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BUILD A TODO LIST IN PYTHON

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Build a TODO List in Python Overview The objective is to build a todo list to which we can add items, remove the added items, edit the items and even if required, delete out the entire list itself. We will learn here step by step, how to build the todo list with the above  CRUD (Create, Remove, Update/edit, and Delete ) features.  This is a CRUD list  app  that we are building as we can Create, Remove, Update items in the list and Delete the entire list itself. We will be using Python3 to build this Project. Importing os and time We import time to let the screen pause for a while before clearing  and we import os to clear the screen . Initializing the list We initialize the todo list with an empty list as there are not items added yet to the list and this is represented in the code aby using an empty square braces   toDoList = [] Defining the print list  The def keyword is used to define a function in python. In the below code, we define the function called printList(). When we define

Top Free Online Websites to Learn Coding

Top Free Online Websites to Learn Coding

This guide will help you to find  online sites to learn Coding for free.


                 Photo by Antonio Batinić:

Finding free sites online to learn Programming is a big task when you search online, as there are millions of resources that are available for free. Sometimes, it can be a time killer and really tiring and tedious and simultaneously, also lead to confused minds and make you demotivated to focus on your goals. You may also select the wrong resources and end up getting totally demotivated after wasting few months or years on the wrong resources. I have made your search easy and convenient by presenting below, the top ten sites that offer free online programming.

Here are the names of the online sites that offer Programming courses, completely free of cost. While, you may have across several blogs talking about of free courses, please note that some of the sites mentioned online are not completely free, as they only offer a free teaser course for a couple of weeks and then start chasing you for paid courses. But, as I was keen to search for sites that genuinely offer free coding courses, I have decided to present below the following sites namely, freeCodeCamp, W3Schools, CheckIO, CodingGame, CodeCombat, exercism, soloLearn, enlight , Khan Academy, App Academy(deferred payment), The Odin Project and Emonics Academy. 

I would like to bring to you the less talked-about sites along with the popular ones that I have myself experienced while going through my learning and teaching journey. 

freeCodeCamp: 

The first site that comes to my mind is the most popular freeCodeCamp platform which will hold your hands right from the beginning to advanced level and also provides free certifications. The courses are completely free , unless you want to support them by giving donation, as a mark of respect for providing you this valuable education, free of cost. FreeCodeCamp is a charitable non-profit community founded by Quincy Larsen in 2014, and you can surely find a variety of courses here. The professional certifications in Programming includes the following :

  • Web Design Certification
  • JavaScript Algorithm and Data Structures
  • Frontend  Development Libraries Certification
  • Data Visualization Certificate
  • Relational Database Certification
  • Backend APIs and Development Certification
  • Quality Assurance Certification
  • Information Security Certification
  • Machine Learning with Python Certification
  • Coding Interview Preparation

The above certification courses are cloud based courses on the freecodecamp platform where you will be learning concepts, and based on that you will be building projects , based on which you will receive your above certifications.

If you want to get certified in the front end web development path, then, the above front end development languages would involve learning HTML,CSS, JavaScript, React and the backend development would involve learning Node.js, Express.js, Mongodb, SQL, and Python.  If you are interested in Data Science and Machine Learning, then as you can see in the above courses, Python is the course for you.

Other than the above project based certifications, you will also find more programming languages such as PHP, Java , etc in their YouTube channel in the form of videos. All these courses are completely free. There is a good opportunity to find jobs as a web developer or data scientist etc, after completing the courses of your choice from freeCodeCamp. 

W3schools :

The next option to consider is the W3Schools, it also offers completely free courses in front end and backend web development , but, the certificate is not offered for free. After completing the courses, if you wish to get certificates, then, you need to sit for some exams and then pay a fee to procure the certificates. Since, in coding, projects and concepts are more important than certification, you may ignore the last step of paying fee to get certified and take the advantage of the free courses and projects to  rev up your portfolio! Now, you could also create your own website for free with ssl certificate in the W3Schools playground, that is completely browser-based with full backend  support as well. For paid upgrades,  you could build several websites on their system alongwith several other features available. 

CheckIO:

CheckIO is another website that offers full free programming courses in the format of games and their courses are crated in a very fun based ,  gamified manner that makes the learning environment very casual and stress-free!  So, this type of course that involves coding games and challenges for beginners is very versatile and geared to motivate you to reach more advanced levels in programming without getting lost in tutorial hell. This site only offers Python and TypeScript coding languages from beginner to advanced level in the form of fun code challenges and game plays. 

CodingGame:

CodingGame is a platform that offers interactive open source games and exercises to practice more than 20 programming languages for beginners as well as advanced level programmers to improve their coding skills. The most popular languages that they offer are Python, Java, JavaScript with React and Redux, PhP, HTML, Go, Ruby, Scala and C etc., They are also involved in hiring aspiring programmers, so, it would be useful to learn coding on this platform. 

CodeCombat :

CodeCombat  makes you learn programming through a gamified way, while learning to code and make your own games and sites in HTML, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery and Python. Imagine writing your own functions to control your game heroes, or avatars while coding your own game or websites! You experience an immersive adventurous experience while learning to code.

You can play coding games in any language for free at core levels but for more advanced levels, you may need to upgrade to a paid program. 

Exercism :

Exercism is a not-for-profit community based on collaborative learning and their lessons are all practice-based and mentoring as well. They offer around 61 programming languages, all for 100% free forever! They don't offer formal certifications but their learning style is very practical, fun-based programming education that is offered to all for free regardless of their educational or financial background. The best part is that they do not only offer coding excercises and lessons but also personal mentoring for free! 

Sololearn:

This is another free platform with their own browser-based code playground to learn almost any programming lessons, but, however, all features are not possible in the free plan. For example, you cannot practice in an unlimited manner, you can only have the best features such as unlimited code demos, unlimited practice etc in the paid pro version. However,  you can get to learn sufficient amount of learning for free when you are a coding newbie and since you can also download their app on your mobile phone, it's like learning on the go. 

Enlight :

Enlight  coding offers a learning-by-doing type of education. They offer front-end web development and web-design . This is mostly a 2 week training and workshop-based immersive learning experience, whereby you are supposed to complete around 3 unique projects based on their tutorials and workshops and since it is cohort-based workshop, you can take the community help from other learners of your level , in order to complete these projects. 

App Academy:

App Academy offers online software engineering bootcamp , both, part-time and full-time . They offer front-end web development, back-end web development, computer science, programming fundamentals, and their programming languages include JavaScript, Node.js, Python, SQL,Docker etc.

In App Academy, the courses are not free, but, you do not have to pay the fees while you are learning the course with them. You only need to pay fees once you procure a job as a software engineer or developer after completing the course. This is based on the deferred payment method of fee payment. These courses are mainly bootcamp and cohort-based learning system with lot of emphasis on community and peer-based learning as well as personal mentoring.

The Odin Project:

The Odin Project offers  a full-free full stack web development - full stack JavaScript and full stack Ruby on Rails web development. This is an open source community based learning basis where you learn by building projects and build your portfolios for putting them up on your GitHub profile. This is fully free and there is no need to pay any fee as it is a no-profit organization. They do not provide certifications but provide you real-life industry-based projects that when put up on your GitHub will help to shine your coding portfolio in order to attract prospective hirers.

Emonics Academy:

The Emonics Academy is an Academy providing online coding bootcamps in devOps, mobile app development and Java Full-stack development.  You don't need to pay fees upfront,  but, only after you get placed in a job. They not only provide personalized training but also prepare you for software job interviews and assist in placing you in your very first software development job!

In Ecomonics Academy, you will find the learning method is crafted into a BootCamp experience, well, actually, it's a BootCamp learning education. With a BootCamp learning method, you don't feel alone in your learning journey, in fact, you feel more supported with your class mates and mentor for your learning session. This type of learning also helps you to be more in control of your learning phase , more disciplined and less time-consuming as more task is achieved in lesser time frame.

Coursera: 

This website is dedicated to MOOC learning that is, Massive Open Online Courses and you will find the world's topmost universities such as Michigan University, Stanford University, Hong Kong University, The University of Chicago, IBM, University of London, Indian Institute of Technology, Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, West Virginia University, Arizona State University, etc., offering high-class Programming and Computer Science courses. 

MOOC stands for Massive Open Online Courses that are offered in partnership with various universities and educational institutes around the world, to offer free education online to serve a massive online audience. In order to maintain a fair balance between free education and paid education, these courses have both free and upgraded paid options for different courses, with some privileges for paid courses, however, the quality of learning is the same for both free and paid courses. Since Programming is a practical field, whereby, industry employers give focus more on your portfolio and knowledge rather than your certificates, even a free course take with a reputed university , without a certificate, is worth it to pave the way for your professional goal and career!

You can enroll for these classes completely free of cost, but however, you can not get access to your shareable certificate after completing the course and you will not be able to submit the graded projects or examination etc.. However,  for a printable certificate, and for submitting the final major project, you will need to pay the course fees. But, there is a way around for this situation, in case, you are keen on doing well in the course. You could apply for a fully sponsored course , on the condition, you perform well, as per their requirements, you can avail of the fully sponsored course and get certified upon completing the course successfully! After successfully completing a series of courses, you could even get to study in their online degree (Bachelors/Masters) programme related to the course that you have taken with the relevant universities offering such degrees, at a very discounted price offer or even fully sponsored by the University partnering with Coursera, based on your consistent performance. Initially, when you sign up for these MOOC coding classes, you can even sign up for part of a longer programme and then decide to complete the rest of the modules in separate occasions. You could also sometimes avail of the high discounts once you sign up for Coursera MOOC , as they would keep notifying you of different courses that are relevant to your choice and what you are opting for. 

edX:

edX is another popular MOOC learning platform that partners with the world's top universities such as Harvard University, Boston University, Berkeley University of California, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and many more prestigious universities around the world! You can take a ton of Programming languages and Software Engineering courses including, Python, Azure, JavaScript, Java, C, Data Science and others. 

With edX MOOC, it is the same as with Coursera, when it comes to free courses, you will be a bit limited when it comes to accessing your shareable certificate as well as permission to sit for graded assignments or examinations as the latter is only available for an upgraded fully paid course. However, all other support and tools will be available for the free courses.


Python.org:

This is the official documentation site for learning Python. It is completely free and geared for total beginners who are completely new to Programming. This site is for you to understand the fundamentals of Python and know what IDSs to get started and how to learn the basic concepts of Python, and get started with your Python learning journey. If you are looking out for an interactive course, then, this is not the right platform for you !


LearnX:

This website is sponsored by DataCamp and consists of free online interactive lessons in Python that covers from the basics to the advanced levels. After completing these lessons, you could get a paid  certification by taking an examination at LearnX and this is a shareable certification that you could share to your LinkedIn profile. If you get 90% and above in this examination, then, you could get the certificate for a lowered fee around $19 as compared to the original certification fee of $79. Head over to their website to learn more details on their pricing scales. They only charge if you wish to get the certificate, but, for learning Python from basics to intermediate and advanced courses, there is no fee at all to spend.


LearnWeb3:

This website is a non-profit community of team members giving you access to completely free courses in web3. Their courses are project based and you also get opportunities to be hired using their platform once you complete their courses.


Web3 University:

This is another open chain of collaborated group of companies that got together to offer completely free courses for JavaScript, NFT, BlockChain and Ethereum and everything that is to know in Web3. This is structured in the format of an online BootCamp and you need to sign up early in advance in order to be accepted into this free program.


Eloquent JavaScript:

This website offers a detailed and easy-to-understand lessons in JavaScript from basic to advanced levels, and also includes some lessons in Node.js. The website version is offered completely for free but in the book version, you need to pay a fee to buy the paperback. As we all know, JavaScript is a very complex language and it can get very tricky at times when you understand the concepts in-depth, but this website offers such a clear explanation for this complicated programming language, that, you are able to complete all the lessons smoothly and even complete some practical projects with this knowledge!


CodeGym:

This website offers free course in Java ,please note, this course is only free for college and university students. It is not free for working adults. This free course is very unique in the sense that they also give you job guarantee and offer professional training for procuring a job. The classes are held in groups with personal mentors for very rigorous training and this course is supposed to be completed in a duration of 12 months time. It is very practical and hands-on training and if you are a student, it is worth looking into this free course.


Scrimba:

This website offers really interactive coding classes with lots of projects. The free classes are only basic classes in HTML, CSS and JavaScript for beginner level. If you want to learn more advanced levels , you need to upgrade your classes by paying a low fee per month. You may also sign up for paid courses for other programming languages. So, if you are only interested in full-free courses, then, it may not be the right platform for you. However, if you want to give coding a try and not sure if you will like it .


Udemy:

This website normally offers paid professional courses in different Programming Languages, however, every month, there are several heavily discounted courses or even full-free courses available. The tutorials are in the format of videos with lots of industry-oriented projects. If you cannot afford premium paid courses, you should opt for free courses here, and all you need to do is to be in the lookout for free courses when you browse this site regularly. Even the discounted courses are almost free when there is a heavy discount, say, 90% discount and such offers are very regularly offered and if you browse such courses regularly, it is possible to find the perfect coding language of your choice at zero cost! There are millions of courses available here and all the courses are of high quality, so, it is worth your time to spend a bit of your time to search for free courses here. The best part here is that you will also find lots of real reviews of learners right below each course and this will give you the right frame of mind to decide which course to take .


Conclusion:

I hope, by now, after reading about all the free websites would have pumped up your motivation to learn coding, as learning to code in the beginning and also planning on what to learn as well as understanding the road map to learn your very first programming language, may turn out to be a very complicated affair indeed if you had only paid courses available. Imagine, you realize that a particular course is not for you, after making a hefty course fee payment! However, now, I have placed several website options for you to choose from, and , it is entirely your decision on which one to pick up, based on your daily time consumption, your lifestyle, educational background, job background, and the dream goal that you have set for yourself! All the more, you could even test it out by taking free lessons from several websites that are described above, and, in a short span of few weeks, you could come to a final decision on what course to opt for and also which website to opt for , in your learning journey.

If you feel that you have gained more confidence and motivation after reading my post on the above free websites, do, post your kind comments below, so that I could get to know if this post has been beneficial to you or not. Also, if you do have some thoughts to share on the above post, do feel free to do so! Looking forward to your feedback soon.


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