How to: Feb 10, 2023
1. When I was first learning to code, I had trouble understanding exactly what an API is. But I came to understand that, in its simplest form, an API is like a website. But instead of sending HTML to a browser or mobile app, an API sends data. Usually JSON data. This in-depth freeCodeCamp course is taught by experienced developer and instructor Craig Dennis. It will teach you how to code your own REST API – complete with server-side code, client-side data fetching, and more. (3 hour YouTube course): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/apis-for-beginners/

2. Remember those silly BuzzFeed personality quizzes? Like: "What type of cheese are you?" This course will teach you how to code your own BuzzFeed-style website using 3 different approaches: a vanilla JavaScript app, a React + JSON API app, and finally a TypeScript + Node.js mini-backend. This course is taught by long-time developer and freeCodeCamp instructor Ania Kubów. If you code along at home, I think you'll learn a ton from this course, and have a lot of fun along the way. (4 hour YouTube course): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/learn-how-to-code-a-buzzfeed-clone-in-three-ways/

3. If you want to automate random tasks from your day-to-day life, Python is an excellent tool for the job. This tutorial will teach you how to write simple Python scripts that compress photos, turn text into speech, proof-read your messages, and more. (12 minute read): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/python-automation-scripts/

4. In my years as a developer, I've found that people greatly underestimate how powerful spreadsheets are for doing data analysis. You don't need to be a statistician to squeeze out meaningful insights from your spreadsheet. One of the most helpful spreadsheet functions is LOOKUP, and its descendants VLOOKUP, HLOOKUP, and XLOOKUP. This in-depth tutorial will show you how to wield these powerful functions to slice and dice data just the way you need it. (14 minute read + video): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/lookup-functions-in-excel-google-sheets/

5. Also, freeCodeCamp just published a massive Git & GitHub course in Spanish. (Over the years, we've published several Git courses in English, too.) If you have Spanish-speaking friends who want to learn software development, please tell them that we now have in-depth courses on a broad range of coding topics. These are all taught in Spanish by Estefania. She's an experienced teacher and software engineer. (5 hour YouTube course): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/learn-git-and-github-in-spanish-course-for-beginners

Quote of the Week: *"An API that isn’t comprehensible isn’t usable."* — James Gosling, Computer Scientist and Lead Developer of the Java Programming Language, on the importance of having easy-to-understand APIs