Learning JavaScript Resources for 2019

If you’re asking yourself – How can I learn to code? How can I make a website? Where do I start? – then you’ve come to the right place.

Learning the fundamentals of JavaScript will give you a solid foundation for what’s to come, and I’d encourage you not to cut any corners! If you’re wanting to get into React, Vue, Angular, or whatever, please be patient and have a skim of the content below.

Please add your suggestions in the comments and I’ll try to update this list regularly.

Interactive Learning

Learning, gamified! Probably the most fun way to learn a new language.

• Codeacademy - Fundamentals of JavaScript.
• Udacity JavaScript Basics - They also offer more advanced courses.
• Code Wars - Improve your skills by training with others on real code challenges.
• Code School - From Basics to Best Practices. Different courses related to JavaScript.
• Exercism - Code practice and mentorship for everyone.
• hackr.io - Find the Best Programming Courses & Tutorials.

Web Development Playgrounds

Places to write code online. No need to install anything!

• JSBin - One of the most popular web development playgrounds.
• JSFiddle - JSFiddle is a lightweight cloud JS editor designed for developers who want to tweak and test blocks of JS, CSS and HTML code.
• Codiad - Codiad is a web-based IDE framework with a small footprint and minimal requirements.
• Plunker - Plunker is an online community for creating, collaborating on and sharing your web development ideas.
• Codepen - A playground for the more creative people. Pens often include inspirational CSS, Canvas and WebGL examples.

Free eBooks

All the knowledge for free.

• Understanding ECMAScript 6 - Provides a great understanding of ECMAScript 6 features.
• Exploring ES2016 and ES2017 - This book covers the latest versions of JavaScript as they are created.
• Exploring ES6 - An in-depth book on ECMAScript 6, for JavaScript programmers.
• JavaScript® Notes for Professionals - Compiled from Stack Overflow Documentation, the content is written by the beautiful people at Stack Overflow.
• The JavaScript Way book - A modern introduction to an essential language.
• Practical Modern JavaScript - A practical book which shows you how to build small, interconnected ES6 JavaScript modules that emphasise reusability.
• Learn Javascript - This book will teach you the basics of programming and Javascript, with lovely embedded interactivity.
• Eloquent JavaScript – Covering the language and runtime specifics.
• You Don’t Know JS (book series) – Series of books diving deep into language.
• Speaking JavaScript - In-depth guide beginning with the basics.
• JavaScript Design Patterns - Classical and JavaScript specific design patterns.
• Mostly Adequate Guide to Functional Programming - Excellent primer to functional programming using JavaScript.

Videos

My favourite way to learn. Grab a coffee, do some cooking, and learn.

• FunFunFunction - Educational plus entertaining YouTube show covering language features as well as architectural topics amongst others.
• What the heck is the event loop anyway? - Awesome talk about the way JavaScript works, and a tool for exploring the callstack.
• Become a Javascript Console Power-User – Introduction to the browsers JavaScript console.
• Debugging The Web - Learn state of the art in debugging using Chrome dev tools.
• == ? === ??? …#@^% - Basic talk about type coercion and strict type comparison.
• Promises Are So Passé - Talk that shows where async goes next, why it matters, and what you need to do to put it into practice today.
• Learning Functional Programming with JavaScript - Talk containing the best explanation of map/reduce.
• Understand JavaScript’s this Keyword in Depth - 18 minutes divided into 8 short videos to wrap you head around this.

ES6 and Above

A significant update to JavaScript. Lots of fun and useful pieces of syntax to sprinkle around!

• ES2015+ cheatsheet - A quick overview of new JavaScript features in ES2015, ES2016, ES2017, ES2018 and beyond.
• ES2015 [ES6] cheatsheet containing tips, tricks, best practices and code snippets - Another excellent cheatsheet, also partnered with with slides.
• Setting up ES6 - Explains how to set up ES6 projects that are transpiled to ES5.
• ES6 Overview - Bullet point overview including in-depth articles.
• ES6 Katas - Learn ES6 by solving unit test online.
• Practical ES6 - eBook with practical examples and advices.
• 30 seconds of code - Useful ES6 snippets that you can understand in 30 seconds or less.

DOM Stuff

Document-Object-Model, i.e. the structure of web pages in a browser.

• DOM Enlightenment - A whole book about how to access an manipulate the DOM without a library.
• You Might Not Need jQuery - Get plain JavaScript code snippets (and see their jQuery equivalents).
• Traversing the DOM with JavaScript - A tutorial featuring native methods to traverse the DOM.

JavaScript References

The manuals!

• MDN - Simply the best language reference.
• DevDocs - Search MDN comfortably. Even offline.
• Simplified JavaScript Jargon – Glossary which explains all the buzzwords from the JavaScript eco system.
• Functional Programming Jargon - Explains terms used in functional programming in the JavaScript context.
• Modern JavaScript Cheatsheet – Helps developers with basic knowledge to get familiar with modern codebases.
• ECMAScript® Language Specification - The standard JavaScript is based on. Only for very advanced learners.

Node.js

JavaScript run on the server. Pure Front-end Developers don’t need to get too invested here.

• The Art of Node - Introductory tutorial covering the basics.
• NodeSchool - Interactive self guided workshops you can also do on your own.
• Node Patterns - Short books about code and networking patterns related to Node.js.
• Learn Node - A premium training course to learn to build apps with Node.js, Express, MongoDB.