Learn basic programming concepts with the Encode app

The question “How do I learn to program?” is the first brick in the towering wall that anybody hoping to get involved in software development must scale. Before you set out to grind some code you’ll need to cover a few bases in programming algorithms and methodology, regardless of which language you’ll later submerge yourself in, as there is a set of formalisms that all of them have in common. Encode: Learn to Code is an app that presents basic concepts with the help of some small examples in JavaScript.

Through simple themed blocs divided into lessons, you’ll get right down to the nitty gritty. The app asks you to solve problems by directly typing code based on the incomplete examples it includes. Observation and deduction are brilliant way to learn instead of setting out to write from scratch.

The themed blocs include: numbers, chains, variables, Boolean values, if statements, functions, loops, arrays, and objects. Ideally you’ll follow the progression as laid out, as the questions refine concepts by building on past lessons. Yes, it might be a bit clunky to learn programming with this system, but it has the benefit of being realistic. It’s much harder to buy an 800-page tome and do 300 hours in online courses, considering how overwhelming it is to get stuck in to such foreign territory. In fact, programming experts can tell you that you never get anywhere near a keyboard in any IT-related course until you’ve spent hours and hours learning Programming Elements and Methodology. Best not to summon those terrifying ghosts from our college years.