what I learned from working at Big tech for eight years is that you don't really need a computer science degree to become a software engineer for example one of my colleagues was a U.S Navy officer his first job after completing including boot camp a software engineer at Microsoft what if your degrees in literature doesn't matter you just need the right skills and commitment to set foot in the industry knowing what I know today what would I do differently if I could go back in time how would I optimize my path to becoming a software engineer
today I'll share the fastest way to go from zero to a full-time software engineer for free the entire curriculum is available on my website at powerkingdom.com just for context I'm PK a software engineer in Seattle I used to work at Microsoft Amazon and eBay to learn to code you must first decide on a programming language there are many languages like C C plus plus Java and JavaScript but for beginners I recommend python for two reasons one it's the most beginner friendly language one of the top reasons why people give up coding early is not because
they can't do it but but because they started with the wrong language my mother language is Java but if I recall the countless hours finding its syntax I would never choose it as my first language in coding syntax refers to the grammar of a programming language computers do not understand even the slightest grammatical error which is why a language with easy syntax is crucial for beginners in Python is int for example this is the code for printing hello world in Java this is the equivalent of python this Simplicity is why I made a squid Game
parody of how python could even save people's lives some argue that you should jump straight to more serious languages like C and C plus however I'm afraid I have to disagree C plus plus is notorious for its calm looted syntax learning it first is the best way to lose interest in coding C also has a steep learning curve with many beginners struggling with Concepts like pointers and memory management but again you can avoid them with python as a beginner coder you should focus on how coding works not how the language Works don't make the mistake
of learning another language prematurely either concentrate on becoming proficient with one first Master at programming language and you realize that all of them are virtually the same the second reason I recommend python is its popularity in the industry it's wide usage in various business sectors such as web development machine learning and data science opens up multiple job opportunities after all if the programming language isn't practical how will you get a job right now that we know python is the right choice let's discuss how to learn it as I explain in how I would learn to
code the best way to learn to code is always to do it think of it this way you get better at soccer by playing soccer and not watching someone else play likewise there's only so much you can learn just by watching videos and reading textbooks you must follow along write the code yourself do the exercises and so on I recommend this YouTube channel freecodecamp.org it's one of the best places to help learn to code for free their courses are easy to follow and taught by the industry experts I learned many different languages and Frameworks from
their videos too start with their full course on python for beginners you can learn the fundamentals of python without any prior coding experience once you've completed the tutorial it's time to hone your skills by building projects I already explained why this is essential in my past videos I'll reiterate them briefly here number one growth you'll learn significantly by doing so imagine building the mini Amazon Facebook and Reddit you'll begin to understand how they work at a high level and be empowered to solve more challenging problems at hand number two experience it'll introduce you to how
soft Rangers work in the real world the writing code debugging Googling and finally copy and pasting that's precisely what a day in the life of a software engineer looks like minus working line down number three resume by working on your project you automatically build your own portfolio put them on your resume with links to your GitHub Board website for a detailed guide on how to craft an effective resume check out this video you can also download a copy of my resume from my website then the next big question is what kind of project should you
build again learn with free code camp start with the 20 beginner python projects here follow along writing the code yourself until you fully understand once you've completed the course it's time to build more complex stuff you can add more features to the small projects you worked on earlier or make something fun like games from a text RPG to Zelda style games in Python there are various free tutorials on YouTube personally I made three games including an award-winning one and a personal finance website for more project ideas including how I built my website check out this
video cool you've learned python build projects and crafted a superb resume it should be applied for jobs right away it's wrong everything up to this point will help you land what we call a coding interview a coding interview is a technical challenge where a candidate is asked to solve a coin problem many companies including Fang love to play these games to evaluate you some people neglect to prepare for them arguing that coding interviews are irrelevant to your daily work however that's not a prudent strategy as you'll have to play by this rule one way or
another now then how do you prepare for coding interviews study DSA data structures and algorithms simply put DSA as the fundamentals of computer science coding interviews are applications of its Concepts where can you learn DSA for free you guessed it free code Camp they have a complete python course on data structures and algorithms for beginners having cracked many fan interviews including Googles I can assure you that this video is everything you need to crack yours now that you've learned the concepts it's time to put them into practice the best platform to prepare for coding interviews
is lead code this is where all the software Engineers including industry professionals have Fang come to sharpen their skills Lee code is awesome because you can write code and test your Solutions directly on their website many of the problems in their database are real interview questions too when you visit the code for the first time the sheer number of problems can be daunting I mean there are nearly 2500 it's overwhelming I know but that's why I created a video on how to use Lee code effectively to help you get started refer to it for a
detailed but I'll share the two don'ts from the video one don't solve random problems instead grind the questions on the same topic until you get a click on the patterns two don't spend more than 45 minutes on a single problem if you can't figure it out look up the solution however learn from it then come back to the same question until you can solve it without help you're ready to apply for the jobs if you can solve a medium problem in 45 minutes to help you study I created a liquid cheat sheet along with the
study guide and help resources on my website for free now let's take a look at the Timeline oh by the way I put together a curriculum or everything we discussed so far on my website for free just follow the pages in order in summary Learn Python build projects study DSA and finally solve lead code if you do the math that's nearly 20 hours of video time on free code cam tutorials alone which is pretty good to be honest University Computer Science lectures are generally 45 hours of class time per semester you're learning the essentials in
just 20. in addition to the tutorials I recommend you build at least two high quality projects spending about 40 to 60 hours each once you have your project and resume ready move on to lead code there's no fixed timeline for Lee code but I suggest you solve at least 150 questions before actively applying for jobs alright we discussed the fastest way to become a software engineer for free if you're still unconfident and prefer an affordable alternative consider giving springboards coding bootcamp a try you can get a thousand dollar discount off their curriculum with my promo
code pirate king before I close let me make this clear I try my best to give you the easiest path forward but that doesn't mean coding itself is easy take it seriously if you don't want to give up Midway realistically if you're determined and commit to coding at least two hours a day I'm confident you can successfully become a software engineer within 6 to 12 months remember the best way to learn to code is to do it to start coding now like And subscribe now I'll see you at the next one bye [Music] don't stop
