The Greatest Youtube Channels to Learn Coding
Part 2 of “The Greatest Online Tools to Learn Coding”
In the last article, I spoke about the the online tools that can help you to learn coding. What I didn’t mention is that I owe my first ever lines of JavaScript to a tutorial video about building a snake game.
Yes, that’s right, as trivial as it sounds, we all enjoy learning by watching, and that’s why Youtube channels are a goldmine in terms of learning resources. In this article I will talk about some “code-fluencers” whose content deserves some attention.
Mmtuts
Mmtuts channel includes several series of tutorials on web development and covers frontend mainly (Javascript, Html, CSS, Bootstrap) but also backend backend (Php) and UI design. Daniel, the host, leads the viewers trough beginner friendly, step-by-step tutorials and exciting mini-projects, such as a mini RPG game in Javascript.
Strait forward, consistent, easy-going, this is a perfect one to start with and learn the fundamentals.
Traversy Media
Ok, these are heavier videos, with a length that can scare at the first glance (one hour to a hundred minutes), but if one could learn JS in 10 minutes, web development would not be a valuable skill, right?
On Traversy media, Brad Traversy gives crash courses on the web technologies you need to know in 2019 , and they are efficient. I strongly recommend the one about React if “should I learn React in 2019?” is not a subject for you anymore (and once you get trough the basics, of course).
Wes Bos
The playlist Wes Bos JS30 is a 30 day-challenge with alternated exercises and frontend mini-projects for each day. It starts nicely with the JavaScript Drumkit on day 1, and continues with geolocation tools, custom clocks and even a video player.
Solid bases in JavaScript are necessary here to enjoy it fully: I tried at the beginning of my learning curve and it was hard to follow, tried again several weeks later and it felt amazing. I particularly enjoyed the learnings regarding multimedia content manipulation with JS.
If you are a beginner frontend developer and need to create a portfolio, these challenges are a good source of ideas for portfolio projects.
Dev Ed
Besides its title being a palindrome, the channel is very entertaining and Dev Ed is definitely a guy full of humour, showing genuine passion for what he is doing, and talking in a “no-filter” way. You’ll find tutorials, mini-projects, and some miscellaneous content (like celebrating subscribers, ordering websites from Fiverr, or making fun of beginners mistakes and bad designed websites).
There is some backend content but I would classify this channel as mainly frontend-focused, as design and responsiveness are some of the dominant topics. There is also a lot to discover for games enthusiasts.
The Coding Train
Now comes the “Crème de la Crème”, the one channel that, in my humble personal opinion — rules them all — as it made me start learning to code on the first place: The Coding Train.
Daniel Shiffman, besides being a university teacher, creates tons of great content, mainly consisting in tutorials and weekly coding challenges (there are more than 150 at the present day). These mainly use Processing and p5.js libraries that allow to transform 20 to 60 minutes of intense coding in a nice graphical result: building a Snake game, visualising data, or creating a Chrome extension. To mention: all that is explained with a fair amount of unicorns, rainbows, and fun.
On the tutorial’s side, I highly recommend p5.js basics and The Nature of Code based on the host’s interactive book. It is important to keep in mind that Processing, p5 and all the extra libraries that are extensively used there are very specific and, once again, it is important to know the basics: vanilla JavaScript.
Are there more?
Yes! You might also want to check:
- The App Builders Guide, that contains videos from many developers.
- Stefan Mischook, who has a more “philosophical” content about tech and coding.
- Fun Fun Function: entertaining, personal, mix between tutorials and general discussions.
- Academind: two hosts, in-depths courses and a wide choice of topics, including working with databases and React Native, Youtube hosts some of them but the full content is available on Udemy.
- Cold Steele: smaller, tutorial and exercises focused channel, that is worth a close look.
- Dylan Israel: some own courses but also online courses reviews and help to get them done. Career tips are there as well.
(special thanks to André de Albuquerque for recommending the latter channels).
I hope that you enjoyed the read and that some of these resources will be helpful, if so, please feel free to 👏👏👏
And get ready for some hours of binge-watching!
