The suggested timeline for this is 4-8 months, but depending on your existing knowledge, motivation, and amount of time for study, you could finish the self-paced course more quickly – or even spread out your learning over a whole year.

The training is part of Codecademy’s Pro subscription – meaning it takes some monetary investment to go through it.

I’ll do my best to show you what this course is all about, reviewing the different modules and Codecademy’s teaching methodology, so you can make an informed decision whether the Full Stack Career Path is right for you.

About me and this review

In my decade plus as a Software Developer, I’ve learned multiple programming languages to where I could teach them to others. At one point I created over 50 coding courses for a popular learning platform.

This taught me about how information should be relayed so that the students learn most efficiently. And I’ll be holding Codecademy to that same standard in this review.

Why consider taking Codecademy’s Full Stack Engineer Career Path?

There’s many ways (free and paid) to learn Front-End and Back-End development online. The draw of Codecademy’s Career Paths is the streamlined curriculum taking you from start to finish in just a few months, without having to do a bunch of manual research and keep jumping back and forth between different resources.

The attractive user interface has been created to make learning more immersive and fun. There’s also a community within the platform to help you out whenever you’re stuck.

All in all, their offer does seem to give some compelling reasons for choosing Codecademy over other ways of becoming a Full-Stack Engineer.

The timeline

The whole career path has 50 units with 168 total lessons. There’s several intermediate-level projects to apply your new skills, as well as multiple code challenges inside each unit. 

Let’s not kid ourselves – to become a Full-Stack Engineer from scratch, you’ll need to put in a serious amount of work.

For each lesson, you should be getting your hands dirty implementing the code yourself. And coding out those complete projects will take a bunch of effort and time as well. 

6 months is a reasonable timeline to go through the course in this focused manner. If you’re highly motivated, smart, and with a lot of free time on your hands, you might be able to do it in three months, or even two.

The exact timeline depends on you and your circumstances.

How it works

The curriculum consists of a number of modules, each teaching you one major aspect of Full Stack development. 

The text-based lessons inside each module introduce you to one concept at a time, which you’re then asked to implement via Codecademy’s signature built-in coding environment.

At the end of a module, you need to pass a two-part exam to further prove your learnings and receive your Codecademy Certificate at the end.

Features of Codecademy’s Full Stack Engineer Career Path

Let’s now have a look at what exactly is inside the program:

Modules

There are 6 modules in total, aimed at progressing you from the basics to job-ready.

Module 1: Web Development Fundamentals

Here you’ll be learning how to use HTML & CSS to create the scripts for websites. This includes local development, deployment, and styling your websites using CSS.

Module 2: Interactive Web Development with JavaScript

JavaScript is used to make websites interactive – and that’s what Codecademy will teach you in this module. By the end, you’ll be asked to create your very own portfolio website.

Module 3: Front-End Development

The Front-End development module will go deeper into JavaScript development and testing, as well as introduce the React framework, and give further instruction on how to use Git and GitHub.

The portfolio project for this module will be to build your own Reddit-inspired message board app. 

Module 4: Back-End Development

For the Back-End part of the career path, you’ll dive into using the Express.js framework in the back end, as well as databases with PostgreSQL and REST APIs. You’ll then build your own e-commerce app with REST API.

Module 5: Full-Stack Development

In the fifth module you’ll first learn about Front-End to Back-End connection and deploying web apps.

Then you’ll get a deeper education in security and DevOps.

You’ll finish by fleshing out the client side of your e-com app and merging it with the back-end you’ve already built.

Module 6: Interview Preparation

The interview prep module is interesting for those who actually want to get a job as a Full-Stack developer.

It teaches you everything from data structures & algorithms to the soft skills you need to win at both the technical and behavioral part of Software Engineering interviews.

Projects

Lesson Projects

These are smaller projects you find inside almost all lessons. They come with many hints, holding your hand until you’ve coded the solution.

Challenge Projects

You can either complete the projects inside the built-in environment (and share it by creating a Gist), or off-platform (and share it on GitHub) as well. 

Afterwards, you can download Codecademy’s solution code and compare it to yours.

They do have some starter code to get you running, but you’ll be doing most of the work yourself.

Portfolio Projects

Portfolio projects are meant to get you to become autonomous as a developer – able to create your own applications from scratch, from architecture, to coding, to deployment.

As opposed to Codecademy’s other more hand-held projects, you’re asked to gather your own resources, and write an individual app using your own code.

The result is something you can confidently show off to potential employers, in contrast to the guided projects which thousands of others have built in the same way.

Hence the name portfolio projects!

Quizzes

Codecademy have created a number of quizzes for you to test your retention of important Full-Stack concepts – while keeping your learning journey as fun and interesting as possible.

Community

The community feature you get with Codecademy is invaluable. No matter how thorough the educational material, it’s inevitable you’ll get stuck at some point.

That’s where the member forums come to the rescue. For any obstacle you run into, there will be someone who’s been there before and can share their insights with you.

On top of that, you can can create your own journal-type thread to document your progress with the Full-Stack curriculum.

The accountability and feedback you get from this community of peers can be most motivating and helpful.

Pros & Cons

Pros:

• The interactive UI is one of Codecademy’s strongest points
• The abundance of code challenges, quizzes and projects means your learning will never be passive, but always very hands-on
• The training is laid out very well, with lessons building on one another
• They’ve done a great job at combining guided learning with getting you to be more and more self-sufficient the further along you are in your journey to Full-Stack

Cons:

• Codecademy is mostly text- and code-based with few instructional videos. If you’re a very visual learner, it might not be best for you – check alternatives to Codecademy.
• The monthly Pro subscription is not necessarily cheap. If saving money is your prime concern, you might want to consider learning from free resources and tutorials instead.
• It doesn’t include one-to-one or group coaching calls or mock interviews, like a higher-priced online bootcamp would
• Codecademy’s certificate of completion is not equal to a cert from a higher education institution

Pricing

The Pro subscription required to access the Full-Stack Career Path will run you $29.99 monthly, or 20% less with yearly billing (23.99/month).

This is reasonable if you’re serious about putting in the work and getting to Full-Stack with a few months of focused study.

But it might be too much if you’re just looking to dabble in the topic, and you’re not going to spend that much time with the materials.

Compared to other platforms like Udemy, Codecademy is more expensive – but you also get a focused, multi-month curriculum. Considering there’s a whole module dedicated to interview prep, you could see the course as affordable.

Most stand-alone coding interview prep courses cost a similar amount, and they don’t teach you coding.

So whether the price is expensive or not depends on your goals and likely level of commitment.

7-day trial

Even if you’re not sure you want to stick with the Full-Stack Engineer Career Path for the long haul, you get the option to test-drive it for a week, entirely free.

That’s enough time to scan through the material – even complete the first few lessons – and see if it suits you and you can see yourself working with the training for the next few months.

Will it get you a job?

This course will not guarantee you a job as a Full-Stack Engineer.

What it will do is put you into a great position.

If you diligently completed the program, and created some unique portfolio projects all by yourself – that’s a good selling point to potential employers.

Of course, even after the training, you should keep sharpening and expanding your skills, and creating more and more real-world projects, preferably by joining forces with others as well.

The skills you’ve learned at Codecademy might be enough to land you a job – or it might take you more months of leveling up and getting your name out there.

Either way, you’re on a forward path of continuous improvement, and before long you’ll be able to break into professional development.

Final verdict – Do I recommend the Full Stack path?

In my opinion Codecademy is a great all-around option for learning Full-Stack development.

• They’ve nailed the step-by-step and interactive aspect, always motivating you to keep learning.
• The structure and the abundance of both guided and autonomous projects are excellent.
• The monthly price is fine if you’re actually using the platform a lot.

And while the certificate is not the same as a degree or bootcamp cert, it’s still valuable, especially if you’ve no work experience to show for.

Overall, I would recommend the Codecademy Career Path to anyone looking to seriously dive into Full-Stack development.

If you at any point feel it’s not challenging you enough, you can always add on other books and resources.

With any course, that’s a good idea anyway.

The post Codecademy Full Stack Engineer Career Path Review (2023) appeared first on Simple Programmer.

This article covers the best game developer resources to help you create great games.

Let’s get started.

Why do you need resources for game development?

Game development from scratch and creating your assets along the way is complex. It requires hundreds of hours, and you need strong motivation to master the different stages of the game development process.

This process starts with laying out the plan, creating a story, creating engaging visual effects, developing game mechanics, adding music, and testing and debugging. On top of all these, you also need to market and promote your game to reach your intended audience.

You also need to know a lot about different things, be it graphics, music, marketing, programming, or project management.

There’s no doubt that making games isn’t easy. (Let’s not sugarcoat it to appeal to new game developers).

To help you through this, you need to use the best resources available. They’ll teach you about game development most efficiently and help you troubleshoot issues if you’re stuck. It’s also crucial to have access to something that helps you stay ahead of the curve by informing you about new trends and topics.

We figured the best way to support you in this is to filter out the noise—and curate only the best resources for your convenience.

Game Design

1. GDC Vault: GDC Vault is an excellent source for game design videos. It includes all Game Developer Conference talks and provides in-depth insights from the best minds. In addition, it offers free and paid sections. For beginners, the free section is more than enough. However, if you feel limited by the free content, you can get their paid subscription, especially if you’re a professional.

2. Boardgamizer: If you’re into board games, you’ll find Boardgamizer very useful. It hosts access to board game strategies and lists popular designs for inspiration. In short, it covers the board games topic in detail. 

3. GameDeveloper: If you like written content, then you’ll find Game Developer (formerly known as Gamasutra) useful. It covers game design topics and other helpful game developer resources, including programming, audio, art, production, business, and more.

4. Three Hundred Mechanics: You can check out this site if you’re looking for game design inspiration. It lists 300 different game mechanics by the author. He documents all his ideas, and you can explore them for better ideas.

5. HacknPlan: This tool offers an excellent way to do game production and allows game designers to plan, organize and track game development progress.

6. Game Design Workshop: If you need more programming or artistic experience, this book can still help you get started with digital game creation. Tracy Fullerton writes the book and discusses design techniques using popular games.

Art

1.  2D Game Art Guru: A excellent resource for game development art that Chris manages. He has 20 years of art development experience, which is reflected in his work. He covers various art topics, including helping new learners get started with Inkspace, an open-source tool for creating art.

2. The Art of Game Design, Jesse Schell: This book discusses game design questions through different lenses, trying to understand fundamental and most profound game design principles. It also covers VR and AR platforms and goes through popular games such as Last of Us and Unchartered 4.

3. Textures.com: If you’re looking for high-quality CG art, this site is for you. It offers free and premium content which you can use to create art for your game.

4. GameDev Market: Explore various game art, including 2D backgrounds, GUI HUD, 2D characters, Audio SFX, GUI Icons, and much more. It also offers 3D assets.

5. The Art of Making of Hogwarts Legacy: This book explores one of the newest games in the market, Hogwarts Legacy. It explores its original concept art, an excellent pick for aspiring game developers who want to learn from it.

6. OpenGameArt: OpenGameArt lists tons of free art real users submit. Here, you can access 2D, 3D, and concept art. Additionally, you also get access to textures, music, documents, sound effects, and even tutorials.

7. Real-time VFX: This ultimate guide allows learners to learn real-time VFX. It includes tons of information and guides you through the whole learning process.

Effects

Without effects, actions in your game feel empty. That’s where these resources will come in handy.

1. Freesound: Freesound is the best place to get sounds for your game. All sounds are covered under the Creative Commands Licensed, so you can use them without worrying about copyright issues.

2. Incompetech: Incompetech is a free-to-use graph paper generator. 

3. Blender 3D models: Get your project’s 3D models, particle systems, and effects. Here, users submit their own generated content for other users to use.

4. FreeSFX: FreeSFX houses more than 500K music tracks and sound effects. All of these are free to download and use.

5. GameSounds: GameSounds lists royalty-free sound and music.

Blogs

Blogs give you insights in a concise manner (as opposed to textbooks and documentation).

1. Microsoft Game Dev: If you rely on Microsoft technologies to build your games, this blog can help you get started. In addition, you can also check out AWS for Games, which offers more detailed resources on game development in the cloud and AWS.

2. CGspectrum Blog: CGspectrum blog offers diverse content related to game development. Here, you can access topics such as game development, 3D modeling, visual effects, visual production, and digital painting.

3. GamesIndustry.biz: Keeping up with game industry news is vital to know trends. GameIndustry.biz covers GDC, events, academies, and other news that shape the industry. It also lists video game jobs.

4. HTML5 Game Development: If you’re into HTML5 game development, you’ll find this blog helpful. It offers engines, tutorials, demos, tools, and news related to HTML5 game development.

5. Unity Technologies Blog: Unity is at the forefront of game engines, and you surely don’t want to miss out on what they have to share.

6. GameDeveloperTips: This blog covers interesting game development topics, ranging from beginner to advanced.

7. GDkeys: GDKeys blog covers exciting topics for indies, game designers, and enthusiasts. They also host a discord server where you can interact with like-minded people.

Podcasts

Listening can sometimes be a better way to learn things, especially when you’re doing mundane tasks. So here, we list the best podcasts you should take advantage of.

1. Psychology of video games: This channel regularly hosts podcasts about how video games and psychology interacts. They regularly post new podcasts and talk about fascinating topics.

2. GameDevUnchained: GameDevUnchained talks about various topics related to game development. They post new podcasts every week discussing games, tech, and more.

3. Level Design Lobby: Level Design Lobby dedicated itself to breaking level design techniques for its audience and how they can be used and improved. They break down popular games’ level design and interview famous artists.

4. CoRecursive: A game dev podcast aggregator lists the best video game podcasts online. It is handy to find exciting podcasts and learn about new things.

5. GameDevAdvice: Another brilliant game dev podcast by John JP Podlasek, who has 30 years of experience in the game industry.

Free Tutorials

Tutorials can give you the required knowledge to get started with problem-solving, troubleshooting, and converting ideas to life.

1. GameDev.net: A game developers’ community that offers access to tutorials and lively forums.

2. Alanzucconi: He is a pioneer in game academics. His work is renowned in the game industry. You can read about his work on his blog.

3. Game accessibility guidelines: Game accessibility is one of the big topics in game development. This tutorial/game resource teaches you basic, intermediate, and advanced game accessibility guidelines. Everything is in a document form.

4. Brackeys Youtube channel: If you’re new and want to get started with game development, then this Youtube channel offers everything you need to know to get started.

5. Visual Storytelling for Film and Video Games: This 120 hours course on visual storytelling for video games is free for everyone. You can also pay for it(optional) to get a certificate.

6. CS50’s Introduction to Game Development: It is a 12-week course about game development. It is a beginner’s course and provides excellent value for your time. It is free, but you can get a certificate with a fee.

7. Introduction to game development for the web: The MDN web docs tutorial is a beginner’s doorway to web game development.

Game Development Courses

Courses are a more structured approach to learning. These game development courses can help you sharpen your skills and knowledge.

1. Udacity: Udacity offers access to plenty of game development courses. Its Interactive 3D Graphics is an advanced course on computer graphics. If you’re a beginner, check out its 2D Game Development with libGDX. It also offers exciting courses, including Mobile Games Engagement and Monetization and How to Make a Platformer Using libGDX.

2. Udemy: Like Udacity, Udemy has a lot to offer. Its game development courses range from learning Unreal Engine 5: The Complete Beginner’s Course to Advanced techniques such as Game Physics in Unity.

3. Coursera: Coursera is also a great place to learn game development. It offers a wide variety of courses that range from beginners to advanced. One of its popular courses includes Introduction to Game Design by the California Institute of the Arts.

4. Learn Unity: Learn Unity offers access to more than 750 hours of on-demand training. In addition, it provides pathways that help learners to have a better learning experience.

5. AudioTuts: Get in-depth learning about music and audio. It offers an excellent collection of courses, articles, and tutorials.

Marketing

1. Slay the Spire: Success through Marketability: This is a talk by Mega Crit Game’s Casey Yano on how they achieved success through marketing decisions, adding value to the game, and community-building.

2. Indie Game Marketing: The post guides you on how to market indie games, discussing pitfalls to avoid, must-haves, the importance of App Store Optimization(ASO), and the time to sell your Indie game.

3. Beginner’s Guide to Games marketing online: An excellent guide on marketing games online. It discusses different ways to promote a new game.

4. Effective Indie Game Marketing: It offers a step-to-step detailed guide on marketing an indie game. 

5. 20-item Game Dev Marketing Checklist: A handy checklist when marketing your new game.

6. Udemy’s Game Marketing Courses: A great collection of game marketing courses. Some courses include Business of Mobile Gaming, Introduction to Games Marketing, and Indie Video Game Marketing on Reddit.

Communities/Forums

Communities and Forums give you access to like-minded people. It gets you into meaningful and relevant conversations with the ability to ask for help and help others.

1. Polycount Forum: It is a forum that delivers game art. Here, you can discuss video game art(2D and 3D). In addition, it is an active community that covers news, work opportunities, contests & challenges.

2. r/gamedev: The Gamedev Reddit channel discusses everything related to game development, including art, music, marketing, business, and programming. It is very active, and you can get plenty of good old discussion archives, resources, and news.

3. r/IndieGaming: If you’re an indie game developer, you’ll love this small yet active subreddit. Here, most people ask for advice and share progress on their indie games.

4. GameDevLondon: London developers can use this community to build games and connections. It offers chat options, events, and podcasts.

5. Game Dev Network: This discord server is an active community of more than 40K developers. You can discuss game dev code, jobs, tools, and game engines here.

Conferences

1. Game Developers Conference: One of the top game developer conferences held annually in San Francisco, CA. It brings the best experts to the stage that shares excellent real-world insights.

2. MGS 2023: This conference covers app monetization, mobile user acquisitions, product development, user retention & engagement, to name a few. It focuses more on the app ecosystem and is a 6-day event.

3. Meet to March: A great event to meet game programmers, financiers, marketers, and authorities. You get excellent networking opportunities here with expert speakers sharing their experiences and learnings.

4. Digital Dragons: A 2-day event focused on gaming B2B. It has 94 presenters with over 1400 attendees. Alongside the speaker’s talk, they also have panel discussions.

5. DevDays Europe: This conference discusses cutting-edge technology, followed by workshops. That’s why it is a great event to visit for programmers, marketers, UX designers, and game developers.

Programming

1. FreeCodeCamp: If you’re a beginner who wants to create web-based games, there is no better place than FreeCodeCamp. It provides you access to web-based technologies without spending a single dime.

2. Math for Game Programmers: Noise-Based RNG: Squirrel Eiserloh discusses Noise-Based RNG and how he replaces it with a math library in this GDC video.

3. Procedural Generation: Learn the most popular game dev technique, Procedural Generation. 2D procedural generation, a comprehensive guide, and MIT’s take on 3D words with deep learning.

4. Khan’s Academy JS: Games and Visualization: Learn about advanced JavaScript for games and visualization. 

5. Game programming courses: Coursera, Udemy, and edX offer some excellent courses on game programming. 

Best Flow of Resources to Get Started With Game Development

Game development is a process. It requires careful planning and execution. You’ll find the massive game dev resources confusing if you’re starting. After all, where to start?

The very first step is to lay out the plan. Next, you must create a Game Design Document(GDD). It requires tools such as Nuclino, Workflowy, or Dundoc.

Next, you need to devise a good story. For it, you can check the game design resources listed here. Then, you can learn what makes a good story. Along with the knowledge, you can use story-building tools such as Canvas, Twine, ChoiceScript, Miro, and others.

You can pick Scrivener, Obsidian, and even Google Docs/Sheets for writing.

Withyour GDD created, it’s time to load your project management tools such as Trello, Asana, ClickUp, or HacknPlan and get agile. 

Now, you need to think about your tools. Different teams have different requirements. They can use Unity or build on their custom engine. In any case, online resources are plenty. For a custom engine, you must reference internal documentation for better understanding.

Your game development should progress nicely from here. First, however, you should get a prototype covering core mechanics. It’ll help you stay confident about your project and create placeholders for future assets. Next, for audio, you should check out our effects section.

Lastly, it’s essential to always keep learning. Our game dev resources list online courses, free tutorials, communities, and in-depth videos. Feel free to review them and use your knowledge to build a new fascinating experience for the players!

The post 55+ Game Developer Resources to Create Amazing Games appeared first on Simple Programmer.

One important thing in this field, though – is to never stop learning.

So whether you’re looking to become a Software Developer from scratch, or you already have some experience and want to level up your skills, it’s a great idea to take an online course to get to the top of your Software Development game. 

Software Development courses reviewed

There’s a wealth of resources out there to make you a better developer. To spare you the time of sifting through all those yourself, I’ve compiled a list of 8 of the best online trainings you could take. It won’t take long to scan through these reviews, and by the end you’ll have clarity about which course will fit your needs best. 

Let’s go.

Who am I?

My name is John Sonmez, CEO of Simple Programmer. I have over a decade of experience as a Software Engineer and Software Consultant. I’ve created 50+ programming courses and written two best-selling books on career skills for Software Developers.

How I picked & rated the courses

• Relevance. We’ll be focusing on courses aimed at teaching or improving the core skills every Software Developer needs. I’ve left the Blockchain or Machine Learning specializations for another article.
• Depth & range of topics covered. I’ve chosen courses that provide the appropriate depth for you to dive into a topic and come out the other side with a new level of command over the skills taught in it. Alternatively, if you’re already familiar with a field of study, the training should allow you to learn some new concepts and deepen your existing expertise.
• Quality of instruction. Many online courses are of questionable quality, with instructors who are out to make quick money, instead of provide you the most valuable learning resource. I’m only recommending courses from established platforms, with experienced instructors, and many favorable reviews by their alumni.
• Beginner-friendliness. Almost all courses are accessible to complete beginners. If you’re more advanced, you can skip the introductory sections. But I want anyone to be able to start Software Development. An overly complicated online course stands in the way of that.
• Pricing. I’ve favored trainings that give you a lot of bang for your buck: You get extensive learning material at a low to moderate cost. Only the last course on the list, an online bootcamp for Software Developers, demands a higher investment (but in exchange for months of intensive training – which might make it worth it if you have professional ambitions as a developer).

The best courses to become a (better) Software Developer 

Let’s get into the 7 courses offering you the most quality Software Development education at decent prices.

Full-Stack Engineer Career Path (Codecademy Pro)

The Full-Stack Engineer career path is a 51-course, 169-lesson beast of a specialization program. It takes 4-8 months to complete and will take you from coding beginner to someone proficient in full-stack programming.

Best for: Serious learners who want to master front-end and back-end fundamentals, as well as multiple frameworks and languages.

Prerequisites: Experience not strictly required (but it’ll cut down on your learning time)

Features:

• You’ll learn Web Development, Back-End Engineering (including how to work with databases), Data Structures and Algorithms, and more.
• Upon completion you’ll have created three different projects
• You’ll be able to acquire your Full Stack Engineering certificate.

Pros:

• Codecademy’s platform teaches the courses in a uniquely engaging & motivating way, with progressive code challenges, skill assessments, live coding environment, and more.
• Although it’s preparing you for a Software Engineering career, the monthly subscription will cost you much less than a typical online coding bootcamp
• The course contents are of high quality, having been created by a team of experienced Engineers. Codecademy has been a major website for over a decade and has taught tens of millions of students – it’s legit.
• You can try the course for free with a 7-day trial of Codecademy Pro

Cons:

• There’s few videos in the course, it’s mostly written explanations and hands-on coding prompts.
• It’s focused on being as practical as possible. With Codecademy, you learn programming concepts by applying them directly. If you’re looking for a Computer Science theory deep-dive, you’ll want to check out other resources (which I recommend you do in any case)

Verdict:

Taking into account practicality, content quality and price, Codecademy’s Full-Stack Engineer Career Path is a prime choice if you want to improve as a Software Developer, in an engaging learning environment, while spending only a moderate amount.

The Complete Software Engineering Bootcamp Path (NuCamp)

Looking for an immersive experience over multiple months to learn Software Development as fast and deeply as possible? Check out NuCamp’s Complete Software Engineering Bootcamp Path.

Best for: The most ambitious, who are ready to invest more time and money to seriously build their career. 

Prerequisites: No experience required

Features: 

• Four multi-month bootcamps in a row, teaching you everything from web development fundamentals, to back-end engineering with Python, to full-stack web & mobile development, to job-hunting skills.
• A total of 1,400 hours of lessons over the span of 11 months.
• Cohort-based with weekly group lessons so you build a connection to your peers and learn more effectively
• Includes 1:1 sessions with a mentor

Pros & Cons:

• Doesn’t stop at technical skills, but has a whole month dedicated to teaching you the best job-hunting strategy and tactics
• Within less than a year, it’ll turn you into a job-ready Full Stack Developer
• The immersive format is motivating and great for retaining what you’ve learned

• The investment, as with any Software Development bootcamp, is considerable
• The course uses JavaScript and Python – if you’d want to learn C++, C# or Java, it’s not the right resource for you.

Verdict: Out of all courses we’ve covered, this one is the most likely to get you a job as a Software Developer. The online bootcamp format means you’ll be learning much more intensively, with a lot of personal attention given to your development of technical and career skills. If you want to maximally push your career forward – and you don’t mind spending a good sum of money to do that – then check out the NuCamp bootcamp.

Accelerate Your Software Developer Career (Simple Programmer)

This is one of Simple Programmer’s flagship courses, aimed at giving you the career skills to become a highly paid Software Developer. It is unique in its focus not just on the hard skills you’ll need to pass coding interviews, but also on how to cultivate the behavioral attributes and job-hunting plan that make all the difference.

Best for: Developers looking to get a good job, a raise, or switch jobs to a higher paid one.

Prerequisites: Software Development fundamentals.

Features:

• The coding interview prep module. It gets into data structures & algorithms, programming language questions, object-oriented programming questions, and SQL & database questions. The course is teaching you the best approach to solving whiteboard coding problems.
• Behavioral interview questions – how to prepare for & answer them most powerfully.
• How to negotiate your salary and benefits.
• How to dress to impress as a Software Developer.

Pros & Cons:

• The focus on career skills and soft skills is much needed – most courses brush over this subject, even though it’s so important for getting the most offers to the highest-paying jobs you can.
• The video lessons give you patterns and a problem-solving approach you can apply to any coding question, even those you haven’t encountered before. 
• This course doesn’t teach you how to code. Its goal is to help you make the most of your career if you’re already a learned Software Developer.

Verdict:

Get Accelerate Your Software Developer Career if you’re ready to focus on your job-hunting and interview skills, especially your soft skills. There’s many courses out there for improving your raw, technical programming ability – but few focus on these other crucial skills in enough detail. My course does, and I recommend you check it out if you’re in that phase of your Software Developer career.

Software Development From A to Z (Udemy)

Udemy’s courses are great if you want to dive into a topic without paying a whole lot of money. Nonetheless the value you get out of the most highly rated, video-based courses on their platform is usually considerable – as is the case with Software Development From A to Z.

Best for: Absolute beginners wanting an overview of what Software Development entails, and to take their first steps at coding in Python

Prerequisites: No prior experience required

Get started learning to code in Python

Pros & Cons:

• It’s a perfect introduction for beginners. The instructor really does start you out with the very basics. Everything is easy to understand. Yet you have a good idea what a Software Developer has to do daily after completing the course, and you’re well on your way to becoming one.
• It’s affordable. If you’re unsure whether you really want to become a Software Developer, which means you probably don’t want to spend a huge amount upfront for a multi-month developer bootcamp — you can take this course, pay only a small amount,, and re-consider after you’ve received this introduction to your potential new career.

Features:

• Introduction to Software Development methodologies: Agile vs Waterfall
• Introduction to Agile Frameworks (SCRUM & Kanban)
• Introduction to Object-Oriented Programming (OOP)
• Using UML to construct & visualize software programs
• Short introduction to Algorithms
• Web Developer module
• 129-page ebook included for free (sells on Amazon for $28.80)
• Private student community. 
• Udemy’s solid 30-day money-back guarantee removes any financial risk you’re taking with the course. If halfway through you realize it’s not for you, or you end up not liking the content, you’ll be able to get a full refund without any fuss.

Verdict: I love how this isn’t a pure coding course (although you do get to learn Python’s concepts & syntax) – but it’s taking a higher-level view of what a Software Developer does and teaching you the concepts and methodologies you’ll need for this career.

How to Market Yourself as a Software Developer (Simple Programmer)

This is my best-selling course on one of the most impactful soft skills you can possess as a developer: The ability to market yourself like a pro. It has helped many a developer score jobs they thought unattainable – often while bypassing the standard process of applying to positions advertised on job boards.

Best for: Developers trying to maximize their value & visibility in the marketplace.

Prerequisites: You’re on your way to being, or already are, a Software Developer

Features:

• A module on building your brand as a developer.
• How to use social media to get your name out there.
• How to build an online developer portfolio and blog.
• How to craft the perfect resume.
• Advice from 11 successful Software Developers in interview format.

Pros & Cons:

• This is the most detailed course on developer marketing available on the internet.
• You’ll get priceless tips from those who’ve “made it” in Software Development (myself and other accomplished names in the field)
• The skills you’ll learn in this course will set you apart from millions of your competitors who focus 95% of their time only on the technical aspects of being a Software Developer.
• Again, my courses focus mostly on “soft skills”, this one in particular. It’s an all-in-one solution for your marketing as a developer – not for teaching you how to code. I recommend you pick one or multiple technical resources, and get How to Market Yourself as your guide to make the most money with the coding skills you’ve gained. 

Verdict:

If you’re not shy to invest some money into promoting yourself as a developer – opening up new opportunities for lucrative jobs, business deals, even speaking engagements – How to Market Yourself as a Software Developer is the best resource teaching you how to achieve that.

Diploma in C# Programming (Alison)

If you’re planning on coding in C# during your Software Developer career, this compact course at the education platform Alison could be a great way to receive an introduction to the language, as well as quickly gain a certificate you can display on your website, social media, or your resume.

Best for: Would-be C# Developers with no or little programming experience.

Prerequisites: You don’t need to know anything about programming to begin this course

Pros & Cons:

• The course itself is free, you’ll only need to pay if you want to receive the actual diploma to show off online or print out
• Alison’s diploma is CPD-accredited, which means the training is certified to the highest professional standards
• The summaries at the end of each module are useful for revisiting what you’ve learned.
• The video lessons are engaging and easy to follow

• The course spans over only 3-4 hours of learning. It’s not enough to master C# programming, but makes for a short & sweet introduction to the language.
• Apart from the lesson summary, there’s no written material to refer back to – it’s all video.

Features:

• Learn about why or why not to use C#, it’s advantages and disadvantages.
• Guidance on how to install Visual Studio Code, a powerful IDE from Microsoft.
• Get to know important concepts and functionalities of the C# language.
• Follow along with the creation of a real-world application.
• A total of three assessments on the course contents. If you pass, you’ll be able to buy the certificate to add to your bio or resume. 

Verdict: Alison’s courses are the quickest way to get a professional diploma in several Software Development topics. Along the way, you’ll get an introduction into the most important concepts and functions of your programming language of choice. I wouldn’t recommend the course if you’re a more advanced programmer, but if you’re a newbie, it’s a great option.

How to become a Senior Developer (Udemy)

How to become a Senior Developer is an interesting training that gives you clarity on the next steps to take in your developer career. It shows you which skills set advanced developers in leadership positions apart, and teaches you the right approach & mindset to get there yourself. Think of it like a career roadmap – one which could end up saving you a lot of trial & error.

Best for: Somewhat experienced developer or Software Engineering student looking to reach the next level

Prerequisites: Several years involvement with Software Development

Features:

• Writing error-free code.
• Effective debugging.
• The best approach to problem-solving.
• A compass for choosing the right path on your career journey.
• How you as a Software Developer can become more valuable to your team and in the marketplace.
• How to learn efficiently & be a more productive developer

Pros & Cons:

• With an Information Systems Engineering degree, 13 years of experience, and a current position as Director of Software Development, the instructor is highly qualified – and teaching you valuable lessons from the real world 
• The course’s meta-approach is unique and something most Junior Developers can benefit from
• You get lifetime access to the course for a reasonable one-time payment
• With two total hours of video, this isn’t a comprehensive masterclass in Software Development. (It’s a high-level guide to help you on your path to becoming a Senior Developer).

Verdict: Recommended if you want to go beyond studying programming syntax, and start thinking more like a Senior Software Engineer. The career and productivity advice is valuable, too.

How to choose the perfect Software Developer course for yourself

Your ambition & goals

Some courses are less involved, some much more so: Are you looking to dip your toes into Software Development, or would you prefer a multi-month career deep dive? There’s short courses spanning a few hours, but also full-on online bootcamps – and anything in between. Depending on your motivation and your ultimate aim, a different training will be the right one for you.

Budget

As a rule of thumb, the courses that guarantee you a big leap forward in your Software Developer career will be more expensive. If you’d like to spend a low, one-off amount, look into the Udemy platform. Codecademy is somewhere in the middle with a reasonable monthly subscription fee. If both your ambition and budget are high, NuCamp’s Software Developer bootcamp could be for you.

Topic of focus

While there’s general coding courses out there, they’re still focused on a particular language. And you’ll find courses specializing in certain disciplines, like Data Analysis with Python, Game Programming in C#, or Web Apps with JavaScript, for example.

Learning preference

If you prefer video lessons over text-based learning, you can rule out some training platforms that focus on the latter. Some courses are more theoretical, others feature a live code editor to have you write your own programs as part of the learning experience. 

Make sure to compare the courses in these regards to find the Software Development training that fits you perfectly.

The post 7 Software Development Courses to Level Up Your Skills appeared first on Simple Programmer.

Learn Python 3 

Codecademy

Learn Python 3 has you write your own code in an interactive environment through 12 lessons + 12 quizzes, completing 14 projects in the process & earning a certificate of completion.

Python Specialization 

Coursera

An 8 month long deep dive – taught by a university professor – that takes you from the fundamentals to proficiency in web apps, databases and data analysis with Python.

Python for Absolute Beginners

Udemy

To start learning with the simplest steps possible (zero experience required), look no further than this course a Udemy. It’s very affordable, and comes without unnecessary complexity, so you don’t have to worry about becoming frustrated with the material.

Advanced Python 3

Codecademy

Learn Advanced Python 3 is perfect for getting into the realm of master-level Python programmer. The techniques taught in this course will lead you to the most efficient Python code you’ve ever written.

Python Back-End Bootcamp

NuCamp

For the most ambitious learner who wants to score a job as a Python developer. 4 months of daily practice, weekly interactive live classes, 1:1 mentorship and peer assistance, building certified skills for your new Python-powered career.

Python Data Analysis Skill Path

Codecademy

Python is the most popular language for Data Analysis today. Codecademy’s course is a great vehicle for you to hop on that trend. Learn the ins and outs of Data Analysis with Python at Codecademy’s intuitive learning platform.

My review method

My background

I’ve worked as a Full-Stack Software Engineer, Software Consultant, and an online instructor in the field of computer programming for over a decade. 

During my career I’ve learned 15 programming languages to a level where I could teach others – which has led me to create 55 courses at a popular code-learning website.

The metrics I’ve used for this comparison

To establish the ratings for each course, I’ve looked at the following:

• Content range, depth & quality
• Structure & user experience
• Instructor prestige & skill
• Community
• Price-performance ratio

The 6 best Python courses

Here’s my review of the 6 best resources you can use to take your Python skills to the next level.

Learn Python 3

With Codecademy, you’re learning Python in bite-sized pieces, and you start coding from the get-go. The popular gamified platform lets you complete code challenges for each topic – after solving each one, you advance to the next step.

• Time to complete: Around 25 hours (Self-paced)
• Prerequisites: None (Beginner-friendly)
• Special features:Numerous projects, hands-on learning with live code editor, mobile app for on-the-go practice, community forums, certificate of completion, many more Python courses included in the membership, 7-day free trial

Overall Rating: 4.2/5

Quality

Depth

Structure

Instructors

community

price

There’s intermittent quizzes and assessments for you to prove your new skills.

Every step of every project is completed inside the platform: The course gives you a split screen view of the training material & the built-in coding environment so you can translate what you’re studying into code, in real time.

Curriculum:

1. Hello world (learning Python syntax)
2. Control flow
3. Lists
4. Loops
5. Functions
6. Python code challenges
7. Strings
8. Modules
9. Dictionaries
10. Files
11. Classes
12. Python code challenges II
13. Advice for your next steps

What I like – the Pros:

• Codecademy offers the best learning experience out of all Python courses, because the specialized platform holds your hand through every step.
• It’s a motivating and fun way to master Python from the ground up.

What I don’t like – the Cons:

• If you’re a very autonomous learner or/and prefer to gather knowledge of high-level or advanced concepts before you dive into coding, Codecademy’s pre-set, step by step structure might turn you off.

Python for Everybody – Specialization

With this course from the University of Michigan on Coursera, you start with the basics – installing Python and coding your first simple programs. In five exhaustive modules, you’ll go much deeper into all aspects of Python than with most online code-learning programs.

• Time to complete: 8 months (@ 3 hours / week, self-paced)
• Prerequisites: None (Beginner-friendly)
• Special features:Course videos, practice quizzes, assignments with feedback, hands-on learning projects, certificate of completion, subtitles for many languages, 7-day free trial

Overall Rating: 4.7/5

Quality

Depth

Structure

Instructors

community

price

Over the course of 8 months, an accredited university professor will teach you to understand and use Data Structures, Databases & Data Retrieval at an intermediate level. In the process you’ll have gained skills in Json, XML, Tuple, Web Scraping, Sqlite, SQL, and more.

Curriculum:

1. Getting started with Python
2. Python Data Structures
3. Using Python to access web data
4. Using Databases with Python
5. Retrieving, Processing, and Visualizing Data w/ Python

What I like – the Pros:

• The Python for Everybody Specialization offers you coding education at a professional level of quality – you won’t have to worry about the material being incomplete in any way. 
• You can transfer your learnings into tangible results with the projects included in the course, which you can show to other students to get valuable feedback.
• The video lectures included in the specialization are excellent.

What I don’t like – the Cons:

• If you don’t want to commit to such a deep dive into Python deep dive, but are content only taking small first steps, you’re better off picking a simpler course option.
• Coursera’s platform also isn’t as gamified as Codecademy, for example, so you’ll need a bit more intrinsic motivation to keep up your learning habit and see the course through to completion.

Python for Absolute Beginners

If you’re looking to learn Python from the very beginning, with simple exercises anyone can do, and don’t want to be distracted by fluff or too advanced instructions, this Udemy course is for you.

• Time to complete: 4.5 hours of video content, to be completed at your own pace
• Prerequisites: None (Beginner-friendly)
• Special features:Low cost for lifetime access to the course, certificate of completion, review exercises and challenges, 30-day money-back guarantee

Overall Rating: 3.25/5

Quality

Depth

Structure

Instructors

community

price

Like most of Udemy’s trainings, Python for Absolute Beginners is one of the most affordable options to learn this language. 

The value you get in exchange is high: All basic concepts are covered, and taught in a way that’s easy for anyone – regardless of talent or experience – to understand. 

The quizzes and challenges in each module motivate you even more to keep coming back to the course, in addition to the quick wins you get from the simple instructions.

Curriculum:

1. Python & Pycharm setup & first project
2. Python basics
3. Strings
4. Functions
5. Flow control
6. Loops
7. Strings part 2
8. Lists
9. Dictionaries
10. Tuples

What I like – the Pros:

• The no-fluff, practical teaching style is refreshing
• Quizzes and challenges make the course more fun and hands-on
• The instructional videos explain everything well and are of high quality

What I don’t like – the Cons:

• If you have decent experience in Python, you’ll feel like this course is moving through the topics too slowly, so you won’t get as much value out of it and should probably choose something more advanced
• While the course has code challenges, you don’t get to complete a full software program like you do with some other Python trainings. It’s meant to be an introduction to the language. Expect to gain valuable skills – but not to be a complete Python developer after you’ve gone through it

Learn Advanced Python 3

Advanced Python 3 at Codecademy teaches you a new set of tools to bring better structure & efficiency, advanced database functionality, effective deployment, and debugging ability to your Python code.

• Time to complete: Around 9 hours (Self-paced)
• Prerequisites: None (Beginner-friendly)
• Special features:Numerous projects, hands-on learning with live code editor, mobile app for on-the-go practice, community forums, certificate of completion, many more Python courses included in the membership, 7-day free trial

Overall Rating: 4.1/5

Quality

Depth

Structure

Instructors

community

price

If you’ve moved past the beginner stage as a Python programmer – and are looking to overcome the intermediate plateau – this Codecademy course highlights the exact concepts you need to study to write programs that are a level above when it comes to functionality, code cleanliness, readability and maintainability.

The material is presented in their usual step-by-step manner, with different projects and quizzes for each module.

Curriculum:

1. Introduction to Advanced Python
2. Logging
3. Functional Programming
4. Database Operations
5. Concurrent Programming
6. Deployment
7. Your next steps

What I like – the Pros:

• Even though it’s an advanced-level course, Codecademy doesn’t bombard you with dozens of theoretical concepts to chew through. Instead it sticks with its simple, motivating style that has you put each piece of new knowledge into practice before moving on to the next challenge. 

What I don’t like – the Cons:

• I wouldn’t have minded more modules inside the course, which would have turned it into a proper online masterclass – it takes only around 9 hours to complete all modules. If you want to learn other intermediate/advanced skills like creating web apps with the Flask library, using advanced Data structures & Algorithms, or Data Analysis, you have to start over with another one of their courses.

Back End, SQL, and DevOps Developer Bootcamp with Python

If you’re looking to go as deep as possible into learning Python, and building the foundation for a fruitful career as a Back-End Developer with Python, this 16-week online bootcamp could be for you.

• Time to complete: 16 weeks (Scheduled) @ 12 hours / week
• Prerequisites: Web Development fundamentals
• Special features:1:1 career sessions, 4-week career development course, resume & LinkedIn assistance, hackathons, job board, free month of LinkedIn Premium & LI Learning, lifetime access to course content

Overall Rating: 4.2/5

Quality

Depth

Structure

Instructors

community

price

NuCamp’s Python bootcamp provides a tighter community because of the cohort-based structure. And — in exchange to paying higher course fees than for any other training in this review — you’ll also get 1:1 mentorship and career assistance.

Curriculum:

1. Loops
2. Functions
3. Complex data structures
4. Classes
5. Object-oriented programming
6. Algorithms
7. SQL databases
8. Linking PostgreSQL to Python apps
9. SDLC & Agile
10. DevOps & CI/CD
11. Cloud deployment (Amazon AWS, Azure, Firestore)

What I like – the Pros:

• The cohort-based structure means you’ll learn alongside your peers, form a deeper connection to your teachers, and be motivated by meetings and exams with deadlines
• A bootcamp like this will put you ahead even of others who’ve been using Python for longer, because the immersive environment has you learn more, much faster
• The price isn’t excessive in comparison to other coding bootcamps

What I don’t like – the Cons:

• Because it’s “only” a 4-month program, it doesn’t teach you Python for web development from the ground up, but instead requires some existing knowledge of the topic. It’s therefore not recommend for total beginners

Analyze Data with Python Skill Path

Data Analysts are in high demand. This skill path at Codecademy equips you with a range of skills needed to analyze data with Python and Python libraries.

• Time to complete: 10 weeks (Self-paced)
• Prerequisites: Beginner-friendly
• Special features:Numerous projects, hands-on learning with live code editor, mobile app for on-the-go practice, community forums, certificate of completion, many more Python courses included in the membership, 7-day free trial

Overall Rating: 4.1/5

Quality

Depth

Structure

Instructors

community

price

This course provides the perfect basis to doing Data Analysis using today’s most popular tools.

Curriculum:

1. Why Data Analysis?
2. Python Syntax
3. Python Functions
4. Lists
5. Lambda Functions
6. Files
7. The NumPy library
8. Data Manipulation with Pandas
9. Data Visualization with Matplotlib
10. Statistics for Data Analysis
11. Hypothesis Testing with SciPy
12. Final projects

What I like – the Pros:

• Again, I love the learning experience and structure of Codecademy, and this course holds up to the standards set by their other courses
• The many projects included in the course are great to transfer everything “into the real world” right away

What I don’t like – the Cons:

• I would’ve liked recommendations for some more theoretical resources you could choose to check out in addition to or after the course

That’s it for the 6 best Python courses. I hope you could pick the perfect one for yourself.

Happy Python coding!

FAQ

How long will the average Python course take?

The range for how long a Python course takes is between 4.5 and 196 hours. While the basic courses take no more than 25 hours, an immersive Python bootcamp can take almost 200 hours spread out over 4+ months.

How much is a Python certificate?

<

p style=””>Prices for the certificates in Python ranged between $15 for a Udemy certificate to $2000 for a certificate of completion from a NuCamp online Python bootcamp. Of course these certificates differ in value, and some of them are accredited while others are not.

The post 6 BEST Python Courses in 2023 appeared first on Simple Programmer.

With enough skills, you can be sure of making a decent steady income even if you live in a third-world country. If you are lucky to have an attention-worthy startup idea, you may hit a multi-billion jackpot just like Mark Zuckerberg did.

The first step you need to take for a successful IT career is to learn how to write or understand computer programs. With so many encouraging reasons to pursue a career in programming, you’ll discover that learning to code just requires motivation and the right resources to help you succeed.

The Benefits of Learning Programming Skills

Programming used to be akin to rocket science not so long ago. Only the brightest could handle it. Moreover, expensive and cumbersome equipment made it possible for just a relatively small group of people to learn to program.

Luckily, today’s high-level programming languages have simplified coding. Advanced microprocessors, cheaper computers, and the abundance of books and courses have allowed everyone to learn and practice programming skills.

The demand for programmers is insane as information technologies penetrate deeper into our life. A lot of electronic devices are programmed to serve us in every sphere from entertainment to healthcare and national defense.

The age of the Internet of Things is near. Even such mundane things as toothbrushes might get microchips to process a program allowing them to communicate with our smartphones and other devices for a better experience in every aspect of our lives. Therefore the IT industry is unlikely to decline in the foreseeable future.

Increasing integration of everyday life with electronic devices is why many people see the evolving information technology landscape as an opportunity to succeed. And knowing how to program computers can benefit people big time.

Here are the benefits of learning programming skills, along with how you can use those skills to enjoy satisfaction in your career and personal life:

1. Change the World

Computer science has changed the way we work and communicate. It has eliminated borders and distances between people. Thanks to programmers, a thing as small as a smartphone can offer countless opportunities for entertainment, education, communication, and shopping.

Computer science never stops to surprise us with groundbreaking technologies that are about to revolutionize our way of life. The newest, most promising developments include 3D printing of human organs, self-driving cars and trucks, space taxis, face-detecting systems, and all kinds of robots.

It feels incredibly good to turn code into something useful. Lots of people choose software development as their career to contribute to digital solutions that will improve lives of billions of people across the globe. No doubt, taking part in the IT developments and literally creating the future inspires and makes programmers feel complete and valued.

Being able to start your own app or tech idea may not have a global impact, but it will certainly change your own life. Wielding the power of computer programming can change the world around you by filling your life with the purpose, motivation, and excitement any startup founder might feel.

2. Have a Stable Job Anywhere in the World

The demand for software and web developers will only increase as IT innovations continue to have an impact on every sphere of our life. A lot of new and existing companies will need websites to compete with online retailers. Industries will require even more automation and precision. Becoming a good programmer seems to be a great career as your services will always be in demand and appreciated.

High demand for web and software developers creates many jobs even in developing countries. Countries like Ukraine and India became outsourcing destinations where international tech startups hire remote workforce for their web and software development needs.

Even though developers have much lower salaries in such countries compared to their first world colleagues, being a programmer is a dream job for them because a cheaper cost of living allows them to thrive even with relatively modest salaries. The global demand for developers ensures stable profits even in countries with struggling economies.

Learning how to code proved to be a way out for many individuals from all over the world who needed a career change. You can find stories of people who could barely pay their bills, which made them start to learn programming in their free time for a better chance of getting a decent job.

3. Enhance Industries You Care for

Computers and information technologies are part of healthcare, agriculture, education—you name it. If you want to enhance any industry, the first thing you could do is to introduce information technologies into its processes. Mastering data science and informatics can help you automate things, make operations faster, more precise, and less labour intensive in almost any industry.

Being passionate about an industry usually means knowing the industry’s problems and challenges. Information technologies were designed to solve problems. So programming skills give you the power to help people better cope with issues they face in any sector.

Most people find it very satisfying to be able to solve issues in an industry they care about. For example, someone who cares about the environment can make a difference in the world by designing something as basic as a website for an environmental NGO or something as complicated as a software platform to help innovate, automate, and streamline the entire environmental movement.

4. Save Money As an Entrepreneur

Being able to write and interpret computer programs can be a cost-saving skill for many tech startup founders. The programming skill can be beneficial for entrepreneurs as they can do the programming job without hiring others to do it.

Even if they decide to hire help, they will be able to assess developers’ qualifications, recruit the best workforce, facilitate better conversations with hired developers, and effectively monitor and adjust their work on the project.

Knowing how to code can help entrepreneurs avoid troubles and failures that may cost them their business. Startup founders who can write or at least understand code can assess qualification of programmers they hire for the project and thus recruit the most qualified workforce to launch their ventures. They can detect possible troubles early enough to avoid them, or change the strategy or pivot, if need be.

5. Have Fun Doing Work You Actually Enjoy

It’s fascinating to be able to turn code into a functioning digital product. Many people dream of becoming programmers for the fun of being a kind of a “wizard” who can use a bunch of letters, numbers, and symbols to create video games or films, control robots, or send messages to people anywhere in the world.

There are not many things that are as physiologically satisfying as a fun job. A job you enjoy contributes to your happy life a great deal. Moreover, many IT companies are willing to go an extra mile to make their programmers feel happy about their jobs.

While the coding itself can be exciting, many companies are enticing software developers by providing a dynamic and fun corporate culture, as well as great perks. Following good examples of tech giants such as Google and Facebook, even small web and software development companies are offering perks to their employees as well as creating an outstanding corporate culture.

Pretty often, such perks ranging from free food to premium healthcare make working in the IT industry one of the most positive and fun experiences one can get from a corporate job. Tech companies are doing their best to attract as many skilled programmers as possible with their awesome corporate culture. This fun and awesomeness gives people another impetus to learn coding.

What You Need to Learn in Order to Code

If you are serious about learning to write computer programs at the expert level, be prepared to spend 10000 hours to acquire the necessary skill. However, some people claim one only needs 20 hours of practice to learn enough to start self-correcting and perfecting one’s skills.

Regardless, there are plenty of cases proving that today’s programming is not rocket science. Many self-taught programmers have managed to land jobs even in major companies or launch their startups within a couple of years after starting to learn to code.

If you prefer a more guided approach to learning code, some tutors promise to teach you programming basics within 30 days through real-time workshops and coding bootcamps. This method can boost novice programmers’ growth and ability to learn advanced programming concepts on their own.

To be honest, though, programmers never stop learning things, mostly because the technology is advancing at an astonishing pace. Therefore, developers have to face new challenges and crack new problems to catch up with the progress. Programmers that desire to succeed should be prepared to refresh their knowledge regularly and monitor new trends and technologies in order to offer up-to-date skills in the market.

Motivation and Practice

It is pretty hard to learn any skill without motivation and practice. So you’d better have those two essential ingredients within your learning process.

The thrill of creation, passion for technology, and career opportunities can serve as strong motivation boosters when it comes to learning how to write computer programs.

Acquiring a technical skill like programming requires lots of practice. In fact, reading books and watching tutorials can be absolutely useless without making something on your own or collaborating with other developers on a project.

Some professional programmers confess that six months of working on real-life projects helped them learn more than an entire college course for programming. As a beginner, taking baby steps with writing code to solve simple problems will ease you into the world of computer programming thus paving a path towards a promising career.

Every top IT entrepreneur started learning to code by writing simple programs. Bill Gates wrote a tic-tac-toe game. DropBox creator Drew Houston made his first program ask what the user’s favorite color was and how old he/she was. Solving even the most humble problems at the beginning of their career allowed many successful developers to realize how empowering programming skills could be.

They say that starting to learn programming can be intimidating. The key to success is figuring out the logical part of solving problems with the computer code. Practice and determination will certainly help you get the hang of it over time.

Practical Resources to Learn Programming

Luckily, there are a plethora of resources people can make use of to learn how to code. Although computer science is a relatively young discipline, it lacks neither offline nor online resources for those wishing to learn any part of it.

Too many industries are looking for web and software developers, while too many people are willing to become a part of the IT community. That is why programming experts spare no efforts in writing books, creating tutorials, and interactive courses to meet the aspirations of wannabe developers and employers who constantly need qualified programmers to maintain or expand their businesses.

Major educational establishments like MIT and Harvard have even made their computer science lectures public for anyone in the world to learn from the best educators.

Many of today’s educational resources are specially designed to help newbie computer programmers deal with typical challenges they may face. However, the best resources have key common qualities that can help you succeed in your learning process. These resources do the following:

Make the learning process fun

Figuring out the logic part of programming might be not that easy at first. However, interactivity and gamification can help any individual get the basic understanding of coding and smoothly move to less boring and more practical stuff.

Websites like CodeCademy offer interactive tutorials with a built-in interpreter. A student writes small chunks of code and immediately sees how it is interpreted by the browser. In the course of a tutorial, beginner programmers can apply concepts in real-world examples and small projects, like building a web page, calculating the restaurant tip, etc.

Code.org offers interactive and visually enhanced programming activities that are likely to be appealing to both children and adults. New coders might also start out programming small games. Such activities are entertaining, and they enable students to figure out how to use code to solve problems and make the computer do what they want it to do.

Playing computer games is a favorite pastime for many young programmers. Learning to code by building a game stimulates their interest and memory. It is a well-known fact that people remember and understand things better when learning them with positive emotions.

Game publishers such as Tomorrow Corporation create entire games to help people better understand programming concepts. Human Resource Machine is one game that makes learning to program as fun as can be.

Help you apply your knowledge

Practice is the driving force of education. It lets you avoid one of the most frustrating things about learning the basics of any discipline—the unawareness of practical use of what you learn. Many people quit learning how to code because things didn’t make sense for them.

One can read tons of books or watch tutorials teaching how to write code, but actually writing a computer program and immediately seeing what it does in a real-life project is much more motivating and can trigger even newbies’ skills.

CodeCademy’s interactive tutorials do a great job in helping students apply their knowledge in real time. The platform divides courses in small easily digestible lessons and asks to use small chunks of knowledge learned in each lesson to build a web page or solve a practical problem. CodeCademy tutorials incorporate a code interpreter so that students can see the result of their programming immediately.

The Free Code Camp invites its students to help non-profits by contributing to their projects. It is indeed a great way to solidify your programming skills by using them to build real-life solutions. Taking part in such projects will help developers figure out how programming works, how to fix issues and how code is applied to run desktop or web-based applications.

Inspire you to push forward

Inspiration is the driving force for learning. We get inspired by the most successful and talented people in the industry we want to belong to. Naturally we want to learn from them.

One thing in common for many famous computer scientists, programmers, and IT entrepreneurs such as Robert Noyce, Dennis Ritchie, Mark Zuckerberg, and Bill Gates is that they studied in Ivy League universities. Not many people are lucky enough to learn computer science in top ranked universities such as MIT or Harvard. However, thanks to the World Wide Web, we can watch lectures from those universities online and get inspired by the atmosphere, legacy, and expertise of the lecturers.

If you are starting your career in computer programming, there is nothing more inspiring and helpful that learning from experienced educators. So go to the Internet and find MIT lectures on computer science as well as legendary Harvard’s CS50 course to get started with programming.

Show you what professional programmers do

One of the most critical programming skills is the ability to read and understand the code written by others. Many resources allow you to see how expert programmers solve problems, ask questions to the programming community, and collaborate and compete with other programmers. These are resources that can help you learn and utilize best programming practices.

Seeing and comprehending how more experienced developers digitize their ideas and make computers do useful things is like reading a cookbook with recipes you can use to recreate their dishes or create your own. In the majority of cases using other people’s code for your solutions should be OK. What is of paramount importance is your ability to analyze the code, understand it, and tweak it to serve your solution.

There are websites that hold programming competitions. CodeChef is a website that offers practice contests and challenges where one can analyze solutions offered by developers from all over the world in different languages. It is a great way to understand how programmers can solve some real-life problems. Other similar sites are HackerRank and Hackerearth.

Online communities for programmers such as Stack Overflow can also be a great help for learning from experts. Such communities allow newbie programmers to see both the best practices and other people’s mistakes, helping them work through their own in turn.

Learn to Code, and You’ll Go Far

There will be more than 1 million computer science related jobs in the U.S. alone in the 2020’s. And it seems like the demand for qualified programming services will continue to exceed the supply of programmers in the near future.

It seems there is no industry functioning without computer assistance these days. Therefore professional programmers will continue to enjoy the benefits of decent salaries and appreciation of their trade.

Thanks to high-level programming languages, writing code has become much easier than before. So one does not need to be a genius to learn enough to get a programming job. The hardest part about learning how to program a computer is figuring out the logic behind solving problems with algorithms. One can do it by practicing, collaborating with more experienced programmers, and picking up tips from them.

There are plenty of free and paid resources available for learning how to code. Many of them were created and sponsored by programmers for programmers, built with novice programmers in mind. They are designed to help developers practice and apply new skills in real-life projects. One only needs determination and desire to learn.

I hope my article will inspire wannabe developers to learn programming despite the many frustrations they might face. Because creating computer programs is creating the future. And we all need as many skilled programmers as possible for the best future of the world!        

The post Why You Should Learn to Code – 5 BENEFITS (+ Where to Start) appeared first on Simple Programmer.

Why Parker Phinney founded Interview Cake

As he tells us about it on Interview Cake’s website, his idea to found the company came after he tutored his friend Alice in coding interview skills. After Parker taught her problem-solving frameworks, and gave her a plan of attack for mastering data structures, algorithms, and strategy for coding interviews, she managed to get really good.

Alice then went on to win in one of her interviews at Facebook. She went from being broke and unemployed to making excellent money at one of the most prestigious Software Engineering positions out there.

This experience led Parker Phinney to want to create Interview Cake – as his vehicle for helping thousands more developers write a similar success story.

His background and qualifications

Parker Phinney is the CEO of Interview Cake, and himself a Python on Django and Angular developer. IC was founded in 2013 when Parker was just 23 years old.

He’s also a music composer for movies and video games, as well as a motivational speaker.

How he created a quality product

His process of preparing developers for coding interviews was perfected at in-person bootcamps in the Bay Area. 

Parker worked there as an instructor and could drill down on the best way to turn his students into masters at coding questions.

Parker’s phenomenal success with Interview Cake

As of today, IC boasts tens of thousands of alumni. And despite the generous refund policy, 98% of students decide to stick with the program. This is what he shared about his company’s success on the YCombinator forums:

IC having been around 2013 and still going strong with such a low drop-off rate speaks for the course’s quality. Interview Cake’s alumni are testifying to great results from the program. 

It seems as if Parker’s dream of helping countless developers ace their coding interview and land a high-paying job has been realized.

The post Parker of Interview Cake – How legit is IC’s founder? appeared first on Simple Programmer.

Learn how to display the exact behavioral attributes companies are looking for — so you can win at your next interview, and go far as a Software Engineer.

How to answer behavioral questions

Be goal-oriented & socially savvy

When the interviewer is asking you to tell them about yourself, it’s not to make small talk — they’re judging you for certain attributes they like to see in a candidate.

By telling compelling stories about your experiences, you can let your favorable qualities shine through without being on-the-nose or coming across as dishonest or bragging.

Know what they’re looking for

The main attributes companies are screening for are:

• Your ability to solve problems while displaying empathy & leadership towards your team members.
• Your passion for achieving goals in service of the company’s mission
• Your commitment to your technology and using it as well as you can
• Your personal presentation: How charismatic you are & your communication skills

Prepare your stories in NSAR format

This template for answering behavioral interview questions was created by Gayle McDowell of Cracking the Coding Interview:

1. Nugget – tease and give a short summary of your story
2. Situation – explain what happened in a succinct, engaging way
3. Action – show how you handled the situation, displaying your positive qualities
4. Result – let them know what happened because of the actions you took or influenced. Back it up with numbers if you can

Make a grid with your practiced stories

To remember the stories you want to use in your answers, it helps to visualize them in a simple grid. Here’s an example layout you could choose (again, this is influenced by Gayle McDowell’s work):

Want to go deeper? We also have a post on the best strategies and tactics in behavioral software engineering interviews for you to check out.

Most Frequent Software Engineer Behavioral Interview Q’s & A’s

Let’s now get into the questions you’ll likely be asked.

You’ll find the qualities each question is screening for, how to best approach your answer, and an example answer for all of them.

“Tell me about yourself.”

<

p dir=”ltr”>Screens for

• Skills fit
• Cultural fit

• Motivation

• Goal-orientation

How to

answer

• Don’t ramble or rattle off buzzwords
• Tell your background in a compelling story
• Connect everything back to the company you’re interviewing for

“Which principles should all Software Engineers follow?”

Screens for

• Domain mastery
• Processes / Work ethic

• Teamwork

• Problem-solving ability

How to

answer

• Mention positive qualities for SWE’s: Resourcefulness, critical evaluation, commitment to excellence
• Include your coding approach (e.g. code design, clean code, effective debugging)
• You could give examples of where SWEs go wrong — and how you’d do it better

“What’s a recent technical challenge you’ve faced — and how did you solve it?”

Screens for

• Domain mastery
• Processes / Work ethic

• Teamwork

• Problem-solving ability

How to

answer

• Go step-by-step using the NSAR framework
• Allude to curiosity, creativity, critical thinking, leadership and grit 
• Sum up how it better prepared you for challenges at your next job

“Why do you want to take this Software Engineering position with our company?”

Screens for

• Ability to research
• Genuine connection

• Skills fit

• Vision

How to

answer

• Talk about how you found out about them
• Tell a story about your connection to what they’re working on
• Outline future projects you’d like to be part of

“Why should we hire you as a Software Engineer?”

Screens for

• Skills fit
• Passion & Motivation

• Resilience

• Longevity

How to

answer

• Don’t oversell or be fake
• Emphasize that you love doing the relevant skills
• You’re happy solving their problems and growing further at their company

“What are your strengths as a Software Engineer?”

Screens for

• Technical skills
• Soft skills

• Self-awareness

• Excessive Ego

How to

answer

• Tailor it to the company, its stage, goals and needs
• Show how you can fill the current skill gaps in their team
• Give examples and tell stories

“What are your weaknesses as a Software Engineer?”

Screens for

• Self-awareness
• Humility

• Proactivity

How to

answer

• Confidently say the weakness
• Give an example & state why it’s an issue
• Explain how you’re working to improve on this

“Where do you see yourself in 5 years as a Software Engineer?”

Screens for

• Vision
• Personal Development

• Dependability

• Humble confidence

How to

answer

• Don’t say something generic like “I’ll be a respected Engineering Manager”
• Outline the growth journey of your last five years
• If you’ve kept developing, and can look back at how much you’ve grown after the next 5 years, you’ll know you’ve been successful

“What makes you passionate about Software Development?”

Screens for

• Motivation
• Grit

• Curiosity

• Initiative

How to

answer

• Avoid sounding overblown and fake
• Make sure your answer fits what the company is doing
• Give examples for your being a motivated problem-solver

“Why did you choose Software Engineering as a Career?”

Screens for

• Passion
• Motivation

• Personality

• Talent

How to

answer

• Show your passion for tech
• Explain how you love solving problems
• Mention the ability to create useful things from scratch

“How do you stay up-to-date on new technologies related to Software Development?”

Screens for

• Curiosity
• Initiative

• Learning ability

• Discipline

How to

answer

• Summarize why it’s important to stay up to date
• List your favorite ways to learn
• Give specific examples of how you’ve learned about new trends 

“How do you deal with a member of your team who disagrees with the work you did as a Software Engineer?”

Screens for

• Teamwork
• Confidence

• Empathy

• Ego

How to

answer

• Never blame others or make excuses
• Display your openness to constructive criticism
• Show how you’d handle the situation confidently

“How do you handle conflict with co-workers?”

Screens for

• Team spirit
• Humility

• Leadership & Confidence

• Empathy

How to

answer

• Don’t say you never have conflicts – they happen at every job
• Explain handling conflict professionally without compromising your reputation
• Show your ability to reason and persuade

The post 13 Behavioral Software Engineer Interview Questions, Answers appeared first on Simple Programmer.

We recommend Interview Kickstart if:

• you’re an experienced professional
• you’re serious about leveling up in your current career, or
• you’re looking to make the switch to something more profitable
• you’re ready to make a significant investment

Overall Rating: 4.5/5 stars

Quality of instruction

DOMAIN SPECIFICITY

INDIVIDUAL ATTENTION

community

motivating

price

Do you have considerable experience in your field, and are you fluent in at least one programming language? 

Then you’re set up to use an advanced online specialization like Interview Kickstart to reach a higher echelon in your career.

As is the case with almost anything nowadays: The race for tech jobs like Software Engineer is getting more competitive. Now is a great time to think about how you can set yourself apart – or possibly pivot into a more lucrative and in-demand field than the one you’re currently in. 

Interview Kickstart promises to get you there with just 4-18 weeks of going through one of their programs, plus a job hunt of less than 6 months.

Should their product be unable to hold that promise, they’re willing to refund you every dollar you’ve paid them. The company has a good track record of getting people into a new high-paying position quickly – and they’re willing to bet money on their ability to do so.

An in-depth review of Interview Kickstart

We’ll now go into the Interview Kickstart program in detail.

By the end, you should be able to tell whether it’s something that appeals to you or not.

The course is a considerable investment (more about IK’s pricing later) – but if it can actually deliver you its stated results, the payoff you get from it can be great, dare I say life-changing.

Our ratings explained

I’ve heard enough already – Let me join the webinar!

<

p dir=”ltr”>Before you can enroll with Interview Kickstart, you’ll need to go through a webinar hosted by Ryan Valles, Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Accel and co-founder at IK.

<

p dir=”ltr”>This is to explain their offer to you in detail, so you can better decide whether or not the program is a good fit and it makes sense for you to invest in it.

If you already have a strong feeling it could be for you or you simply want to hear the information straight from the horse’s mouth — go ahead and:

 → Sign up for the free introductory webinar right away ←

Getting on with the review: Quick summary of IK’s online bootcamp

Instructors

500+ experienced FAANG & Tier-1 interviewers with specialized expertise in different fields

Available Specializations

AWS Cloud Solutions Architecture, Data Science and Data Engineering, Embedded Systems, Engineering Management, Front-End and Back-End Engineering, Full-Stack Engineering, iOS and Android Engineering, Machine Learning, Product Management, Security Engineering, Site Reliability Engineering, Technical Program Management, Test Engineering

Aimed at

Passing interviews at high-profile tech companies

Duration

4-18 weeks

Price

$2400-$11000

Quick Pros & Cons

What does Interview Kickstart do better (or worse) than other interview programs?

To see that at a glance, check out this quick list of pros & cons:

• You can choose from many specialized programs while most courses prepare you for general Software Engineering coding interviews

• You get guaranteed success or your money back

• It’s available in 11 different programming languages vs. just 1-3

• You do individualized coaching sessions vs. only pre-recorded lessons

• You’ll learn behavioral skills, salary negotiation and career strategy – not just solving coding questions

• You’ll do workshops on building your resume and LinkedIn bio services and get them reviewed by experts

• You can request the right instructor for you (out of 500+ FAANG+ seniors), you’re not stuck with someone who might not suit you well

• You learn interview questions by their patterns vs. memorizing solutions

• You can take advantage of 15 mock interviews included in the program – you won’t have to go to another service to do them

• You’ll be supported by a 5000-strong community of peers vs having to go through a course all on your own

• You can do the program in the evenings or on weekends, so you won’t have to take time off work to go through it

• It’s a considerable investment
• If you only need assistance in one area, purchasing the whole course just for that isn’t really feasible
• You’ll need to commit at least one to three months to a course, and another few months to hunting for a job that matches your new skills

Want to learn more about how Interview Kickstart works and what it offers, directly from one of the founders? → Sign up for their free webinar here.

Course Overview

Interview Kickstart’s Features

The instructors are the real deal

As of 2023, Interview Kickstart now has over 500 instructors working for them.

The course leaders have 5-15+ years of experience in their specific fields, and many of them are hiring managers at top tech companies themselves. 

This means they’ll not only teach you to a high level in your exact domain — but they’ll also be able to give you the inside scoop on what’s needed to pass your interview at FAANG or other premium tech companies. Another cool thing is that you can request specific instructors – so you don’t have to worry about being taught by someone who isn’t the best fit for the type of role you want to get into (this can be a problem with some of the other programs out there).

Everything is live

With other tech interview prep courses, the lessons you get on how to solve coding questions or how to best approach the interview process are pre-recorded.

Not so with Interview Kickstart: All of their classes are an interactive live experience.

Sure, that includes introductory presentations by an expert instructor. But more importantly, they’ll be coaching the group through coding problems and case studies, simulate interview situations for everybody to learn from, and provide you with direct feedback.

On top of that, IK’s instructors will answer any and all questions raised during the live calls.

Mastering interview questions – they’ve got you covered

Interview Kickstart has access to 10,000+ interview questions.

You won’t have to sift through all of those by yourself, of course. They’ll tell you which questions you should practice based on their experience as FAANG+ interviewers.

Follow the roadmap that’s laid out for you and you’ll be optimally prepared. Yes, the most frequently asked coding interview questions don’t stay the same forever.

But just the fact they have this massive database means they’re at the heels of tech companies, and if they see them change the types of questions asked, IK can catch up quickly. 

As opposed to other courses, where you’re stuck with their small pool of questions.

Their all-in-one learning platform ‘UpLevel’

It’s nice to work directly inside Interview Kickstart’s platform, see your schedule and the progress you’ve made, as well as take tests and even conduct mock interviews.

There’s a built-in online judge for any assignment you do inside UpLevel, so you’re getting instant feedback on your efforts solving coding questions.

You’ll also get alerts for any upcoming classes and activities, and you’re able to access 100,000+ hours of past classes. 

All this is of course in addition to the live group instruction and 1:1 coaching.

Career coaching to get you ready for a top-tier job

The career coaching portion of IK’s online bootcamp includes coaching you towards creating your best resume, polishing your LinkedIn Bio and building up your personal brand.

Then there’s the live behavioral workshops, where you learn the secrets to impressing at your behavioral interview and sticking in your interviewer’s mind because of the soft skills you’ve managed to display. 

They’ll even teach you all about negotiating your salary and benefits, so you win the most amount of money from your next job offer.

Many opportunities for feedback and 1:1 training

It’s not just the group classes that allow you to get direct feedback from your instructors.

Every day, you’ll also be able to do coaching calls with an expert who will answer your questions in detail and personally go through solutions with you.

These sessions will take you on the fast track to cracking your next interview and advancing your career.

Pricing & Fees

Interview Kickstart requires you to invest at least $2400 to take any of their courses. This is for the one- to two-month Boosts. The full specializations cost at least $5600. There’s two options you can choose from for their longer programs: 

1. Either you pay $600 for a trial, which allows you to quit before you complete the course without paying more. If you keep going, you’ll have to pay at least $5600 on top, so it’ll come out to a total of at least $6200.
2. The second option is to pay $5600 upfront for full access to the program, saving you $600 – but you won’t be able to withdraw after the first week. 

Of course, remember you’re still getting the 100% money-back placement guarantee: If you finish the course with diligence, but you’re not able to get a job within the post-program support period, they’ll refund you everything.

Plus: In case you’re torn about which program at Interview Kickstart is best for you, you can switch over to another within three weeks at no further cost.

Is it worth the considerable investment?

On average, Interview Kickstart alumni manage to make 53% more than they did before taking the course. For most, this means a boost in their yearly salary of at least mid five-figures.

So after 1-2 months working at the superior position IK’s online bootcamp allowed you to get into, you’ll have made back your money spent on the course fee.

The potentially many years of profit after that would make the – admittedly considerable – $2400+ initial investment well worth it.

Courses in Detail

→ See all courses in detail at Interview Kickstart ←

How your online bootcamp will go – IK courses outline

As mentioned, the classes run on evenings and weekends, so you don’t miss anything because of your work schedule. 

This is how IK’s programs are laid out:

Mastering the fundamentals first

One of Interview Kickstart’s strengths is how specific their courses are to the field and position you want to be working in.

But, this doesn’t mean they’re neglecting computer science fundamentals. In almost all of their programs, they’ll have you spend the first two months taking these foundational classes. 

Not only will mastering all aspects of Data Structures and Algorithms & System Design make you a stronger Engineer in your field – these topics also make up the majority of most tech interviews, so you’ll be well served by being highly skilled in them.

Masterclasses in your chosen specific domain

After you’ve laid the foundation of expert knowledge in DSA & System Design, you’ll be ready to take a deep-dive into your field of choice.

In a 4-6 week intensive class, you’ll learn the ins and outs of your field of choice. Once you’ve gone through it, you’ll have gained a valuable specific skillset that’ll set you apart from other candidates.

Leveling up your career skills through insider presentations, mock interviews and 1:1 coaching calls

In addition to the technical classes, each of Interview Kickstart’s courses offers 3 weeks of career coaching.

This will teach you all about the best strategy to succeed at your interview, how to prepare for the behavioral part, and how to negotiate once you’ve passed the interview.

Making sure you get your dream job with 6 months of support

Because of their strong money-back guarantee, IK are committed to supporting you as much as possible in your job hunt.

For 180 days after you’ve completed your course, you’ll be able to access all materials.

What’s more, you can take up to 15 mock interviews during this time, and request 1:1 coaching about any technical or career-related topic.

Your weekly schedule

Reviews & Testimonials

<

p dir=”ltr”>Here’s what Marvin Gersho had to say about his experience with the interview prep program. He ended up being hired at Amazon as a Solutions Architect.

Along with many other positive reviews, Interview Kickstart published this testimonial by Neleesh Tendulkar, for example – he managed to get offers from Intuit and Google:

Of course, any company will put nothing but good reviews on their own site. But you can verify the success these people have attained, and the sheer number of real, favorable reviews is a good indicator that IK’s course works well.

Plus, even on review sites like Quora most posters (among those with a verifiable identity and job placement) have good things to say about Interview Kickstart’s program, such as Jeremy Davies, formerly at Amazon:

The biggest criticism across the board seems to be pricing – which is understandable given the ~$6000 price tag. You’ll have to decide for yourself whether making such a large up-front investment into your career development is worth it to you at this time.

Final Verdict: Should you buy Interview Kickstart?

My recommendation:

Take one of Interview Kickstart’s specialization courses if you’re committed to climbing the career ladder at your current company, or getting hired for a high-paying position (potentially for a new job description) elsewhere. 

Only then does it make sense to spend the money on the program: When you know you’re going to give it your all, and you can clearly see how your investment will pay off in the near future.

Buy IK if:

• you’re serious about putting months of focused work into the course AND the job hunt after that

• you’re willing to invest mid to high four figures to take the next step in your career

How to Enroll

As mentioned, you can’t enroll in the course directly. Here’s how enrolment works with IK:

1. → Sign up for cofounder Ryan Valles’ free webinar to learn more about the program and exact pricing.

2. Then, you’ll be able to pick your specialization and join the next cohort.

FAQ

The post Interview Kickstart Review – Kicking Your Career Into Gear? appeared first on Simple Programmer.

… get your name out there as a programmer?

… share your solutions with the world?

… make extra income by writing about your passion online?

Start a programming blog and you can enjoy each of these & more.

Stick around for the exact step-by-step path to creating your fun, popular and profitable programmer blog.

I’ll take you by the hand and show you step-by-step how to create a blog that makes you income. And that income could come in different forms – one of which is a high-paying job. 

5 Good Reasons Why You Should Start a Programming Blog

Let’s look in depth at the 5 main reasons why writing your own coding blog is a good idea.

1. Personal Brand: Become a Thought Leader, Create Opportunities & Get a Great Job

As a software developer, you should be thinking of yourself as a business: The Brand of You. And starting a blog is great for showing off your portfolio as a programmer.

When your blog is helping other programmers and they start sharing it around, your personal brand will become more and more popular.

And the goodwill and trust you’ve built up leads to a slew of new opportunities for you:

• People want to be coached by you
• People want to work on (potentially profitable) projects with you
• People want to buy products as per your recommendation (and gladly have you earn an affiliate commission)
• People want to hire you for perky programming jobs

2. Learning: Adding New Languages, Working Through Problems, Discovering New Methods

When you tell others about what you’re working on, it forces you to be exact. Thanks to your new programming blog, you’ll be carefully exploring the object of any new learning challenge from all angles. 

Because afterwards, you want to be able to teach it to your audience! In any teacher-student situation, the teacher has to be more diligent than the student – and he gets the greatest learning benefit. 

Blogging about your coding experiences will make you more aware and stronger in your problem-solving process, push you to fully explore approaches you weren’t yet familiar with, and make what you’ve learned more ‘sticky’ than ever before.

3. Sharing Code With Others: Helping, Innovating, Creating Community

Coding can be lonely. 

Even if you get a win, you sometimes don’t have anyone to share it with, outside of a forum where you can’t be sure people are going to see it. Or maybe you do have a few friends who understand and care. 

But how cool would it be to make a write-up of what you did that’s super helpful for others, and have it live on a website you personally own, forever?

Starting your programming blog allows you to share solutions that improve the lives of others while adding your explanations to make them easily consumable. People can then add their comments on your blog article. 

Ét voila, you’ve just formed your own little programming community around the content on your website!

4. Improve Communication Skills

There’s no better way to improve your clarity than typing out your thoughts, as coherently as possible, for others to read. Writing a lot and trying to write well turns you into a much better communicator. 

Luckily, you don’t need to write essays for magazines or publish books to do that. You can do it online, and without investing too much money.

I’ve been booked for many speaking engagements and have made hundreds of YouTube videos. My ability to organize my thoughts and communicate clearly and concisely has been sharpened by writing endless articles for this programming blog. 

And it’s transformed my performance in those areas.

5. Make Money

Once your blog is popular, you’ll have many options to monetize it. 

Just a few of the money-making methods for your programming blog are display advertising, affiliate marketing and selling info products. 

In some cases this can become a full-time income, or even a massive business. 

The formula for financial success with your blog is simple: The more you’re writing to solve people’s problems, the more money you’re going to make. 

After you have a sizable audience who trusts you and is hungry for your help, it’s easy to slap on the monetization and start raking in a good amount.

[responsive_video type=’youtube’ hide_related=’0′ hide_logo=’0′ hide_controls=’0′ hide_title=’0′ hide_fullscreen=’0′ autoplay=’0′]https://youtu.be/MtRT8-WGKaQ[/responsive_video]

How to Start Your Programming Blog

The first step on creating a blog is choosing a web hosting company that you can trust and that is reliable. 

There are many Web Hosting Services nowadays and you should pay special attention into this step because it can definitely save you hours of stress and headaches on the future.

Should you start for free?

You can get free hosting at WordPress.com (which leaves you with an ugly domain address and limited functions) or Squarespace. 

Squarespace is free and looks good, but if you want more freedom and functions later, you’ll have to switch. There’s a reason half the internet runs on WordPress.

If you want to run the full WordPress CMS (content management system), you’ll need paid hosting to run it on.

The best Website Hosting for Beginners

I personally recommend Bluehost, which is the only service officially recommended by WordPress itself. 

The combination couldn’t be better. Bluehost is amongst one of the reliable and strongest web hosting companies, having thousands and thousands of clients. The server almost never goes down, it counts with a 24/7 technical support team, offers a free domain and, of course, it has a one-click WordPress install feature, which makes the process so much easier and faster.

To speed things up, think of a domain name for your blog and have your credit card ready.

Done that, follow the steps below.

Set Up Your Website Hosting

To get started, go to Bluehost’s homepage and click on “Get Started Now”.

Next step is choosing the right plan for you. If you’re just starting out, the best plan for you is definitely the “Starter Plan”. 

However, if you plan on getting a decent amount of traffic or even creating more than one blog, you should definitely consider acquiring more robust plans, such as the plus plan or the business pro plan.

After that, you’ll be asked to choose a domain name for your blog. If you don’t already have a domain name, you can purchase one right at this step. 

The best part is that is comes FREE with this new WordPress hosting account purchase. 

Choose a domain name and click on “Next”. 

(Note: If you already have a domain name, just enter the name of your current domain on the “transfer domain” field and follow the steps provided by Bluehost)

Once you’ve chosen your domain name, it’s time to enter your personal information.

Next step is to choose your package plan and enter your billing information. 

Normal, shared hosting is priced at 12, 24 and 36-month terms. Longer term plans will help you save more money and the lower your monthly rate will be. 

Study what will be the best option for you and choose a package. You’ll also see some offers from Bluehost partners, such as SEO jumpstart and domain privacy. 

Select the ones that fits your needs.

After filling your billing information and choosing your hosting package, click on “Next” to complete your purchase. You’ll be asked to create a password for your account. 

You can either use Bluehost’s password generator or come up with yours on your own.

Now that you’re all set up on the Web Hosting part of the process, it’s time to install WordPress.

Installing WordPress

This used to be one of the most complicated steps when it comes to starting a blog.

However, Bluehost recently made it so that you don’t even have to do anything. Check out this video where I show you exactly how easy it is:

You now have your WordPress install created for you automatically and you are automatically logged into your new WordPress blog!

 You’re done creating your blog and installing WordPress. 

Now, simply log into your WordPress website by going to the admin login URL. Enter your username and password, then click “Log In”. This will take you to your WordPress dashboard. 

From here, you can control everything about your WordPress website, such as writing blog posts, creating pages, changing the overall appearance, etc

Pick Your Favorite Theme

You now have the opportunity to put a nice theme on your blog. 

WordPress comes with thousands of free themes, of which you could just pick one and go.

If you go for a paid theme, you’ll have more customization options. The paid themes also often look a lot better right out of the box. 

I use Thrive Themes and I love how it has fully customizable themes, plus a complete drag & drop website builder, quiz builder, and Thrive Leads to create opt-ins for your email marketing.

Plugins

There are a number of additional plugins you should install on your new programming blog to make things easier for you and to make everything run more smoothly. 

The ones I recommend are:

Gutenberg Blocks

A block editor that lets you build pages on your website using special blocks, without having to use any code.

ShortPixel Image Optimizer

Having your blog load fast is essential in the 2020’s. Compressing your images (while still having them look good) is one of the main ways you’ll achieve this. 

The ShortPixel Image Optimizer Plugin is the best plugin to size down your images at the click of a button without sacrificing much in image quality.

WP Rocket

This plugin speeds up your site, so it always loads a fast as possible for the user. It’s $49/year, but well worth the investment.

YoastSEO

The YoastSEO plugin makes sure your site and posts are optimized for search engines. It’ll also help you by managing your sitemap, robots.txt, page title, and meta descriptions.

Code Inserter

When you’re blogging about programming, you want to have a way to nicely display code snippets on your website. 

The code inserter plugin does just that: You put in the raw code, and it outputs it in a pretty and well-formatted manner.

Your Programming Blog’s Content Strategy

Congrats! You’ve finished setting up your blog. 

Now, how do you figure out what to write about? And how do you structure those blog ideas?

To have endless ideas to write about on your coding blog, you should start creating a content strategy. It doesn’t have to be huge or complicated at first. 

In fact, I recommend you start with just one topic, and write a number of blog posts about all the details of it.

Pick One Topic to Start

When you’re first starting out, you have two main weapons to compete with bigger, more seasoned programming websites:

1. Making your content better and more engaging than theirs. This can give you a chance to outrank those more authoritative websites in case their articles are missing the mark
2. Creating ‘topical authority’ in the eyes of Google by thoroughly answering many questions around the same topic. Google then considers you an authority on this topic and ranks your site more highly for any term related to it

That’s why you should consider writing on a more narrow range of topics at first, instead of following every idea you get about everything you know.

Come Up With 10-30 Posts for Your First Topic

The goal is to create a ‘content cluster’ of 10-30 posts around the first topic you picked. 

So you’ll start mapping out your content strategy by coming up with enough blog ideas to make up that first cluster.

Start With The Long Tail

As a brand-new coding blog, you’re not going to rank for those big, juicy keywords. 

Instead, go after what’s called the ‘long tail’ of Google searches: Longer, more detailed phrases that are searched less, and are less competitive. This gives you the chance to rank in the top 10 even if you’re new. 

It lets you build up that topical authority over time. At some point you can then start going for those more competitive search terms.

Keyword Research & Planning

To make your keyword research process most comfortable, use a paid keyword tool – it’ll save you a lot of time and stress. You’ll get hundreds of keywords at a time, and you’ll be able to see their search volume and competition at a glance.

But, of course you can choose to do basic keyword research on your own, without paid tools, for free:

1. Enter your main topic keyword into KeywordSheeter (free). This tool will spit out all variations, questions and related searches to the keyword you entered. You can then pick queries to use as keywords to cover with an article.
2. Google the phrase and manually analyze the competition. Look out for other small niche blogs, quora, reddit, or forums in the top results. If those are able to rank, so should you, especially if you answer the search query better than they did. 

If a bigger site is ranking, but they’re completely missing the point, you also have a chance of outranking them if you create a more well-targeted article.

Types Of Topics To Pick & How They’ll Help You Reach Your Goals

You can pick between different types of articles on your programming blog that can be monetized differently:

• Answering specific coding questions. There’s thousands of these. And while people are just looking for answers – not to buy something – you can still monetize these posts by running ads on them.
• In-depth tutorials on how to code or how to be a more successful programmer. You can establish yourself as a subject matter expert and sell courses on the same topic. For most topics it’s likely good tutorials already exist – so you either have to make something that’s a lot better, or find topics that are underserved or emerging.
• Reviewing software & hardware. These have the potential to make you good money by way of affiliate commissions, but they’re also competitive topics.

In your first batch of 30 articles, it won’t hurt to include some of each type. 

But, you want to be careful not to go for a super competitive review-type keyword, for example – you’ll never rank for it with a new blog. 

Try to find the more niche topics that haven’t been covered by all the giant competitors.

How to Write Your Programming Blog Posts

Now that you’ve got your content strategy all planned out, it’s time to start writing the posts! Your goal is to create the best resource your readers can find on the internet. 

If you…

• Write satisfying answers to their questions
• Help them solve their pressing programming problems
• Give useful career advice
• Create genuinely helpful reviews

…your programming blog WILL be successful.

Here’s how to create the best blog posts that get found by Google and delight your readers:

Go For One Main Keyword

Make your articles focused on a specific search term, and cover that one term as well as you can. Google will be able to pick up what your post is about and start ranking you for that keyword. 

Include this main term in the title of your post, in the first subheading (these are called ‘H2’ subheadings), and multiple times throughout the text (in a natural way).

You can go for 2-3 secondary, related keywords as well – but first and foremost, focus on the main one. 

Also, make sure you’re not rambling, and that even ¾ of the way through, you’re still talking about the same topic. 

This stops readers from dropping off, and it shows Google your article is relevant from start to finish.

Match The Search Intent

Blogging today is not so much about writing interesting, “magazine-style” content – but it’s about providing focused solutions to the problems people are asking Google about:

• When people are searching for: “How to do something” in programming, they expect you to give them the exact answer in your blog article. 
• When they’re searching for a “Why?”-question, they want you to give them the reasons. 
• When they’re searching for “best” or “versus”, they want you to give an honest review of that thing.

You can tell how to structure your article by how the search query is phrased. If you match the search intent well, you’ll satisfy both your readers and Google’s algorithm.

Make The Title Interesting

In Google’s “Search Engine Results Page” (SERP), you’re competing with other articles targeting the same keywords.

Your chance to stand out from the crowd is choosing an interesting title. 

Here are a few elements you can include to make your title “pop” and entice people to click on your article over the others:

• Include a number, e.g.: 7 Secrets to Writing Better Code
• Add “power words”, such as easy, secrets, crush
• State the benefits: How to market yourself as a programmer and make lots of money

Mind Your Blog’s Style

You want to make your articles as easy to read as possible – especially considering a majority of your audience is consuming your content on their small phone screen.

Use Large Font Sizes

Nowadays, you want your font size to be between 18-22px. It’s easier on the eyes and keeps people on the page for longer.

Pay Attention To Line Spacing

In the 2020’s, nobody is putting up with having to read walls of text. They’d rather click away and move on to something else.

Make most of your paragraphs between 1-3 sentences long. If you use plenty of white space in your articles, you’ll do your readers a big favor. And they’ll reward you by consuming more of your content.

Don’t Make Your Content Area Too Wide

If your sentences stretch too far across the page, they’re too hard to read. Try to stick to a content area that’s 850px or less, so people have an easier time scanning your article.

Write Engaging Content

Don’t try to write scholarly articles on your website. 

Yes, people come to your programming blog to learn something. But that doesn’t mean you should sound like a college textbook. That’d be just another reason for them to tune out. Your readers want you to explain things as simply as possible. And if you can make it more personal, fun, or even tell a relevant story, that’s even better. 

Here are a few ways to make your writing more engaging:

• Talk to your audience like they’re a friend
• Keep your sentences short & sweet
• Avoid using “big words”. You won’t sound smart – but boring
• Sell them on the benefits of what you’re going to tell them
• Start your article off with something exciting or intriguing: A smart question, surprising statistic, or a hint at something interesting you’re going to reveal in the article

Create Your Home & About Pages

To make your programming blog look complete and professional, be sure to create these important pages:

Home

This is what people see if they just type your blog’s URL into their browser, or they follow a direct link from somewhere to your website. 

Think of your home page as the sales page for your personal brand. It should be a great introduction to your content and showcase your expertise as well as your best articles.

In the beginning, it’s fine to keep it simple: 

• A “hero shot” image of yourself up top
• A few lines about what the blog is about and what makes you unique
• Some social proof of what people are saying about you and places you’ve worked or your work has been featured
• A display of your best and / or most recent articles

About

Your about page is where you can get more personal – go into your story and how it relates to your reader. 

You can go into detail on your accomplishments. 

State your motivation for starting this blog, and what people can expect from you in the future.

Contact

You should have your business address on your website, as well as a way for people to contact you. 

Not only does this increase trust, but as your blog grows more popular, you’ll be contacted with valuable feedback, enlightening questions, and business opportunities.

Analyze Your Content

To see how your coding blog’s content performs over time, set up Google Analytics and start monitoring your website traffic. 

But – don’t obsess over these metrics, especially in the beginning. It’ll likely take six to eight months before your new content reaches its final ranking position. 

So it doesn’t make sense to check your Analytics all the time when you’ve just started.

Promote Your Blog

Besides writing great content on your programming blog, there’s another way you can get more readers and increase your site’s authority. 

The main way search engines judge the authority of your site is the number and quality of external links pointing for it. 

As you publish more and more content over time, you’ll naturally have more people linking to your blog – especially if your articles are of exceptional quality. 

But with the right promotional strategy, you can speed this up and gain more links in less time.

Guest Blogging

This is where you’ll reach out to other blogs in the coding or tech space and offer to write an article for them for free in exchange for a link back to your site. 

You can increase the chance they’ll say yes if you do some keyword research beforehand and pitch them a topic they could be ranking for, but don’t yet have an article on. 

Also, when reaching out, make sure to mention any of your credentials and accomplishments to make it more attractive for them to feature you on their blog.

Link Building

While guest blogging is a common and effective way to build links back to your site, there’s other ways to do it, too:

• One example is partnering up with other programming bloggers: Whenever they write a guest post on another site, they’ll link to your site, and you’ll do the same for them
• Another way to potentially gain new links is to use a tool to check for broken links on a site you’d like to get a link from. You then tell them about it and ask them to link to one of your articles instead
• Finally, you can check your competitor’s backlinks and ask those sites to link to you over them, in case you have a higher quality post on the same topic

How You’ll Monetize Your Programming Blog

Now, how are you going to get paid for all the hard work you’ve put in solving coding problems and publishing great content on your blog to help out other programmers?

Here are 5 ways you’ll earn money from your programming blog:

Display Advertising

Once you have thousands of visitors per month to your blog, it’s worth it to put display ads on it to monetize some of that general traffic. 

It’s especially useful for those short info-articles that answer a specific question. Your readers will just get the info they need and then bounce – they won’t buy any affiliate offer or join your email list to potentially buy your course later. Display ads are perfect to make at least some money from those people as well.

The most popular ad companies, sorted by how much they’re paying, are: Google AdSense, Ezoic, Adthrive and Mediavine. The higher-end ad networks have strict requirements for joining, such as 50,000 page views per month for Mediavine.

Affiliate Marketing

As you’re reviewing tools and hardware related to coding, you can link to those recommended products and earn a commission. 

Especially for software products, those can be highly attractive because they’re so-called ‘recurring’ commissions – you get a cut for every month the user stays subscribed to the service. 

Additionally, you can earn good money affiliating for high-priced coding hardware, online courses and bootcamps.

Selling Courses & Other Informational Products

With your programming blog, over time you’ll establish yourself as an authority on certain subjects. 

Your readers are loyal – they know, like and trust you. That’s when you can start offering your expertise in the form of ebooks, courses, or a coaching service. 

The best way to do this is to first get people on your email list, where you keep giving them even more valuable content. 

Once it’s time to pitch your new info product, you’ll have a warm audience willing to buy from you.

Sponsorships

If your blog has become popular and it’s bringing in some good traffic, you can also reach out to companies you like and sell them banner ad space or sponsored placements in your posts or emails.

The advantage of this tactic over standard display advertising is that you directly control which kind of ads your audience are seeing on your blog. 

Sponsored banner ads also pay better. 

Time to get started!

That’s a wrap! Now you’re armed with all the info you need to set up your site, create your content strategy, start writing, and publish your first post!

I wish you the best of luck with your new programming blog.

P.S.: If you’d like an even more in-depth course on how to start your blog as a software developer, make sure to enroll below for free:

The post How to Start a PROFITABLE Programming Blog From A-Z (2022) appeared first on Simple Programmer.

I’ve used these tips to create courses, write books and build apps, websites & digital products at a rapid pace.

Below you’ll learn 13 programmer productivity tips that actually work.

Make a plan to implement these tips and you’ll be able to explode your output.

Get 2x More Done Using These High-Level Developer Productivity Tips

Software Engineers and Lead Developers Need to be Extra Productive

As a software engineer, you have to take care of many varied tasks each day. You also hold a lot of responsibility. This means you need A+ productivity to get everything done and make sure you keep bosses, coworkers and clients happy.

1. Stop Wasting Time

The average office employee is wasting more than eight hours per work week.

What if you could reclaim that time and use it to finish your coding projects more quickly?

Procrastination can happen for different reasons. But in the end it comes down to pushing through The Resistance (as Steven Pressfield calls it) and working on your stuff no matter how you feel.

Use the following tips to give you a strategy for the fight against procrastination.

2. Prevent Unnecessary Task Switching

Let’s say you’ve just finished a difficult coding task. Your head is on fire; but there’s another tough assignment waiting down the line.

You commit yourself to it, but after a while, you say “Well, this one is actually not so urgent; I’ll get back to it later.” Then you start doing something easier because you’re mentally drained.

After a few hours, you go back to the committed task, but you feel absolutely puzzled because you don’t remember what you were supposed to do. This means you now need to take some extra time to get back on track.

This is an example of context switching and is something that can lose you a lot productivity as a programmer.

A study conducted by the American Psychology Association reveals that shifting between tasks creates mental blocks that can cost 40% of your productivity.

3. Laser-Focus Your Efforts with WIP Limits

Work-in-Progress limits will help you fight overwhelm and ensure higher quality work.

If you have multiple projects in the pipeline, and you need to wait for something for Project A, it could be tempting to start on Project B. But in the end, this will lead to you working on all projects at once: You’ll constantly be task-switching.

To prevent productivity snags from happening, you should limit the number of work items you’re handling at once.

Limiting work in progress has the potential to speed up your work by slowing yourself down.

If you’re able to process four tasks in the span of three days, then your WIP limit would be four for that specific time period. From here, you can use the information as a rule of thumb and prevent overburdening yourself.

4. Take Control with Management Tools that Fit Your Work

Being stuck in problem-solving is the most common cause of unhappiness in developers, reported by 186 participants.

Time pressure came in at number two, with 152 participants reporting it as something that makes them unhappy at work.

You can relieve this pressure by scheduling your tasks and managing your time well.

There’s different tools that can help you manage your time as a coder and also your workflow in different areas like web development.

I use KanBanFlow to schedule my weekly and daily tasks. I love that it has an integrated Pomodoro timer as well.

Crucial Tips to Improve Your Coding Productivity

5. Pomodoros Boost Productivity

The Pomodoro method is simple.

You set up a timer that has dedicated work sessions and dedicated rest sessions. The basic setting is 25 minutes work to five minutes rest. Totalling up to a half-hour period. You finish four 30-minute cycles and then take a long break and start over.

The Pomodoro method is the best for coders who have a hard time focusing on their work or are trying to get into a good work pace to meet a deadline, with dedicated rest to avoid burning out. You can completely optimize the time periods to fit your work.

6. Use Code Snippets

As a beginner programmer, I’d advise you to try and write all your code yourself – to make sure you’ve learned how to do it. If you’re already proficient though, there’s no harm in going to Google, finding other people’s code snippets, and including them in your programs.

You can speed up the process so much if you do that. Of course, we’re talking about copying snippets here, not whole programs. And always make sure you understand what you just copied.

You – or others using your code – should be able to come back to it and still be able to make sense of it all.

7. Avoid Code Clutter

To build on that argument, following clean code principles in your work will also make you more productive: 

• You’ll waste less time sifting through messy code 
• You won’t have as many bugs to fix 
• You’ll finish each program more quickly and be ready for the next – with less stress 

8. Use the Best Software Tools

Get the best productivity-boosting software tools for coders to help yourself work faster and more efficiently. An example would be the Silver Searcher, an app to help you sift through code.

Developing software to its deployment can be a complex process with lots of single tasks. For most of these tasks, tools exist to batch them or otherwise make them require less effort. 

If you want to be more productive when developing software, these can be a godsend.

9. Learn to Type Lightning Fast

When you’re a fast, efficient typist, you spend less time between thinking that thought and expressing it in code.

This is what Jeff Atwood said in his 2008 blog post ‘We Are Typists First, Programmers Second’

Get the code out of your brain faster. Produce more code in less time. If you’re not a fast touch typist yet, it could pay off to work on that.

10. Detox from Digital Distractions

When you’re starting to work on an important coding project, turn off your phone. Put it where you can’t easily reach it.

If you often find yourself losing focus and opening random websites or social media apps – block those while you’re working on your project. Focus on your work as much as you can. It’ll get easier over time. And when you’re starting to feel drained – don’t give in to the urge to randomly browse the internet. 

Take a real break instead. 

How to be a Productive Programmer (& Stay Healthy)

11. Take Productive Breaks

If you take frequent real breaks, you’ll be a more productive programmer. What’s a real break?

• You get up from your chair
• You move around
• You take deep breaths
• You go outside for fresh air
• You close your eyes to give them a break

12. Stay Sharp – Mentally & Physically

A sound mind in a sound body. The cliché is true.

Take care of your fitness as a developer, and you’ll gain the mental clarity to solve tough problems, the energy for long coding sessions, and the strength to sit pain-free for many hours if you need to.

13. Avoid Burnout

In your quest to be as productive as possible, don’t run yourself into the ground. Follow the tips we laid out – scheduling your tasks, setting limits, killing energy drains, and taking enough breaks – and you’ll stave off developer burn out.

Caveat: If your workload isn’t huge, but you still have zero motivation for weeks on end, the issue isn’t with the amount of work, but maybe with the type of project or job you’re working right now.

Your Next Step to Impressive Productivity

I invite you to check out my free ebook ‘Peak Performance Habits for Software Developers’.

It teaches you the 7 simple habits I used to become a 7-figure developer:

The post 13 POWERFUL Productivity Tips for Developers appeared first on Simple Programmer.