Hello there, how is it going? Show
This write-up is a comprehensive insight into how long does it take to learn JavaScript? It also answers all the frequently asked questions about the programming language such as Is it worth learning JavaScript? What can I do with it? What is the best way to learn it? How much JavaScript should I know to get a job? What are the best resources to learn it? & so on… So, without any further ado. The resources stated in this article contain affiliate links. That means if you find the resources helpful, worthy of spending your money on to educate yourself & you buy a subscription or a single or a few courses. I get a small cut without you paying anything extra. Before we jump right to the answers. A very quick intro to what is JavaScript? 1. What Is JavaScript?JavaScript is the language of the web. If you want to write applications for the web, you ought to know it. There is no other way. Just the knowledge of Html or CSS is pointless without the knowledge of JavaScript. Also, to learn any front-end framework like React, Angular or Vue, you should have knowledge of JavaScript. It’s a pre-requisite. Simply put, it has a monopoly over front end development. 2. How Long Does It Take to Learn JavaScript When I Am Starting from Scratch with No Programming Experience?When starting to learn, the first thing is to clear our basics in programming. Be well acquainted with the language syntax, like if-else constructs, for while
loops, arrays etc. Get a sense of what programming is. There are several code editors available like Atom, Sublime Text, Vim, Brackets, the most lightweight Notepad++. You can pick any based on your liking. After two weeks, you would know well what is JavaScript, write programs, like a calculator, that runs smooth in the browser. Write little features, like validation checks & stuff, for your Html website, if you have any. There are several use cases of JavaScript. It is used for writing validation checks for a form on a web page, that takes user input from your website. We can write the entire functionality of our app, all the features in JavaScript & just use the backend for persisting data. This is just to make you aware of things which we can do with JavaScript. Don’t be overwhelmed. I’ll talk about all this stuff in detail, up ahead in the article. Alright!! With the programming basics under our belt. Time to learn the OOP Object Oriented Concepts of JavaScript. JavaScript, besides scripting, is an object-oriented language too. The OOP universe revolves around objects & there are several concepts in JavaScript, such as Closures, Web APIs, Event Loop, Prototype chain etc. which we need to know to write efficient object-oriented code. Having a good understanding of OOP is pretty important & naturally, requires time. Hmm, I would say if you devote 2 to 4 hours a day. 3 to 4 weeks will suffice. To acquire a good in-depth understanding on the concepts. Now with all the concepts, clear we can get down to writing code. Obviously, we have been writing code. But now we can venture into writing applications. For the start, it can be as simple as a nice calculator app or an app which reminds you of the birthdays of your friends. 2.1 What Do I Need to Know Before Learning JavaScript? Are There Any Prerequisites? Do I Need To Know Html To Learn JavaScript?Ideally, you should know Html before learning JavaScript. Knowledge of Html will help you a lot when writing JavaScript code since you have to continually interact with Html elements like form, divs etc. If you do not know Html, you can also learn it parallelly but it’s gonna make things a little difficult for you. The ideal way would be to learn Html first. 2.2 How Hard is JavaScript Programming Language? Will I Be Able to Learn it?JavaScript is as easy or hard as any other programming, scripting language. It’s just syntax, which helps us communicate with the machine. Still, if you want to know, I believe JavaScript is pretty easy to grasp. Besides, things get tough or complex depending on the project you are working or developing. For instance, writing a simple calculator app in JavaScript will always be easier than writing a money conversion or a currency management library in JavaScript. It’s the business logic & the complexity of the project which makes things a little tricky. Besides if you enjoy writing code, you won’t consider anything hard. Summing up, yeah you will easily learn JavaScript. No big deal. Just code daily & stay dedicated to learning programming. 3. How Long Does It Take to Learn JavaScript When I Already Know A Backend Language Like Java, PHP, Python or Any Other Programming Language?If you have experience with any of the programming language. That means you are already good with the basics of programming. Now you just have to understand what is JavaScript, why we use it? And get yourself acquainted with the syntax. Getting yourself acquainted with syntactical stuff should not take you more than a week working 2 to 4 hours daily. Then you would have to go through the advanced concepts like the Closures, Web APIs, Event Loop, Prototype chain etc. This is gonna take some time. From one month to a couple of months. Depends on how dedicated you are to learning stuff. Also, things get a whole lot clearer when you implement these concepts in an application you write from scratch. 4. What Is The Best Way To Learn JavaScript?If you have no experience of writing front-end code. Below are a few resources you can begin with – W3schools.com Mozilla web development docs Both websites have top-notch educational content on web technologies. If you are looking for curated online courses, written by industry experts on the domain, that can put you upto speed with web development in much less time. Check out the Become A Front End Developer learning track on Educative.io This learning track contains 6 courses that will help you begin with front end web development. To begin with this learning track, you do not need any prior knowledge of web development. Educative.io is a platform that offers interactive courses for software developers. It helps software developers level up on in-demand technologies & prepare for their interviews via interactive text-based courses with embedded coding environments. They have over 300,000 learners on their platform. Besides the Front End Developer learning track, they have several other courses on front end development. A few of them are – Typescript For Front End Developers JavaScript Fundamentals Before Learning React JavaScript In Practice: ES6 And Beyond They have another learning track for React – React For Front End Developers If you are interested in reading all these courses but feel buying each and every course is going to break your bank. You can also buy a monthly or an annual subscription to get unlimited access to all the courses on the platform. If you follow the courses, it will take you minimal time to acquire the knowledge of front end development. 5. What Can JavaScript Do? What Is It Good For? What Applications Can I Build Using It? Is It Worth Learning?Ideally, all the online multiplayer games which run on browser are built using Html5 & JavaScript. As I informed you already if you are developing anything that would work the on the web you would need JavaScript. Popular frameworks like MeteorJS, ReactJS, AngularJS & others are entirely written in JavaScript. JavaScript can also be used for writing peer to peer web apps. As they have no server & solely run on the client. The user interfaces of all the social platforms running on the web like Facebook, Quora, LinkedIn are all written using JavaScript. If one has to make a career in web development. Html, JavaScript are the fundamental technologies he should be deft with. I recently wrote an online multiplayer business strategy game based on the sport of cricket. I wrote the front-end of the game on JavaScript. On the backend, I used Java, Spring Boot, Google App Engine & deployed it on Google Cloud. Here is a screenshot of it.  5.1 Are There Enough JavaScript Jobs in The Industry?If we look at the Stack Overflow 2018 Survey JavaScript is the most wanted technology in the industry. That obviously shouldn’t come as a surprise as JavaScript rules the front-end realm. More the technology required in building stuff. More job opportunities it’s gonna create. 6. How Will I Know If I Am Ready for A Job? When Should I Start Applying for JavaScript Developer Jobs?After we are good with the fundamentals, & have enough confidence to tackle the interviewer’s questions, we can ideally start applying for jobs. But I wouldn’t apply just yet. Why? I would recommend, build a good project using it before you apply. And a project can be anything from a small website to a simple browser game. Oh God… Why a project? I am out of patience already. Isn’t investing a month reading the concepts enough? Well I know, it’s hard to keep studying but hear me out. Why am I recommending a project, why is it important? 6.1 Why Building JavaScript Projects Is Important?Brood over the below points: 1. It Boosts Our Confidence by Notches: When we build a project from scratch, from bare bones. Doesn’t matter how small or simple. We kinda really get a grasp of how things work. How the lego blocks fit together & turn out into a big functional working thing. Even if the interviewer tries to mess with you, plays around, tests your confidence in the fundamentals. You know your concepts pretty well because you have built something implementing those concepts. You are confident in what you say, you haven’t just read stuff from some book. You have actually built a real working functional thing. 2. Our Resume Gets Shortlisted: Think of this from an interviewer’s perspective. You put out a job opening in the market. You are bombarded with tons of applications which claim they know the language. Some might even say they are an expert on the domain but don’t have anything to prove in their resume. Now you come across a resume which states a project written in JavaScript entirely from scratch. Which one are you gonna pick for the interview? 3. You Get a Solid Hands-on Coding Experience: When you work on a project besides writing the core logic there are several other things like handling exceptions well, null checks, following best practices, writing modular code, creating a good object design, writing fail-fast, fail-safe systems. You just cannot learn these things if you don’t write a project by yourself. You acquire project designing skills, along with writing code. All in all, it doesn’t hurt building projects. The odds of getting a job spike by notches. The front-end developer learning track on Educative also contains a course that teaches you how to develop a real-world JavaScript project from scratch. Have a look. Now after you’ve learned JavaScript, you would need to learn a backend language, in order to build a complete web-app, persist data, to become a full stack developer. If you intend to learn Java. I’ve written an article on how long does it take to learn Java & get a job. What can you do with Java? Why it’s still the most popular in the industry in terms of writing scalable, performant code & job prospects too. Have a read. You can also read about becoming a full stack Java developer here. More On the BlogWhat is Liquid Software Development? My take on it Designing a video search service with AWS – Cloud architecture What database does Facebook use – a deep dive How Does PayPal Processes Billions of Messages Per Day with Reactive Streams? What is a Cloud Architect? – A Thorough Insight & Why Should You Become One? Well, Guys!! This is pretty much it. If you liked the article, do lemme know in
the comments. I’ll see you in the next article. How many hours should I learn JavaScript?Getting yourself acquainted with syntactical stuff should not take you more than a week working 2 to 4 hours daily. Then you would have to go through the advanced concepts like the Closures, Web APIs, Event Loop, Prototype chain etc. This is gonna take some time. From one month to a couple of months.
How long does it take to study JavaScript?If you're learning on your own, it can take six to nine months to become proficient in JavaScript. Some of that time is spent learning how to think like a programmer — helpful for when you move on to learning other programming languages.
Can you learn JavaScript in 2 days?Seriously, two days is about enough to get a feel for the basics. It's nowhere near enough time to get to "professional" level (whatever that means exactly). The more experience you have with other languages, the easier it will be, though.
Can JavaScript learn in 3 months?However, unlike CSS and HTML, JavaScript is not something that can be aced in just two weeks. But, it can be done in just three months! Most employers will be happy to hire you as their web developers if you just master some of the JavaScript basics. Of course, learning never stops.
|
