So I’ve played around a little with FCC in the past and noticed that the curriculum has been updated since I looked at it last.
One question I have is how exactly do you follow the curriculum? For example, on the first Responsive Web Design project, Build a Tribute Page, the instructions say you can use Javascript, but Javascript isn’t covered until the next area, Javascript Algorithms And Data Structures.
So are we supposed to do all the modules throughout multiple sections and then start on projects near the end, or is the curriculum intended where you completed an entire section (complete Reponsive Web Design + projects before starting on Javascript Algorithms And Data Structures and so on) before moving on?
Also, is it typical for people supplement the FCC curriculum with other material? I bought the Colt Steele Udemy course a couple years ago so I’m wondering if something like that is a useful supplement or not to FCC.
Thanks!
If you are confident in your mad coder skillz, there is nothing stopping you from challenging out of a section. For example, if you’re already coding professionally with javascript and you don’t really feel you will gain by the review of all the step-by-step, simply jump to the challenges at the end of the section. Passing the section simply means completing the challenges.
For some sections, you may need a refresher. I really benefitted a LOT from the react portion of the Front End Libraries section, but I completely skipped the jQuery bit. Not necessary, in my case.
And some sections, I really really needed the complete review. So they took me longer, and some of the lessons I had to repeat a few times.
It’s a truly self-paced education. It really depends on you, and where you are experientially. Do you feel you need the education (or the review), or not?
Maybe I wasn’t clear with my question. I didn’t mean I wanted to skip anything, but rather I was wondering if the intension was that you complete an entire certificate’s cirriculum, including projects, before moving forward (in other words, the projects scale as you move along). Or, is the intention that all the tutorials be completed and that you work through the projects from each certificate section at the end?
The answer’s the same. By and large the “expectation” is that you’ll work through the lessons to build a knowledge base, then hit the challenges with that knowledge base.
If you are comfortable with beginning early, there’s absolutely no reason to wait. You can start the challenges at any point, and if partway through, you feel it would be wise to step back to the lessons and refresh on Array handling, or whatever, then the challenge code is saved and you can absolutely do that.
It is a very very free-form education. There is an order to the lessons, but some folks already have a knowledge base, so working “a to b to c to d to…” would be pointless for them. So the lessons follow a (usually) logical progression. Does that apply in your case? Entirely up to you.
If you feel you’ve got through the first ten javascript lessons, and you want to have a stab at the first of the challenges (for example), there is no reason not to try. Get a little ways, maybe get stuck, maybe jump back to the lessons to push forward.
For most, it makes sense to follow the logical path provided, but not for all.