What is JavaScript?
Created by Brendan Eich in December 1995, JavaScript is a programming language used to develop interactive applications.
Initially, JavaScript was known for being a powerhouse for front-end web development e.g. creating animations or dynamic web pages.
However, in recent years it has gained prominence in other aspects including back-end, game development, AI, server-side scripting and more.
This is part of the reason why it is ranking as the most popular programming language consecutively since the past 11 years, according to Stack Overflow's Developer Survey.
In this blog, we'll briefly go through the advantages of learning JavaScript and 7 best free courses to help you start your programming journey.
Why You Should Learn JavaScript in 2024
Market Demand: JavaScript is used across multiple fields, making it a popular choice in 2024. Whether it’s web development, mobile app development, or emerging fields like IoT and AI, learning JavaScript opens a door of opportunities for you. It is due to this versatility and utility that the average JavaScript developer can earn around $106,000 annually, with experienced engineers earning up to $170,000.
Full-Stack Skill:Â As JavaScript is used for both front-end and back-end development, you can become a full-stack developer by mastering it. This not only broadens your skill set but also makes you more valuable in the job market.
Latest Tools and Frameworks: JavaScript’s ecosystem is quite vibrant and constantly evolving. For instance, React, Angular, and Vue.js are some of the popular front-end frameworks built on top of JavaScript. Similarly, Node.js is a leading backend framework. Therefore, learning JavaScript keeps you informed of the latest technologies and streamlines your development process.
Community Support: There are over 17 million JavaScript developers in the world, making it one of the most popular programming languages. With a large developer community, there's no shortage of tutorials, documentation, forums, and meetups to guide you in your learning journey.
Future-Proofing: With JavaScript's popularity and widespread adoption, it’s safe to assume that it's here to stay. If you invest your time in learning JavaScript, you can secure your career and keep yourself relevant in the tech ecosystem.
7 Free Courses to Learn JavaScript
This course is part of freeCodeCamp's free JavaScript courses for beginners. It is a 3 hour 26 minutes YouTube course covering 134 topics.
It teaches you the fundamentals of JavaScript and everything you need to begin your programming journey. The course covers the basics of JavaScript programming, including variables, data types, loops, functions, and objects.
Watched by over 16 million people and with 250k likes, this course by Beau Carnes is quite comprehensive and a perfect way to kickstart your JavaScript journey.
This 5 hour self-paced course by SimpliLearn is ideal for those looking to master front-end, back-end and full-stack development.
The best part is that you receive a free certification upon completion. The course covers JavaScript fundamentals such as variables, data types, loops and operators.
Other topics include functions, arrays, objects, DOM manipulation, form manipulation and asynchronous programming.
JavaScript for Beginners is quite well-received, having a 4.5 rating and over 66,000 students enrolled.
Codecademy's Introduction to JavaScript is an interactive, beginner-friendly course which allows you to master JavaScript's advanced topics.
It's a 15 hour course containing 11 lessons, 12 projects and 8 quizzes. You have to complete a quiz at the end of each lesson to unlock the next lesson.
This course is quite interactive as it displays a code console on the screen right next to the tutorial.
The practice projects, which include rock paper and scissors, sleep debt calculator, weather calculator etc., will polish your programming skills greatly.
You get a certificate in the paid plans starting at $14.99/month.
This comprehensive tutorial by JavaScript Info covers the basic and advanced concepts with simple to follow explanations.
It is divided into 2 parts: the first part focuses on JavaScript concepts, ranging from data types, objects, code quality, objects, prototypes, classes and more.
The second part explains how to modify browser pages by adding elements, changing their size, managing the user experience, adding forms, document loading and more.
Besides, there are additional articles that expound on miscellaneous topics like animations, web components, network requests, popups, cookies etc.
Eloquent JavaScript is both a book and an online resource compiled by renowned programmer and book author Marjin Haverbake.
The book has been translated in Arabic, Spanish, Persian Portuguese, Bulgarian and Russian.
It contains 21 chapters that explore concepts like functions, objects, closures, regular expressions, and asynchronous programming.
Each chapter contains a summary at the end to help you refine the concepts you've learnt.
The online version of Eloquent JavaScript includes interactive code examples and exercises that you can practice on as you learn.
It's suitable for learners who prefer a structured approach to self-study and want to dive deep into JavaScript programming.
Udemy's build a quiz app using JavaScript, HTML and CSS is a great way for you to practice these 3 languages combined and refine your frontend development skills.
Enrolled by over 174,000 students, this course by James Quick teaches you to how to store quiz scores, create progress bars and a spinning loader icon.
You also learn to generate HTML in JavaScript and fetch quiz questions from Open Trivia API.
Overall, this project is quite handy for beginner web developers and a new addition in your portfolio!
Taught by Meta Engineers, Coursera's Programming with JavaScript course is not only suitable from a learning perspective but is also designed to make learners job-ready.
It contains 5 modules starting from Introduction to JavaScript, followed by the building blocks of programming including arrays, strings, functions and objects.
In the third module, you'll learn advanced concepts such as JSON, object oriented programming and functional programming.
The fourth module covers how to test code in JavaScript and the different types of tests.
The final module gives a recap of the entire course and contains a graded assignment. You have to design a project called 'Little Lemon Receipt Maker' in order to pass the assignment.
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