How to: November 26, 2025
1. Before modern Large Language Models, scientists and developers worked with more fundamental Natural Language Processing tools. freeCodeCamp just published a handbook that will help you understand the tools that power chatbots, machine translation, text summarization, and more. You'll learn how computers analyze syntax, model semantics, and interpret context. Then you'll use popular Python libraries to apply those concepts to real projects. (full length handbook): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/how-to-use-nlp-techniques-and-tools-in-your-projects-full-handbook/

2. freeCodeCamp also published a handbook that will give you a nuanced understanding of one of the trickier aspects of JavaScript development: Closures. First you'll learn about functions, parameters, and lexical scope. Then you'll learn how a Closure "closes over" a variable to keep it safe, while still granting you access to its values through function calls. If this sounds complicated, it is. But fear not – this handbook will give you tons of code examples of Closure mechanics, and teach you when to use them. (full length handbook): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/how-closures-work-in-javascript-a-handbook-for-developers/

3. On this week's podcast I interview two university students who won a 24-hour hackathon. They built a project that helps people who are losing their vision learn how to read Braille. Alison Co and Cindy Cui talk about how, in the middle of the night, they decided to completely rip out their project's AI component. It made their code run so much faster. They share tips for succeeding at hackathons, and also for landing internships at companies like Shopify. (1 hour watch or listen in your favorite podcast app): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/when-not-to-use-ai-in-your-hackathon-project-with-mlh-winners-cindy-cui-and-alison-co-podcast-198/

4. Flexbox is a powerful CSS feature that lets you build user interfaces that fit any screen size. If you’ve ever struggled to center something with CSS or tried to make columns line up nicely, well, Flexbox simplifies this dramatically. freeCodeCamp just published a Flexbox for beginners course where you'll learn both the concepts and the code syntax while building a responsive website navigation bar. (2 hour YouTube course): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/learn-css-flexbox-for-beginners-free-2-hour-course

5. When you're working with Large Language Models, every additional token adds cost and latency. Microsoft just open-sourced a tool called LLMLingua that will compress your prompts and other context window data. freeCodeCamp published this tutorial to help you understand how this works and how you can add it to your Python projects. (10 minute read): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/how-to-compress-your-prompts-and-reduce-llm-costs/

Quote of the Week:
*“Care less about school. It took me too long to realize that I should be doing more projects hands-on instead of worrying about trying to get like a 95 on a quiz that was worth 10 percent of my grade.”* — Developer and university student Cindy Cui on this week's freeCodeCamp podcast