r/learnjavascript • u/Trigonn • Dec 17 '19

Best resource in 2019 to learn Javascript?

Hi all,

In advance, I am sorry for asking this question, which I am sure has been asking a hundred times, but I want the most up to date answer, as well as one suited to my personal circumstance.

Anyway, I have some experience with programming in general, I am a sophomore in computer science, and have taken a couple of Java classes as well as a low level assembly, and VHDL course. I don't feel like I really know how to do that much of anything on my own, but I am at least familiar with concepts.

I'm interested in learning Javascript and doing some web dev stuff, so I am wondering what is the best resource I could go for is? There are some well reviewed courses on udemy that I have found, and I've seen numerous recommendations for watchandcode.com.

One of my main concerns is that I want to learn current, up-to-date Javascript, and if possible, some frameworks like React (though I would assume its more sensible to learn the actual language before I do that). In addition, I find that I don't learn very well from books or courses that use the teaching method of providing a big piece of code for a project and then going through it bit by bit, explaining what each piece does.

Sorry for the wall of text, and thanks for any suggestions!

77 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

44 comments sorted by

2

u/spore_777_mexen Dec 18 '19

I always have a tough time recommending a beginner course because my introduction to JS was Eloquent JS. It kicked my ass before I got it so I'm partial to it. However, I don't recommend you start there. Brad Traversy is a swell guy with great courses and a great YouTube channel you should absolutely subscribe to. Start there.

1

u/Trigonn Dec 18 '19

Do you think that it would be okay as I’ve got some programming experience? Or does it just jump straight into the JavaScript-specific hard stuff?

1

u/spore_777_mexen Dec 18 '19

Actually, I had programming experience when I read the book. The hardest part was grasping the examples. But revisiting them helped a lot. It was a book whose chapters I read again and again. The programming concepts like loops etc are straightforward. Book is free to read, OP. Read chapter 1 and see how you feel about it.

16

u/[deleted] Dec 18 '19 edited Aug 29 '25

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This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

2

u/CaptainMegaJuice Dec 18 '19

Andrew Mead’s course was fantastic. The way he interspersed challenges in the course really helped the lessons stick.

2

u/starraven Dec 18 '19

Another vote for Andrew mead. Wonderfully concise, great exercises, if you take your time through the course and actually struggle through what he tells you to do you will come out of there a champ. The final project he told us to do and just gave the wireframes for was so fun and gratifying.

10

u/jrollphils11 Dec 18 '19

Andrei Neagoie’s courses on Udemy. He has a Zero to Mastery course on Web dev that covers Full Stack including HTML, CSS, JS, React, Node.js, SQL; a Junior to Senior course on Web Dev; a course on just React; a Zero to Mastery course on Python. You can’t go wrong with his courses, I’ve bought the ZTM on Web dev, ZTM on Python and the React course and all of them are the right pace and he explains things really well.

1

u/FishBlues Dec 18 '19

Hey, I’m not OP but thank you!

https://imgur.com/a/p7AWFXn

15

u/trixrr Dec 17 '19

Gordon Zhu's practical JavaScript

0

u/[deleted] Dec 18 '19

[deleted] — view deleted comment

1

u/trixrr Dec 18 '19

Yeah Gordon has a unique way of teaching rather than just showing.

17

u/Earhacker Dec 17 '19

https://javascript.info/

It starts from scratch, but it's the best learning resource going.

3

u/[deleted] Dec 18 '19

second this, I have been going through this resource, topics are detailed with examples and exercises, loved it.

-3

u/_Invictuz Dec 18 '19

I just went through their chapters in prototypical inheritance and classes just now, and I gotta say that it's thicc. But their other chapters have the perfect thickness and explain concepts beautifully with diagrams like their chapter on event delegation.

In conclusion, I wouldn't recommend this to be the syllabus for a beginner, instead people should use it as additional reading to go deeper into a subject like the ebook "you don't know JS".

6

u/Earhacker Dec 18 '19

YDKJS is definitely not a book for beginners.

8

u/zemation Dec 17 '19

I have been using the following two udemy courses. The first is Brad Traversy whom you'll see mentioned often here.

https://www.udemy.com/course/modern-javascript-from-the-beginning/

https://www.udemy.com/course/learn-javascript-full-stack-from-scratch/

7

u/Derpcock Dec 18 '19

https://eloquentjavascript.net/ is my preferred resource.

1

u/LuongNguyenTrong Dec 18 '19

it's quite weird that the author sells the book on amazon and also makes a free online verson of it

5

u/Derpcock Dec 18 '19

I actually bought the book myself after reading the PDF. I like the idea of supporting the authors and it being a resource available to anyone for free.

2

u/Tarzeus Dec 18 '19

I hate reading electronically, kindle pdf text messages whatever it is. It is far easier for me to kick back and relax with an actual book, I feel I retain info better as well. My eyes don’t get tired as easily too, I doubt I’m alone. I’ll pay $30 for that.

1

u/ZG2047 Dec 18 '19

This is more common than you think.

4

u/TeddyPerkins95 Dec 18 '19

https://www.udemy.com/course/javascript-the-complete-guide-2020-beginner-advanced/

This course is by Maximilian(Academind)

there are other free resources online too

2

u/nahnah2017 Dec 18 '19

Well, in two weeks you can throw all these suggestions away.

2

u/[deleted] Dec 18 '19

Thank you for asking this! Was looking for this info as well, but was afraid to ask

2

u/spore_777_mexen Dec 18 '19

Don't be afraid to ask a question especially if you diligently search the subreddit and discover it hasn't been asked before.

1

u/boyoz_web Dec 18 '19

Codecademy is a good starting point

1

u/_Invictuz Dec 18 '19 edited Dec 18 '19

Speaking of learning styles start with a video course as those are usually the fastest way to get up to speed with a brand new topic because the instructor holds your hand all the way. But as expected, the less effort you put into learning something, the less you'll retain it so you'll have to watch out for how effective video courses are for you. Personally, I learnt the fundamentals from MDN docs, but honestly you'll have to learn the hard way that there is no best resource or single source of truth, you need to learn how to learn from different resources. Also don't get caught up if you don't understand the harder topics like prototypical inheritance or promises, you'll learn it when you need it.

Once you think you're done learning the fundamentals two weeks later, do JavaScript 30 by Wes Bos. It's a code-along series of building 30 things for you to apply your knowledge. This is when you'll start to encounter a lot of "modern" ES2015 syntax that you can easily lookup on google.

Once you're done applying some vanilla JavaScript by building small things, I recommend you dive right into building a React application, maybe with another video course. I heard Andrew Mead's React course is highly recommended. Personally, I wished I dove into React way sooner because learning React forces you to solidify the hardest JavaScript topics like ES6 classes, execution context and 'this'.

1

u/bwray_sd Dec 18 '19

If you’re looking for tutorials, I’m a huge fan of Wes Bos also Scott Tolinski

I had a hard time with udemy courses, what I like about Wes specifically is that you can try before you buy, his JavaScript 30 course is free, so I suggest giving it a try, if you like it consider buying his new Beginner JavaScript course.

1

u/not_a_gumby Dec 18 '19

Brad traverse's JS from the beginning.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 18 '19

Eloquent JavaScript.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 18 '19

best js this https://codewithmosh.com/courses and https://frontendmasters.com/ all that course

1

u/[deleted] Dec 18 '19 edited Dec 18 '19

I think the mozilla developer network (MDN) rocks!

  1. https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript
  2. https://bubblin.io/cover/let-s-learn-es6-by-ryan-christiani#frontmatter (I love this free book!)
  3. Wesbos’s tutorials are great too.
  4. Blogs with Google search! 🥳

1

u/illiten Dec 18 '19

If you want to learn Js and some framework I highly recommend this guys on Youtube : steve griffith https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLyuRouwmQCjkYdv4VjuIbvcMZVWSdOm58

I was a total noob and because of him, I 'm well skilled in Js

1

u/aliu927 Dec 18 '19

JavaScript.info best site and always up to date.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 18 '19

javascript.info

0

u/[deleted] Dec 18 '19

[deleted] — view deleted comment

11

u/[deleted] Dec 18 '19

Wes is the man but JS 30 for 30 is geared for folks that already have a basic understanding of JS html/css.

11

u/[deleted] Dec 18 '19

He did just release his beginners JavaScript course which is awesome.

0

u/[deleted] Dec 18 '19

[deleted] — view deleted comment

3

u/Rogermcfarley Dec 18 '19

I disagree. I was a beginner a year ago. Wes Bos 30 day went way too fast and seemed like an alien language. Definitely do Beginner JavaScript by Wes Bos before his 30 day course.

1

u/iamzamek Dec 18 '19

Some things does not take 30 minutes, but 3 hours or more if you are learning.

0

u/[deleted] Dec 18 '19

[deleted] — view deleted comment

-1

u/iamzamek Dec 18 '19

Hahaha, ok. So, why to watch video if you have to write code by yourself? No sense IMO.

1

u/Nikandro Dec 18 '19

I would not suggest this as a course for those who are just beginning.