Welcome to Code Conquest – your FREE online guide to learning code.
If you’re someone who wants to learn code, but you haven’t got a clue where to start, you’ve come to the right place.
This site has all of the step-by-step information you need to kick-start your programming adventure.
There are introductions to some popular forms of programming, guides to selecting the best programming training, a series of free beginner code tutorials, and plenty of useful information to guide you through your journey.
Here’s a very simple example of code, written in the Python programming language:
print 'Hello, world!'
If you were to run this line of code, it would simply output the text ‘Hello, world!’. Many tutorials use this command as their first example. It’s a bit of a programming tradition!
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Getting Started
First things first – get the background information before you start. Learn all about coding – the benefits of learning code, how programming works and what today’s common programming languages are.
Once you’ve taken in the preliminary info, you’re ready to learn code! A good place to start is web programming, because it’s especially well suited to beginners.
You can then find out how to learn web programming, as well as a few other popular forms of programming – web design and mobile app development. You’ll find out what skills you’ll be learning, and what training you’ll need.
Training Recommendations
You’ll be pleased to know that you don’t need to be in high school to learn code, and you don’t need to fork out the money for university or trade school.
Thanks to online programming training like Treehouse and Codecademy, you can learn code over the Internet, from the comfort of your own home.
You can also opt to learn programming from a book. Choose from over 20 hand-picked programming books.
Free Code Tutorials
Want to gain an insight into how real code works, without committing to any training? Here’s a series of free beginner code tutorials that will give you a taste of binary code and four widely used website languages.
You might even decide you want to dig deeper into any, or all, of these languages. If you do, each tutorial finishes up with details on how and where to learn more.
The Fun Part of Programming
Once you have some basic skills, let go of the training and start working on your own, self-directed programming project. You could choose to make a website, an app, or whatever is relevant to what you’re learning.
Building a project is the fun part of programming, and it gives you useful experience. In fact, not working on projects is the reason why many people find programming hard, and give up.
As you work on your project, you’ll get the opportunity to familiarize yourself with a range of different programming tools, like GitHub and programming text editors. You should also make sure you know where to get programming help.
Taking Programming Further
When you’re confident you’ve mastered the basics of programming, introduce yourself to some advanced programming concepts like software design, MVC, code commenting, test-driven development, agile development and more.
And if you’re looking for a job, you’re in luck. Programmers are highly sought-after by companies of all kinds, and they’re well-paid too. Google and Facebook programmers, for instance, are paid a base salary of ~$125K.
Getting a job isn’t the only path to success either. You could sell mobile apps, like the kid who sold his iPhone app to Yahoo! for $30m. Or you could create the next Facebook.
How to Become a Programmer in 6 Months
Looking for the easiest and fastest way to become a programmer?
My suggestion is that you start by learning to make a website with HTML and CSS. Then, build upon those skills by learning front-end development with JavaScript, and back-end development with either PHP or Ruby on Rails.
For a more detailed guide, read my free step-by-step action plan. This is my suggested course of action for becoming a well-rounded programmer in just 6 months. I developed it based on my own experience.
If you want to take a different path – go right ahead! But if you’re not sure what path to take, this action plan is what you’re looking for.
Recommended Training – Treehouse
Although this site incorporates a number of different training recommendations, my top recommendation is Treehouse.
Treehouse is an online training service that teaches web design, web development and mobile development through videos, quizzes and interactive coding exercises.
Treehouse’s mission is to bring programming education to those who can’t get it, and is committed to helping its students find jobs. If you’re looking to turn programming into your career, I encourage you to consider Treehouse.
Read my full Treehouse review to learn exactly why I found it to be the best online programming training on the market.
Spread the Word
Please share this website with anyone you think might find the information useful – or consider making a donation. And if you have any questions about how to learn code, send me an email. I’ll reply as soon as I get it.
