7 Websites Every Developer Should Bookmark
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Once you start learning how to program, a whole new world opens up for you. No matter how long you’ve been doing it, the industry evolves so fast that there is always something new to learn. At first, it might be intimidating, but as soon as I accepted that I know less than 1% out of all cool stuff that’s out there, I actually started to enjoy it.
Whether you need to get ready for an interview, polish your skills, or just want to stay sharp and try something new, I hope you’ll find something useful in this list.
Hack the Box
This website calls itself “A Massive Hacking Playground” and is perfect for both aspiring hackers and curious individuals. Personally, I still haven’t tried it yet (sigh), but I’ve heard quite a few raving reviews and saw their cool website.
If you tried their challenges, please let us know in the comments below!
The Missing Semester of Your CS Education
Here is a short and sweet online course that won’t cost you anything but is fun and easy to watch. At my school, we weren’t allowed to use anything but Vim at first so it was good to see my good old friend there. The lectures Metaprogramming and Security and Cryptography were my personal favorites.
This course has something for everyone but personally, I think this course will be ideal for coding Bootcamp students. Bootcamps usually don’t spend a lot of time teaching this stuff but in my opinion, there are some basic things every programmer should at least know about.
HackerRank
Probably anyone who had at least one coding interview in their life knows about this website but I’ll mention it anyway. HackerRank has a massive collection of exercises, brainteasers, and coding interview questions you can practice in any language. It’s a number one website to check out when preparing for a coding interview (along with the Interview Cake)
The Forage
The Forage offers virtual experiences and internships and it’s an interesting concept if you think about it. Of course, it’s unpaid and you do it on your own, at your pace, and when you have some spare time. The company promises to show your resume to potential employers if you do those tasks particularly well and encourages you to include this experience in your resume.
I did one of their virtual experience myself just for the fun of it (the Y Combinator ‘Learn how to work at a YC startup program’) and I liked the tasks and their short but sweet intro videos. For me, it was more like a game but it’s also a good addition to your Github and portfolio, especially if you don’t have a lot of experience and need to show something to a potential employer during the interview.
baseCS
Fun fact — I discovered Medium a few years ago thanks to baseCS articles. I love everything about this publication (a top 200 Medium blog by the way!) from silly doodles to great explanations and topics and can only hope to write like this one day. My personal favorites are the articles about data structures and algorithms but there is something for everyone there.
This article — Finding The Shortest Path, With A Little Help From Dijkstra — is still saved in my browser’s bookmarks. Three years ago, it helped me immensely with one of the projects at school, and will be forever grateful.
For everyone who loves her page as much as I do, she is soon releasing her book about Data Structures!
Interneting is hard
Interneting is Hard is another little gem that features small web development tutorials with code examples and beautiful diagrams. If you are familiar with coding but new to web development, I would recommend bookmarking this page for future use.
Web Design Inspiration
And finally, a website that collects the most beautiful websites across the web. I like this website for two reasons: it’s a great source of inspiration and they always highlight the latest trends in web design. Oh, and it’s just a joy to look at!
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