How to: December 24, 2025
1. 2025 has been an amazing year for the global freeCodeCamp community. And we’re thrilled to cap it off with the launch of several Christmas gifts for you. We just launched Version 10 of freeCodeCamp's JavaScript certification, along with updated Python, SQL, and Responsive Web Design certifications that you can earn. We even launched our beta Spanish and Mandarin Chinese curricula. (10 minute announcement article with tons of data): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/christmas-gifts-freecodecamp-community-2025

2. On this week's freeCodeCamp podcast I interview the son of an Indian textile worker who's now been working as a dev for 16 years. Santosh Yadav has managed to climb the ladder at Indian and European tech companies without needing to become a manager himself. He shares practical tips for devs who don't want to become managers, but do want to continue to ascend. (1 hour watch or listen in your favorite podcast app): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/how-to-get-promoted-as-a-dev-without-becoming-a-manager-staff-engineer-santosh-yadav-interview-podcast-202/

3. And now for some advanced learning resources to tide you over the holiday break. First, learn eBPF Tracing for when you're debugging Kubernetes apps, but your logs are failing you. (full-length handbook): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/how-to-debug-kubernetes-apps-when-logs-fail-you-an-ebpf-tracing-handbook/

4. Second, learn how to perform secure hashing using Python's hashlib module. This is helpful for storing sensitive information, verifying file integrity, and other cybersecurity purposes. (10 minute read): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/how-to-perform-secure-hashing-using-pythons-hashlib-module/

5. Third, learn how to build your own Log-Structured Merge Tree from scratch as a new way to store data in your apps. These work by “appending new data to the existing data, instead of looking for something that exists and updating it. In other words, you don't have to spend any CPU cycles thinking about where to store data. You just append it at the end.” (full-length handbook): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/build-an-lsm-tree-storage-engine-from-scratch-handbook/

Quote of the Week:
*“The day you stop waiting for your manager to tell you what’s broken, and you start fixing the things everyone else is ignoring, is the day you start moving up.”* — Software Developer Santosh Yadav on this week's freeCodeCamp podcast