My Own Developer Roadmap
How I got started as a developer and the first few paths I took to get to where I am now...
Python
First things first. I cannot stress enough how important it is to CODE along with these tutorials, then IMPLEMENTING it to your own projects after. I found this to be much better than just sitting down and watching the videos. Yes, they'll be a lot of pausing, but once you are able to add these things to your own projects you create, that's when things will click better for you. Anyways, the first programming language I really took the time learning was Python. It was such a great way to be introduced to coding and programming in general. This was highly recommended by a friend and I also recommend it to anyone else looking to learn to code to make a career switch or just as a hobby to pick up on the side. Here was the video by Programming with Mosh:
Version Control
I want to say about half way through making basic Python projects, I took the step to learn a bit about Version Control. I created a GitHub account and it's been such a useful technology for me to use on a daily basis as a Self-Taught Web Developer. I don't exactly remember where I learned it, but here's a good video on YouTube that goes over the basics by Tech with Tim:
Udemy
The Web Developer Bootcamp by Colt Steele:
One of the main sites I used to learn my craft through coding along with tutorials was Udemy. I felt like once I started to dive into intermediate Python, I found myself not fully understanding a lot of what was being taught. I took a step back and in reaching out to some other developers, I was led to Udemy and Colt Steele's legendary Web Developer Bootcamp. Now I had a new account and I highly recommend getting 1 course at a time for when it's $10-$12. At regular prices, they are over a hundred dollars, but I've quickly learned that you can always find these teach resources for free or for cheap almost anywhere else without paying so much. Here's the link the the courses that helped me learn HTML, CSS, Javascript.
https://www.udemy.com/course/the-web-developer-bootcamp/learn/lecture/22587506#overview
The Complete Web Developer: Zero to Mastery by Andrei Neagoie:
This next course was when I really started to reinforce the basics I learned in the previous course and was also finally able to have fun building projects as I went. Not only does this next course teach the basics of HTML, CSS, JS and it also teaches you about Git, day in the life of a developer workflow, and some back-end introductions to API's. This was also such a huge introduction to my first Javascript framework, React. There I learned about redux and hooks with a little bit of Express and NodeJS. This was such a good intro and it really helped give me a solid direction in wanting to learn about the entire MERN stack (MongoDB, Express, React, NodeJS) at some point in the future.
Going Forward
I am currently working on a couple projects including adding more content to this blog. I want to revisit a couple projects I started a while back which include my PokeAPI project as well as my e-commerse restaurant app both were built using ReactJS. Some other projects I have thought about and would be very excited to start on are basic websites, brochure sites, possibly learning about WordPress, sites using a Fantasy Sports API and building something using the entirety of the MERN stack. Here are some resources I used to build some of my projects:
Using React With PokeAPI
NextJS Blog With Markdown
Thoughts
This was pretty much the path that I have taken so far in learning how to program, however if anyone were to ask me now, I'd suggest to them that they should start out with www.freecodecamp.org. It's free and it has been a lot of people's go-to in learning how to program. It teaches so so much from the basics to the advanced topics. The only reason why I did not take this route and it could maybe change at some point was that I learned Python and coded on an IDE right away. I first used Sublime Text and now I've used VS Code. I don't feel as comfortable if I had to write code on a browser or anywhere else, so it's just a preference thing. I highly recommend FreeCodeCamp to everyone interested in learning how to code.