As the workplace landscape continues to evolve, it calls for more individuals that have coding abilities. Programming has made its way into almost every profession and elevates the output for many departments. Industries are looking to keep up with the changing times by hiring more coders.
If you want to switch professions or learn a new coding language, the great news is that you don’t have to spend thousands of dollars to do so. The vast offerings of online courses make it easy to pick up new skills from the comfort of your own home.
Quick Look: Best Coding Courses
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What You Can Learn in an Online Coding Class
Online coding classes can focus on one language, a few, or a group that comprises a certain skill like web development. You can find online coding classes that teach the following languages, but aren’t limited to:
What to Look for in a Great Coding Course
When you’re looking to bring a technical skill to your existing workplace, or to a new one, you want to ensure you’re getting a quality education. With an extremely high number of online classes available, here are a few considerations to take in before enrolling to help you pick the best one.
Price
Today, you can find coding classes at a large range of prices. From zero to low-cost options, to more expensive programs, you need to take your budget into consideration when making your selection.
Keep in mind that many free courses are audit options; this means that you have access to the coursework but not graded tests and quizzes. If you need to get a certificate upon completion, you may need to pay a fee for it.
Instructor’s Knowledge and Reputation
Instructors for online coding classes need to have work experience in the field. Since coding can be very complex, prior experience teaching is also a bonus. When trying to work in a technical field with very nonnegotiable definitions for what’s considered right or wrong, you don’t want to be taking a chance on the credibility of your instructor.
When selecting a class, it is extremely helpful to read reviews from past students about the course and the instructor. You should be able to get a better perspective on the type of teacher you’re about to learn from, including how responsive they are to questions (if at all), what their teaching style is like, and more.
Specific Skills
If you’re new to the coding world, it can be hard to select a class without a bit of research. What language do you want to learn? If you’re gaining skills to bring to work, what languages are going to best interact with your job?
Once you’ve selected the course you want to take, read up on the class description and syllabus to decide whether the class covers what you want to learn. You want to make sure the contents of the class match up with your goals, but that you’re also starting from the appropriate skill level. Make sure you’re not enrolling in an expert-level HTML/CSS class if you’ve never coded before.
The Best Coding Classes
To help you make the best selection, we’ve compiled a list of some of the top courses. They are further divided into skill level and price.
Best Coding Courses for Beginners
New to coding and looking to gain foundational knowledge? These course selections are a great starting place.
C# Basics for Beginners: Learn C# Fundamentals by Coding
Beginner • 87 videos • 5.3 hours
1. C# Basics for Beginners: Learn C# Fundamentals by Coding by Udemy
- Who’s it for? Beginners
- Price: On Sale
If you’ve decided that C# is the best language for you, but have no experience, C# Basics for Beginners is a great class to begin your education. This eight-hour course is designed to ease you into the world of C#, creating a strong foundation of the basic skills you will build on.
Unlike the previous classes, this one is not free to audit. However, it’s priced relatively low which makes it accessible for most who want to take it. Keep in mind that this course is for absolute beginners. If you’re any kind of familiar with C#, you’re better off selecting a more advanced class.
2. Learn Ruby by Codeacademy
- Who’s it for? Beginners
- Price: 7-Day Free Trial, multiple Pro upgrades ranging from $39 monthly to 239.88 a year.
Ruby is a great general-purpose language that is still highly-demanded by many employers for Rails applications. You can use this skill to boost your resume by learning through Learn Ruby by Code Academy.
You can sign up for this course through a free membership with Code Academy. However, if you want to access the graded quizzes and tests, you’ll have to purchase Code Academy Pro which is a monthly subscription membership. Despite how you access the class, you will walk away with basic programming concepts like control flow, variables, loops, and object-oriented programming.
3. Python for Trading: Basic by Quantisti
- Who’s it for? Beginners
Ranking #1 on the TIOBE index, Python is an in-demand programming language used in giant applications and products like NASA, CERN, Google, Netflix, and Spotify among others. Owing to its flexibility, support and vast libraries, the financial markets have a newfound affection for Python.
20K learners globally have benefitted from this 9-hour, FREE and beginner-level course for trading. You can do this course even if you have never coded or haven’t seen a console window before.
Build a strong foundation in Python with this detailed and comprehensive course here.
4. Coding and Computer Science for Beginners
Who’s it for? Beginners
Learn the basics of front-end web development using code and explore innovative technologies of the 21st century and their implications in industry. You can tap into the following lessons:
- Computer Hardware and Software
- Ubiquitous Computing: Mobile and Web Development
- Immersive Technologies: Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR)
- Databases
- Big Data
- Cloud Computing
- Internet of Things (IoT)
- Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Get Coding and Computer Science for Beginners free for 28 days through Shaw Academy.
Best Intermediate Level Coding Courses
If you have coding experience, you may find the following courses useful.
1. HTML5 Coding Essentials and Best Practices by edX
If you’re on the web development path and want to take your skills to the next level, HTML5 Coding Essentials and Best Practices could be the class for you. Brought to you by The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) via edX, this course builds upon your prior experience with HTML, CSS, JavaScript and DOM APIs.
This self-paced class is free to audit, but perks like unlimited access, graded tests and assignments, and a verified certificate will cost you. This is part one of W3Cx’s Front-End Web Developer program. Note that it’s not necessary to take all the classes in the sequence to access it.
2. JavaScript Errors and Debugging by Codeacademy
- Who’s it for? Intermediate
- Price: 7-Day Free Trial, multiple Pro upgrades ranging from $39 monthly to 239.88 a year.
On your journey to develop your coding skills, you’ve likely run into bugs that you couldn’t fix on your own. Now, there’s a class specifically designed to help you tackle the errors on your code. This class focuses on debugging your JavaScript code and can be accessed on Code Academy through a Pro membership subscription which runs through a monthly payment structure.
You will also learn to predict errors and how to go about handling them. This class is for intermediate students so you need to be comfortable with JavaScript including objects, arrays, and looping through arrays.
3. Get Ready for Your Coding Interview by LinkedIn Learning
- Who’s it for? Intermediate
- Price: On sale
Switching industries can be intimidating. Switching into the field of coding can feel even more intimidating when you learn about the practice of technical interviews. These interviews are meant to showcase a candidate’s behavioral and technical traits through questions and on-the-spot coding challenges. Get Ready for Your Coding Interview by LinkedIn Learning offers a great introduction and preparation for your first coding interview.
You will over problem-solving skills like using arrays, comparing strings, and time complexity in the code. The instructor, YK Sugi, is the creator of a popular YouTube programming channel and has experience at various software companies.
Best Advanced Level Coding Courses
Are you an experienced coder, front end developer or back end developer? These courses will enhance your coding skills.
1. HTML5 Apps and Game by edX
If you’re following the trend from native to HTML5-based apps, you can learn how to design and deliver advanced multimedia features in HTML5 Apps and Games. Like many edX courses, this one is free to audit. However, if you want certification of completion or graded tests you have to pay the upgrade fee.
The course is one part of a series provided by W3C, but you don’t need to go through the entire specialization to take this class.
2. Learn JavaScript Unit Testing by Codeacademy
- Who’s it for? Advanced
- Price: 7-Day Free Trial, multiple Pro upgrades ranging from $39 monthly to 239.88 a year.
Are you interested in catching more of your bugs before deployment? If you work with JavaScript with Mocha, this class is a good option for brushing up on unit testing. While this is not an advanced course, it’s useful for experienced coders who want to prevent costly mistakes.
You can access this six-hour course with a Code Academy Pro membership which comes through a monthly subscription model.
3. Optimizing Python Code by LinkedIn Learning
- Who’s it for? Advanced
- Price: On sale
Sure, you know Python. But how efficiently does it run? With this course, you can learn how to optimize your Python code, ensuring that it uses fewer resources and runs faster.
Instructor Miki Tebeka works hands-on with other professionals to strengthen their skills in Python and Go. He shares this expertise with you, covering topics like rules of optimization, using the bisect module, and memory allocation in Python.
Final Thoughts
With programming crossing over into many industries and professions, there is no better time to upgrade your resume and career with coding abilities. Even if you aren’t a full-time coder, you can improve the efficiency of your job through this new skill.
To help find the right course for you, take a look at the syllabus before enrolling and make sure to utilize free audit courses when you can. Just remember that no matter what course you take, practicing your skill is going to be the best way to master the language you choose.