I was once at this stage of my decision, so I know the importance of getting it right at this stage. With the many resources on the internet, as a newbie you will get confused as to where to start your learning, hence this post is here as a guide and to provide some free resources that you could use to get started.

I believe the best programming language to learn is the one that will land you the job you are seeking. Every programming language has a purpose it serves. So learning a language that serves the backend while you are aiming for a frontend role may not necessarily be a good use of your time.

Roles in software development

These are some key types of software developers you will hear about.

Front-end Developers

Front-end developers build and maintain visual user interfaces, aesthetics and layouts. They create web apps and websites as their codes run on web browsers and on the computer of the website users. They are good at designing user interfaces (UI), design of user experience (UX), CSS, JavaScript/Typescript, HTML, and UI Frameworks. They are also familiar with frameworks like Vue, React, and Angular.

Here are some free resources to start learning front-end development.

• Learn HTML and CSS with Scrimba

• Learn Javascript with Scrimba if you prefer video here

• Learn Javascript with projects from FreeCodeCamp

Backend Developers

The back-end developers help to build and maintain the various components that makeup systems that enable the user-facing side of a website to exist. This includes the server, application and database. As a backend developer, you will be familiar with databases such as MySQL, MongoDB, and Postgresql. The major languages to learn are not limited to the following Ruby, Python, Java, C++, C#, and Scala among others.

Here are some free resources to start learning back-end development.

• Learn Python with freeCodeCamp

• Learn Ruby with CodeAcademy

• Learn Java with Mosh

• Learn NodeJs and Express

• Learn backend development and APIs with FreeCodeCamp

• Learn Python with Scrimba

• Learn about Databases

Full-stack Developers

As the name implies — Full stack developers do both the front-end and back-end work for a site. They have the skills required to build and maintain a fully functioning website. This creates more opportunities as they can function anywhere within the stack (both the server side and client side). As a full stack developer, Languages such as Javascript, Python, and Ruby are great languages to learn as they can be used for both front and backend development.

The resources available for both frontend and backend will be enough to get started as a full-stack developer.

Mobile Developers

Mobile developers write codes for applications that run on mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones and some types of smartwatches. Mobile developers understand mobile operating systems such as iOS and Android and the environments and frameworks used to create software on these systems. These are some of the languages required: Java, Kotlin, and C++ for Android programming; Swift, and Objective-C for iOS programming. Other skills such as Application Programming Interfaces(APIs), web development languages and cross-platform mobile suites are needed.

• Swift Programming for beginners- no programming experience required

• Learn Swift from Codecademy

• Learn Android Application development

Game developers

Game developers specialise in writing games and require specific knowledge and skills in designing engaging interactive gaming experiences. Programming languages such as C++, Java, JavaScript, and HTML5 among others are being used, also frameworks such as DirectX, OpenGL, Unity 3D, and WebGL are used.

• Learn Game Development with HTML5 and Javascript

• Check Udemy for free Game Development Courses

Development and operations — DevOps

DevOps developers are familiar with technologies that build, deploy and integrate systems and monitor the application. They write codes to manage and automate the servers that they are working on. DevOps require experience in the following skills, Kubernetes, Docker, Apache Mesos, Jenkins among others and the HashiCorp stack.

One of the helpful advice I received while learning was:

when learning to code, remember to build projects do not just watch videos and follow tutorials. Build projects to reinforce whatever you are learning.

Thank you for reading, I hope this was helpful.