Once you set a big goal, how often do you celebrate your progress?
Sometimes we get so caught up in taking the next step that we forget to evaluate how far we’ve come. But it’s important to remember that every line of code you write brings you closer to your end goal, whether that’s building the next global software company or starting a new career.
The new Skill Progression feature serves as another tool to help you monitor your learning progress, witness your growth, celebrate milestones, and aim for new goals. You earn Skill XP by completing content items in a course or path, and get a clear visual of your progress.[進捗状況を追跡]you can track how much Skill XP you’ve earned in different domains.
You can join now Join the World Coding GameSo, from now until August 12th at 11:59pm ET, you can commit to accumulating Skill XP. The learner who collects the most XP will earn the prestigious title of World Coding Games Champion and receive prizes such as a professional resume review by a senior hiring manager, three years of free Pro access, and more.
Here are some milestones you can achieve as you learn to code and accumulate skill XP.
1. Write your first code
The first line of code is your introduction to the world of programming.
This may not seem like something to celebrate, but it is. The “Hello World” that you code in the first lesson of Learn HTML is the first step for many developers, and you’ll be following in the footsteps of thousands, maybe millions, of others.
And if you haven’t taken this step yet, it’s easier than you might think. Here’s an example:
This paragraph is a child of the body element
This paragraph is a child of the div element and a grandchild of the body element
When rendered, the above code will produce a page that looks like this:
Got it? It’s that easy. Welcome to programming.
2. Complete your first course
Continuing with our HTML Learning example, by the end of the Elements and Structure section, you will be writing code that looks like this:
About Brown Bears
The brown bear (Ursus arctos) is native to parts of northern Eurasia and North America. Its conservation status is currently Least Concern.
There are many subspecies within the brown bear species, including the Atlas bear and the Himalayan brown bear.
Species
- Arctos
- Collarus
- Horribilis
- Nelsoni (extinct)
Features
Brown bears are not always completely brown. Some can be reddish or yellowish. They have very large, curved claws and huge paws. Male brown bears are often 30% larger than female brown bears. They can range from 5 feet to 9 feet from head to toe.
Habitat
Countries with Large Brown Bear Populations
- Russia
- United States
- Canada
Countries with Small Brown Bear Populations
Some countries with smaller brown bear populations include Armenia, Belarus, Bulgaria, China, Finland, France, Greece, India, Japan, Nepal, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.
In other words, you’ve created your first web page.
The best thing about this milestone is that it helps to eliminate the stigma that many people have about programming. Programming no longer seems foreign or inaccessible. In fact, programming is just like learning any other language, except instead of communicating with other people, you’re communicating with a computer.
Learn something new for free
3. Building your first project
Your first project marks the beginning of your development transformation: you start as a coding beginner and grow into a full-fledged developer.
While some may disagree, believing there are requirements that must be met before you can qualify, Zeb Girouard, a software engineer at Codecademy, said: Genuine The criterion is active application of skills.
“To be a developer, engineer, salesperson, etc., you need to perform some task. You don’t need to meet certain requirements. Have you ever built or are you currently building something with software? If so, you’re a developer. Don’t believe anyone who tells you otherwise.”
Giacomo S., team leader from London, explains that completing the first project also gives a sense of accomplishment.
“The first project I design is like a living thing,” says Giacomo, “and I like to watch it develop, like my own child.”
Codecademy curriculum developer Alisha Grama was especially pleased after building her first project, an AI designed to play nine-board tic-tac-toe.
“I So “It was exciting,” she says. “I played multiple matches, checking for bugs, but I never won, which was fun. Every time we tied, I felt a great sense of accomplishment.”
4. Diversification of programming knowledge
Once you’ve mastered your first programming language, you’ll soon start looking for other languages to add to your technology stack. This is an important milestone, because learning different languages and programming styles (such as functional or object-oriented) gives you multiple approaches that you can apply to your future projects.
Mariel Frank, Senior Curriculum Developer at Codecademy, illustrates this by sharing her own experience with different programming languages.
“Ruby was developed with the goal of making the coding experience enjoyable,” explains Mariel. “Ruby is very flexible, and there are many ways to code something ‘correctly’ in Ruby. You’ll hear a lot of Rails programmers talking about the ‘magic’ of Ruby.”
“C++ gives you a little more context about how memory and data types and things like that work,” she continues. “C++ is an ancient language, it’s strongly typed, and it gives you control over memory in a way that a lot of high-level languages don’t.”
Finally, Mariel describes Python as “opinionated and clear”: This xkcd comicThis “nicely sums up the experience of learning a language after already learning another.”
5. Share your work with others
There will come a time when you will want to show off your coding skills.
Maybe you’re building a portfolio to find a new job, or maybe you’re stuck on a coding problem and need help from someone with more expertise – either way, this is your chance to share your unique work with the world.
If you haven’t already, upload parts of your project to a site like GitHub, or better yet, copy them into your workspace and share the link with your friends.
6. Educate other developers
Explore technology communities like: Codecademy Forum and Stack OverflowYou’ll find opportunities to share your knowledge. For example, you might meet someone who is struggling with a problem you faced in class, or you might have a helpful snippet of code that another developer needs to complete a project.
As we progress, we tend to forget the challenges and obstacles we faced at the beginning of our journey. Teaching other programmers the skills you have already acquired is Really It shows how far you have come in your development.
Plus, breaking down complex concepts and explaining them to others can help you strengthen your own knowledge. Judah Anthony, Engineering Manager at Codecademy, advises:
“Learn by teaching. Pick a topic, whether it’s a new technology you want to promote or a best practice like API design. Create a blog post, lightning talk, or brown bag to teach about that topic, and use it as an opportunity to educate yourself, study, and explore the latest on the topic.”
7. Contributing to open source projects
Contributing to an open source project for the first time is a big step. It not only shows that you’re confident in your coding skills, but also means that you’re willing to collaborate with other developers. You can learn a lot from this experience about working in a team, version control, and real-world coding practices. Plus, it’s a great opportunity to meet other developers. Read advice from open source maintainers on how to get started and make a meaningful contribution. Or, check out our Learn Git and GitHub course to learn more about how to use the developer platform GitHub.
The milestones above are just the tip of the iceberg. Community Resources You’ll find hundreds of other learners sharing their accomplishments, big and small.
This blog was originally published in February 2022 and has been updated with more details about the new Skill Progression feature.
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