The odin project javascript reddit

Hi all,

When I was contemplating starting TOP I scoured the internet (especially Reddit) to figure out if it was still relevant in 2022, how long it would take, what I’d learn, etc.

After three months, I am nearing the end of the JS curriculum and it’s been one of the best experiences I’ve had taking an online course. I’m feeling pretty competent with the MERN stack, and am excited to begin applying for jobs in the next month or two.

The structure is very unique and like nothing I’ve seen before.

Each section has a write up of what’s important, and it contains links to other external resources that are pre-vetted by the community.

Then, each section will have some sort of assignment.

They sprinkle in fun projects every so often as well to test that you’re retaining the knowledge.

It’s also updated frequently. I never felt once that I was learning something that was outdated, or missing out on relevant information.

I love how they flat out tell you sometimes about a topic, but then tell you it’s not super important to understand it yet and just move on. It makes keeping moving forward easy.

One of the biggest standouts is the community. Being able to pop in and ask technical questions that relate to the various assignments. The community is amazing and there are many smart developers that respond to newcomers' questions on a regular basis.

What helped me succeed in using their curriculum:

  • Follow the directions! Every step of the way - don’t make it up as you go. You’re not qualified ;)

  • Ensure you have a basic understanding of the terms used, and be sure to Google things as needed. Seek out external resources where needed to expand upon things that aren’t “clicking” in the way they’re teaching them.

  • Do the additional assignments if you feel your knowledge isn’t keeping up.

  • Google things! Work to understand the concepts and what’s possible - don’t get bogged down on perfecting syntax just yet. It will come with time.

  • Every once and a while, stop the TOP curriculum and do a follow along tutorial relevant to what you’re doing. I ONLY do this after I already have a theoretical understanding of the technology in the tutorial. Seeing it in action, and how other devs approach situations has been exceptionally valuable.

  • Don’t skip the CSS! It’s a pain in the butt, but learn flex and grid - and don’t get dependent on frameworks until you understand how it works.

  • If you feel like you don’t “get” something, you probably need to go back a section and review older material. I found sometimes when I’d skim too quick, or had been studying too long I’d stop retaining and in those situations simply going back fixed the issues.

"How long does TOP take?"

This will inevitably come up in the questions. It fully depends on your dedication, ability, prior experience and time committed. I started early January and should be done in the next month.

I aim for a minimum of 20 hours a week - but that will be up to you based on your scenario. I probably log about 30 a week.

Feel free to hit me up in the comments if you have questions.I am no professional developer (yet), but I can confidently say that TOP is an incredible resource to learn how to build web apps! If you want to learn, get on it and stay consistent!

Edit: Just adding this edit for those comparing timelines. It's a useless en devour and not helpful. Go at the pace that's going to work for you.

The only thing you should worry about is if you're getting better.

I've worked in marketing since 2016 and have had exposure to HTML, CSS and Javascript, as well as APIs and servers.

I also built a "no code" application a couple years back, so I already knew how to think like a programmer. So, while I wasn't doing any (or little) traditional programming, this experience definitely helped me understand things quicker as I had a frame of reference to work from. I was not starting at zero in terms of industry knowledge.

Hi there!

I've started my TOP journey by the end of January since it's really recommended here, so at this point I wanted to ask people who did/is doing or just checked the content, your opinion about the JavaScript fundamentals section. At the beginning it was quite interesting, when arrived to the rock-paper-scissors project I had to re-read everything and check videos from youtube, could finish the rock-paper-scissors project quite fast I have to say, but now arrived at that part of 7 exercises and I feel like I am totally dumb.

It has been already about 2 weeks since I started them, and that's a shame to say but from all of them, I could only do just one exercise by myself, and even in that one, still had to check the hints to had an idea what to do lol. For example, in the "remove from array" one, despite I read about the rest parameter and as usual, checked some youtube videos, I could never come up with the idea of getting an array from that parameter! Not finishing there, still now is hard to think about the !args ==item and then push to a new array also created from the rest parameter. On the other hand, that one consisting on calculating leap years, I could actually grasp the idea and I had enough tools to do it, but got totally crazy even asking help in discord what I was doing wrong. In the end my code was close to the solution, yet I totally lost the meaning of it, like why I wrote n !== 100 when it should be n===100.

That being said, I looked for extra help and found the eloquent javascript, guess what? From the first 3 exercises, 2 of them I already saw how to do so didn't have to think much, and the last which is doing a function which creates a chess board, also impossible to do.

So at this point, I noticed TOP data isn't enough, but even checking content outside of their related links, I still feel stupid, useless and like I can't solve anything on my own. So I wonder, if that's some kind of frustrating/depressing phase I must undergo, or it isn't really a thing for me.

Thank you in advance.

Is Odin project good for beginners Reddit?

It's all laid out so well, it's free, the quality is high, it's easy to follow and understand. And also, it knows when it gives you more that you can chew, and it also has many times when it says 'It you don't quite get this year, read X article first'. So great. I can recommend this to anyone learning programming.

Is Odin project enough to get a job?

It was an invaluable resource on my path to a becoming a software developer. Thanks to The Odin Project I was able to get a job half way through the curriculum, and the projects completed as part of the curriculum gave me an edge compared to other junior developers with no experience.

How long does it take to get through the Odin project?

Completing those 5 courses from The Odin Project alone normally takes around 1,000 hours of work (approx. 8 months of full-time dedication).

Is Odin project only for Web development?

In reality, The Odin Project is for anyone who wants to work as a web developer, do freelancing work, build a startup, or just hack together a homepage for yourself. All the tools you need are here.