How to: September 6, 2025
1. Learn about AI-assisted coding from a software engineer who's maintained freeCodeCamp's platform and infrastructure for the past 7 years. Mrugesh was initially skeptical of AI tools but has recently used them to great effect. And he wrote this handbook to help you do the same. He says experienced developers can complete tasks faster with AI assistance. But they need to know how to use these tools effectively. And they also need strong foundational programming skills. This handbook is a no-nonsense guide to emerging tools and best practices. (full-length handbook): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/how-to-become-an-expert-in-ai-assisted-coding-a-handbook-for-developers/

2. freeCodeCamp also published a course on building your own AI agent from scratch using Python. You'll implement the agentic loop. Then you'll endow your agent with the ability to read, write, and execute code. Finally, you'll supervise your agent as it goes through and makes fixes to an intentionally buggy codebase. (3 hour YouTube course): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/build-an-ai-coding-agent-in-python/

3. For this week's podcast, I've changed the format. I now start off the show with a few minutes of freeCodeCamp community updates and useful news about programming. Then I do a shorter, more focused interview with a software engineer. This week I talk with Ankur Tyagi, a freelance developer and prolific contributor to freeCodeCamp's open source learning resources. He's worked at Volvo, Barclays, Accenture, and other multinationals. He shares his own tips for leveraging AI tools, and why he doesn't think they'll result in fewer jobs for devs. He also has tons of tips for running your own developer consultancy. (1 hour watch or listen in your favorite podcast app): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/how-to-use-ai-as-an-accelerator-not-a-crutch-with-freelance-engineer-ankur-tyagi-podcast-186/

4. The freeCodeCamp community also just published our first-ever Mandarin Chinese course. It's aimed at absolute beginners. It'll teach you fundamentals of the language and help you prepare for the standardized HSK exam. As you may recall, we've published beginner courses on Spanish and German as well. We eventually hope to have courses on a wide range of world languages at many levels of proficiency. I started learning Mandarin 23 years ago and I can tell you this course just scratches the surface. But it should be a good starting point for you if you're curious. (11 hour YouTube course): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/learn-mandarin-chinese-for-beginners-full-hsk-1-level/

5. Learn the graph algorithms that power Netflix's video recommendation engine and Google Maps' routing logic. This Python tutorial will introduce you to Breadth-First Search, Depth-First Search, Dijkstra’s Algorithm, and other key computer science concepts. It includes plenty of code examples to help you understand these powerful programming structures. (20 minute read): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/graph-algorithms-in-python-bfs-dfs-and-beyond/

Quote of the Week:
*"To build any complex software, you need a lot of good engineers. You need engineers who can think about problems. You need engineers who can drill down into your own tasks and your own use cases."* — Software Engineer Ankur Tyagi on this week's freeCodeCamp podcast