Review: Web Developer Bootcamp
Sixty-three and a half hours of web development goodness. Colt Steele's Web Developer Bootcamp is the essential course to get started with all the foundation skills needed to be a web developer. Starting with a quick explanation of how the web works, this course will get into HTML, CSS, JavaScript, MongoDB, Node, and finish off with a huge, full-stack project and how to deploy it online. There's no React or JavaScript framework, instead just HTML templating with EJS. I think this is a good choice for a first jump into web development. It's important to understand HTML properly before jumping into programmatically writing it with a UI framework. A lot of professional developers don't know how basic HTML and CSS works today. So the level of detail this course covers is an amazing sigh of relief. React is something that needs to be studied on it's own after you've mastered the basics, and that's what this course can provide.
Not much time is spent on HTML but as long as you understand the basics up to semantic elements, you know everything you need to get started with development, and that's what this course covers. Similarly, where a lot of courses and schools are VERY lacking in CSS, this course covers everything you need to know. Not just basic styling, but selectors, pseudo-classes, the cascade, specificity, inheritance, the box model, transitions, flex, grid, and everything in between. All BEFORE getting into Bootstrap. Where a lot of courses will just have you download a bootstrap template and call that “knowing CSS.”
I had a Bootcamp instructor embarrassingly tell students, “This is how you do it in the real world, you download a template and change the text.” I beg to differ. Most professional developers are working primarily with vanilla CSS today. No company with an interest in building their own brand wants some cookie-cutter template off the internet. CSS is an important skill to have and it should not be glossed over.
As the course gets into JavaScript, it covers basic programming. Native types, if-else, switch, loops, objects, functions, etc. All of this stuff is covered with enough detail that even a total noob to programming can pick it up easily. Eventually, the course gets into building a Node server with Express, building a Mongo database, a CRUD API, using middleware for logging, error handling, data validation, data relationships, express routing, cookies, sessions, authentication, authorization, working with third-party API's, database seeding, a short summary of common security issues, and finally deployment. WOO! That's a lot of code.
I've had to go through a LOT of courses to cover all of these topics individually. I've never seen a course more robust and complete. Colt Steele's delivery and pacing are great, he's not too boring, he doesn't talk to you like a child, and he explains everything thoroughly enough that anyone can understand.
I wish I had this course when I was first starting out. I get excited just thinking about how much further it could take someone in a shorter amount of time. If you're just getting started with web development, this is THE course to take. This one is an easy 5 out of 5.