A Brief Summary of JavaScript Learning Path

JavaScript is a popular language among web developers which gave rise to several frameworks that simplify your code. According to the largest online developer communities, StackOverflow in their 2019 survey of the most sought-after programming languages shed some light on what to expect in the coming year:

Top Programming Languages in 2019

As you can see, JavaScript is the most commonly used programming language. So how to learn JavaScript, how to up-level your programming language skills, and what is the path for learning JavaScript from the beginning? If you don’t know how to get started, then you should read this post.

Step 1 — Learn basic and fundamentals

Firstly, you need to understand the basic concepts and fundamentals of JavaScript, you can learn from

• W3 Schools
• Javascript.info

You-Dont-Know-JS is a series of books diving deep into the core mechanisms of the JavaScript language. You should read this to get more overview and advanced concepts of JavaScript such as Scope & Closures, Objects & Classes, Sync & Async, ES.Next & Beyond.

Step 2 — Learn modern JavaScript

Learning basic isn’t enough, you need to learn more about advanced and modern JavaScript concepts/syntax, it helps you write code efficiently, quickly, and high performance

• ES6 for Everyone
• Eloquent JavaScript

Step 3 — Coding Style and Convention

Coding standards (also sometimes known as ‘Coding Conventions’ or ‘Coding Rules’) are a set of guidelines that a group of developers stick to, to ensure that they all essentially follow the same style.

• Airbnb JavaScript Style Guide
• Google JavaScript Style Guide
• jQuery Style Guide

Read about prettier and see how to configure it in order to format your code and save time.

Step 4 — Review your knowledge

Now is the time to review your understanding of JavaScript by answering interview questions

• Top 50 JavaScript Interview Questions You Must Prepare in 2020
• Top 85 JavaScript Interview Questions & Answers
• 37 Essential JavaScript Interview Questions

Step 5 — Practices

• Learning JavaScript libraries (e.g. Lodash, ReactJS, Moment, jQuery, Ramda, and a lot more)
• Learn JavaScript Frameworks such as Angular, VueJS, EmberJS)
• Task runner (e.g. Gulp, Grunt) and module bunder (e.g. Webpack, Browserify)

Step 6 — Be an expert

• Continue learning core concepts in JavaScript such as Closure, Hosting, Scope, Coercion, Prototypes
• Learn OOP, Functional Programming
• Read this book Learning JavaScript Design Patterns or design-patterns

If you want to become a web, backend or full-stack developer, JavaScript isn’t enough, you need to learn more. Check out this roadmap and pick your path Web Developer Roadmap 2019 and keep yourself up to date.