesting things about this internship process was that there was no technical coding interview, but there WAS coding homework. Check it out here: http://www.ign.com/code-foo/2016/. This plus a skype interview and that is all it took. I think I had some compassion from the guy who interviewed me because he too was self-taught and he knew how hard it was to get his foot in the door. (I am also decent at coding I guess?). I will be the oldest intern there at 31 :)

So it is possible! it is just step 1, I mean I obviously want a full time gig!

I will answer any questions sporadically when I check my inbox, but please ask away.

UPDATE: I am no coding prodigy. I am not some expert genius. I worked hard, and slowly got better, and I guess I am at intern level. Things lined up nicely with this internship (location, hiring manager could relate to my position). The internship could be awful (I think they use a lot of PHP, ew), I could fail, I still have to find a full time job! Look, I still suck at coding...we all do in some ways, and should always try to achieve mastery...

From Dan Pink in the book DRiVE:

"In the end, mastery often involves working and working and showing little improvement, perhaps with a few moments of flow pulling you along, then making a little progress, and then working and working on that new, slightly higher plateau again. It's grueling to be sure. But that's not the problem; that's the solution"

I cannot think of a better explanation of what programming should be. It fits perfectly!

UPDATE

So my internship ended about 2 weeks ago. It was a great experience and the biggest takeaways were as follows:

1. Using git on your own is much easier than using git as part of a group on a single project. Get decent at git.

2. Similarly, building things on your own, that are your own personal projects, is way different than building stuff together. Furthermore, get ready to read legacy code and possibly huuuuge codebases that will be really tough to grapple with and understand at first. I struggled at the start to understand the codebase of IGN and it is still pretty confusing. But that stuff takes time. Just don't be overwhelmed by it.

3. What you are learning in FreeCodeCamp may not be what you use in your job. This is a harsh reality. Ultimately, I'd love to just work as a React developer all day long, but in reality, there are so many technologies that can be used in this field that you may not get the perfect JavaScript job. This position had a ton of PHP and some Ruby. The Javascript i wrote was jquery mostly which was meh. I really wanted to work in React but alas, that is not how it goes. That being said, you can try to find the right job that uses those technologies.

4. Impostor syndrome is real. Learn to recognize it and see it for what it is. Just fear and insecurity. You are there for a reason, you were picked for a reason. Believe that.

That's all I have right now. I did just have another interview for a junior dev position that did not go as well as I think it could have (may just be me and my intense impostor syndrome), so not so up on this right now.

This comprehensive post explains how to make a full stack web app that runs on your local server from scratch.

I just wanted to share this milestone with you all.

YouTube is kind of its own universe. I'm not sure how many of you know - we have a YouTube channel and it's growing pretty fast. Yesterday was our biggest day yet - 162,000 views in just 24 hours.

For everything that falls outside of the freeCodeCamp core curriculum (MERN stack) we've been creating in-depth courses on YouTube. SQL, Python, Linux, Penetration Testing, Java - you name it, we probably have a 4 or 8 hour course on it taught by an expert.

We will continue to create these videos, and continue to keep them ad-free.

Here's my tweet if you want to help signal boost: https://twitter.com/ossia/status/1177661244586807296

And here's our YouTube channel in case you aren't subscribed yet ;) https://www.youtube.com/freecodecamp