woman typing on computer for her front-end developer course

What’s the best front-end developer course? Become a Front-End Developer in 2024

Today we’re taking a look at Become a Front-End Developer.

This post contains affiliate links. I may receive compensation if you buy something. Read my disclosure for more details.

This front-end developer course is actually a Learning Path: Become a Front-End Developer.

It consists of six separate modules organized logically.

You’ll learn theoretical and foundational knowledge.

Plus hands-on activities and projects with HTML, CSS, JavaScript and more. 

The Become a Front-End Developer learning track consists of the following 6 modules:

  1. Preliminaries
  2. Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML)
  3. Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
  4. JavaScript
  5. Projects
  6. Launching a Website

Let’s talk about what’s inside each of them.

1. Preliminaries

Consisting of eleven lessons, this “level 0” course is all about showing you the fundamentals of the web.

Although largely a theoretical module, you’ll get 9 coding playgrounds to experiment with the concepts.

You’ll also learn about the backbone of the web.

Therefore, it will prepare your mind for the dizzying amounts of coding you’ll be doing throughout your career.

The course starts off with an introduction to how the web works. Then you’ll briefly explore:

✅ front end and back end

✅ HTML, CSS and JavaScript

microservice architecture

✅ NodeJS

And beyond.

In addition, there are 19 illustrations and 8 quizzes.

2. Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML)

The next course in the track is a more practical continuation of the first course –– but now you’ll have a chance to really get your hands dirty with the code.

And because the coding environments are right in your browser, you don’t have to worry about getting anything set up.

Check out these specs:

✅ 28 coding playgrounds

✅ 20 code snippets

✅ 16 illustrations

✅ 14 challenges

✅ 7 quizzes

Upon completion of this module, you’ll have the basics of HTML down and be ready to tackle CSS and beyond.

3. Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)

Do you like making things beautiful? Then this module is for you.

It module consists of 56 lessons focusing solely on what gives the web its style.

From colors to typography, to values and units, backgrounds and more, you’ll learn the ins and outs of CSS.

The specs on this course are pretty decent:

✅ 113 coding playgrounds

✅ 195 code snippets

✅ 51 illustrations

You’ll also learn both Flexbox and CSS Grid, two web layout models that are absolutely stunning in what they can create.

As a stand-alone front-end developer module, this one can benefit just about any developer.

4. JavaScript

No frameworks, no libraries — this one gives you the raw ingredients only.

As you learn JavaScript you’ll be applying that knowledge to build a movie list, work with government forms and beyond.

In this course you learn the following:

✅ basics of JavaScript featuring ES6

✅ advanced JavaScript concepts

JSON

✅ DOM Manipulation

✅ functional programming

You’ll also learn about JS algorithms and web servers in addition to other big topics.

The specs keep improving:

✅ 215 coding playgrounds

✅ 90 code snippets

✅ 28 challenges

✅ 40 illustrations

✅ 5 quizzes

5. Projects

This is probably the most activity-intense course of the entire Become a Front-End Developer Learning Path.

You are building multiple components while learning the mechanics behind them.

Components are based on real-world implementations and include building an infinite scroll list as well as a dropdown menu.

Specs:

✅ 29 coding playgrounds

✅ 22 code snippets

✅ 15 illustrations

✅ 1 coding challenges

✅ 6 quizzes

This is also a neat module because it prepares you for frameworks/libraries like React, Angular, and Vue.

Because these projects involve UI components, you could even consider this a foundational course for using frameworks.

6. Launching a Website

This one is a front-end developer module I haven’t really seen anywhere else.

This module shows you in a procedural, explicit step-by-step way how to deploy your web app.

But it’s not just for front-end devs. I also think a lot of courses assume the student already knows how to deploy their apps.

In reality, deploying an app is a BIG deal and a lot can go wrong!

It also discusses things like how to pick a good domain name, and some of your options for hosting. Just some really practical info all in one spot.

And learning this material before you deploy will save you some headaches.

Because this is more of a checklist-style course, you don’t do any coding.

However, there are plenty of illustrations along with some quizzes and code snippets.

Educative as a platform & Final Thoughts

There are a few things that separate Educative from other platforms.

Firstly, the coding playgrounds. You don’t have to spend any time setting up your dev environment or hit your head on the wall when stuff isn’t working.

It’s all in the browser, ready to go where you can edit/run code and see the results in real time.

With illustrations, quizzes, and well-organized content there’s a lot to explore with the Become a Front-End Developer track. 

Each immersive front-end developer course within it will help tackle real-world tech challenges.

For example, you’ll be able to start building your portfolio.

You can now learn a front-end framework like React without feeling guilty about not learning JavaScript sufficiently.

In addition, you can deploy web apps and troubleshoot when things go wrong.

Check out my other reviews of the Educative platform & courses:

Grokking the Coding Interview Review

Learn How to Code: Top 4 online platforms

Grokking the System Design Interview REVIEW

  1. Where can I learn how to become a front-end developer?

    There are many options to learn how to become a front-end developer: bootcamps, books, courses, etc. But we recommend the Educative track Become a Front-End Developer. The track contains 6 courses that will give you a solid foundation of front-end developer concepts. Instead of videos you’ll learn using interactive lessons with an embedded code editor.

  2. Does Educative have videos?

    No, Educative does not offer videos in their courses. Instead you’ll learn with interactive lessons. This includes embedded code editors, code snippets, playgrounds, illustrations and quizzes. To learn more about the contents of Educative’s courses, tune in to today’s post where we’ll look at the contents of their Learning Path Become a Front End Developer.

Pros
  • "One stop shop" for learning the basics of front-end web development
  • Interactive coding environments in the browser make learning engaging while eliminating set-up time
  • Fun projects
  • Practical information you can use right away
Cons
  • Some typos are distracting
  • No video
Review Overview
Content
Features
Organization
Interactivity
SUMMARY

Become a Front-End Developer consists of six separate courses organized logically. You'll learn theoretical and foundational knowledge, plus hands-on activities and projects with HTML, CSS, JavaScript and more.

There are a few things that separate Educative from other platforms. Firstly, the coding playgrounds. You don't have to spend any time setting up your dev environment or hit your head on the wall when stuff isn't working. It's all in the browser, ready to go where you can edit/run code and see the results in real time.

With illustrations, quizzes, and well-organized content there's a lot to explore with the Become a Front-End Developer track. Each immersive front-end developer course within it will help tackle real-world tech challenges.

4.7