Coding is an important part of modern life. Like knowing how to cook or knowing a second language, programming has become an integral part of self-sufficiency in the modern world, and as time goes by, that's only going to get truer and truer. However, you don't need access to a college education to hone your programming skills—a simple internet connection will do. Whether you're a complete beginner or looking to add to your knowledge, here are some of the best Udemy courses for coding.
Java Tutorial for Complete Beginners
As far as learning languages go, you could stand to do a lot worse than Java. After all, it's good enough for Minecraft, and Minecraft was good enough to buy its creator a $70 million mansion with an enormous wall of candy dispensers.
We're not saying that Java will get you to that point in life, but it will certainly give you a decent tool for your utility belt. This free Udemy course is made of 75 lectures totaling 16 hours. The course has 587,282 students enrolled as of this writing. Nearly 17,000 people have rated it, and it retains a 4.4/5, which seems pretty darn solid, especially since you're not paying for it.
Learn HTML5 Programming From Scratch
This course teaches you to write applications using HTML5. But before it gets around to that, it shows you how to create HTML websites and use CSS. The instructor assumes that you know absolutely nothing, so you get everything you need to go from “complete neophyte” to “writing web applications for browsers and mobile.” The course has a 4.2/5 out of 4,689 ratings and is composed of 46 lectures totaling 10.5 hours. Again, you could do a lot worse for free.
The Unreal Engine Developer Course
People have been asking whether anyone “still” uses C++ since at least 2009, but you know what? They're still asking, and the answer is still “yes”—depending on the application and market, of course.
The Unreal Engine Developer course began life as a Kickstarter campaign, and it came out less than a year ago. However, the course boasts 16,174 students and 3,168 ratings, with an average score of 4.7/5. That seems like a fairly huge percentage of students who took the time not only to rate the course, but to rate it well. It's currently available for $24, down from a list price of $195
C# Basics for Beginners
This introductory C# course is aimed at communicating basics in short videos, using practical examples and lots of exercises for practice. C# is a major language for developing business applications and web development, so it's not a bad one to have under your belt at all.
There are no fewer than 87 videos, covering only 5.5 hours, which means that a lot of the meat of the course is in the quizzes and programming exercises. Currently, the course has 8,258 students enrolled, and 1,559 have rated it, with an average score of 4.7/5. At writing, the course costs $24, down from $50.
Automate the Boring Stuff With Python Programming
This course is aimed at helping students and office workers write little programs to help them with their workflow—from sending emails, to automating your keyboard and mouse, to parsing PDFs and Excel spreadsheets. It assumes that you don't know anything about Python, and it focuses on giving you real, pragmatic reasons to learn to code.
Over 32,000 students have taken the course, and over 2,000 of them have rated it, with an average rating of 4.6/5. A total of 51 lectures cover 9.5 hours of instruction. The textbook that it follows is free, but the course itself is currently $24.