Software engineers remain in high demand. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, software engineering jobs will grow 25% from 2021 to 2031. These roles include software developers, analysts, and testers.
It’s important to stand out in a crowded market. To help, we surveyed present and future software engineers to compile the best of the best online resources to learn software development. This list of online tools is useful for students and current software engineers who want to master new skills, brush up on their current knowledge, or revisit the basics.
Online Learning Communities
1. Pluralsight
Price: Free account for limited access or 10-day trial, then $24.92 per month for a standard subscription
Recommended Skill Level: Beginner to advanced
This technology skills platform comes highly recommended, especially for functional programming. Pluralsight aims to increase equal access to technology skills by offering thousands of topic-based training courses designed by industry experts. Software development, information technology (IT), data, information and cybersecurity are a few of the topics the platform specializes in.
The highest-rated core courses for beginners are VLAN Operation and Configuration and Conducting Passive Reconnaissance. Understanding VLANs is important in the networking industry. Conducting Passive Reconnaissance for CompTIA Pen Test+ explores how to effectively gather untraceable information.
Pluralsight’s courses are used by individuals, but also by businesses to evaluate their teams with skill assessments. These courses can be sifted through by current skill level, subject, and way of learning.
2. Codecademy
Price: Free version or upgrade to a Pro plan for $19.99 per month (students are offered a Pro membership for 35% off).
Recommended Skill Level: Beginner
Codeacademy is easy to use and includes a range of free courses ideal for beginners to explore front-end and back-end languages, such as Python, HTML and CSS, Javascript, C++, and SQL. You don’t need any prior coding knowledge to start these courses.
In addition to coding courses, Codecademy features career paths paired with the skills you need to succeed. With Codecademy, you can set your own pace and build a strong foundation in coding.
3. The Odin Project
Price: Free
Recommended Skill Level: Beginner to advanced
The Odin Project was founded on the beliefs that education should be free and accessible and that you learn best by doing. This platform is maintained by volunteers to help students interested in web development with a full stack curriculum.
It starts with an introduction and then offers two paths to choose between: Full Stack Ruby on Rails and Full Stack JavaScript. These courses teach you everything you need to know about building a responsive website.
>>MORE: What Is a Web Developer?
4. freeCodeCamp
Price: Free
Recommended Skill Level: Beginner to intermediate
You can learn to code with freeCodeCamp’s self-paced courses and programming projects.
Many high school, college and adult education programs utilize freeCodeCamp as a resource.
This site has useful coding challenges and if you’re stumped on a problem, there’s likely a solution to it posted on the internet. You can earn certificates with freeCodeCamp along the way. This public charity has helped millions understand coding, and it has an extensive Alumni Network on LinkedIn.
5. Udemy
Price: Some courses are free.
Recommended Skill Level: Beginner to intermediate
Udemy has an excellent category of software engineering courses. Java, Spring, Selenium, and REST are a few of the programming languages covered in Udemy’s courses. With this platform, students receive guidance from experienced professionals. Udemy’s tutorials are utilized by people who want to build or enhance skills taught by instructors. Java Tutorial for Complete Beginners and Introduction to Python Programming are two free Udemy courses suggested for students.
6. Stack Overflow
Price: Free
Recommended Skill Level: Beginner to advanced
Stack Overflow is a question-and-answer public platform for software developers at all stages to share technical knowledge with one another. Stack Overflow is the go-to site for software engineers, data scientists, DevOps engineers, and support teams to solve problems. The site is dependent on collaboration and currently serves over 100 million people.
7. React
Price: Free
Recommended Skill Level: Intermediate to advanced
React has tutorials and docs that are ideal for learning this specific language. These tutorials are not intended for a beginner, so it’s recommended to use this resource only if you’re at an intermediate level or if you’re a beginner looking for a challenge. React is a free and open-source JavaScript library developed by Meta for building out user interfaces. Instagram, Salesforce, Pinterest, Discord, and Uber Eats are just a few of many companies that use React.
8. edX
Price: Free with optional upgrades available
Recommended Skill Level: Beginner to advanced
EdX was created to increase access to education for everyone, everywhere. By partnering with leading universities, edX offers a massive array of online courses and programs to build skills and earn certificates. You can sort by partner, skill-level, learning type, language, and availability. MIT, Harvard, Cornell, Purdue, Microsoft, and AWS are examples of edX’s partners with software engineering courses.
Exploring Career Paths
9. Roadmap.sh
Price: Free
Recommended Skill Level: Beginner
If you’re unsure what type of developer you want to be, Roadmap.sh has roadmaps and study plans to help guide you on which path to take and what you’ll need to study to get there.
Roadmap.sh was created as a community effort to help developers find the right path by providing tailored guides for DevOps, front-end, back-end, blockchain, and database administrator (DBA) roles. You can download these guides and follow along to see what concepts are recommended, not recommended, and suggested alternatives. If you want to specialize in a specific skill, like React or Java, Roadmap.sh has guides for that, too.
Interview Prep
10. Pramp
Price: Free
Recommended Skill Level: Intermediate to advanced
If you’re interviewing for roles in software engineering or you’re curious about what these interviews might look like, Pramp is a tool recommended by other software engineers. Pramp supplies users with questions to practice technical, behavioral, and system design interviews online. You can choose whether to practice alone or be paired with a peer for a more collaborative interview. Pramp encourages the peer you’re working with to provide feedback, which can be extremely beneficial for landing a job.
Universities
11. University of Pennsylvania
Price: $536.40
Recommended Skill Level: Beginner to intermediate
University of Pennsylvania offers a course in software development fundamentals. The course has flexible start dates and spans across four months, taking about six-to-10 hours to complete each week. People who complete the course will learn problem-solving techniques and be equipped to design, develop, and test applications in Java.
12. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Price: Free to audit
Recommended Skill Level: Beginner to advanced
There are quite a few MIT courses available through edX and MITOpenCourseware. MIT’s computer science department has some of the best researchers and professors in the world. Machine Learning with Python: From Linear Models to Deep Learning is a popular course starting Feb. 1, 2023.
The courses are free to audit and most average about 15 hours per week. Certificates can be purchased upon completion (prices vary by class).
13. Stanford Online
Price: Free
Recommended Skill Level: Beginner
Stanford University offers a variety of free computer technology courses, including Computer Science 101, Algorithms: Design and Analysis, and Compilers. These courses are not intended to replace a formal university education, but rather enable students or people seeking an education to acquire more knowledge. Extra education efforts can lead to a better foundation in software engineering, professional growth, and confidence.
Publications
14. Smashing Magazine
Price: Free
Recommended Skill Level: Beginner to advanced
Smashing Magazine publishes frequent articles on coding, design, careers, and more for an audience of web designers and developers. This content defines what works and what fails for specific projects related to software development. You can stay updated with current news and issues in the field by following this publication.
15. Software Development Times (SD Times)
Price: Free
Recommended Skill Level: Beginner to advanced
Sign-up for the Software Development Times’ daily newsletter or check out its website for articles on data, DevOps, low-code, security, containers, and more. SD Times promotes informational webinars for developers and aspiring developers. The publication was created to increase awareness among tech professionals on current events and trends in the software development space.
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