By Jessica Rose

In 2021, the Class Central team helped my friend and me teach three cohorts of free programming bootcamps based on freeCodeCamp curricula.

We’ve been joined by over 20,000 learners from around the globe and it’s just been an honor and a delight to get to learn along with so many learners.

Ramón and I had such a nice time teaching that we wanted to come back for another cohort. Starting September 5th we’ll be teaching another free 6-week bootcamp built around freeCodeCamp’s Web Development and JavaScript curricula.

How Does the Bootcamp Work?

Just like the last bootcamps, we’re supporting learners with livestreams looking at the lessons and giving you a chance to ask questions in real time.

Don’t worry if we’re not streaming in line with your schedule – all videos will be available on-demand. We also have some great guest speakers to add extra context, a community supported forum, and a lively (and well moderated) Discord community.

These courses are designed for part-time remote learners, and most of our learners spent 5-20 hours a week on their bootcamps. While it is possible to take both courses at the same time, we (gently!) suggest doing only one at a time, to help keep the workload comfortable for you as you learn.

We’ve tried to design the learning experience to be lightweight and enjoyable. There’s no tests to get in, no taking attendance, and nothing bad will happen if it takes you longer than 6 weeks to get through the course material.

We're continuing to refine how we teach and how we support our learners. If you wanted to join and learn with us you can sign up for the web dev course here or the JavaScript course here.

What Will You Learn?

These courses will cover everything in the freeCodeCamp Responsive Web Design and JavaScript courses.

This means that the Web Development bootcamp will teach:

HTML fundamentals: syntax, elements, images, links, lists, forms, buttons.
CSS: selectors, classes, ids, attributes, fonts, colors, sizing, positioning.
Accessible and responsive web design: websites for all and on all devices.
CSS layout tools: positioning elements with CSS Flexbox and CSS grid.

And the JavaScript course will cover:

Programming fundamentals: syntax, variables, operations, loops, functions.
Data structures: arrays, multidimensional arrays, array methods, objects.
Algorithms: searching, sorting, reversing, merging, splicing, hashing.
Object-oriented programming: methods, constructors, prototypes, inheritance.
Functional programming: terminology, constraints, mapping, filtering.

How is this Course Different from Paid Bootcamps?

Our free bootcamps are designed to support as many learners as possible, so we aren't able to offer as much 1:1 learner support. We do a lot more peer supported learning and are introducing paid mentors to help better support learners this time around. We also aren't able to offer career placement support due to the scale of these courses.

The most exciting difference is that these courses are free. Paid bootcamps can cost $10,000 or more. We've designed these courses so that you can save your money for important things like rent and video games.

How is the Bootcamp Free?

Great question! Ramón and I are volunteering our time because we love to teach.

The Class Central team is supplying the platform and paying for mentors because they're passionate about access to technical education.

And freeCodeCamp is supplying the curriculum for free because that's their mission.

How Can We Make the Course Better?

As an instructor, I'm always excited to learn more about how we can better support learners. I'm especially interested in how we can better support learners whose first language isn't English or who have hardware challenges.

If you do join the course, please do tell us how we can be better working to serve you. We won't be able to do everything everyone needs, but hearing more about how you learn will help us all.

Free Coding Bootcamp – Learn to Code with Class Central + freeCodeCamp