How to: Dec 24, 2022
1. The freeCodeCamp community just dramatically expanded our Learn to Code RPG video game. Learn to Code RPG is an interactive visual novel game where you teach yourself to code, make friends in the tech industry, and pursue your dream of working as a developer. The game features a quirky cast of characters, a charming cat, and more than 1,000 computer science quiz questions. While working as a developer in the game, you can unlock more than 50 achievements and 6 different endings. You can play the game on PC, Mac, Linux, and Android. I enjoyed working with Lynn, KayLa, and Nielda on this all year long. We're excited to get it to you in time for the holidays. Enjoy. (full-length video game): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/learn-to-code-rpg-1-5-update/

2. Build your own SaaS (Software as a Service) app. In this beginner course taught by freeCodeCamp instructor Ania Kubów, you'll code your own PagerDuty clone project. This handy tool will notify you whenever one of your servers crashes. You'll learn PostgreSQL, the Stripe API, Twillio for notifications, and other powerful developer tools. (2 hour YouTube course): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/how-to-build-your-own-saas-pagerduty-clone/

3. You may have heard about the GPT-3 and ChatGPT AI assistants, and how amazing they are at tasks like writing high school book reports. But how are they at coding? Well, programming book author and freeCodeCamp volunteer David Clinton sat down with ChatGPT for a pair programming session. He shares his thoughts on the quality of GPT's code, its limitations, and how effective it might be at helping developers. (10 minute read + 6 minute video): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/pair-programming-with-the-chatgpt-ai-how-well-does-gpt-3-5-understand-bash/

4. Megan Kaczanowski has worked her way up the ranks in the field of information security. Not only has she written many infosec tutorials for the freeCodeCamp community over the years – she's also created this guide for people entering the field. It will help you plan your learning and understand the alphabet soup of certifications. She'll also give you tips on how to get involved in your local security community, and how to gear up for the infosec job search. (20 minute read): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/how-to-get-your-first-job-in-infosec/

5. Learn how to code your own Santa Tracker app using Next.js and React Leaflet. User Experience Designer and freeCodeCamp volunteer Colby Fayock will walk you through how to code this front end app. You'll learn how to fetch Santa's flight plan, including arrival time, departure time, and coordinates. Then you can plot his entire evening's journey onto a world map. (20 minute read + 23 minute video): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/how-to-build-a-santa-tracker-app-with-next-js-react-leaflet/

This is my final letter to you for 2022. I hope you've had a fun, insightful year. This has been an amazing year for the freeCodeCamp community. People are using freeCodeCamp more than ever. (People spent more than 4 billion minutes learning on freeCodeCamp this year!) We also launched major improvements to our curriculum, our Android app, and – of course – Learn to Code RPG.

Quote of the Week: *"The ‘joy of discovery’ is one of the fundamental joys of play itself. Not just the joy of discovering secrets within the game, but also the joy of uncovering the creator’s vision. It’s that ‘Aha!’ moment where it all makes sense, and behind the world the player can feel the touch of another creative mind. In order for it to be truly joyful, however, it must remain hidden from plain view—not carved as commandments into stone tablets but revealed, piece by piece, through the player’s exploration of the game’s rules."* — Derek Yu, game developer and creator of Spelunky