Learning to code online can be a challenging feat. Whether you are a coding beginner or an upskiller, you may need constant support and guidance, a community to belong to, learning resources, or even a more flexible schedule. Codesmith ticks all the boxes by providing free learning resources, workshops, and a supportive tech network!
Codesmith’s advanced software engineering residency program reported an impressive job placement rate of 91 percent and over a 100 percent increase in median starting salary.
Over the years, the bootcamp has welcomed residents with a wide range of experiences, like computer science majors, junior developers, bartenders, musicians, and teachers. And to further increase access to quality coding education, Codesmith has developed a growing library of comprehensive resources, including beginner-to-advanced workshops, the CSX learning platform, and more.
The best part? All of these resources are free and accessible to anyone. You also get to be part of Codesmith’s community of empathetic learners who are ready to offer you valuable feedback, encourage hard work, and motivate you to grow.
In this article, we explore Codesmith’s free coding resources, workshops, and events. First on the list is Codesmith’s CSX online learning platform.
Codesmith is a software engineering residency program that offers a wide range of free coding resources, events, and workshops, designed to shape learners into tech professionals.
Check out the next free Codesmith event here.What Is CSX Online Learning Platform?
CSX is Codesmith’s online learning platform created to develop learners into software engineers with a deep understanding of coding and autonomous problem-solvers. It’s home to an expansive community of coding beginners, upskillers, and programmers who share the same mission—to build their JavaScript competencies.
Why JavaScript? The simple answer: JavaScript remains the most commonly used programming language in the tech industry that powers most of the websites, apps, and other digital products we use today. It’s so popular that some even call it the default language of the Internet. In other words, having a strong competency in JavaScript will make you a versatile and adaptive software engineer.
To gain a deeper understanding of JavaScript, CSX offers beginner to advanced lessons that you can tackle at your own pace. Each unit contains multiple coding challenges that come with solution video walkthroughs you can check. That said, Codesmith purposely doesn’t provide complete solutions for all of the challenges to push learners to dig deeper and become autonomous and persistent problem-solvers—a crucial skill to help you thrive in your future career.
That’s not to say that you don’t get any support throughout your coding journey. Codesmith continually creates opportunities for people to bond and be part of a supportive community. If you need guidance, you can join CodesmithX, a Slack community platform of over 11,000 CSX learners and mentors from around the world.
CodesmithX comprises different channels, connecting its members to share ideas, expand their network, and make friends with like-minded people. Some of these channels include the following:
- #codingresources: Share and discover new learning resources with your peers.
- #csx-challenge-help: Need help solving a challenge? See if others have tips on how to figure out the best solution.
- #pair-programming: Collaborate and find a fellow engineer that you can work with to solve coding challenges and projects.
Fortify Your Coding Skills via Codesmith’s Free Online Coding Workshops and Events
CSX is just one part of Codesmith’s free learning opportunities. Supplement your knowledge, meet other learners, and ask questions by joining Codesmith’s live virtual workshops every week.
1. CSX Courses and Workshops to Learn JavaScript
Codesmith workshops cover a wide range of topics for all experience levels and are taught by program instructors in a live, interactive environment. The JavaScript workshops are broken down into two levels: beginner and advanced.
If you are unsure which CSX unit and workshops to join, you can take a quiz and see where to start. Every CSX course you complete is supplemented by a workshop that dives deep into the concepts you just learned to fortify your knowledge.
JavaScript for Coding Beginners
Your journey to learning JavaScript begins with introductory lessons.
The first units on CSX tackle JavaScript fundamentals, which helps you get a bigger context on how coding works. Among the topics that you will come across include developing your understanding of JavaScript and its uses, learning how to store data types using variables and consonants, and building your knowledge about Control Flow, Strings, Looping, Functions, and Objects. You won’t run out of challenges to solve, with Codesmith assigning over 10 challenges per unit section.
Workshops to supplement your learnings are held live, online once a week and led by Codesmith’s team of expert instructors. Some of the upcoming workshops for beginners you can participate in are:
- Intro to JavaScript: Variables, Control Flow, & Looping
- Intro to JavaScript: Functions & Objects
- Web Development Fundamentals: HTML & CSS
JavaScript for More Advanced Learners
Once you’ve established a basic familiarity with JavaScript, you are ready to move on to the more complex concepts of programming. The advanced CSX units cover Functions and Execution Context, Callbacks, and Higher-order functions. You will also tackle Recursion, Asynchronous JavaScript, and Object-oriented Programming.
Some of the upcoming JavaScript the Hard Parts workshops for advanced learners you can participate in are:
- Callbacks & Higher-order Functions
- Exploring Recursion in JavaScript
- Closure, Scope & Execution Context
- Classes & Prototypes
- Async & Promises
- Object-Oriented Programming
After completing all units on CSX, Codesmith encourages you to work on a final project: creating a Chrome extension. This project serves as your ultimate test on how well you have mastered the fundamentals of programming and how you can leverage your problem-solving skills to build an innovative productivity tool for everyday users.
2. Women, Trans, and Non-Binary-Only Workshops
Looking for a safe and gender-friendly space? Codesmith leads a variety of initiatives that empower and support women, trans, and non-binary learners.
Take part in Codesmith’s free, remote Women’s Workshops where you can learn alongside women, trans, and non-binary coders. Here, you can express your ideas and master programming fundamentals with confidence with the help of Codesmith’s female instructors and mentors.
3. Pair-Programming Sessions
Codesmith’s CSX courses and workshops are not designed to be easy. And what better way to push through tough engineering blocks than by learning with a buddy?
Join Codesmith’s free Pair-Programming sessions and find yourself a coding partner. Bounce ideas, conceptualize, and share the workload to not only conquer group projects and pair-programming challenges but also develop strong technical communication skills.
4. Career Development-Focused Workshops and Speaker Events
Aside from Codesmith’s efforts in fostering an active and supportive community, Codesmith also hosts free events. These are led by diverse and interesting speakers from prominent organizations to educate the Codesmith community on the latest technologies and industry trends.
How to Whiteboard for Technical Job Interviews, Coffee Chats with Codesmith Alumni, and Codesmith Speaker Series, are a few examples of virtual events that Codesmith hosts regularly to further support the engineering community.
5. Codesmith’s YouTube Channel
Codesmith’s YouTube channel offers free educational videos and lecture recordings on a variety of programming concepts.
Learn all about GraphQL during this talk with Codesmith alum and LexisNexis Full Stack GraphQL Developer, Graham Albachten. And if you’re suffering from imposter syndrome, which is a common experience in the tech industry, get inspired and learn how you can combat it from industry experts. Check out how Taylor Daugherty and Monica Grandy, Senior Software Engineers, overcame the intimidating world of tech in one of Codesmith’s Guest Speaker Series events.
Join Codesmith’s YouTube community to access over 100 videos of lectures, challenge and solution walkthroughs, speaker events, and other educational videos, so you do not have to miss out on anything.
Get a Soft Start to Coding with Codesmith
Codesmith strives to make quality education accessible to people from all walks of life. Over the years, it has successfully helped aspiring engineers realize their tech career aspirations with Codesmith’s well-curated resources and a supportive and active community.
You can start your journey into coding today by joining the CSX online learning platform and attending the upcoming workshops. And if you’re ready to take your education to the next level with Codesmith, take a peek at what to expect from its immersive program by attending Codesmith’s info sessions.
About us: Career Karma is a platform designed to help job seekers find, research, and connect with job training programs to advance their careers. Learn about the CK publication.
