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Read articles about backend development, computer science, programming languages, and learning to code.

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  1. 11 Best Linux Courses in 2026, Tested and RankedOct 12, 2026 by Maya Chen - Computer science and programming educator at Boot.devThe best Linux courses for beginners in 2026, free and paid. I typed wrong commands into every terminal I could open and noted where each course makes you sign up or pay.
  2. 11 Best TypeScript Courses in 2026, Tested and RankedOct 12, 2026 by Maya Chen - Computer science and programming educator at Boot.devThe best TypeScript courses of 2026, free and paid. I wrote type errors on purpose in every one I could open and noted what each one gates behind an email or a paywal
  3. 11 Best JavaScript Courses in 2026, Tested and RankedOct 12, 2026 by Maya Chen - Computer science and programming educator at Boot.devThe best JavaScript courses of 2026, free and paid. I opened every one logged out, submitted wrong answers where I could, and wrote down what each one paywalls.
  4. 13 Best Free Coding Websites in 2026, RankedOct 11, 2026 by Maya Chen - Computer science and programming educator at Boot.devThe best free coding websites for beginners, ranked by how much real code you write, what each one paywalls, and whether you need an account.
  5. 10 Best Free Python Courses in 2026, RankedOct 11, 2026 by Maya Chen - Computer science and programming educator at Boot.devThe best free Python courses for beginners, ranked by how much you actually code, what each one paywalls, and which ones give you a free certificate.
  6. The Boot.dev Beat. October 2026Oct 09, 2026 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerAfter last month's Web Security launch, September had a flurry of small improvements to the overall platform. Your profile page got a giant redesign, the Training Grounds now keeps a queue of challen
  7. freeCodeCamp vs The Odin Project: which free curriculum should you start?Oct 04, 2026 by Maya Chen - Computer science and programming educator at Boot.devCompare freeCodeCamp and The Odin Project on web development, projects, local setup, support and curriculum choices. Both are genuinely free.
  8. Udemy vs Coursera for programming: compare the actual courseOct 04, 2026 by Maya Chen - Computer science and programming educator at Boot.devCompare Udemy's course and subscription choices with a concrete Coursera programming specialization. Check projects, providers and billing before buying.
  9. Boot.dev vs freeCodeCamp: when does paying make sense?Oct 04, 2026 by Maya Chen - Computer science and programming educator at Boot.devCompare Boot.dev and freeCodeCamp on curriculum, projects, free access and feedback. A paid backend path isn't the right answer for every learner.
  10. Scrimba vs Boot.dev: editable screencasts or code-first lessons?Oct 04, 2026 by Maya Chen - Computer science and programming educator at Boot.devCompare Scrimba and Boot.dev on teaching format, frontend and backend paths, projects, free access and the tradeoffs behind each subscription.
  11. Boot.dev vs Codédex: which coding path should you pick?Oct 04, 2026 by Maya Chen - Computer science and programming educator at Boot.devCompare Boot.dev and Codédex on curricula, projects, free plans, mentoring and game mechanics. Codédex teaches more than beginner Python.
  12. Codecademy vs freeCodeCamp: when is the paid plan worth a look?Oct 04, 2026 by Maya Chen - Computer science and programming educator at Boot.devCompare Codecademy and freeCodeCamp on free courses, career paths, projects and paid plan restrictions. Start with the curriculum you actually want.
  13. 7 best Boot.dev alternatives, depending on why you're leavingOct 04, 2026 by Maya Chen - Computer science and programming educator at Boot.devCompare free curricula, frontend courses, language practice and advanced projects. Find a Boot.dev alternative that fits your goal and budget.
  14. Boot.dev vs DataCamp: which data curriculum fits your goal?Oct 04, 2026 by Maya Chen - Computer science and programming educator at Boot.devCompare Boot.dev's data analyst path with DataCamp's interactive courses, data tools, projects and mobile learning. Both teach Python and SQL.
  15. Scrimba vs Codecademy: editable screencasts or a broader catalog?Oct 04, 2026 by Maya Chen - Computer science and programming educator at Boot.devCompare Scrimba and Codecademy on lesson format, career paths, free access, projects and annual billing. Both include coding practice.
  16. 9 Best Sites to Practice Python Online in 2026Sep 15, 2026 by Maya Chen - Computer science and programming educator at Boot.devCompare the best Python practice sites for beginners, interviews, and deeper language skills, with prices, problem counts, feedback, and honest drawbacks.
  17. 13 Best Coding Games for Adults to Learn Programming [2026]Sep 11, 2026 by Maya Chen - Computer science and programming educator at Boot.devThe best coding games for adults in 2026, ranked by whether you type real code. Python games, Steam games, and free browser games, with verified prices.
  18. The Boot.dev Beat. September 2026Sep 11, 2026 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerWe just launched one of our biggest courses of the year... twice. Learn Web Security is now live in both Go and TypeScript, and we shipped both versions at the same time so you can learn the same p
  19. 11 Best Sites to Practice SQL Online in 2026 (Free and Paid)Sep 08, 2026 by Maya Chen - Computer science and programming educator at Boot.devWhere to practice SQL in 2026: SQLBolt, pgexercises, SQLZoo, DataLemur, LeetCode, HackerRank, and more, with prices, problem counts, engines, and a con for eac
  20. 9 Best SQL Courses in 2026 (Free and Paid, Verified Prices)Sep 08, 2026 by Maya Chen - Computer science and programming educator at Boot.devThe best SQL courses of 2026 compared: real prices, hours, which database each one uses, whether you write queries in the browser, and a con for every pick.
  21. Python List Slicing: Syntax, Examples, and a VisualizerAug 25, 2026 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerLearn Python list slicing with an interactive visualizer. See how start, stop, step, negative indexes, copying, out-of-range bounds, and assignment work.
  22. Python Type Hints: Syntax and Examples for BeginnersAug 25, 2026 by Maya Chen - Computer science and programming educator at Boot.devLearn Python type hint syntax for variables, functions, lists, dictionaries, tuples, optional values, and static checking with practical examples.
  23. 12 Python Practice Problems for Beginners (With Solutions)Aug 24, 2026 by Boot.dev Team - Programming course authors and video producersPractice Python with 12 beginner-friendly problems covering functions, loops, lists, dictionaries, sets, and unit tests. Each exercise includes a solution.
  24. Python F-Strings: Syntax, Examples, and FormattingAug 24, 2026 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerLearn Python f-string syntax with examples for variables, expressions, decimals, percentages, padding, alignment, dates, debugging, and escaped braces.
  25. Why Didn't Hard Drives Change in 80 Years?Aug 18, 2026 by Boot.dev Team - Programming course authors and video producersHear that rhythmic clicking sound?
  26. 17 Fascinating Python Projects for BeginnersAug 14, 2026 by Zulie Rane - Data analysis and computer science techincal authorExplore 17 Python projects for beginners, from text adventures and Django apps to data analysis with NASA, AWS, and TidyTuesday datasets.
  27. Boot.dev vs Codecademy: Which Should You Pick? [2026]Aug 05, 2026 by Maya Chen - Computer science and programming educator at Boot.devBoot.dev vs Codecademy compared with verified 2026 facts: pricing, backend career paths, refund policies, and real reviews from both platforms' users.
  28. Coddy vs Boot.dev: Which Should You Use? [2026]Aug 05, 2026 by Maya Chen - Computer science and programming educator at Boot.devCoddy vs Boot.dev compared: free tiers, pricing, course depth, certificates, and real user reviews from both platforms, with sources for every claim.
  29. The Best SQL Certifications of 2026 (and Which to Skip)Aug 04, 2026 by Maya Chen - Computer science and programming educator at Boot.devEvery SQL certification worth knowing in 2026: Microsoft's brand-new DP-800, Oracle 1Z0-071, DataCamp, free options, and when a portfolio beats them all.
  30. How to Become a Backend Developer in 2026Aug 04, 2026 by Maya Chen - Computer science and programming educator at Boot.devHow to become a backend developer in 2026: real salary data from five sources, what AI actually did to hiring, realistic timelines, and what employers screen for.
  31. 8 Best Data Structures and Algorithms Courses [2026]Aug 04, 2026 by Maya Chen - Computer science and programming educator at Boot.devCompare the best data structures and algorithms courses of 2026, with verified prices, hours, languages, certificates, and real cons for each.
  32. The Boot.dev Beat. August 2026Aug 04, 2026 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerJuly was a big month: The Pandas course is live, boss fights got a full rework, the playground received some love, and we shipped a whole new batch of interactive widgets - we even embedded a couple i
  33. Switch Statements in GoJul 31, 2026 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerSwitch statements are a way to compare a value against multiple options. They are similar to if-else statements but are more concise and readable when the number of options is more than 2.
  34. Runes in GoJul 31, 2026 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerGo's rune type lets you work with Unicode code points that can take more than one byte in a UTF-8 string.
  35. Go Packages vs ModulesJul 31, 2026 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerPackages, modules, and repositories organize Go code at different levels. A package is a directory of code that's compiled together, a module is a collection of packages released together, and a repository ca
  36. Structs in GoJul 31, 2026 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerStructs are one of Go's core tools for organizing related data.
  37. String Formatting in GoJul 31, 2026 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerGo follows the printf tradition from the C language. In my opinion, string formatting/interpolation in Go is less elegant than Python's f-strings, unfortunately.
  38. Functions in GoJul 31, 2026 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerFunctions in Go can take zero or more arguments.
  39. Go Run vs Go Build vs Go InstallJul 31, 2026 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineergo run, go build, and go install compile Go packages for different purposes. go run executes a program without saving the binary in your working directory, go build produces an executable from a mai
  40. Error Handling in GoJul 31, 2026 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerGo programs express errors with error values. Keep in mind that the way Go handles errors is fairly unique. Most languages treat errors as something special and different. For example, Python raises exception t
  41. Variables in GoJul 31, 2026 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerVariables in Go have a type that is known before the code runs. Here's how declarations, type inference, conversions, and scope work.
  42. Channels in GoJul 31, 2026 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerChannels are one of Go's core tools for concurrency. They let goroutines communicate with each other, and their blocking behavior helps coordinate work.
  43. Slices in GoJul 31, 2026 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineer99 times out of 100 you will use a slice instead of an array when working with ordered lists.
  44. If Statements in GoJul 31, 2026 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerif statements in Go do not use parentheses around the condition.
  45. What Does git remote -v Do?Jul 26, 2026 by ThePrimeagen - Ex-Netflix engineer, NeoVim ricer, and Git rebaserThe git remote -v command lists the remote repositories connected to your local Git repository. The -v means "verbose": it includes each remote's URL and shows whether Git uses it for fetching
  46. Python Bitwise AND and OR OperatorsJul 26, 2026 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerBitwise operators are similar to logical operators, but instead of operating on boolean values, they apply the same logic to all the bits in a value by column. The two operators covered here are
  47. How to Return Multiple Values in PythonJul 26, 2026 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerA Python function can return more than one value by separating them with commas.
  48. Python / vs //: Floor Division ExplainedJul 26, 2026 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerPython's // operator divides and rounds down, so -7 // 3 is -3. See how floor division differs from / and when to use each.
  49. Python Default Parameters: How They WorkJul 26, 2026 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerIn Python you can specify a default value for a function parameter. It's useful when a function has parameters that are "optional." You can specify a default value in case the caller doesn't
  50. Git Fast-Forward Merge: How It WorksJul 26, 2026 by ThePrimeagen - Ex-Netflix engineer, NeoVim ricer, and Git rebaserThe simplest type of merge is a fast-forward merge. Git moves the base branch's pointer forward instead of creating a merge commit.
  51. Python Break vs Continue: What's the Difference?Jul 26, 2026 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerSometimes, while looping through a sequence, you may find items that you want to skip. Python provides a way to do this: the continue statement. But what if you want to exit the loop
  52. What Does git push -u origin main Do?Jul 26, 2026 by ThePrimeagen - Ex-Netflix engineer, NeoVim ricer, and Git rebaserThe git push -u origin main command pushes your local main branch to the remote named origin and sets origin/main as its upstream. The push sends commits now; the -u saves the relati
  53. Git Push vs Pull: What's the Difference?Jul 26, 2026 by ThePrimeagen - Ex-Netflix engineer, NeoVim ricer, and Git rebasergit push sends your local commits to a remote repository. git pull brings remote commits into your current local branch. They move Git history in opposite directions, but pull als
  54. How Hard Is It to Learn to Code? A Realistic Guide and What to Expect in 2026Jul 20, 2026 by Maya Chen - Computer science and programming educator at Boot.devHow hard is it to learn to code? Learn what makes coding challenging, how long it takes, which languages are easiest, and how to make the proc
  55. How to Learn to Code in 2026: A Step-by-Step GuideJul 14, 2026 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerLearn to code in 2026 with a realistic, step-by-step roadmap: pick one language, follow a structured path, build real projects, and practice daily until you're job-ready.
  56. SQL SELECT StatementJul 12, 2026 by Boot.dev Team - Programming course authors and video producersThe SQL SELECT statement reads data from a database. Every read query begins by describing the result you want: stored columns, calculated values, or a combination of both. At its simplest, SELECT name
  57. Database Normalization: 1NF, 2NF, and 3NFJul 12, 2026 by Boot.dev Team - Programming course authors and video producersDatabase normalization gives each fact in a relational database one reliable home. It reduces duplicate data and prevents rows from contradicting each other. The first three normal
  58. SQL WHERE ClauseJul 12, 2026 by Boot.dev Team - Programming course authors and video producersThe SQL WHERE clause filters out rows that don't meet a condition. It lets a SELECT return specific records and keeps an UPDATE or DELETE from touching rows it shouldn't. You can build its conditions with c
  59. SQL Joins: INNER, LEFT, RIGHT, and FULL JOINJul 12, 2026 by Boot.dev Team - Programming course authors and video producersRelational data is often split across tables, but applications need it brought back together. SQL joins combine those rows: an INNER JOIN keeps matches, a LEFT JOIN or RIGHT JOIN
  60. SQL Constraints: PRIMARY KEY, FOREIGN KEY, UNIQUE, and NOT NULLJul 12, 2026 by Boot.dev Team - Programming course authors and video producersSQL constraints prevent invalid data from entering a database. PRIMARY KEY, FOREIGN KEY, UNIQUE, and NOT NULL identify rows, preserve relationships, reject dup
  61. SQL Aggregate Functions: COUNT, SUM, AVG, MIN, and MAXJul 12, 2026 by Boot.dev Team - Programming course authors and video producersSQL aggregate functions calculate one result from a set of rows. An aggregate query can return an order count, total revenue, average payment, lowest price, or highest
  62. SQL CREATE TABLE: How to Create and Alter TablesJul 12, 2026 by Boot.dev Team - Programming course authors and video producersThe SQL CREATE TABLE statement defines a table, its columns, and the data each column should hold. It can also enforce rules such as required values and unique identifiers.
  63. SQL ORDER BY and LIMITJul 12, 2026 by Boot.dev Team - Programming course authors and video producersSQL's ORDER BY clause sorts query results, and LIMIT caps how many rows the database returns. Together, they answer questions like "Which five products cost the most?" Sort direction and tie-breakers
  64. What Is SQL?Jul 12, 2026 by Boot.dev Team - Programming course authors and video producersSQL (Structured Query Language) is the standard language for working with relational databases. You use it to define tables, read data, insert records, update records, and delete records. It's everywhere in bac
  65. SQL Subqueries With ExamplesJul 12, 2026 by Boot.dev Team - Programming course authors and video producersSometimes one query needs the result of another. A SQL subquery nests that inner query inside another SQL statement so its value or result set can filter, calculate, or select data.
  66. SQL Indexes: How to Speed Up Database QueriesJul 12, 2026 by Boot.dev Team - Programming course authors and video producersA query that slows down as its table grows may be scanning far more rows than it returns. SQL indexes give the database a faster route to matching rows, often letting it jump to
  67. SQL CRUD: Create, Read, Update, and Delete DataJul 12, 2026 by Boot.dev Team - Programming course authors and video producersSQL CRUD is the set of operations you use to create, read, update, and delete data in a relational database. In SQL, those operations usually map to INSERT, SELECT, UPDATE, an
  68. SQL LIKE OperatorJul 12, 2026 by Boot.dev Team - Programming course authors and video producersThe SQL LIKE operator filters text using a simple pattern. Use it when you know part of a value but not the whole thing: a name that starts with Al, an email address that ends with a company domain, or a p
  69. The Boot.dev Beat. July 2026Jul 10, 2026 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerIn June we made a lot of updates to what's inside existing Boot.dev content. You can now work through the Linux course in a real in-browser shell, take multi-question quizzes, format your code with one
  70. Linux Filesystem Commands Every Beginner Should KnowJul 06, 2026 by Boot.dev Team - Programming course authors and video producersAll the data on your computer is organized into files and directories, and as a developer you'll spend a lot of time creating, moving, reading, and deleting them from the
  71. Stdin, Stdout, and Stderr: Linux I/O Streams ExplainedJul 06, 2026 by Boot.dev Team - Programming course authors and video producersPrograms running in a shell have a standard way of talking to you and to each other: three data streams called stdin, stdout, and stderr. Combine those streams with fla
  72. How to Kill a Process in Linux: top, kill, and SignalsJul 06, 2026 by Boot.dev Team - Programming course authors and video producersEvery program running on your machine is a process, and sooner or later one of them will misbehave: a script stuck in an infinite loop, a command chewing through all yo
  73. Linux File Permissions Explained: chmod, chown, and sudoJul 06, 2026 by Boot.dev Team - Programming course authors and video producersIn a Unix-like operating system, permissions control who can do what to which files and directories. If you've ever run a script only to be slapped with permission de
  74. .bashrc vs .zshrc: Shell Configuration FilesJul 06, 2026 by Boot.dev Team - Programming course authors and video producersYour shell runs a configuration file every single time it starts, and once you know how to edit it, you can customize almost everything about your command line experience. Bash u
  75. The PATH Environment Variable in Linux, ExplainedJul 06, 2026 by Boot.dev Team - Programming course authors and video producersSooner or later, every developer installs a program, types its name into the terminal, and gets hit with an error: command not found. Usually, the culprit is the PATH enviro
  76. Shell vs Terminal: What's Actually the Difference?Jul 06, 2026 by Boot.dev Team - Programming course authors and video producersThe terms "shell," "terminal," "command line," and "CLI" are used interchangeably all the time, and honestly, that's usually fine. But they are not the same thing, and unde
  77. Man Pages in Linux: How to Actually Read ThemJul 06, 2026 by Boot.dev Team - Programming course authors and video producersEvery command line tool you'll ever use ships with a built-in instruction manual, and most developers never read it. The man command puts the full documentation for ls, grep, cp
  78. Git Revert: Undo Commits Without Rewriting HistoryJul 02, 2026 by ThePrimeagen - Ex-Netflix engineer, NeoVim ricer, and Git rebaserSometimes you need to undo a commit that's already on a shared branch. You could reach for git reset, but resetting rewrites history, and rewriting shared history is a g
  79. Git Reflog: Recover Deleted Branches and Lost CommitsJul 02, 2026 by ThePrimeagen - Ex-Netflix engineer, NeoVim ricer, and Git rebaserDeleted a branch with commits on it? Botched a rebase? Reset something you shouldn't have? The git reflog command is Git's last resort: it records every move your ref
  80. Git Worktrees: Work on Multiple Branches at OnceJul 02, 2026 by ThePrimeagen - Ex-Netflix engineer, NeoVim ricer, and Git rebaserGit normally only lets you have one branch checked out at a time. Want to review a coworker's PR while you're halfway through a refactor? You're either stashing, committin
  81. Git Merge Conflicts: What They Are and How to Fix ThemJul 02, 2026 by ThePrimeagen - Ex-Netflix engineer, NeoVim ricer, and Git rebaserWorking with Git is a dream when all of the developers on a project are committing changes to different lines of code. Things get a little hairy when changes to the
  82. Git Squash Commits: How to Combine Commits Into OneJul 02, 2026 by ThePrimeagen - Ex-Netflix engineer, NeoVim ricer, and Git rebaserEvery dev team will have different standards and opinions on how to use Git. Some teams require all pull requests to contain a single commit, while others prefer to see
  83. Git Rebase Conflicts: How to Resolve Them Without FearJul 02, 2026 by ThePrimeagen - Ex-Netflix engineer, NeoVim ricer, and Git rebaserFull disclosure: a lot of git rebase's bad rep comes from conflicts! Fear not. It's nothing you can't handle with just a smidge of practice.
  84. Git Fork: How to Fork a Repo and Open Your First PRJul 02, 2026 by ThePrimeagen - Ex-Netflix engineer, NeoVim ricer, and Git rebaserA fork is a copy of a repository. Forking a repository allows you to freely experiment with changes without affecting the original project. It's also the standard way t
  85. Git Stash: Save Uncommitted Changes and Get Them BackJul 02, 2026 by ThePrimeagen - Ex-Netflix engineer, NeoVim ricer, and Git rebaserYour working directory is full of half-finished changes, and suddenly you need to switch to something else right now. You're not ready to commit (the code doesn't eve
  86. Git Tags: How to Version and Release Your Code ProperlyJul 02, 2026 by ThePrimeagen - Ex-Netflix engineer, NeoVim ricer, and Git rebaserBranches move. Every time you commit, your branch pointer slides forward to the newest commit. But sometimes you want the opposite: a name that's permanently stuck
  87. Git Cherry-Pick: Copy One Commit to Another BranchJul 02, 2026 by ThePrimeagen - Ex-Netflix engineer, NeoVim ricer, and Git rebaserThere comes a time in every developer's life when you want to yoink a commit from a branch, but you don't want to merge or rebase because you don't want all the commits.
  88. Higher-Order Functions in PythonJun 25, 2026 by Boot.dev Team - Programming course authors and video producersIn Python, functions are just values, like strings, integers, or objects. A programming language "supports first-class functions" when functions are treated like any other variable. That mea
  89. Pure Functions in Python: A Complete Beginner GuideJun 25, 2026 by Boot.dev Team - Programming course authors and video producersIf you take nothing else away from this article, please take this: pure functions are fantastic. A pure function has exactly two properties: it always returns the same val
  90. What Is Functional Programming in Python? A Complete GuideJun 25, 2026 by Boot.dev Team - Programming course authors and video producersFunctional programming is a style of programming where we compose functions instead of mutating state (updating the values of variables). While Python is best known
  91. Closures in Python: How They Capture StateJun 25, 2026 by Boot.dev Team - Programming course authors and video producersA [closure]() is a function that references variables from outside its own function body. The function definition and its environment are bundled together into a single entity, so
  92. Python Decorators: A Complete Guide With Code ExamplesJun 25, 2026 by Boot.dev Team - Programming course authors and video producersRemember function transformations, where a higher-order function takes a function and returns a function with new behavior? Python decorators offer a kind of syntactic
  93. Currying in Python: Transform Multi-Arg FunctionsJun 25, 2026 by Boot.dev Team - Programming course authors and video producersFunction currying is a specific kind of function transformation, where we translate a single function that accepts multiple arguments into multiple functions that each accep
  94. Sum Types in Python: Using Enums, Unions, and MatchJun 25, 2026 by Boot.dev Team - Programming course authors and video producersSum types are a staple of functional programming, but Python doesn't really support them. We have to use a workaround and invent our own little system and enforce it ourse
  95. Recursion in Python: A Beginner's GuideJun 25, 2026 by Boot.dev Team - Programming course authors and video producers[Recursion]() is a famously tricky concept to grasp, but it's honestly quite simple, so don't let it intimidate you. A recursive function is just a function that calls itself.
  96. SHA-1 Was ShatteredJun 16, 2026 by Boot.dev Team - Programming course authors and video producersA couple of weeks ago I downloaded a copy of OBS, and my operating system yelled at me. Told me I shouldn't trust it. And it was right, I shouldn't have been trying to download from fastandrealobsfree.ru
  97. The Boot.dev Beat. June 2026Jun 09, 2026 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerMay was a fun month. Interactive widgets (the ones we teased last month) are now live in select lesson content, sound effects rolled out to everyone, and every Python project course got type hints.
  98. 13 Best Web Development CoursesMay 28, 2026 by Maya Chen - Computer science and programming educator at Boot.devCompare the best web development courses for 2026. Explore platforms, skills, pricing, and paths to become a frontend or backend developer.
  99. 12 Best Ways to Learn JavaScriptMay 28, 2026 by Maya Chen - Computer science and programming educator at Boot.devJavaScript is one of the best languages to learn, powering 98% of websites. Build in-demand skills whether you're a beginner or an experienced developer.
  100. Open Source Maintainers Are Crashing OutMay 26, 2026 by Boot.dev Team - Programming course authors and video producersOpen source is a safe, sustainable development model. Right?
  101. WannaCry: The Ransomware Attack That Shut Down HospitalsJun 02, 2026 by Boot.dev Team - Programming course authors and video producersIt was 3 PM on a Friday. A doctor at an NHS hospital in the UK tries to check his email. Instead, one of the PCs in the room reboots into a scary red screen demanding
  102. The Boot.dev Beat. May 2026May 11, 2026 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerApril was a polish-heavy month for us here at Boot.dev. We shipped many small improvements to the lesson experience, added Custom Learning Paths, made the Training Grounds easier to navigate, and cleaned
  103. The AI Land Grab Looks FamiliarMay 11, 2026 by Boot.dev Team - Programming course authors and video producersIn May of 2013, Yahoo announced plans to buy Tumblr for 1.1 billion dollars. Yahoo's CEO, Marissa Mayer, stood in front of the press and said, "We promise not to screw it up".
  104. Nvidia CEO: AI Doomers Could Cause a Software Engineer ShortageApr 23, 2026 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerIt feels like every week Dario (Anthropic's CEO) is yelling about how AI is going to destroy white-collar jobs, particularly software engineering jobs. Well, in April
  105. The Boot.dev Beat. April 2026Apr 08, 2026 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerMarch was a monster month. We shipped the new DevOps learning path (18 DevOps courses!), 2 brand new courses, upgraded the in-browser Python coding experience, and made Boot.dev noticeably better on ph
  106. Git Rebase: Keep History Linear Without Merge CommitsApr 01, 2026 by ThePrimeagen - Ex-Netflix engineer, NeoVim ricer, and Git rebaserIf git merge feels noisy, that's because it can be. Lots of noisy merge commits make history harder to scan, especially when you're just trying to understand what act
  107. Git and GitHub: A Practical Pull Request WorkflowApr 01, 2026 by ThePrimeagen - Ex-Netflix engineer, NeoVim ricer, and Git rebaserGit is the open-source command-line version control tool, and GitHub is basically just a collaboration on top of it. You can absolutely use Git without GitHub, but for mo
  108. Git Reset: Undo Commits With --soft and --hardApr 01, 2026 by ThePrimeagen - Ex-Netflix engineer, NeoVim ricer, and Git rebaserIf you've ever made a commit and immediately thought "noooope", then git reset is what you need. It's one of the most useful Git commands for undoing work, but it's also one
  109. Git Remote: Add Origin and Fetch Remote BranchesApr 01, 2026 by ThePrimeagen - Ex-Netflix engineer, NeoVim ricer, and Git rebaserGit is distributed, which means your repo and my repo can both be valid "sources of truth". In practice, teams usually pick one remote as the shared source (often GitHub)
  110. Gitignore Patterns: What to Ignore and WhyApr 01, 2026 by ThePrimeagen - Ex-Netflix engineer, NeoVim ricer, and Git rebaserMany devs adopt the git add . (yolo, just yeet it all into the commit) workflow. It is fast, simple, and usually correct. But eventually you'll have files in your repo directory
  111. Git Merge: Combine Branches and Read Merge HistoryMar 31, 2026 by ThePrimeagen - Ex-Netflix engineer, NeoVim ricer, and Git rebaser"What's the point of having multiple branches?" you might ask. They're most often used to safely make changes without affecting your (or your team's) primary branch. Onc
  112. Git Internals: How Git Stores Data and History on DiskMar 31, 2026 by ThePrimeagen - Ex-Netflix engineer, NeoVim ricer, and Git rebaserLet's take a look at some of Git's "plumbing", that is, the commands that are mostly used for working "under the hood" with Git, and that you'll only use if you're t
  113. Git Branching: Create, Switch, and Manage BranchesMar 31, 2026 by ThePrimeagen - Ex-Netflix engineer, NeoVim ricer, and Git rebaserA Git branch allows you to keep track of different changes separately. For example, you can create a new branch to experiment with changing a color scheme without affect
  114. Git Config: Set Your Name, Email, and Branch DefaultsMar 31, 2026 by ThePrimeagen - Ex-Netflix engineer, NeoVim ricer, and Git rebaserGit stores author information so that when you're making a commit it can track who made the change. Here's how all that configuration actually works.
  115. Clean Code in Python: Write Readable, Maintainable CodeMar 20, 2026 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerIf you ask ten developers for a definition of clean code, you will get twelve answers and one argument in the comments. Still, most of us agree on the practical goal: write co
  116. Python Encapsulation vs Abstraction: What MattersMar 20, 2026 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerIf classes and objects are the "what" of OOP, encapsulation and abstraction are the "how." They're how you keep code understandable after the project gets big, your team grows, and
  117. Python Inheritance: When to Use It and Skip ItMar 20, 2026 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerInheritance is one of those OOP tools that feels magical on day one and dangerous on day thirty. Used well, it removes duplication and keeps models clean. Used badly, it creates class
  118. Python Polymorphism: One Interface, Many BehaviorsMar 20, 2026 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerPolymorphism is where OOP starts to feel truly powerful. You stop writing giant if type == ... trees and start trusting shared interfaces. Different objects respond to the same met
  119. Python Classes and Objects: A Practical Beginner GuideMar 20, 2026 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerIf classes and objects still feel slippery, you're not crazy. Most tutorials either go too abstract or drown you in weird examples. The practical way to learn OOP is simple: un
  120. Boot.dev's New Logo UnveiledMar 19, 2026 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerWe created our old blue/black/gray logo years ago before we redsigned the site to its new gold/brown/blue textured look and feel. As such, the old logo just doesn't fit at all with the current state of
  121. Backend Developer RoadmapMar 14, 2026 by Maya Chen - Computer science and programming educator at Boot.devSo you've decided you want to learn backend development so you can get a job - congratulations! Many self-taught coders have a hard time deciding between all the various programming job options,
  122. 12+ Best online coding bootcamps [2026]Mar 14, 2026 by Maya Chen - Computer science and programming educator at Boot.devCompare the best online coding bootcamps, features, costs, and career outcomes to find the right path into software development.
  123. 16+ Best online coding courses [2026]Mar 14, 2026 by Maya Chen - Computer science and programming educator at Boot.devExplore the best online coding courses. Compare platforms, skill levels, pricing, and certifications to find the right course for your goals.
  124. The Boot.dev Beat. March 2026Mar 12, 2026 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerFebruary was stacked with quality-of-life work and platform upgrades. A lot of this work is infrastructure-heavy and not quite as flashy, but it makes Boot.dev faster, sturdier, and more fun to use. Al
  125. Python Exceptions: Try, Except, and RaiseMar 08, 2026 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerLearn how try, except, and raise work in Python, when to raise your own exceptions, and why catching everything with a bare except hides bugs.
  126. Python Sets: What They Are and How to Use ThemMar 07, 2026 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerSets are like lists, but with two key differences: they are unordered and they guarantee uniqueness. Only one of each value can exist in a set. If you need to track unique items or rem
  127. Python Dictionaries: How to Create and Use ThemMar 06, 2026 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerDictionaries are one of Python's most useful data structures. Instead of accessing values by a numeric index like you do with lists, you access them by a key — usually a string. If li
  128. Python Lists: A Complete Beginner GuideMar 05, 2026 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerA natural way to organize and store data is in a list. Some languages call them "arrays", but in Python we just call them lists. Think of all the apps you use and how many of the items in the
  129. Python Loops: For, While, and Range ExplainedMar 04, 2026 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerLoops let you run the same code over and over without rewriting it each time. Whether you need to count through numbers, process items in a list, or keep going until a condition changes
  130. Python If, Elif, and Else Statements: What's the Difference?Mar 03, 2026 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerHow Python's if, elif, and else statements work, the difference between elif and else, why there's no else if, and how to combine conditions with and and or.
  131. Python Functions: How to Define and Call ThemMar 01, 2026 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerFunctions allow you to reuse and organize code. Instead of copying and pasting the same logic everywhere, you define it once and call it whenever you need it. They're the most important
  132. Python Variables: A Complete Beginner GuideFeb 28, 2026 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerVariables are how we store data as our program runs. You're probably already familiar with printing data by passing it straight into print(), but variables let us save that data so we can
  133. The Boot.dev Beat. February 2026Feb 11, 2026 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerA new year and another record broken! In January a combined 4,016,641 lessons and challenges were completed by you, dear pupils! And to top it off, we're now releasing the much anticipated Power BI
  134. GitHub Keeps Going DownMay 16, 2026 by Boot.dev Team - Programming course authors and video producersOn February 9th, 2026, GitHub went down.
  135. The Boot.dev Beat. January 2026Jan 13, 2026 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerWe're off to an incredible start to 2026. December of 2025 broke a new record with 3,075,904 lessons completed and 82,578 training grounds challenges completed during the month! In January, I'm writi

2025 18

  1. The Boot.dev Beat. December 2025Dec 07, 2025 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerWe plan to wrap up 2025 with some important quality of life updates! League placement badges, lesson bookmarks, and major improvements to the Training Grounds are just a few of the highlights. Thank
  2. Supply and Demand Are Broken in Programming EducationNov 24, 2025 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerMarkets are efficient, right?
  3. The Boot.dev Beat. November 2025Oct 30, 2025 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerIsaac's new Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) course is now live! It's a very in-depth course. It's not for the faint of heart, and it will teach you not just about AI search, but full keyword an
  4. I'm in Vibe Coding HellOct 10, 2025 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerWhen I started thinking about the problems with coding education in 2019, "tutorial hell" was enemy number one. You'd know you were living in it if you:
  5. The Boot.dev Beat. October 2025Oct 01, 2025 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerSearchable challenges in the Training Grounds, and realtime voice chats with Boots are now a thing. Also, my children and those of half my employees are sick with the flu... I hope you've all been ab
  6. The Boot.dev Beat. September 2025Sep 08, 2025 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerThe training grounds are LIVE! 21,000 challenges have been generated between the launch and as I write this, and we're just getting started. Big things to come.
  7. Boot.dev Launches the Training GroundsAug 27, 2025 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerWe've always said Boot.dev is fun... but we've never said it's easy. I mean, it's not for lack of trying. We do everything we can to make the content as easy to understand as it can be:
  8. The Boot.dev Beat. August 2025Aug 04, 2025 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerWe ran the biggest hackathon I've ever been a part of (500+ participants!) and saw some incredible projects come out of it. Thanks to everyone that participated, I'm excited for the next one!
  9. 2025 HackathonJul 25, 2025 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerThe 2025 Boot.dev Hackathon has been completed! We had an amazing turnout this year, with over 500 participants across two categories: Amateur and Pro. The projects were incredible, and the competition was fierce.
  10. The Boot.dev Beat. July 2025Jul 09, 2025 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerThis month we were heads down building a lot of background stuff for big releases that are coming up - but we still did manage to get a few new features out the door!
  11. The Boot.dev Beat. June 2025Jun 10, 2025 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerWe've capitulated into the vibe coding era? Well... not really. But it's cool to understand how AI agents like Cursor and Claude Code work under the hood.
  12. Are Boot.dev Courses Free?May 23, 2025 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerSometimes folks get confused and wonder, are Boot.dev's programming courses really free?
  13. The Boot.dev Beat. May 2025May 11, 2025 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerOur biggest content release ever just dropped: the complete backend learning path, but now in Python and TypeScript! This is a massive update that we've been working on for a year, I hope you enjoy it!
  14. The Boot.dev Beat. April 2025Apr 27, 2025 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerThe Lord of the Mire has been the hardest boss yet (by far), weighing it with 150,000,000 HP. The community rallied during the event, dealing a whopping 132,282,452 damage in total, but not quite enoug
  15. The Boot.dev Beat. March 2025Mar 07, 2025 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerOur new JavaScript course is live! ThePrimeagen's course on building your own HTTP server from scratch is just around the corner, and the TypeScript track couldn't be closer.
  16. The Boot.dev Beat. February 2025Feb 04, 2025 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerIt's official: TJ's C course walkthrough was released before GTA6! This is a great month for Boot.dev, and for humanity as a whole.
  17. 18 Months with GPT-4: Now Can I Fire my Developers?Jan 17, 2025 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerAs the founder of a company where my largest static expense is engineering salaries, I'm over here just chomping at the bit, eagerly awaiting the moment I can fire everyone and li
  18. The Boot.dev Beat. January 2025Jan 02, 2025 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerFastest boss defeat in the history of Boot.dev, a new AWS course, embers are live, and my children just won't stop being sick for more than 4 days at a time. Win some, lose some.

2024 19

  1. The Boot.dev Beat. December 2024Dec 06, 2024 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerPotions got a rework, solutions were added to the Git course, and I've been sick for like 10 days straight... hope your Holidays are staying healthier than mine!
  2. The Boot.dev Beat. November 2024Nov 05, 2024 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerMortrunk has fallen. The community rallied in our Halloween boss fight spectacular. Well done. The Boots' aura XP boost even hit 2x for a while there.
  3. The State of Learning to Code - 2024 ReportOct 21, 2024 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerI've been building a learning curriculum for backend developers for the last 3 years, but I've mostly been relying on qualitative feedback and my own intuitions.
  4. The Boot.dev Beat. October 2024Oct 07, 2024 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerThe "learn computer science basics" section of the backend developer learning path is now complete! We have no big plans to make serious modifications (tbh I always say this though, so idk). To be cl
  5. Build a Web Server in GoSep 23, 2024 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerLet's build a fully-fledged HTTP server from scratch in Go. This course assumes you already have a solid understanding of Go. If you don't, take a step back and take our Go course.
  6. Build a Blog Aggregator in GoSep 17, 2024 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerWe're going to build an RSS feed aggregator in Go! It's a web server that allows clients to:
  7. The Boot.dev Beat. September 2024Sep 04, 2024 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerThe arcanum was soooooo close to defeating the Hound of Zaggoroth in this month's boss fight. 88,297,514 xp was gained over the course of the event, and 90,000,000 was all that was needed to secure
  8. Is there a course on <insert technology>?Jul 26, 2024 by Casper AnderssonIn the Boot.dev Discord server, this question appears now and then. Will there be a Rust course? Why is there no Django course? Can you add a Spring Boot course? Maybe there will be in the future. Maybe not. It's impossible to
  9. The Boot.dev Beat. August 2024Jul 26, 2024 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerI'm writing this one a bit early because I'm going out of town next week... better early than late?
  10. When to Use Pointers in GoJul 19, 2024 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerPointers are variables that store memory addresses. Use them when code needs to update an original value or when nil matters, not because you assume they're faster. If performance is the reason you're con
  11. The Boot.dev Beat. July 2024Jul 10, 2024 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerOne million lessons. Well, to be precise, you have all completed 1,122,050 lessons just in June. That's nuts. I was so preoccupied with how cool it is that you all are learning so much that I'm late on
  12. The Boot.dev Beat. June 2024Jun 05, 2024 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerThePrimeagen's Git course is live. A new boss battle is on the horizon, and we've made massive speed improvements to the site. Hope you enjoy!
  13. The Boot.dev Beat. May 2024May 01, 2024 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerA new Pub/Sub Architecture course, lootable chests, and ThePrimeagen's Git course is only a couple weeks away. It's been a good April. glhf.
  14. The Boot.dev Beat. April 2024Apr 03, 2024 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerPythogoras returned in our second community-wide boss battle. He was vanquished, and there was much rejoicing. Happy coding.
  15. Maybe You Do Need KubernetesMar 08, 2024 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerTheo has this great video on Kubernetes, currently titled "You Don't Need Kubernetes". I'm a Kubernetes enjoyer (I even wrote a course on it, but I'm not here to argue about that. The part of the video
  16. The Boot.dev Beat. March 2024Feb 28, 2024 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerPythogoras escaped this month. The community rallied against the Serpent God, and while he was wounded and beaten back, he escaped. We'll be trying again later this month. Happy coding.
  17. The Boot.dev Beat. February 2024Jan 31, 2024 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineer609,179. That's the number of lessons you crazy folks have completed on Boot.dev in the last 30 days. Good work my fellow pupils.
  18. Give Up SoonerJan 28, 2024 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerAs a developer, how many times each day do you look something up online? I'm not talking about a simple piece of syntax, I'm talking about the things that are a bit harder to find. For example:
  19. The Boot.dev Beat. January 2024Jan 03, 2024 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerHope you had a wonderful holiday! I know you might not have been able to take time off, but I hope you were able to spend some time with family and friends. I spent the whole week driving up and down

2023 62

  1. Troubleshooting the Boot.dev Code Editor: Common SnagsDec 07, 2023 by Hunter Beckmann - Head of engineering at Boot.devAs a Boot.dev student, you may have encountered frustrating moments when your code editor freezes or is stuck "Setting up your environment", leaving you wondering what went wrong. D
  2. 9 Months with GPT-4: Can I Fire my Developers Yet?Dec 03, 2023 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerGitHub has been re-founded on copilot, rumors of an AI superior to GPT-4 abound, and you're trying to decide if it's worth it to learn what a red-black tree is.
  3. The Boot.dev Beat. December 2023Dec 01, 2023 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerHope you had a splendid Turkey month. My wife, two kids, and I spent Thanksgiving in southern Utah. The fresh air was nice, AQI here in Northern Utah is 100+ right now... wouldn't recommend. Anyway,
  4. You're Not Qualified to Have an Opinion on TDDNov 07, 2023 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerOne of the marks of a good senior developer is that they have lots of interesting opinions. After years of working on different software projects, they'll be able to passionately expla
  5. Put that Framework Down Before Someone Gets HurtNov 06, 2023 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerThere is only one question that ignites my inner rage more than "How do I get a developer job in 3 months?"? That question is:
  6. The Boot.dev Beat. November 2023Oct 30, 2023 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerHope you had a fantastic Halloween. I spent last weekend in Seattle with Allan and Hunter (the other two full-timers here at Boot.dev) at the DotA 2 International. Absolute blast. I've never been to
  7. Queue Data Structure in Python: Ordering at Its BestOct 22, 2023 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerA queue is an efficient collection of ordered items. New items can be added to one side, and removed from the other side.
  8. Understanding Stacks: Python Implementation of a Core Data StructureOct 06, 2023 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerA stack is an abstract data type that serves as a collection of elements. The name "stack" originates from the analogy of items physically stacked on top of each
  9. Can Go Be Used in Web Development?Oct 06, 2023 by Natalie Schooner - Computer science educator and technical writerRecently I saw an interesting post on Reddit: "I would like to be more full-stack," user Fenugurod said. "I was studying Tailwindcsss and I'm pretty sure I can create really nice UIs wi
  10. The Boot.dev Beat. October 2023Oct 01, 2023 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerHappy All Hallow's Eve. I hope you enjoy this month's cover art. It might be my favorite so far.
  11. What Does a Web Developer Earn?Sep 13, 2023 by Natalie Schooner - Computer science educator and technical writerAs always, the short answer is easiest: On average, according to Indeed, an American web developer earns \$81,034 per year.
  12. Learn to Code the Slow WaySep 10, 2023 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerEver since starting Boot.dev, I've been flooded with what I call "quicksand questions". On the surface, a quicksand question seems like a good question. If you could answer it, it would catapult you from
  13. Top 10 Books on Web Development in 2026Sep 05, 2023 by Natalie Schooner - Computer science educator and technical writerIf you’re looking for good web development books, you’re probably interested in becoming a web developer. Makes sense – great pay, solid job security, and interesting work. But bey
  14. The Boot.dev Beat. September 2023Aug 31, 2023 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerThe best part of working on Boot.dev is seeing you all make almost unbelievable strides in not only your understanding of fundamental concepts, but what you can now build from scratch. It's not jus
  15. Python Web Development: How It Works and What to LearnAug 14, 2023 by Natalie Schooner - Computer science educator and technical writerLearn how Python fits into web development, when to use Django, Flask, or FastAPI, what front-end skills you still need, and how to start building web apps.
  16. The One Thing I'd Change About GoAug 12, 2023 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerGo is built for grug brained programmers like me.
  17. What is Backend Web Development?Aug 07, 2023 by Natalie Schooner - Computer science educator and technical writerThe boring answer is that backend web development is the process of building the server-side of websites and web applications. It primarily focuses on handling the logic, data processing,
  18. The Boot.dev Beat. August 2023Jul 28, 2023 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerAs I'm writing this on July 28th, we've had 118,984 lessons successfully completed by students on Boot.dev so far this July. This marks the first time we've had over 100k lessons completed in a month.
  19. The Pros and Cons of Django for Backend DevelopmentJul 17, 2023 by Natalie Schooner - Computer science educator and technical writerDjango is a popular Python-based framework for building web applications. It provides pre-built components and conventions, which simplifies the web app development pro
  20. I Mock Your MocksJul 13, 2023 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerSeveral years ago I started my first job as a "senior" Go developer. You see, after a modest 3 years in the industry, my arcane ability to use the Go standard library's strings.Contains() function managed to leave
  21. The Best Backend for Vue: 6 OptionsJul 11, 2023 by Natalie Schooner - Computer science educator and technical writerPart of being in the software development space means I’m near a lot of entrepreneurs. Code is a powerful building block, and that appeals to a lot of self-taught big thinkers.
  22. Frontend? Gross. This is Why I've Always Preferred the BackendJul 09, 2023 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerAs a kid, I always wanted to be good at drawing. I practiced drawing my favorite anime characters, but frankly, my mom was the only one who thought they were good.
  23. Build Your First Coding Project and Avoid Tutorial HellJul 04, 2023 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerWhile "real" hell may or may not exist (no need to get into religious beliefs here), tutorial hell is very real.
  24. The Boot.dev Beat. July 2023Jun 26, 2023 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerJune was hot. I got sunburned. What else happened... Oh yeah, I finished the new CI/CD course! It's slated to launch on July 10th, so watch out for that. We also are in the process of hiring a new Boot.
  25. What’s the Best Backend For React? 5 Options to Choose FromJun 26, 2023 by Natalie Schooner - Computer science educator and technical writer"I already know React," mused my friend. "What popular backend language should I learn that will make me a useful hire to companies?"
  26. Awww, do I Really Need to Learn X to Get a Job as a Developer?Jun 24, 2023 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerA developer's life is a never-ending saga of learning new things. It's like you're playing Diablo where every new Jira ticket can feel like the next mini boss to slay.
  27. Boot.dev Team HandbookJun 12, 2023 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerOur goal: To make the best place to learn to code. The most effective, the most fun, and the most thorough.
  28. Boots, a Wizard Bear that CodesJun 08, 2023 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerBoots is the heart and soul of Boot.dev. Not only is he capable of helping you through any lesson on Boot.dev, but he's a friendly wizard bear with a charming personality. Some things you should know
  29. The Boot.dev Beat. June 2023May 31, 2023 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerMay was a historic month for Boot.dev. We added more students to the backend learning path than we ever have in a single month before, and we're doing everything we can to build and release new, better
  30. Format on Save in Go with VS Code [2026]May 26, 2023 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerGo has hard opinions about how you should style and format your code. Setting up your VS Code environment to enforce the standard linting and formatting rules can save you a ton of time.
  31. Programming types and (incorrect) mindsetsMay 08, 2023 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerDHH, the creator of Ruby on Rails, Hey, Basecamp, and a few other things, recently wrote an article titled "Programming types and mindsets", and I just have to chime in on this one.
  32. 13 Best Codecademy Alternatives in 2026 (Tried and Compared)May 04, 2023 by Maya Chen - Computer science and programming educator at Boot.devOutgrew Codecademy? I compared 13 alternatives on depth, teaching style, and price, with every number verified in 2026 and real linked reviews for each platfor
  33. The Boot.dev Beat. May 2023May 03, 2023 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerWe hit some amazing milestones in April. We now have over 40,000 registered students and over 500,000 lessons completed on the platform! I hope your learnings are going well, and that everything we're bu
  34. Best Python Courses and Places to Learn Python Online in 2026Apr 28, 2023 by Natalie Schooner - Computer science educator and technical writerCompare the best Python courses and places to learn Python online in 2026, with price, hours, and certificate details for each pick, plus free tutorials, book
  35. C Sharp vs Python: Which Is the Best Programming Language?Apr 27, 2023 by Natalie Schooner - Computer science educator and technical writer"You're comparing apples to oranges," Susan, a developer at my company, said when I asked her which programming language she preferred, C \# or Python. "It's lik
  36. JavaScript? Python? Go? Which Tech Stack Should You Learn?Apr 24, 2023 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerAh, the age-old question: which tech stack should I learn? Aspiring developers often get bogged down in this dilemma, and it's not hard to see why. The tech industry is an
  37. Which is More Important: Hard or Soft Skills for Programmers?Apr 22, 2023 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerYou're waiting at the front-desk of Google's campus in Boulder, Colorado, waiting for your coding interview to start. Across from you in the lobby sit two other candidat
  38. As a Developer, What Hardware Do You Truly Need?Apr 21, 2023 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerLet's be real here: we live in an age where everyone and their dog seems to think they need the latest, most expensive gadgets to get anything done. But when it comes to learning how
  39. Do You Need to Blog to Get a Coding Job?Apr 17, 2023 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerAs the founder of Boot.dev, I've worked with countless students who are eager to break into the tech industry. And time and time again, I see the same question pop up: "Do I need to start a
  40. Matlab vs Python: 6 Key Differences [Updated 2026]Apr 16, 2023 by Natalie Schooner - Computer science educator and technical writerThis is one of those arguments where, outside of a few very specific examples, there's a clear answer. Python is better than MATLAB in (almost) every situation. But you'
  41. The Boot.dev Beat. April 2023Apr 06, 2023 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerWe released more this last March than I think we've ever released in a single month before. I've been biting my nails waiting to share it all in this month's newsletter.
  42. Is Computer Science Really that Hard?Apr 05, 2023 by Natalie Schooner - Computer science educator and technical writerYes, computer science is hard, but you already know that. You don't want to know if computer science is hard. You want to know if it's too hard. You want to know if having to learn c
  43. It's Not About the Job OpeningsMar 30, 2023 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerI talk to boatloads of students who are starting to learn to code, and invariably they are hyper-concerned about which programming languages and technologies they should be learning.
  44. How can I Get a Job as a Python Programmer?Mar 27, 2023 by Natalie Schooner - Computer science educator and technical writer"How much Python do I need to know to get a job? Do I need a degree?" I asked Jo, a hiring manager I'd met at a Python networking event, nervously.
  45. How to Get a Job as a Golang DeveloperMar 20, 2023 by Natalie Schooner - Computer science educator and technical writerStep 1: Learn Golang. Step 2: Apply for jobs. Step 3: Get accepted.
  46. Introduction to Asynchronous Flows and WebhooksMar 09, 2023 by Nick AbbeneIn this post, we'll be talking about coding with a common integration pattern with an external API called a webhook. Loosely speaking, there are three main types of communication you'll see when building an application.
  47. Introducing Boots, the Artificially Intelligent Bear that Explains CodeMar 06, 2023 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerLearning to code isn't easy; frankly, I'd be wary of anyone who tells you that it is. Hopefully, you're primarily learning by writing and reading a lot of code
  48. Do Backend Developers Need to Know SQL?Mar 02, 2023 by Natalie Schooner - Computer science educator and technical writerA while back, one of my friends bragged that he bagged a six-figure backend developer job after watching a few YouTube videos on APIs and reading parts a bit of the PostgreSQL docu
  49. Boot.dev Beat. February 2023Mar 01, 2023 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerI'm back from paternity leave! My new son is healthy, and my daughter is... busy. It's good to be back writing code, writing courses and filming videos.
  50. How to Become a Golang Engineer (on the Back-End)Feb 23, 2023 by Natalie Schooner - Computer science educator and technical writer"Guys, I've got an idea. What if we could design a language that's easy to read like Python, but fast? That has a slim feature-set like C, but is good for web development
  51. Want to Become a Python Back-end Developer? Start Here.Feb 17, 2023 by Natalie Schooner - Computer science educator and technical writerMyth #1: "Python is too slow for back-end development."
  52. What is in a Back-End Developer's Job Description?Feb 10, 2023 by Natalie Schooner - Computer science educator and technical writerWhat's it like being a back-end developer? Well, it's different depending on which developer you ask.
  53. Your Architecture is Bad, So Make It Easy to ChangeFeb 10, 2023 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerHave you ever started a new software development job and thought:
  54. Boot.dev Beat. January 2023Feb 01, 2023 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerIf you can't tell from my absurd profile photo below, I've been having too much fun with AI art this month.
  55. 5 Critical Differences Between DevOps and SRE JobsJan 30, 2023 by Natalie Schooner - Computer science educator and technical writerTo someone who isn't familiar with these roles, it's easy to think that DevOps and systems reliability engineers (SREs) might have the same job. After all, both of them
  56. How does HTTPS encryption work?Jan 26, 2023 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerHypertext Transfer Protocol Secure or HTTPS is an extension of the HTTP protocol. HTTPS secures the data transfer between client and server by encrypting all of the information communicated.
  57. Cryptography Course Released on Boot.devJan 24, 2023 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerGreetings! We're excited to announce that we've unveiled a brand-new cryptography course on Boot.dev. We're convinced that this new experience is truly one of a kind. If you want to learn cr
  58. 4 Key Differences Between DevOps and DevSecOpsJan 23, 2023 by Natalie Schooner - Computer science educator and technical writerDoesn't it seem like every day there's a new mishmash of responsibilities into a job title? One day soon, someone will be hired as a DevOpSysSecInfraArc engineer.
  59. 6 Differences Between DevOps and Cloud EngineersJan 18, 2023 by Natalie Schooner - Computer science educator and technical writerThe deeper you get into the tech sphere, the more unintelligible the job titles seem to be. Plus, the same title at different companies often encompasses different respons
  60. I Didn't Explain Clearly, but Still Don't Learn Frameworks FirstJan 17, 2023 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerI wrote an article about not starting with frameworks that got some attention from /r/programming on Reddit yesterday. While a good number of people must have enjoyed
  61. If You're Learning Back-end, Don't Start with FrameworksJan 16, 2023 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerLook, I don't hate frameworks. I'm not as starry-eyed as some other developers, especially when it comes to back-end frameworks, but I don't think there's anything wrong with
  62. Boot.dev Beat. December 2022Jan 06, 2023 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerI hope you've been able to enjoy some time with family! I took (almost) an entire week off from writing code, which I haven't done in a long time. It's good to be back though, and I can't wait to see yo

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  1. Is Golang Best For Backend or Frontend Development?Dec 19, 2022 by Natalie Schooner - Computer science educator and technical writerPut simply, Golang is best for the backend side of a web application or website. There are many reasons that this is the case, so let's dive in, but before we do, let's
  2. What do Frontend and Backend Development Mean?Dec 13, 2022 by Natalie Schooner - Computer science educator and technical writerSoon after you dip your toe in the water of software development, you're guaranteed to come across the terms "frontend" and "backend". There are also frontend and backend de
  3. Snake Case or Camel Case? A Guide to Programming Naming ConventionsDec 09, 2022 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerThe following names are all valid variable names in nearly every programming language:
  4. What is Backend-as-a-Service?Dec 05, 2022 by Natalie Schooner - Computer science educator and technical writerPlenty of people have heard of SaaS, or Software-as-a-Service, which is simply software made available by a third party over the internet. Think Salesforce, WordPress, or MailChimp. And most
  5. Boot.dev Beat. November 2022Nov 30, 2022 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerI hope you've enjoyed your pumpkin spice lattes this fall, that is, assuming that you're basic like me. The meme about programmers and their coffee will never be cliche right? Hope you enjoy this month'
  6. The Top 22 Backend Technologies to Learn in 2026Nov 16, 2022 by Natalie Schooner - Computer science educator and technical writerA backend technology is anything used server-side to build stable and efficient web architectures. Back-end technologies include programming languages, databases, communic
  7. How to Round a Float in GoNov 13, 2022 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerIf you're rounding a floating point number in Go, it's most likely you want to format it in a string. Use the built-in fmt.Sprintf() function.
  8. Add Libraries and Packages to Your Coding PortfolioNov 13, 2022 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerBuilding a job-ready portfolio of coding projects doesn't happen overnight, but if you're like most self-taught developers, you've likely built up a nice collection of todo apps,
  9. What do Tech Layoffs Mean for Budding Developers?Nov 11, 2022 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerSo we're officially in a recession, and now the question is, "what does a recession mean to me as a brand-new developer?". It's scary stuff. As you can see in this chart, tech stock
  10. The 8 Top Back-end Programming Languages for 2026Nov 10, 2022 by Natalie Schooner - Computer science educator and technical writerA backend programming language is what a programmer like you uses to create internal systems that work in the background of a web application. Backend developers make a l
  11. What is a DevOps Engineer's Salary?Nov 01, 2022 by Natalie Schooner - Computer science educator and technical writerThe median DevOps engineer's salary is $103,994 in base pay, with around $28,514 in additional pay through bonuses, commissions, and profit sharing according to Glassdoor. Salary.com e
  12. Boot.dev Beat: October 2022 EditionOct 31, 2022 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerHappy Halloween! We released a ton of new stuff on Boot.dev this October, and I've had a blast figuring out new mediums and tools we can use to create content. Anyhow, here's to a great November
  13. How Much Do Backend Developers Make?Oct 25, 2022 by Natalie Schooner - Computer science educator and technical writerThe short answer? On average, backend developers make either $82,462, $95,472, or $104,865 per year in base pay depending on who you ask. (I asked Glassdoor, Indeed, and Salary.com re
  14. The 6 Best Backend Project Ideas for BeginnersOct 19, 2022 by Natalie Schooner - Computer science educator and technical writerWant to become a backend developer? Not surprising. Backend developers enjoy an average base salary of $160k per year, not to mention comprehensive benefits. And best of all
  15. Makefiles to improve your lifeOct 19, 2022 by Casper AnderssonDuring development you may sometimes notice you run a lot of commands to set up, build, test, and manage your project. Sometimes, these end up requiring several steps, or you have trouble remembering the exact command. One way to manage t
  16. Types of Functions in Python: A Concise GuideOct 13, 2022 by EteimsFunctions are one of the most versatile tools in any Python programmer's toolbox. They enable code reuse and provide a form of abstraction. Python offers many different types of functions. This article is a map of the different types
  17. Should You Learn Front-end or Back-end Development First?Oct 13, 2022 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerSo you want to get into web development, and you keep hearing about "front-end" and "back-end" positions. The question is, which should you learn first? As someone who's hel
  18. The 7 Best Backend Bootcamps of 2026Oct 11, 2022 by Natalie Schooner - Computer science educator and technical writerSo you're looking for the very best backend bootcamp of 2026. You're not alone – most backend engineers earn over six figures according to Glassdoor, plus they have wide and varied jo
  19. Full-Stack Ops: Back-end and DevOps Roles are MergingOct 10, 2022 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerI believe that the job duties of "back-end" and "DevOps" engineers will coalesce to include almost everything that "the user doesn't see". There will still be room for specializ
  20. CI/CD Isn't Just About EfficiencySep 26, 2022 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerDevOps principles, and CI/CD specifically, are generally presented as a more efficient way to run a software development organization. While I hold the belief that CI/CD is more efficient and effec
  21. Backend Engineer vs Data Engineer: What's the Difference?Sep 21, 2022 by Natalie Schooner - Computer science educator and technical writerThe sexiest job title of the decade, data scientist, has spawned about a dozen equally sexy but somewhat confusing and overlapping job titles. The primary offshoo
  22. Do Better in Coding Interviews by Being Confident and HumbleSep 20, 2022 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerI think we often do a great job of flogging the dead horse of whiteboarding problems when giving coding interview advice. Heck, that's what I've dedicated the entirety of
  23. New 'Learn SQL' Course Launched on Boot.devSep 19, 2022 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerI'm happy to announce that today we launched our new Learn SQL course! It was a ton of fun to write, but I also had a blast building the back-end infrastructure that allows students to wr
  24. The More Mentors, The Better (When Learning to Code)Sep 13, 2022 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerVim or VS Code? Tabs or spaces? Rails or Django? The world of programming is fraught with decisions to be made. Sometimes experienced developers are able to share their beliefs i
  25. Are You a DevOps Engineer If You Aren't Writing Code?Sep 12, 2022 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineer"DevOps" is one of the most misunderstood terms in the software development industry. To be clear, I'm not the arbiter of truth when it comes to the definitions of words. That s
  26. What is a Computer Scientist, and What Do They Do?Sep 12, 2022 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerAt work, computer scientists build and deploy programs, algorithms, and systems to solve real-world problems. In most tech jobs, they spend the majority of their time working in te
  27. How Long Does It Take to Become a Back End Developer?Sep 05, 2022 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerI get really frustrated when I see people and companies online selling unrealistic dreams when it comes to coding education. It's quite lucrative when you're in the edtech indus
  28. Keyup and Keydown Event Handlers in Vue 3Sep 04, 2022 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerI recently spent far too long fighting with Vue's keyup and keydown functionality while building Boot.dev's front-end. I wanted to handle ctrl+period keyboard events and it took me forever
  29. Boot.dev Hackathon September 1st, 2022Sep 03, 2022 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerMark your calendar, because we're hosting another hackathon in the Boot.dev Discord server! The kickoff meeting will be on Thursday, September 1st at 4PM MST, you can RSVP for that event here
  30. Write on the Boot.dev BlogSep 02, 2022 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerWe've just opened up the Boot.dev Blog to public contributions! We're really excited to see all the great stories that our readers and students will create.
  31. Trends in Developer Jobs: A Meta Analysis of Stack Overflow SurveysOct 24, 2022 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerI'm really interested in the trends we see in the software engineering job market. Sometimes it's really hard to tell a cohesive and accurate narrative about what'
  32. The Top 11 Computer Science Books for Self Study [2026]Aug 24, 2022 by Natalie Schooner - Computer science educator and technical writerIn today's modern, fast-paced world, we look to StackOverflow, Reddit, and hands-on courses to learn about computer science and software engineering. But there are
  33. A Complete Overview of Computer Science for BeginnersAug 21, 2022 by Winston Wagner - Technical author at Boot.devGetting into computer science can be a daunting task. There are so many career paths down which a computer education can take you, so many programming languages to master, and so many sk
  34. What is the Future of Computer Science?Aug 16, 2022 by Natalie Schooner - Computer science educator and technical writerIn a word, the future of computer science is promising.
  35. How to Use the Best Software Engineering Job BoardsAug 05, 2022 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerWith so many job boards out there, it can be terribly confusing to know where to start when you're looking for a programming job - especially if you're looking for your first prog
  36. What Are the Career Options in Computer Science?Aug 01, 2022 by Winston Wagner - Technical author at Boot.devThe future is bright for career options in computer science with remote work opening up doors that weren't present before. Trying to navigate through computer science career options can be ov
  37. Using GitHub Issues to Hack Together A Feedback SystemJul 31, 2022 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerBoot.dev has been my side-project for the last couple of years now. Being a learning path for backend developers focused on quality over quantity, I knew early on that it neede
  38. 6 Pros and Cons of Online Coding BootcampsJul 18, 2022 by Natalie Schooner - Computer science educator and technical writerIf you want to learn to code, there are many strategies to get your coding skills from non-existent to employable. Some folks might go back to university and get a formal educat
  39. Why We Force You to Learn Multiple Programming LanguagesJun 13, 2022 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerI've been building Boot.dev as a side-project for the last couple of years, and have recently had many new students ask the same question:
  40. What Would a Recession Mean For Developers?May 26, 2022 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerWith markets in a slump, many of us are concerned a recession could be right around the corner. The NASDAQ is already down 27% so far in 2022. Heck, maybe we're already in the middle of a
  41. How much do coding bootcamps cost?May 24, 2022 by Zulie Rane - Data analysis and computer science techincal authorI'll give you the quick answer right off the bat: coding bootcamps cost 13,500 on average based on the data collected by BestColleges. On the upper end of that range, coding bootcamps co
  42. The Top 8 Online Coding Bootcamps for 2026May 21, 2022 by Zulie Rane - Data analysis and computer science techincal authorIf you've been living under a rock for the last decade, let me quickly tell you about what a coding bootcamp is before I get into the top online coding bootcamps. Basically, a co
  43. How Not to Ask for Help OnlineMay 20, 2022 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerI've spent an unhealthy amount of time online over the course of my life, and in the last couple years I've been managing a Discord server for people who are learning computer science. Like all online
  44. The Problem with Education is a Problem of IncentivesMay 10, 2022 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerI've found that almost anyone I talk to agrees with the statement:
  45. 6 Undeniable Reasons to Learn Computer ScienceMay 10, 2022 by Zulie Rane - Data analysis and computer science techincal authorIs it a bit dramatic, perhaps, to say that the fate of the world rests on computer science and that's why you should learn computer science?
  46. We Just Launched Community InsightsApr 27, 2022 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerAt Boot.dev we've launched "community insights"! Insights make it possible for our students to drop comments at the bottom of any step in our coding courses. We've quickly found that we have amaz
  47. Top 10 Communities For Learning to CodeApr 20, 2022 by Zulie Rane - Data analysis and computer science techincal authorThe one thing that every programmer has in common, whether they've only ever implemented a "Hello World" program or they're considered a "senior" software engineer, is the need to c
  48. Qvault is moving to Boot.devApr 07, 2022 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerWe'll keep this announcement short – we've moved Qvault.io to Boot.dev! As you know, we've been hard at work bootstrapping on online computer science bootcamp. Qvault (now Boot.dev) is a simple CS curri
  49. How to Build the Best GitHub Profile for Your Job SearchMar 04, 2022 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerI've reviewed a lot of resumes, both as an engineering manager and in the monthly resume workshops we do in the Boot.dev Discord group. I'm convinced that these days a develo
  50. The 7 Best Ways to Learn Golang and Find Your Inner GopherFeb 05, 2022 by Natalie Schooner - Computer science educator and technical writerGolang was released in 2012, making it a relatively new language when compared to competitors like Python, which was released nearly two decades prior, yet it's
  51. Julia vs Python: Which is Best to Learn First?Feb 05, 2022 by Zulie Rane - Data analysis and computer science techincal authorAnyone who's anyone in the tech world has heard of Python. It's one of the most popular programming languages in the world, and it's been near the top of developer popularity
  52. How Long Does It Take To Learn JavaScript? (& How To Learn Fast)Feb 05, 2022 by Zulie Rane - Data analysis and computer science techincal authorA good programming language is one that newcomers can learn fast. This is one of the reasons why JavaScript is so popular – it's possible to learn Javascrip
  53. Top 4 Practical Uses of JavaScriptJan 30, 2022 by Zulie Rane - Data analysis and computer science techincal authorJavaScript is one of the most versatile programming languages, maybe even more flexible than Python. JavaScript is used on both the front and back end of web systems. Because of that, of
  54. How Hard Is Python to Learn?Jan 24, 2022 by Zulie Rane - Data analysis and computer science techincal authorPython is arguably the easiest programming language for beginners to learn. If you're interested in writing code, Python is a fantastic place to start. Aside from just being easy to learn, it'
  55. JavaScript vs C++: 3 Factors To Choose Which Is Best For YouJan 22, 2022 by Zulie Rane - Data analysis and computer science techincal authorEvery coder is told to learn JavaScript, seeing that it's the foundation of the world wide web. And… every coder is taught that C++ is one of the most useful mo
  56. How to Do a Coding Bootcamp Part-TimeJul 12, 2022 by Natalie Schooner - Computer science educator and technical writerIf you want to add coding to your list of skills, either out of curiosity or to take your career in a whole new direction, you've probably considered a coding bootcamp. Then you've p
  57. Qvault Hackathon Kickoff Jan 17th, 2022Jan 16, 2022 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerWe're starting our first hackathon in the Qvault Discord server on January 17th at 8AM. Everyone is welcome to participate. Let's go over the details about of event. You can RSVP for the even
  58. An Overview of Boot.dev's Full-Stack ArchitectureJan 10, 2022 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerBecause I've had several inquiries on this topic, I thought it would be interesting to publish some information on how the boot.dev website and platform work, and how I've organized

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  1. Python Assert Statement, How to Test a ConditionDec 13, 2021 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerIn Python, an assertion is a statement that confirms something about the state of your program. For example, if you write a createUser function and you are sure that the user needs t
  2. Complete Guide to Removing Elements From Lists in PythonDec 09, 2021 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerWhile lists aren't the most efficient data structure if you'll be doing lots of deleting from the middle, there are definitely good ways to accomplish the task. The built-in
  3. How to Use the Ternary Operator in PythonDec 09, 2021 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerDevelopers love concise code that's easy to read, and that's exactly what ternary operators are for. The ternary operator in Python lets you perform a small if/else statement in a single li
  4. Removing Duplicates From a List in PythonDec 09, 2021 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerLet's go over a few idiomatic ways to remove duplicates from lists in Python.
  5. Check If a File Exists in Python: pathlib and os.pathDec 08, 2021 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerHow to check if a file exists in Python with pathlib or os.path, plus when Path.exists(), Path.is_file(), and FileNotFoundError fit.
  6. Generics in GoDec 06, 2021 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerGenerics let Go code reuse the same logic with different underlying types. They reduce duplication without giving up compile-time type safety.
  7. Your Code isn't CorrectNov 29, 2021 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerThere is a common trap that we fall into as developers, and it is believing that because some code "worked" that the code was written "correctly". In reality, for most technical problems, a good developer ca
  8. Coding Interviews - Why you shouldn't give homeworkNov 18, 2021 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerA while back I went through the interview process at a company I won't name here. The first interview was basically just a phone screen, where I was able to chat with my would-be
  9. Python vs C++: Which Should You Learn First?Nov 17, 2021 by Meghan ReichenbachPython is easier for most beginners; C++ offers more speed and control. Compare their syntax, performance, use cases, and learning curves.
  10. PHP vs JavaScript: Which is Best for Web Development?Nov 10, 2021 by Meghan ReichenbachWhen comparing programming languages, it's not often that you come across two that actually work well together, but that happens to be the case when it comes to PHP and JavaScript.
  11. Node.js vs JavaScript: The Low-DownNov 09, 2021 by Zulie Rane - Data analysis and computer science techincal authorSo you're a fan of web development? Great! You're probably already familiar with JavaScript (if not, check out our JavaScript course here) and may have heard of Node.js as well. But whi
  12. Ruby vs JavaScript: Which Language Should You Learn First?Nov 05, 2021 by Meghan ReichenbachWhen broken down into core features – like programming style and code execution – JavaScript and Ruby seem deceivingly similar, but there are a few constitutional differences.
  13. Python vs PHP: 9 Critical Differences ExaminedNov 05, 2021 by Zulie Rane - Data analysis and computer science techincal authorPHP famously claims to be the backend programming language for just under 80% of the Internet. However, if you look at the popularity rankings of programming languages, Pytho
  14. The Best Product Managers Have The Worst IdeasNov 02, 2021 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerIt's hard finding good product people. That fact is really a tragedy because they are probably the most important part of any product-focused organization. I think there is a misconcep
  15. Ruby vs Python: 10 Questions to Ask Before You ChooseOct 25, 2021 by Zulie Rane - Data analysis and computer science techincal authorA ruby is a beautiful red gemstone; a python is a beautiful green snake. Aside from that, they're both very popular programming languages. They're popular for differen
  16. How to Learn Python: A 5-Step Roadmap With TimelinesOct 12, 2021 by Zulie Rane - Data analysis and computer science techincal authorThe best way to learn Python is to write code from the first lesson and build a project before you feel ready. A five-step roadmap with week-by-week timelines.
  17. 19 Simple JavaScript Projects for Beginners [Updated for 2026]Oct 08, 2021 by Zulie Rane - Data analysis and computer science techincal authorReally good JavaScript projects for beginners can be tough to find. Sometimes they're too hard, or assume too much prior knowledge. Sometimes they're actually
  18. C# vs JavaScript: Choosing the Best Language for YouOct 07, 2021 by Meghan ReichenbachJavaScript (JS), once regarded as simply a "glue language", has gone on to become the most popular programming language in the world.
  19. Four-Course Python Data Structures and Algorithms Track ReleasedOct 04, 2021 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerWe recently took a look at our course curriculum and felt that our current Learn Algorithms course, written in Go, would be better served if it covered Python instead
  20. Well, We Might Have a Video Call for That!Sep 27, 2021 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerThis article contains some of my thoughts on communications for distributed teams and is a response to No, we won't have a video call for that! by Florian Hass. Read his article first if y
  21. HTML vs CSS vs JavaScript ExplainedSep 27, 2021 by Jamie DunmoreHTML, CSS, and JavaScript are the most important tools in your arsenal for all your web design escapades. Rather than compete, they complement and augment each other, and their power expounds when they're combined -- like internet Power
  22. Node.js vs Golang: Compared Over 6 Key AreasSep 23, 2021 by Meghan ReichenbachIn 2009, the computer science world was blessed with two powerful tools: Golang and Node.js.
  23. Go vs C#: Compared Over 5 Key AreasSep 22, 2021 by Meghan ReichenbachGolang and C# offer a unique mixture of similarities and differences, having both been inspired by the same language, C.
  24. Rust vs Python in Data Science, Systems Development & MoreSep 15, 2021 by Meghan ReichenbachRust and Python contrast in a unique way because while they both provide back-end web support, Python thrives as a flexible and consistent language, while Rust makes a name for itself with raw power and speed
  25. 9 Outstanding Reasons to Learn Python for FinanceSep 14, 2021 by Zulie Rane - Data analysis and computer science techincal authorIf you're thinking about dipping your toe into the finance sector for your career and you stumble across this article, you may be wondering, "How can Python help in financ
  26. Python vs Java: Performance, Salary & More ComparedSep 10, 2021 by Meghan ReichenbachComparing Python and Java is a bit like comparing boats and cars. They both get you from point A to B and are fun to show off, but that's where the similarities end. And the same with Python and Java, they're both p
  27. Why Learn Python? 9 Key ReasonsSep 09, 2021 by Zulie Rane - Data analysis and computer science techincal authorSimple to learn, endlessly versatile, and perennially in demand by employers paying higher and higher salaries every year — it feels like there's a million reasons to learn Python.
  28. What is Cryptography? A Complete OverviewSep 08, 2021 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerSimply put, Cryptography provides a method for secure communication. It stops unauthorized parties, commonly referred to as adversaries or hackers, from gaining access to the secret message
  29. JavaScript vs TypeScript: What's the Difference?Sep 06, 2021 by Meghan ReichenbachWhether you're new or old to the computer science community, you've probably asked yourself, "What is TypeScript?" and if you haven't, it won't be long before you do.
  30. R vs Python: Which Is Best for Data?Aug 25, 2021 by Meghan ReichenbachPython and R made a name for themselves as top-end competitors in the world of data science for their ability to seamlessly navigate and handle data. But what sets these languages apart from each other?
  31. Python vs JavaScript: Which Should You Learn First?Aug 24, 2021 by Meghan ReichenbachPython is easier for most beginners; JavaScript is essential for front-end web development. Compare their syntax, speed, use cases, and career paths.
  32. 10 Compelling Reasons to Learn Python for Data ScienceAug 19, 2021 by Zulie Rane - Data analysis and computer science techincal authorRead this if you don't know where to start learning data science
  33. Scala vs Go: Comparing Everything You Need to KnowAug 18, 2021 by Meghan ReichenbachScala and Golang are newer languages, only coming onto the scene after the turn of the century, but in that time they've managed to become two of the highest-paid languages for developers, with the industry benefitin
  34. Death, Taxes, and Database MigrationsAug 17, 2021 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerEarlier in my career, I would come to a new project and inevitably a hectic migration would be underway. It's not always a "stop the world" change, it can be as simple as switching from NPM to
  35. Golang vs Java: 6 Key ComparisonsAug 04, 2021 by Meghan ReichenbachGolang (or Go) and Java offer an interesting comparison because despite their wide differences, there are also key similarities in how and where they're used by programmers.
  36. Top 20 Entry-Level JavaScript Interview QuestionsJul 29, 2021 by Jamie DunmoreVersatile, powerful and ever-present, JavaScript is the world's most used programming language (for eight years and counting!) and shows no signs of slowing down. Check out these 20 practice interview questions for JavaScr
  37. Our Learn Python Course Has ReleasedJul 27, 2021 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerWe've just launched our latest course, Learn Python.
  38. What are UUIDs, and are they better than regular IDs?Jul 23, 2021 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerIn the context of back-end web development, an ID is just a unique identifier for a record of data. For example, each user on a website will have its own ID. If the site is a so
  39. What is Go Good For? (And What Is Golang Used For?)Jul 16, 2021 by Jamie DunmoreIn 2007, frustrated by some of C++'s inefficiencies and overcomplicated nature, and desiring a programming language designed specifically for multi-core processors and effectively managing large projects, three Google en
  40. Golang vs C++: Which is Best For Your Next ProjectJul 12, 2021 by Meghan ReichenbachNeeding to be a math genius to learn to code is a thing of the past. High-level programming languages offer an alternative to low-level machine code, which makes coding more accessible than ever. Let's dive into how
  41. Beautiful Language and Beautiful CodeJun 30, 2021 by "Dead Poet's Society" is a classic film, and has become a recent favorite of mine. There's a scene in particular that I enjoy, where Robin William's character explains that it's bad practice to use terms like "very tired" or "very sad", instead we
  42. Intro to the One-Time Pad CipherJun 28, 2021 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerIn cryptography, the one-time pad, or OTP is a way of encrypting information so securely that it's impossible to be cracked. That said, OTP has a major drawback in that it requires both parties to h
  43. 16 Great Coding Challenges You Can Try OutJun 24, 2021 by Zulie Rane - Data analysis and computer science techincal authorCoding challenges are a fun way to improve your coding quickly.
  44. Building a Red-Black Binary Tree in PythonJun 21, 2021 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerA red-black tree is a kind of self-balancing binary search tree. Each node stores an extra bit, which we will call the color, red or black. The color ensures that the tree remains approxim
  45. Quick Sort in GolangJun 17, 2021 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerQuicksort is an efficient sorting algorithm commonly used in production sorting implementations. Like Merge Sort, Quicksort is a divide-and-conquer algorithm. As the name implies, Quicksort is one of the fastes
  46. How to Write Insertion Sort in GoJun 14, 2021 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerInsertion sort builds a final sorted list one item at a time. It's much less efficient on large lists than more advanced algorithms like quicksort or merge sort. Insertion sort is a simple algorith
  47. Merge Sort in Golang with ExamplesJun 10, 2021 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerMerge sort is a recursive sorting algorithm and, luckily for us, it's quite a bit faster than bubble sort. Merge sort is a divide and conquer algorithm.
  48. Writing Bubble Sort in Go from ScratchJun 08, 2021 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerBubble sort is named for the way elements "bubble up" to the top of the list. Bubble sort repeatedly steps through a slice and compares adjacent elements, swapping them if they are out of orde
  49. Check for Standards Before Creating a New OneJun 07, 2021 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerI recently had a ticket opened on my team's backlog board requesting the ability to bypass our API's caching system. For context, our front-end team uses my team's API to make fairly he
  50. Defer in GoJun 01, 2021 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerThe defer keyword is a fairly unique feature of Go. It allows a function to be executed automatically just before its enclosing function returns. The deferred call's arguments are evaluated immediately, but the function
  51. 7 Critical Reasons Beginner Programmers Should Learn JavaScript in 2026May 25, 2021 by Zulie Rane - Data analysis and computer science techincal author"Why learn JavaScript?" I asked my sister when she was in college and starting to pick up the fundamentals of JavaScript. "Isn't it ancient? Do peopl
  52. Comprehensive Guide to Dates and Times in GoMay 17, 2021 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerKeeping track of time in code has long been every developer's nightmare. While no language or package manages time perfectly, I think Golang does a pretty good job out-of-the-box. This f
  53. The 10x Meeting - Solving for Too Many MeetingsMay 10, 2021 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerPerhaps you've heard of the fabled 10x developer (or 10x engineer) - the one on the team that's 10x as productive as their average colleague. While many, including myself, doubt the e
  54. Concatenating with strings.Builder Quickly in GolangMay 04, 2021 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerThe Go standard library makes concatenating strings easy. Concatenation is just a fancy word for adding strings together to make a larger string. For example, if we concatenate "
  55. Golang vs Python: Which Language is Best For You?Apr 29, 2021 by Zulie Rane - Data analysis and computer science techincal authorIn a world where the ability to write any code at all is a tremendous advantage, often the biggest problem coders face is knowing which language to start learning, rather
  56. The Ultimate Guide to JSON in GoApr 28, 2021 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerAs a language designed for the web, Go provides extensive support for working with JSON data. JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is an incredibly popular data exchange format whose syntax resembles s
  57. Migrating From Vue-CLI & Webpack to VitejsApr 26, 2021 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerBoot.dev's web app that hosts all of my coding courses is a single-page application written in Vue 2, with plans to migrate to Vue 3 soon™©®. In the meantime, I happened across a cool new
  58. How Replace a String in Go - Top 5 ExamplesApr 20, 2021 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerGo has a powerful standard library that makes string manipulation easy right out of the box. One of the functions I use most often is the strings package's Replace() function. strings.Rep
  59. String Enums in GoApr 19, 2021 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerMy least favorite part of Go? Glad you asked. It's Go's lack of enums, sum types, tagged unions, etc. Compared to other statically typed languages like:
  60. Splitting a String into a Slice in GolangApr 15, 2021 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerI can't begin to tell you how often I split strings in Go. More often than not I'm just parsing a comma-separated list from an environment variable, and Go's standard library gives us some
  61. Backend Developers are UX Designers TooApr 12, 2021 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerToo often I neglect the idea of UX design in backend work. The goal of user experience design is to give users a product that's easy to use. In the world of front-end development, that typica
  62. For Loops in GoApr 10, 2021 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerFor loops are a programmer's best friend! They allow us to execute blocks of code repeatedly and iterate over collections of items. In Go, there are several different ways to write one.
  63. Advanced Algorithms Course Released on Boot.devApr 05, 2021 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerSorry it took so long for me to get this one out! Data Structures and Algorithms 2 was just released, and I'm excited to let you all get your hands on it, even if you're just auditing
  64. Are Coding Bootcamps Worth It in 2026? What the Data SaysMar 29, 2021 by Maya Chen - Computer science and programming educator at Boot.devA review of audited bootcamp outcomes, tuition estimates, industry changes, and alternatives for prospective students in 2026.
  65. Can You Get a Programming Job with Just an Associate's Degree?Mar 22, 2021 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerChanging majors is a tale as old as time. A degree that would normally require four years to complete can quickly turn into a more expensive endeavor that takes five or
  66. How I Organize My Local Development EnvironmentMar 17, 2021 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerWhen I was just getting into coding, I was very disorganized. I would create a new text file in My Documents, work on it, never create a Git repository, accidentally delete it later,
  67. All Coding Courses on boot.dev Are Now Free to AuditMar 15, 2021 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerLast weekend I did a major revamp of boot.dev's payment strategy, after toying with the first version since I launched in the summer of 2020, as it turns out, the microtransactio
  68. Where Can You Get a Programming Certificate Online?Mar 14, 2021 by Zulie Rane - Data analysis and computer science techincal authorThere are two ways to get a programming certificate online - universities and online courses. In the simplest possible terms, a programming certificate is something that
  69. Using a High-Level RabbitMQ Client in GolangMar 10, 2021 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerSo you might already know that the amqp package is awesome and you can get up and running with just 40-50 lines of simple code. Unfortunately, the bare-bones amqp library doesn't handle
  70. The Two Classes of Software EngineerMar 05, 2021 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineer"Software engineer" has become a ubiquitous term for people who write, deploy, architect, or sometimes even simply test code. In reality, I think there are two classes of "software engineers"; t
  71. Top 8 Benefits of Functional ProgrammingFeb 25, 2021 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerFunctional programming is a way to write code where programs are created strictly through functions. Functional programming has gained quite a bit of traction in recent years among the devel
  72. Top 8 Tricks to Learn Coding FastFeb 22, 2021 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerThe journey to becoming a gainfully employed software engineer can feel long. The good news is, you can learn smarter not harder. Apply these eight tricks and you'll be learning to program a lot fa
  73. Is There a Case for Programmers to Unionize?Feb 15, 2021 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerI've seen a lot of buzz recently about software developers wanting to form unions. I'm particularly interested in this topic while I'm #indiehacking boot.dev, where my goal is to provide
  74. View Git Tags with Semver OrderingFeb 09, 2021 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerIf you're like me, you wish all Git tags adhered to the Semantic Versioning standard. Unfortunately, Semver is just a convention, so Git tags can basically be any string of text. By default when y
  75. Why should you learn Golang? [2026]Feb 08, 2021 by Meghan ReichenbachGolang has skyrocketed in popularity year over year, making it one of the best choices for career-conscious developers to learn. As an example, StackOverflow's Developer survey saw it climb in popularity among developers from 10th
  76. What Is Dry Code, and Is It Always A Good Thing?Jan 25, 2021 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineer"Don't repeat yourself", or "DRY" for short, is a somewhat controversial principle of software development. It aims to make code cleaner, which is to say less buggy and easier to wor
  77. The Benefits of Gamified LearningJan 20, 2021 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerWhy was that adjustment to college classes so hard? Sitting through hours of lectures and PowerPoints can be challenging for even the most dedicated students.
  78. NLP is Hard Because Even Humans Don't AgreeJan 19, 2021 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerIn my full-time role at Nuvi, I've been lucky enough to work on a team where we're able to push the boundaries in the natural language processing field. We built out several different "fa
  79. The 8 Crucial Mistakes Holding You Back From a Programming JobJan 18, 2021 by Zulie Rane - Data analysis and computer science techincal authorIf you're reading this article, you're well aware of the great benefits that come with a programming job - high salaries for programmers, an expanding job mar
  80. Writing a Binary Search Tree in Python with ExamplesJan 12, 2021 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerA binary search tree, or BST for short, is a tree where each node is a value greater than all of its left child nodes and less than all of its right child nodes. Read on for an i
  81. Building a Linked List in Python with ExamplesJan 11, 2021 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerA linked list is a linear data structure where elements are not stored next to each other in memory. Unlike and array, elements in a linked list use pointers or references to each othe
  82. The Best Ways To Get a Programming Job with No ExperienceJan 06, 2021 by Winston Wagner - Technical author at Boot.devIt sounds like a pipe dream. A well-paid programming job, with no experience? Get out of town. Well, as it turns out, it's both just about as difficult as you believe, but probably e
  83. The 8 Most Popular Coding Languages of 2026Jan 04, 2021 by Zulie Rane - Data analysis and computer science techincal authorHow can you decide what the most popular coding language is? It's like trying to pick the most popular ice cream flavor - everyone has a favorite. The truth is that different co

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  1. Boot.dev's Refer a Friend ProgramDec 29, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerWe think learning is better with friends! For every person you invite to join, you'll both earn some free gems. As soon as your friend signs up, we'll credit each of your accounts with, at the time
  2. Converting an Array to a JSON Object in JavaScriptDec 21, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerJSON, or "JavaScript Object Notation", is a highly popular data exchange format that's widely used in web development. In this post, we'll explore several simple methods for conver
  3. Should you Learn Computer Science or Software Engineering?Dec 17, 2020 by Winston Wagner - Technical author at Boot.devThe most important thing to understand about these two fields of study is that, ultimately, they are similar. At the end of the day, Software Engineering and Computer Science will b
  4. Guide to Getting a Certificate in Computer ScienceDec 15, 2020 by Zulie Rane - Data analysis and computer science techincal authorThere are so many reasons to want to get a certificate in computer science in 2021, especially when you compare it to alternatives like getting a degree or attending a co
  5. 6 Computer Science Resume ExamplesDec 14, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerIt's really hard to get your foot in the door for engineering interviews, especially if you have no experience and are looking for an entry-level position. Often times, more experienced candidates
  6. The Highest-Paying Computer Science JobsDec 09, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerThere are many jobs within the software industry, and most of them are easier to land or are higher-paying once you land them, if you have a solid grasp of computer science fundamentals. You
  7. The History of Computer Science - A TimelineDec 03, 2020 by Winston Wagner - Technical author at Boot.devThe Antikthyera Mechanism
  8. Computer Information Systems vs Computer ScienceDec 03, 2020 by Winston Wagner - Technical author at Boot.devAs technology continues to advance, the need for professionals who are capable of utilizing and understanding computers continues to grow. This demand creates a strong job market, with excell
  9. Certificates vs Diplomas in Computer ScienceDec 02, 2020 by Zulie Rane - Data analysis and computer science techincal authorWhen I was looking into getting my first job related to programming, I had no idea what the difference between a certificate and a diploma was. I was terrified that I'd have to
  10. Examples of Heuristics in Computer ScienceNov 30, 2020 by Winston Wagner - Technical author at Boot.devHeuristics in computer science and artificial intelligence are "rules of thumb" used in algorithms to assist in finding approximate solutions to complex problems. Often, there's simply too much dat
  11. How to Create a Custom Checkbox Form in VueNov 25, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerYou have a problem. The browser's default checkbox form is ugly and outdated, but importing an entire library just to change the styling seems like overkill. Instead, let's build a custom
  12. How to Make a Custom Slider Component in VueNov 24, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerCreating a custom slider component can be tricky, especially if you want to create a lean standalone Vue component. In this quick article, you'll learn how to build a fully customizable
  13. Why Students Struggle Getting a Job After Coding BootcampNov 19, 2020 by Zulie Rane - Data analysis and computer science techincal authorImagine, like so many folks, that you decide what you want to study when you're just 18. You go to college, finish a four-year degree in mechanical engineering, an
  14. Comprehensive Guide to Learn Computer Science OnlineNov 18, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerBe careful about deciding the best way to learn to code. Not all paths are equally effective. Self-taught developers and bootcamp graduates often struggle a lot to find their fir
  15. Should You Commit the Vendor Folder in Go?Nov 16, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerIf you're asking "should I commit the vendor folder in my Go project to Git?", the answer is "almost always". Let's talk about why committing is generally better than not.
  16. How Long Does It Take To Learn To Code?Nov 10, 2020 by Zulie Rane - Data analysis and computer science techincal authorThere are so many obvious reasons to learn to code: freelancing opportunities, career advancement, salary increase, and personal satisfaction among others. The advantages are so man
  17. How Much Do Software Engineers Make?Nov 09, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerSoftware engineering continues to be one of the most lucrative career paths in the tech industry. The rewards go well beyond a high salary, corporate health insurance plans, and an increased opp
  18. JavaScript vs Java - Differences, Similarities, and HistoryNov 06, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerThe naming of Java and JavaScript confuses many new programmers. They sound so similar, so one might think they have the same use-cases, similar properties, or maybe the s
  19. Top Web Development Programming Languages; A ComparisonNov 04, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerThe software development industry is growing at a break-neck pace. Currently, there are close to 19 million software developers in the world, and this number is expected to do
  20. Base64 vs Base58 EncodingNov 03, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerBase64 is one of the most popular encoding formats for representing data. Have some binary data? Base64 encodes it for convenient readability and parsing. Base58 is just another encoding format (with 58 ch
  21. Learn Go Fast - Top Courses and ResourcesNov 02, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerWant to learn Go fast? The good news is that Go is one of the simplest programming languages out there. It was designed to have a compact feature set, which means you can learn it much fast
  22. Best Practices for Commenting CodeOct 29, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerI often hear that we need more and better comments in the code we write. In my experience, we frequently need better comments, we rarely need more, and we sometimes need less. Before you crucify m
  23. How to Restart All Pods in a Kubernetes NamespaceOct 26, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerWhere I work, we use a repo-per-namespace setup and so it often happens that I want to restart all pods and deployments in a single Kubernetes namespace. Maybe I want to see the sta
  24. Constants in GoOct 22, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerConstants can be confusing and easy to misuse in Go if you are coming from an untyped language. Let's take a look at some of the nuanced details of how they work in Go. It's probably unsurprising, but Go's constants
  25. 6 Things to Avoid When Contributing to Open-Source ProjectsOct 21, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerWith #HacktoberFest being a thing, there has been an influx of devs desperately trying to contribute to their favorite Open-Source projects. Unfortunately, many of these p
  26. Functional Programming Course ReleasedOct 19, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerWe just launched our new "Learn Functional Programming" course, and frankly, I'm a bit exhausted (more on that later). This course is an interactive code-in-the-browser course that teaches the
  27. How To Correctly Validate Passwords - Most Websites Do It WrongOct 15, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerYou've probably visited a site and attempted to sign-up only to be met with errors such as:
  28. 6 Tips for Hiring DevelopersOct 13, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerSo you want to hire a developer? Or maybe you just want to know what is going through the heads of employers like myself. Either way, let's dive right into what I think are best practices for hiring pro
  29. Running Rust in the Browser with Web AssemblyOct 12, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerI've recently been working on getting Rust support in the boot.dev app. To write a more engaging course, I want students to be able to write and execute code right in the browser. As I'
  30. Top 4 Coding Languages To Learn For Beginners in 2026Oct 07, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerCoding languages, tools, and frameworks are in a constant state of flux, improvement, deprecation, and popularity swings. Let's take a look at the top 4 languages for new progra
  31. Education's Shameful State of the ArtOct 05, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerHigher education had its problems before Covid-19. Now the crippling inefficiencies, backbreaking cost, and lack of alternatives are being forced into the spotlight. We're working on what will
  32. How to Structure a Golang ProjectOct 01, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerI lead a team that's responsible for anywhere from 15-25 Go microservices at any given time. We're constantly creating new services and libraries, so it's become important to streamline the project
  33. What Is Entropy In Cryptography?Sep 28, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerIf you're familiar with the laws of thermodynamics, you may recognize the second law as the one that deals with entropy. In the realm of physics, entropy represents the degree of disorder in a syste
  34. How to Make a Simple Vue Custom Select ComponentSep 25, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerCreating a custom select tag with its own styling is notoriously difficult. Sometimes it's impossible to build from scratch without a combination of styled divs and custom JavaScript
  35. Running Python in the Browser with Web AssemblySep 24, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerI've been wanting to expand boot.dev's curriculum, and one of the most requested programming languages has been Python. Because my courses allow students to write and execute code rig
  36. Running Go in the Browser with WASM and Web WorkersSep 23, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerWe've recently made big changes to how we execute Go in the browser on boot.dev and want to explain the enhancements. Web Workers are the reason we've been able to solve some of t
  37. Practical Patterns for Technical WritingSep 22, 2020 by Ben BartenWriting technical documents like API or architectural documentation which exceeds a simple flow diagram can be a daunting task. If you have some experience with technical documents, you will probably agree that there is nothing more f
  38. Elliptic Curve Cryptography: A Basic IntroductionSep 17, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerElliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) is a modern public-key encryption technique famous for being smaller, faster, and more efficient than incumbents. Bitcoin, for example, uses ECC as
  39. "Learn Algorithms" Course ReleasedSep 14, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerWe've launched our new Data Structures and Algorithms course! We wrote this course for engineers who need a refresher on computer science basics or want to learn the fundamentals for the first tim
  40. Is AES-256 Quantum Resistant?Sep 10, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerWith quantum computers getting more powerful each year, many worry about the safety of modern encryption standards. As quantum computers improve in performance and the number of qubits used for calcula
  41. How to Make Pure Functions in GolangSep 07, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerPure functions are often hyped up in the JavaScript world, probably because of the abundance of stateful front end applications. While pure functions have their downsides (i.e. inconvenience, po
  42. Guard Clauses - How to Clean up ConditionalsSep 06, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerOne of the first concepts new developers learn is the if/else statement. If/else statements are the most common way to execute conditional logic. However, complex and nested if/else stat
  43. Create a Golang Video Streaming Server Using HLSSep 04, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerIn this tutorial, we'll go step-by-step through building a video streaming API (which will work for music as well) in Go. Don't worry, it's surprisingly easy to build a robust media
  44. Should You Return Empty or Nil Slices in Go?Sep 03, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerIn Go, we often need to return zero values. Idiomatic Go encourages the use of guard clauses, and guard clauses necessitate the need to return early. When returning early with an error,
  45. Slow Is Smooth, Smooth Is Fast - 25% of Our Time RefactoringSep 01, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerMy team has been spending less of our "free" time working on bugs and features from the backlog, and more time refactoring our code and tests. As a result, and perhaps so
  46. Top 15 Golang Interview Questions [Updated 2026]Aug 31, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerLet's take a look at some good technical questions to be familiar with, whether you are looking to nail your next Golang interview, or if you're the interviewer yourself..
  47. Creating a Custom Tooltip Component in VueAug 28, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerThere are plenty of libraries out there that will have you up and running with a good tooltip solution in minutes. However, if you are like me, you are sick and tired of giant dependency t
  48. Bcrypt Step by StepAug 24, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerBcrypt is a key derivation function, which can be thought of as a special kind of hash function. Its purpose is to slowly convert a piece of input data to a fixed-size, deterministic, and unpredictable output. A
  49. (Very) Basic Intro to Lattices in CryptographyAug 21, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerLattice-based cryptography, an important contender in the race for quantum-safe encryption, describes constructions of cryptographic primitives that involve mathematical lattices. Latt
  50. Shamir's Secret Sharing Step-By-StepAug 18, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerAdi Shamir's Secret Sharing is a cryptographic algorithm that allows distinct parties to jointly share ownership of a single secret by holding shares. The original secret can only be reconstruct
  51. They Who Control EncryptionAug 12, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerIf you've seen The Imitation Game or studied computer science in school, you have likely heard of Enigma, Alan Turing, or some of the other advances in cryptography that took place during the Second Worl
  52. Unexpected Printf Behavior in Go WASM - Nothing PrintsAug 10, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerWhile working on boot.dev's Go Playground, I came across a very strange error. The standard library's fmt.Printf() function prints nothing to the console when called. Nothing.
  53. HMAC and MACs - The Inner Workings of JWTsAug 05, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerHMACs and MACs are authentication codes and are often the backbone of JWT authentication systems. A Message Authentication Code (MAC) is a string of bits that depends on a secret key and i
  54. Your Parent's Internet - How to Mitigate MisinformationJul 31, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerThe age of information is not what we all hoped it would be. We successfully digitized the majority of human knowledge, and we even made it freely accessible to most. Now the
  55. HLS Video Streaming with Node.JS - A TutorialJul 28, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerIn this quick tutorial, we'll build a robust video (or music) streaming API using Node JS. Don't worry, it's surprisingly easy since we will be utilizing a modern protocol, HTTP Live St
  56. (Very) Basic Intro to PGP (GPG)Jul 27, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerPGP, or its open-source alternative, GPG, is a program used to encrypt data such that only an authorized party can decrypt it. In this introduction, we will cover its use-cases and a high-level overv
  57. (Very) Basic Intro to the Scrypt HashJul 25, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerScrypt is a slow-by-design key derivation function designed to create strong cryptographic keys. Simply put, the purpose of the Scrypt hash is to create a fingerprint of its input data but to d
  58. Authenticate Users with "Sign In With Google" in GolangJul 22, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerUsers love convenience. If your goal is to make it easy for users to register with your app or website, then implementing the "Sign in with Google" option should be at the top
  59. How to Create a Custom Toggle Switch Component in Vue.jsJul 21, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerCustom toggle switches are a pain to code from scratch. So many lines for such a simple UI widget! In this quick tutorial, we will learn how to build a fully encapsulated tog
  60. Rust Backend vs Go Backend in Web DevelopmentJul 17, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerRust and Go are two of the industry's biggest successes when it comes to developing modern programming languages. Both languages compete in terms of backend web development, and it's a
  61. Vue History Mode - Support Legacy Hash URLsJul 15, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerWhen we first launched the boot.dev's single-page-app, we were using Vue Router's default hash routing. Hash routing looks ugly to the end-user, and when you want to be able to share part
  62. What is SHA-256?Jul 08, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerSHA-2 (Secure Hash Algorithm 2), of which SHA-256 is a part, is one of the most popular hash algorithms around. A cryptographic hash, also often referred to as a "digest", "fingerprint" or "signature", is an almost
  63. How to Rerender a Vue Route When Path Parameters ChangeJul 07, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerIn single-page apps that use the Vue Router, it's common to create a path parameter that changes the behavior of a route. Often a problem occurs however when a user alters the
  64. Announcing a "Basic Intro to Coding" Course in JavaScriptJul 06, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerThe boot.dev app - our new gamified learning platform - just launched its first JavaScript coding course! This one is short, sweet, and to the point. We created a thirty-exe
  65. Boot.dev Launches Golang Crash Course - Learn GoJul 02, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerWe just launched the new boot.dev computer science platform and can't be more excited. Our first crash course in Go, "Learn Go" is now available! We teach students by allowing them t
  66. Running Go in the Browser With Web Assembly (WASM)Jul 01, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerIf you are familiar with the Go Playground, then you know how convenient it is to be able to have a Go scratchpad in the browser. Want to show someone a code snippet? Want to quick
  67. How to Make Maps in GoJun 29, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerMaps are similar to JavaScript objects, Python dictionaries, and Ruby hashes. Maps are a data structure that provides key-value mapping.
  68. How to Get Consistent Line Breaks in VS Code (LF vs CRLF)Jun 18, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerHave you ever had the problem where you submit a pull request and the diff is much larger than it should be? Maybe the code looks identical, but GitHub tells you it's comple
  69. Simple Setup - Vue Linting in VS CodeJun 17, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerI'm a gopher by nature, so I expect consistent styling and linting in my codebases. More importantly, I don't like to think about styling. I like to type haphazardly and then have my editor app
  70. Go-CoNLLU - Some Much Needed Machine Learning Support in GoJun 08, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerPython is commonly seen as the AI/ML language, but is often a dull blade due to unsafe typing and being slow, like really slow. Many popular natural language processing to
  71. Go's WaitGroup vs JavaScript's PromiseAllJun 04, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerIn applications that are i/o heavy, it can get clunky to synchronously execute high-latency functions one after the other. For example, if I have a web page that needs to request seven file
  72. How to Sort a Slice in GoMay 27, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerSorting is a common task in programming, and for that reason, most languages have a default sorting algorithm in their standard library. Go is one such language. Go has gone about providing sorting functio
  73. Using Concurrent Subscribers With RabbitMQ in Python (pika)May 26, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerIt's a fairly common scenario to subscribe to a Rabbit queue and process messages before acknowledging receipt. The pika package for dealing with RabbitMQ in Python howeve
  74. Don't Go To Casting Hell - Use Default Native Types in GoMay 21, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerGo is strongly typed, and with that, we get many options for simple variable types like integers and floats. The problem arises when we have a uint16, and the function we ar
  75. How to Break From Nested Loops in RustMay 14, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerLoops in Rust aren't the same as standard C-style languages. The syntax is different and there are some powerful options that make looping easier. First, let's go over some looping basics, the
  76. Variable Shadowing In Rust - "Let" Is Immutable But Not ConstantMay 13, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerLet's take a look at some of the common pitfalls with the keywords let and mut. Then, we will learn how immutable != constant by using variable shadowing.
  77. Quantum Programming 101: Backend MonitorMay 12, 2020 by Macauley Coggins - Researcher and Founder of Quantum Computing UKIn a previous tutorial we showed how you can get basic information on all quantum devices using backendoverview().
  78. Concurrency In Rust; Can It Stack Up Against Go's Goroutines?May 11, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerOne of the primary goals of the Go programming language is to make concurrency simpler, faster, and more efficient. With Rust growing in popularity let's see how its con
  79. Rust vs Go - Which Is More Popular?May 06, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerGo and Rust are two of the hottest compiled programming languages, but which is more popular, Go or Rust?. I develop in Go full-time and love it, and I'm learning more about Rust recently - it's
  80. Achieving Data Integrity Using CryptographyMay 04, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerData integrity refers to the accuracy, legitimacy, and consistency of information in a system. When a message is sent, particularly using an untrusted medium, data integrity provides us w
  81. Range Over Ticker In Go With Immediate First TickApr 30, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerThe Go standard library has a really cool type - Ticker. Tickers are used when you want to do something at a regular interval, similar to JavaScript's setInterval. Here's an example
  82. (Very) Basic Intro To White-Box CryptographyApr 27, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerWhite-box cryptography combines methods of encryption and obfuscation to embed secret keys within application code. The goal is to combine code and keys in such a way that the two are in
  83. Using 'Go Generate' To Deploy Multi-Process AppsApr 22, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerIn microservice architectures, it's fairly common to have a project that includes different worker types. A Makefile can be used to manage the creation of multiple programs, but the
  84. What Are Golang's Anonymous Structs?Apr 21, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerAn anonymous struct is just like a normal struct, but it is defined without a name and therefore cannot be referenced elsewhere in the code.
  85. Quantum Programming 101: Superdense Coding TutorialApr 20, 2020 by Macauley Coggins - Researcher and Founder of Quantum Computing UKSuperdense coding is a quantum communications protocol that allows a user to send 2 classical bits by sending only 1 qubit.
  86. Announcing Go-TinyTime, Go-TinyDate's Sister PackageApr 02, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineertime.Time is the perfect choice for handling times in Go in most cases, it even comes in the standard library! The problem is that the time.Time{} struct uses more than 24 bytes
  87. Golang Conversions - Ints To Strings And Strong TypingMar 31, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerGo is a strongly typed language, which means at any point a developer should know exactly what type of value they are dealing with. For example, if we have a function that prin
  88. How To Separate Library Packages in GoMar 29, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerI've often seen, and have been responsible for, throwing code into packages without much thought. I've quickly drawn a line in the sand and started putting code into different folders (which i
  89. I Wrote Go-TinyDate, The Missing Golang Date PackageMar 23, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineertime.Time makes dealing with dates and times in Go a breeze, and it even comes bundled in the standard library! However, a time.Time{} struct uses more than 24 bytes of memory un
  90. Mutexes in GoMar 19, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerGolang is King when it comes to concurrency. No other language has so many tools right out of the box, and one of those tools is the standard library's sync.Mutex{}. Mutexes let us safely control access to data across
  91. Interfaces in GoMar 15, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerInterfaces in Go allow us to treat different types as the same data type temporarily because both types implement the same kind of behavior. They're central to a Go programmer's toolbelt and are often used improper
  92. Wrapping Errors in Go - How to Handle Nested ErrorsMar 09, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerErrors in Go are a hot topic. Many newcomers to the language immediately level their first criticism, "errors in go are clunky! Let me just use try/catch!" This criticism is well-
  93. JWT Authentication in GolangFeb 20, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerGo is becoming very popular for backend web development, and JWT's are one of the most popular ways to handle authentication on API requests. In this article, we'll go over the basics of JWT's and how t
  94. How Do Brute-Force Attackers Know They Found The Key?Feb 11, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerTo "Brute Force" something (when talking about computers) means to systematically try every possible combination until you find the right answer.
  95. AES-256 Cipher – Python Cryptography ExamplesFeb 06, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerWant to encrypt text with a password or private key in Python? AES-256 is a solid symmetric cipher that is commonly used to encrypt data for oneself. In other words, the same person who
  96. Will Banning Cryptography Keep the Country Safe?Feb 05, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerPoliticians in the United States have been claiming recently that end-to-end encryption is certainly too dangerous to permit. This movement is serious. Congress even introduced a bil
  97. How To Cache Images - React Native Expo (Managed)Feb 04, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerCaching images in React Native can be easy, even if you are using Expo's managed workflow. The problem many devs run into is that React Native only supports caching images on IOS ou
  98. Is Open-Source Cryptography Really Secure?Jan 30, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerThe purpose of cryptography is to keep information private, and the purpose of open-source is to make code public... So we shouldn't open-source our cryptography algorithms right?
  99. Hashing Passwords - Python Cryptography ExamplesJan 29, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerBuilding a from-scratch server or using a lightweight framework is empowering. With that power comes responsibility, specifically the responsibility to securely store user's password
  100. Why is Exclusive Or (XOR) Important in Cryptography?Jan 18, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerIf you are getting into cryptography, or just trying to understand the fundamentals, you may have noticed that the exclusive or (XOR) operation is used quite often, especially in
  101. JavaScript With Statement Explained – A Deep DiveJan 15, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerJavaScript's built-in with statement specifies the default object for the given property and gives us a shorthand for writing long object references. More precisely, it adds the giv
  102. JavaScript Map Function Explained - A Deep DiveJan 12, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerThe built-in JavaScript map function returns a new array, where each element in the new array is the result of the corresponding element in the old array after being passed through a
  103. BitBanged SPI in Go, An ExplanationJan 09, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerI'm going to focus mostly on some design decisions and also how I went about writing an SPI interface using Go on a Raspberry Pi. I assume my readers have a basic understanding of what a Raspberr
  104. Top 8 Online Crypto CommunitiesJan 08, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerCrypto has been explosive in 2021. The gains have been even better than the memes! While dancing cat videos are fun, the wise will also take advantage of the various communities as an opportunity to
  105. Top 6 Golang Logging Best PracticesJan 07, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerLet's discuss a few rules of thumb for logging in Go, as well as some features you may not have heard of that can make debugging easier. Best practices for logging in Go are not so obvious and so
  106. Cryptography Trends And News Going Into 2020Jan 03, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerQuantum computing may not be coming quite as fast as some in the field had certainly feared (or perhaps hoped). Google did, however, solve an impressive problem this year.
  107. Intro to The AES-256 CipherJan 02, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerAES, or "Advanced Encryption Standard", is an encryption specification that uses the Rijndael cipher as its symmetric key ciphering algorithm. AES encrypts a message with a private key, and no one but th
  108. (Very) Basic Intro to Hash Functions (SHA-256, MD5, etc)Jan 01, 2020 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerHash functions are used to securely store passwords, find duplicate records, quickly store and retrieve data, among other useful computational tasks. As a practical example,

2019 17

  1. Basic Intro to Key Derivation FunctionsDec 30, 2019 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerA Key Derivation Function, or KDF, is a cryptographic algorithm that derives one or more secret keys from a secret value. If you've ever needed to store a password in a database or create a p
  2. Cryptology vs Cryptography - Definitions and DifferencesDec 16, 2019 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerMany new developers are jumping right into writing code, usually for those fat paychecks, without learning much about the history of Computer Science. Alan Turing is recogniz
  3. Boot.dev's Lead Engineer Interviewed on "Running in Production"Dec 09, 2019 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerThe podcast is available here.
  4. Building Alerts with Percolate Queries in ElasticSearchNov 14, 2019 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerOnce upon a time, a company I worked for had a problem, we had thousands of messages flowing through our data pipeline every second, and we wanted to be able to send real-time
  5. Which Method of Iteration in JavaScript is Fastest?Nov 08, 2019 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerThere are many ways to traverse an array in Javascript. In this benchmark, we will look at five different ways and the pros and cons of each. Keep in mind that these benchmarks we
  6. Singletons in ES6 - The Good, The Bad, The UglyNov 04, 2019 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerSingletons are fairly controversial as far as I can tell, especially in JavaScript programming. Let's take a look at what they are, when to (maybe) use them, and when not to.
  7. How to Create Constant Maps, Slices, & Arrays in GolangOct 21, 2019 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerThe quick answer is that Go does not support constant arrays, maps or slices. However, there are some great workarounds.
  8. Systems and Processes that Aren't in Code are TerrifyingOct 03, 2019 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerMy worst enemy is processes that a developer spun up years ago on a server everyone has forgotten about. I don't know how to find these systems reliably, I don't know where t
  9. How to Recursively Traverse JSON ObjectsSep 22, 2019 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerI've found that it's pretty rare that I need recursion in application code, but every once in a while I need to write a function that operates on a tree of unknown depth, such as a JSON obje
  10. How to Secure Your BitcoinAug 30, 2019 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerIf you're new to Bitcoin and cryptocurrency, you may have heard the common phrase not your keys not your coins. While self-custody isn't for everyone, it's the only way to truly have exclusive control ove
  11. Security in DependenciesAug 21, 2019 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerChoosing the right dependencies is a difficult task. Assuming the developer of an application is the best programmer in the world, the "best" thing to do would be to write the entire codebase alone. This wo
  12. Encoding vs Encryption - They Aren't the SameAug 14, 2019 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerWhile encryption does involve various methods of encoding data, the two are absolutely not interchangeable. In fact, if you get them mixed up it can result in serious data breaches and
  13. Automatic Cross-Platform Deployments with ElectronAug 08, 2019 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerThis is a tutorial on how to set up an Electron app on Travis CI, so that new versions are deployed to GitHub Releases with a simple pull request.
  14. Creating and Remembering a Strong PassphraseAug 03, 2019 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerWe all have hundreds of online accounts. Ideally, as many of those accounts as possible have unique passwords. Unique passwords however present a difficult problem.
  15. BIP 32 Watch-Only WalletsJul 25, 2019 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerBitcoin improvement proposal 32 is, in my opinion, one of the most important BIPs we have. (Thanks Peter Wuille!) BIP 32 gave us Hierarchical Deterministic Wallets, which grant the ability to create a tree
  16. Trustworthy vs Trustless AppsJul 23, 2019 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerIn the wake of the hearings about Facebook's new Libra blockchain, it is more important than ever that we all understand the difference between trustworthy and trustless apps.
  17. Secure Random Numbers in Node.jsJul 03, 2019 by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineerQuick answer: use crypto.randomBytes() for cryptographically secure randomness in Node.js.

1997 1

  1. Deep Blue Was Not ChatGPTJun 24, 2026 by Boot.dev Team - Programming course authors and video producersIt's May 11th, 1997, and Garry Kasparov sits in front of a chessboard on the 35th floor of a Manhattan skyscraper.