How To Learn JavaScript Quickly – a Beginners Guide

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If you're new to coding, we'll guide you how to learn JavaScript quickly.

In essence, JavaScript is an Object Oriented Programming language that is primarily used to create web-based interfaces.

Too technical? Let's simplify it with some examples:

  • When you hover over a button and the style of the button changes
  • While hovering a Facebook friend's profile, the profile pops up on a small window
  • Searching for something and getting instant results

In all of these examples you do an action (hover, click, type) and you get something in return. The interactivity is what makes JavaScript so famous.

While HTML and CSS provides the content and the feel of the content, JavaScript provides the interactivity over it.

Just to clear things out: JavaScript has nothing to do with Java. Though the name are similar, in essence nothing's the same. There's a great example: “Java” is as similar to “JavaScript” as “car” is to “carpet”.

javascript gif

Why JavaScript?

JavaScript has become more and more popular among the developer community. A lot of small and large companies use JavaScript as their main language for both backend and frontend.

There has been a tremendous increase in the number of job posting in JavaScript. And this might be a good reason why you should start learning JavaScript.

Take a look at this chart below that talks about the number of job postings between languages

javascript job posting

As seen clearly, JavaScript has gained a position among the top programming languages and is growing rapidly.

All of these facts are proof that you need to know how to learn JavaScript quickly in order to advance.



Best way to learn JavaScript fast

One of the best was to learn JavaScript fast is to actually do a JavaScript based project. Here are some interesting ideas to begin with:

  • Calculator – a classic in JavaScript. Try to add operations like addition, subtraction, multiplying and other functions. This will help you a lot.
  • Bill split system – develop a project that helps you divide the bills between friends (not recommended if your friends are greedy)
  • A simple quiz game
  • A simple search box
  • EchoBot – a robot that echos whatever you type
  • Tic-tac-toe – the famous game, but this time you'll develop it in JavaScript.
  • A photo gallery – a slider containing a couple of images.
  • An alarm clock or timer
  • JavaScript based dice – roll a dice and return a number between 1-6

Before you dig into coding, you need to define a couple of things first.

The best step to plan and define a project is to:

  1. Commit to an idea (pick one from the list above)
  2. Design an interactive, very user friendly UI (user interface) on paper first
  3. Plan the logic – For example, how will the bill splitting app function? You have to take a lot of things into account here, so take your time
  4. Write pseudocode – In this pseudocode you can take notes of the functions and parameters you will be writing. This will bring you a lot closer to the final code.

After defining the project, it's time to start coding. Yay!

If you're stuck with anything, just use Google. You'll think that you're the first one to get a particular error, but that's just a rookie mistake. A simple Google search will save you tremendously lot of time opposite to trying to figure it out yourself.



Other approaches to learn JavaScript quickly

Though by practicing on your own is remains a very effective way, but sometimes you need a push.

The best way how to learn JavaScript quickly is to learn from:

  • Online courses
  • Books
  • Websites and Blogs
  • Tools
  • Framework and libraries
  • Follow top influencers
  • Conferences and meetups
  • Email subscription

Online courses

Online courses provide you a great environment for learning, and often requires you to do some activities and projects.

Most of the websites you will look up have free courses for you to learn, but there are a couple that require payment. It usually costs less than 40$ and you'll upgrade the professional tier and unlock more content. The way you never would on a free course.

A lot of online courses such as Lynda offer integration with your LinkedIn profile, offering you a more professional display. This is an awesome way to stand out to technical recruiters.

Below you can find a list with some of the best online courses for JavaScript.




Books

Personally, I choose books. I love reading books: it's easy, cheaper and you can do it anytime you want.

On a train? Read a book about JavaScript. On a plane? Read a book about JavaScript. On the wedding of your girlfriend's annoying friend? Read a book about JavaScript.

You can find a lot of JavaScript books online for free. For beginners, I highly recommend with the JavaScript and jQuery books below:

Websites and Blogs

While you're looking for JavaScript questions, the Mozilla Developer Network is one of the best resources for looking up answers. I always recommend reading through their documentation. Also, CSS tricks will help you on staying up-to-date with the latest JavaScript features.

These are the two websites and blogs I suggest that teach you how to learn JavaScript quickly:

Tools

While learning JavaScript you'll have to know a couple of tools you can use to make things easier.

The suggested tools I'm listing below require no overhead to set up. They're great tools you can use when you're following along to a particular course.

Check out the tools below:




Framework and Libraries

Before you start learning libraries and frameworks, I highly recommend you to learn all the in-and-outs of JavaScript (a lot of people call it vanilla JS).

More often than not, developers jump into learning a library and have no clue what's what. You should really focus more on learning JavaScript in essence before jumping into anything.

Don't worry, when the time is right you will start using each framework. Just be patient.

The most famous framework and libraries you can use are:

Top influencers

A very great and easy way to learn JavaScript is to follow influencers or experts on the field.

They're always up to date, and are tremendously opened to helping young developers become more and more advanced. Usually, they use twitter to announce news and updates for JavaScript. You can really learn from each tweet they post, and feel free to retweet them as a way of thanking them.

Below are some people I personally follow and enjoy learning from:




Conferences and meetups

Last but not least,  I highly recommend attending meetups and conferences as often as you can.

It's not just a bunch of JavaScript developers with handing badges making small talk. It's actually a lot of great seminars and presentations that will blow your mind. I remember my first conference and how mind-blown I was.

Though, conferences can get expensive, but meetups are cheaper and more easily accessible.

Personally, I recommend attending these below:

Conclusion

The most important fact to remember remains that once you begin your journey to learn JavaScript, don't get discouraged. And never, never ever compare yourself to other programmers. That only leads to you feeling worthless, hating the other more advanced programmer and discourage yourself. We all advance at our own pace, so be patient.

It takes years of practice and experience to become an expert. This goes to all fields really, not just JavaScript.

You will go to a lot of interviews and get a lot of negative responses from those interviews. But that's just part of being a programmer. So keep on keeping on.

Happy coding 🙂