The 5 Best Websites to learn JavaScript for Beginners in 2023

Feb 14, 2023

Hello! Finally, we come to JavaScript. Today, I'm going to share some great resources with you to help you learn JavaScript. I came across this programming language while taking courses on frontend development. At its core, web development is hard to imagine without JS. Sites without JS will be beautiful, but absolutely useless, they will not perform any functions at all, only a beautiful cover.

JavaScript adds functionality to the site, gives the user more interactivity. Now JS is a required skill to become a web developer and I decided to share some resources that helped me learn this programming language some time ago.

In general, many of the resources listed in this list are dedicated specifically to web development in general, and JS as a separate part of it, so you can safely use all of the listed resources to learn web development. I discovered Scrimba relatively recently, this site was recommended to me by one of the members of our community on Reddit.

Scrimba - Courses List

The resource offers a huge range of courses, both paid and free, in web development. What I personally like is the presentation of the material. All courses, unlike most on this list, are presented in video format, and you can write the code directly in the browser by minimizing the video lesson window.

Udemy has similar functionality, but there are much fewer technical options for training. Here you have full control over the directory where you practice, which allows you to play with the code the way you want. Most of all I like the leaders of the courses. They are very bright presenters, explain the material well and, most importantly, most of them do not write a single line of code. This may repel someone, however, this is a big plus, because the material is absorbed much better and more efficiently this way.

Scrimba - Interface

As an advantage, I also want to note the variety of tasks. Here, as training tasks, you will write real (not the most complex, but real) applications that will perform a practical task. Coding here is not limited to writing an algorithm for calculating the Fibonacci sequence or calculating the area of a triangle. There are much more attractive tasks here, which also distinguishes this platform from competitors.

CodeWars is a true classic of IT education. Here you can find a huge amount of material that will help you in learning not only JS, but also other programming languages. But since today we are focused on studying JS specifically, we will not go far from the topic.

There is indeed a lot of useful material here, however, in my opinion, it is not presented in the best form. The workouts here are a set of tutorials that you read and try not in the browser, but on your home machine - in VS Code, Sublime, or wherever you like.

CodeWars - JS basics

The material is presented, if I may say so, dryly. It is much more difficult for beginners to perceive new information in text form than visually, through video courses, such as in Scrimba.

Code Wars has a built-in compiler, but its functionality is limited and in any case you will have to download Sublime or whatever you usually use. For me, this is strange and incomprehensible, because now many such platforms have built-in compilers, full-fledged ones that can replace (at least for the duration of training) downloadable code editors.

CodeWars - JS Training

It may seem that I'm only criticizing this resource - it's not. I like the fullness of the material and its volume. Here you can literally find anything - practice writing code, compete with others for the highest positions in the leader board (like on Hacker Rank and other similar platforms), or discuss the code, ask for advice from more experienced coders. The discussion tab here is certainly not comparable to Stack Overflow, but in my experience they answer and help much faster and more often.

This is another classic in the world of IT and getting new skills. At freeCodeCamp, you will find a huge number of absolutely free courses for learning different programming languages, including JS. During the course, you will have the opportunity to compile the code directly in the browser using the built-in compiler, which is very convenient at the learning stage.

freeCodeCamp - JS Training

Unfortunately, as in the previous case, the theory and foundations are presented in text form. For someone it is convenient, I will not argue. But, I repeat, I think that for a beginner it is still better to present information in video format. It's a matter of taste.

Here you will also find a huge number of tutorials. You will need to use them less often as you learn, but later on when you start working on your first projects, these tutorials will be very helpful and much more useful than the code snippets from Stack Overflow.

freeCodeCamp - JS Tutorials

I recommend adding this resource to your learning process, however, at a later stage, when some kind of base appears, in order to feel more confident in front of text-based tutorials.

The latest classic for today. I promise. Of all the resources on this list, this one is the best in my opinion. To be honest, this is a preconceived notion, as this is where I started learning web development. The material here is also presented in text form, but it is so detailed and accessible that even for me, a person for whom new information in text form is hard to perceive, everything was clear and accessible.

W3school - JS

Basically, this resource is used as an excellent collection of tutorials for web development. I myself used this resource for the same reasons - I peeped the syntax when I was learning CSS and development frameworks (Bootstrap). I advise you to treat this resource as a documentation where you can look at the syntax that is boring for you, try the examples given here in the built-in compiler and read more about the code logic.

W3school - JS Training

Rest assured, here you can find exercises to practice what you have read in the tutorials. The exercises are very simple, but their purpose is not to confuse you, but to get you to grasp the basic logic and memorize the syntax. I believe this policy is correct. Again, this is a great resource to replace documentation, where you can come in with a short question and leave with a short and clear answer. I also recommend adding it to your learning process.

It seems that I have already written so much about Hacker Rank that no explanations are needed here, but nevertheless, for those who have not read it, I will tell you. Hacker Rank is the same interactive platform as all the previous ones on my list. There is also a course on the basics of JS, here, just like everywhere else, you can get a certificate of completed training, here you can also learn everything absolutely free, here you can also participate in the discussion of code or tasks in the discussions tab.

HackerRank - JS

Here are absolutely the same blocks, topics and even similar tasks. I added this resource here as a good alternative. I know for myself that when there are a huge number of identical platforms around, the only criterion is the overall design of this platform. Perhaps the design of Hacker Rank will appeal to someone as much as I did.

HackerRank - JS Exercises

Seriously, though, the reason I added Hacker Rank to this list is the discussions tab. At the initial stage of learning, it is probably very important to read someone else's code, the code of more experienced programmers. This platform makes it possible because, at its core, the discussion tab is a collection of answers to tasks (I wrote about it here). This is a plus - you can see many variations of solving the same problem. In other words, solve the task yourself, and then see how others have done it. I consider this the main advantage.

Conclusion

Today I've sorted out the best resources, in my opinion and the opinion of our community on Reddit, where you could learn JavaScript. I tried to describe for you the features of each platform, its positive and negative aspects. It all depends on you and what you are used to and what is more convenient for you. It was important for me to show that the choice is huge and despite the similarity of the platforms, you can pick up something ideal for yourself. Good luck with your study.