How to: Dec 22, 2023
1. I'm proud to announce that after 2 years of development, freeCodeCamp's new upgraded JavaScript Algorithms and Data Structures certification is now live. You can learn JavaScript step-by-step by coding 21 different projects – right in your browser. You'll build your own fantasy role playing game, mp3 player app, spreadsheet tool, and even a Pokémon Pokédex app. (300-hour interactive curriculum): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/learn-javascript-with-new-data-structures-and-algorithms-certification-projects/

2. And that's just one of the many upgrades freeCodeCamp rolled out this week. We also published an interactive Python certification. It's 15 projects that you can complete right in your browser. And that's not all. We published our English for Developers curriculum to help non-native English speakers improve their English so they can work in tech. Here's my full year-end breakdown. You can read along and unwrap the many Christmas presents that the freeCodeCamp community has stuffed under your tree. (10 minute read): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/a-very-freecodecamp-christmas/

3. Learn full-stack web development with this comprehensive project-based course. You'll build and deploy your own hotel management dashboard. Along the way, you'll learn advanced tools like Next.js, React, Sanity, and Tailwind CSS. This is an excellent course to solidify your coding fundamentals. (10 hour YouTube course): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/build-and-deploy-a-hotel-management-site/

4. Figma is a popular design and app prototyping tool. And they recently introduced a powerful feature that lets you declare variables, then use them throughout your projects. A lot of designers think this is a big deal. And freeCodeCamp just published a comprehensive handbook that will teach you how to leverage these Figma variables, so you can use them in your designs. (full-length handbook): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/variables-in-figma-handbook/

5. On this week's freeCodeCamp Podcast, I interview Kylie Ying, a software engineer and AI researcher. We talk about her 5 years at MIT and her time at CERN working on the Large Hadron Collider. We also talk about competitive figure skating, poker-playing AIs, and the many courses she's published on freeCodeCamp over the years. (2 hour listen in your browser or favorite podcast app): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/podcast-kylie-ying-mit-cern/

Joke of the Week: *"Why do programmers always mix up Christmas and Halloween? Because Dec 25 = Oct 31."* In programming, Dec stands for Decimal, meaning a base-10 number system. And Oct stands for Octal, meaning a base-8 number system. So Dec 25 really does equal Oct 31. I know – this isn't the funniest programmer joke ever, but it is fun to think about.