I researched Scrimba after it was mentioned on a podcast episode of HTML All the Things by the guest, Alex Booker (by the way an articulate, clever and confident developer).

I went to check it out and found that it is another online coding learning resource which has an Integrated Development Environment IDE / interactive video. The USP is: “watch the video given by one of the instructors and pause anytime to test the code and output”.

The lessons break down abstract concepts into smaller, more manageable chunks ending with a mini-app project in a typical pattern: theory->practical example walkthrough with the instructor -> a tangent on the subject for context -> return to the project problem and attempt bug fix or implementation. The idea is that the learner builds the muscle memory needed to code competently and wean oneself off the support of just following video tutorials aka. Tutorial Hell 🔥 👿

I wanted to test the resource, see if it’s worth trialing out before ‘going pro’. I tried the basic JS 3hr course (freely accessible on youtube with link to GitHub repo divided by lesson) which i found enjoyable and was happy to see it through with 3 apps to boot.

It helped me brush up on basic concepts, I still made some beginner mistakes and it made me realise I need to improve my competency in learning programming languages and concepts in general. There was a strong emphasis on building on the projects and continued learning so that the topics can be consolidated in memory.