freeCodeCamp is a donor-supported, nonprofit organization. Its founder, Quincy Larson, a one-time school director and software developer, created this free platform to help bring structured coding education to everyone interested.
The organization currently offers 11 core certifications that involve five web app projects, automated tests, and hundreds of optional coding challenges. freeCodeCamp estimates that it takes a beginning programmer about 300 hours to complete a certification. Each certification is self-paced and remote.
freeCodeCamp reports that over 40,000 of its graduates landed their first tech job. Some hiring companies include Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Spotify. It also offers free coding exercises and challenges to prepare you for job interviews.
freeCodeCamp Courses
freeCodeCamp offers 11 disciplines, each featuring a certification. If you complete seven, you receive a full-stack development certification. The following are the seven required disciplines:
- Back-End Development and APIs
- Data Visualization
- Front-End Development Libraries
- Information Security
- JavaScript Algorithms and Data Structures
- Quality Assurance
- Responsive Web Design
These certifications demonstrate that you’ve completed about 1,800 hours of coding using a variety of web development tools. Some students also take one or two disciplines to help them gain skills in specific areas.
Back-End Development and APIs
- Cost: Free
- Learning Format: Online
- Time Commitment: Self-Paced
- Length: About 300 Hours
This discipline teaches you how to write back-end apps using Node.js and build web applications with Express framework. It also teaches you the basics of npm. You’ll use MongoDB and Mongoose library to build a People Finder microservice. Then, you’ll use your learned knowledge to create five microservices.
Data Analysis with Python
- Cost: Free
- Learning Format: Online
- Time Commitment: Self-Paced
- Length: About 300 Hours
In this discipline, you learn the basics of analyzing data with Python. Coursework includes reading data, processing it with NumPy and Pandas, and using Matplotlib and Seaborn to visualize it. Some hands-on projects include evaluating a demographic data analyzer, a medical data visualizer, and a sea level predictor.
Data Visualization
- Cost: Free
- Learning Format: Online
- Time Commitment: Self-Paced
- Length: About 300 Hours
Students learn to transform data into graphs, charts, and maps using data driven documents (D3). The discipline also covers asynchronous JavaScript and XML and working with application programming interfaces (APIs). The projects include visualizing data with a bar chart, scatter plot graph, heat map, choropleth map, and treemap diagram.
Front-End Development Libraries
- Cost: Free
- Learning Format: Online
- Time Commitment: Self-Paced
- Length: About 300 Hours
In this discipline, you learn how to design responsive websites using Bootstrap, a front-end framework. Students also gain experience using jQuery to modify, remove, and clone different webpage elements. Additional covered topics include React and Redux.
Information Security
- Cost: Free
- Learning Format: Online
- Time Commitment: Self-Paced
- Length: About 300 Hours
This discipline explores online security and how to build a secure web app that protects people’s information using HelmetJS. The course also covers the basics of penetration testing with Python. A few projects that let you apply your learned security skills include an anonymous message board, a port scanner, and a password cracker.
JavaScript Algorithms and Data Structures
- Cost: Free
- Learning Format: Online
- Time Commitment: Self-Paced
- Length: About 300 Hours
This discipline covers JavaScript, a popular programming language that helps make webpages interactive. Covered topics include arrays, functions, loops, objects, and variables. Students also explore functional and object-oriented programming.
Machine Learning with Python
- Cost: Free
- Learning Format: Online
- Time Commitment: Self-Paced
- Length: About 300 Hours
Students learn about TensorFlow, an open-source platform for machine learning and artificial intelligence. The discipline explores natural language processing and neural networks. Some machine learning projects include a cat and dog image classifier, a linear regression health costs calculator, and a book recommendation engine.
Quality Assurance
- Cost: Free
- Learning Format: Online
- Time Commitment: Self-Paced
- Length: About 300 Hours
This discipline teaches you how to use Chai to test web applications to ensure they function correctly. Students also build a chat application with Express.js and Node.js. Quality assurance projects include building five web applications and writing tests for each one.
Relational Database
- Cost: Free
- Learning Format: Online
- Time Commitment: Self-Paced
- Length: About 300 Hours
This discipline covers essential tools for web development, including Bash scripting, VS Code, PostgreSQL, Linux, and Git. Students build a boilerplate and a number guessing game along with several databases. A few of the databases include the character Mario, celestial bodies, and a periodic table.
Responsive Web Design
- Cost: Free
- Learning Format: Online
- Time Commitment: Self-Paced
- Length: About 300 Hours
This discipline teaches two of the core technologies for building webpages: HTML, a markup language, and CSS, a style sheet language. Students learn to add buttons, photos, and other elements, as well as create many forms. A few hands-on exercises include building a survey form, a Rothko painting, a magazine, and a product landing page.
Scientific Computing with Python
- Cost: Free
- Learning Format: Online
- Time Commitment: Self-Paced
- Length: About 300 Hours
This course explores Python, one of the most popular programming languages. The video course, created by Dr. Charles Severance, a clinical professor at the University of Michigan, teaches the basics of Python 3. Students test their learned skills by completing projects like a probability calculator, a budget app, and an arithmetic formatter.
freeCodeCamp Admissions Process
freeCodeCamp has no application process. Beginners are welcome and do not need prior experience or a certain education level. You simply sign up for the discipline you want to learn and begin.
freeCodeCamp Cost
freeCodeCamp is 100% free. It provides thousands of free interactive coding lessons, videos, and articles to help people learn to code. There are also thousands of freeCodeCamp study groups worldwide.
freeCodeCamp Student Outcomes
Because freeCodeCamp is free and available to everyone, student outcomes are not accessible. The organization reports that over 40,000 graduates have gained jobs at tech companies.
freeCodeCamp Pros vs. Cons
Pros
Completely free to use- The platform is easy to use and navigate
- Designed for beginners
- Content sequentially set up so that learners build upon each lesson
- Offers certifications in 11 disciplines
- Each certification requires five completed projects that students build from scratch
- The projects can help students build a portfolio
Cons
Instruction consists of articles, videos, and interactive lessons- Help is in the form of forums and a chat room
- Offers a series of exercises rather than a continuous learning plan
- No instructor guidance
freeCodeCamp vs. Codecademy
| freeCodeCamp | Codeacademy | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Completely free | The basic plan provides access to some free courses. Pro Lite costs $210 per year and offers all courses, quizzes, real-world projects, and certificates. The Pro plan costs $300 per year and also includes curated learning paths and interview prep courses. It also offers monthly payment programs. Eligible college students may receive 35% off. |
| Duration of Programs | freeCodeCamp offers 11 self-paced certifications. It estimates that each takes about 300 study hours. | Codeacademy offers online self-paced learning that includes 12 career paths, 45 skill paths, and many courses. You can finish career paths in several months and skill paths in a matter of weeks, depending on the skill and number of lessons. |
| Cost | $15,950 for most programs | Many programs cost between $17,000-$20,000See above for pricing specifics. |
| Features | As an open-source platform, you can give back to the community. The all-important code editor requires installing third-party software, many of which are free. | Codecademy is not open source and offers an in-browser code editor. |
Frequently Asked Questions About freeCodeCamp Coding Bootcamp
What is freeCodeCamp?
freeCodeCamp is a donor-supported nonprofit organization. It launched in 2014 to provide free interactive coding lessons, videos, and articles to help anyone wanting to learn to code. It offers 11 disciplines to study.
Is a freeCodeCamp certification worth it?
You can find many positive online reviews for freeCodeCamp. The free platform offers a clear path to learning multiple skills and earning certifications. Earning certifications requires completing five projects, many of which you can include in your portfolio. A portfolio demonstrates learned skills to potential employees.
Is freeCodeCamp enough to get a job?
freeCodeCamp reports that over 40,000 graduates have landed jobs in the tech industry. Some companies that hired freeCodeCamp graduates include Apple, Google, Microsoft, Spotify, and Amazon.
Is Udemy better than freeCodeCamp?
Udemy is an online learning platform that offers over 213,000 video courses and has over 74,000 teachers. Students can pay for individual courses or pay a subscription fee. Comparatively, freeCodeCamp is dedicated to teaching students about web development and coding.
Feature Image: Emilija Manevska / Moment / Getty Images
Overview
Location
Remote
Disciplines Offered
Back-End Development and APIs, Data Analysis with Python, Data Visualization, Front-End Development Libraries, Information Security, JavaScript Algorithms and Data Structures, Machine Learning with Python, Quality Assurance, Relational Database, Responsive Web Design, Scientific Computing with Python
Payment Options
freeCodeCamp is 100% free