Learn How to Code for Free: A DIY Guide for Learning HTML, Python, Javascript & More

This week, we’re launch­ing the begin­ning of a new, ongo­ing series. We’re cre­at­ing guides that will teach you how to learn impor­tant sub­jects on your own, using free resources avail­able on the web. Want an exam­ple? Just look below. Here you’ll find a list of free resources–online cours­es, instruc­tion­al videos, YouTube chan­nels, text­books, etc.–that will teach how to code for free. If we’re miss­ing great items, please add your sug­ges­tions in the com­ments below.

This col­lec­tion is just a start, and it will con­tin­ue to grow over time. In the mean­time, if there are oth­er guides you’d like to see us devel­op in the com­ing weeks, please let us know in the com­ments sec­tion too. We’re hap­py to get your feed­back.

How to Code (Soft­ware)

• Codecad­e­my: A free site for learn­ing every­thing from Mak­ing a Web­site to Python in a “user active” style—meaning that users can use tuto­ri­als to design projects of their own choos­ing. The site also makes it easy to track your progress. Oth­er top­ics you can learn include: Cre­ate an Inter­ac­tive Web­site, Ruby, Javascript, HTML & CSS, SQL and more. Reg­is­ter and sign up for all class­es here. (See our post on Codecad­e­my here.)
• Code School: Code School cours­es are built around a cre­ative theme and sto­ry­line so that it feels like you’re play­ing a game, not sit­ting in a class­room. The site offers a set of free cours­es cov­er­ing JavaScript, jQuery, Python, Ruby and more.
• Free Code Camp: An open source com­mu­ni­ty that helps you learn to code. You can work through self-paced cod­ing chal­lenges, build projects, and earn cer­ti­fi­ca­tions. Accord­ing to Wired, the site “fea­tures a sequence of online tuto­ri­als to help the absolute begin­ner learn become a web devel­op­er, start­ing with build­ing a sim­ple web­page. Stu­dents move on to pro­gram­ming with JavaScript and, even­tu­al­ly, learn­ing to build com­plete web appli­ca­tions using mod­ern frame­works such as Angu­lar and Node.”
• The Odin Project: Made by the cre­ators of Viking Code School, an online cod­ing boot­camp, the Odin Project offers free cod­ing lessons in web devel­op­ment. Top­ics include: HTML, CSS, JavaScript & jQuery, Ruby pro­gram­ming, Ruby on Rails. Find an intro­duc­tion to the cur­ricu­lum here.

• Google’s Python Class:  A free class (used with­in Google itself) for peo­ple with a lit­tle bit of pro­gram­ming expe­ri­ence who want to learn Python. The class includes writ­ten mate­ri­als, lec­ture videos, and lots of code exer­cis­es to prac­tice Python cod­ing.
• Google’s C++ Course: Wel­come to Google’s C++ Class. This class includes writ­ten mate­ri­als, lec­ture videos, exam­ples, and exer­cis­es to prac­tice C++ cod­ing.
• Cod­ing for Kids from Code.org: Code.org, a non-prof­it, has cre­at­ed a fun way for stu­dents to learn the basics of cod­ing. They’ve launched Star Wars: Build­ing a Galaxy with Code, a tuto­r­i­al designed to teach stu­dents how to write JavaScript. There’s also a ver­sion that teach­es code with Minecraft, and a sep­a­rate beginner’s tuto­r­i­al for kids between the ages of 6 and 10.
• Online Computer/Coding Cours­es from Major Uni­ver­si­ties:
  • You can find dozens of free cours­es, cov­er­ing all facets of cod­ing, list­ed in our col­lec­tion of Free Online Com­put­er Sci­ence Cours­es. The cours­es come from top uni­ver­si­ties.
  • Mas­sive Open Online Cours­es (MOOCs) focused on Cod­ing are reg­u­lar­ly offered through providers like Cours­era, edx, Udac­i­ty, Ali­son, Future­Learn, MIT, and Khan Acad­e­my. Ude­my itself has a short course called “The Best Free Resources To Learn How To Pro­gram.”
  • Harvard’s Pop­u­lar Intro to Com­put­er Sci­ence: Get free access to Har­vard’s pop­u­lar intro­duc­to­ry cod­ing course designed for majors and non-majors alike. Com­bines cours­es typ­i­cal­ly known else­where as “CS1” and “CS2.”
  • Stan­ford’s Free Course on Devel­op­ing Apps with iOS: If you’re look­ing to devel­op apps for iPhone or iPad, this handy Stan­ford course will go a long way.

• YouTube Chan­nels for Learn­ing Cod­ing: Chan­nels you might want to vis­it include:
  • Coder’s Guide: Fea­tures videos on HTML web devel­op­ment, cross-plat­­form Java pro­gram­ming, begin­ner .net pro­gram­ming with Visu­al Basic and client side JavaScript web devel­op­ment.
  • Code Course: Learn to code and build things with easy to fol­low tuto­ri­als. A num­ber of videos focus on PHP. Find more mate­ri­als on the chan­nel’s web site.
  • LearnCode.academy: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, CSS Lay­outs, Respon­sive Design etc.
  • DevTips: Web design and web devel­op­ment.
  • The New Boston: Pro­gram­ming, web design, net­work­ing, video game devel­op­ment, graph­ic design, etc.
  • The Google Devel­op­ers Chan­nel: Offers lessons, talks, the lat­est news & best prac­tices in sub­jects like Android, Chrome, Web Devel­op­ment, Poly­mer, Per­for­mance, iOS & more.
  • You can find more YouTube Chan­nels here: 33 Use­ful Youtube-chan­nels for learn­ing Web Design and Devel­op­ment.
• Free Pro­gram­ming Text­books from Github: Access 500+ “free pro­gram­ming books that cov­er more than 80 dif­fer­ent pro­gram­ming lan­guages on the pop­u­lar web-based Git repos­i­to­ry host­ing ser­vice.”
• Free Com­put­er Sci­ence Text­books: On our site, find a list of free text­books (aka open text­books) writ­ten by knowl­edgable schol­ars.

Sources that helped us cre­ate this list above include: Inc., Learn to Code with Me, and Web­Build­De­sign.

If you would like to sign up for Open Culture’s free email newslet­ter, please find it here. Or fol­low our posts on Threads, Face­book, BlueSky or Mastodon.

If you would like to sup­port the mis­sion of Open Cul­ture, con­sid­er mak­ing a dona­tion to our site. It’s hard to rely 100% on ads, and your con­tri­bu­tions will help us con­tin­ue pro­vid­ing the best free cul­tur­al and edu­ca­tion­al mate­ri­als to learn­ers every­where. You can con­tribute through Pay­Pal, Patre­on, and Ven­mo (@openculture). Thanks!