Soon the freeCodeCamp curriculum will be 100% project-driven learning. Instead of a series of coding challenges,
you'll
learn through building projects - step by step. Before we get into the details, let me emphasize: we are not
changing
the certifications. All 6 certifications will still have the same 5 required projects. We are only changing the
optional
coding challenges.
After years - years - of pondering these two problems and how to solve them, I slipped, hit my head on the sink,
and
when I came to I had a revelation! A vision! A picture in my head! A picture of this! This is what makes time
travel
possible: the flux capacitor!
It wasn't as dramatic as Doc's revelation in Back to the Future. It just occurred to me while I was going for a
run. The
revelation: the entire curriculum should be a series of projects. Instead of individual coding challenges, we'll
just
have projects, each with their own seamless series of tests. Each test gives you just enough information to
figure out
how to get it to pass. (And you can view hints if that isn't enough.)
The entire curriculum should be a series of projects
No more walls of explanatory text. No more walls of tests. Just one test at a time, as you build up a working
project.
Over the course of passing thousands of tests, you build up projects and your own understanding of coding
fundamentals.
There is no transition between lessons and projects, because the lessons themselves are baked into projects. And
there's
plenty of repetition to help you retain everything because - hey - building projects in real life has plenty of
repetition.
The main design challenge is taking what is currently paragraphs of explanation and instructions and packing
them into a
single test description text. Each project will involve dozens of tests like this. People will be coding the
entire
time, rather than switching back and forth from "reading mode" to "coding mode".
Instead of a series of coding challenges, people will be in their code
editor passing one test after another, quickly building up a project.
People will get into a real flow state, similar to what they
experience when they build the required projects at the end of each
certification. They'll get that sense of forward progress right from
the beginning. And freeCodeCamp will be a much smoother experience.
