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For total beginners & the career-confused

Learn to code and grow your career, in plain words.

New to coding? Start here. Every idea is explained in plain words — with an everyday example, code you can run right on the page, and the exact result to expect.

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lessons
210
learning paths
24
career trees
28
Built bycodewithowais

Paths

What should I learn?

24 paths, grouped so they're easy to scan. Not sure which is you? Start with the basics below — they help with every path. Each track is an ordered roadmap: learn this, then this.

Build

Build what people use6 paths

Make the apps, sites, and games people open every day.

Good first path9 steps

Frontend

You build the screens people actually use — buttons, pages, and everything they see and click.

See the roadmap
9 steps

Backend

You build the app's engine. It saves data, checks passwords, and does the hard work users never see.

See the roadmap
9 steps

Full-stack

You do a bit of everything: the screens people see, and the engine behind them. This path suits people who like variety.

See the roadmap
10 steps

Mobile Developer

You build the apps people install on their phones. This covers everything from the home-screen icon to how it feels to tap around inside.

See the roadmap
Good first path10 steps

UI/UX Designer-to-Developer

You already think about how things should look and feel. This path teaches you to build those designs yourself, in code.

See the roadmap
10 steps

Game Developer

You create interactive games. You write the code and rules, and shape the feel, that turn an idea into something fun to play.

See the roadmap

Data & AI

Work with data & AI4 paths

Find answers hidden in data, build the pipelines that feed it, and make things that learn.

Good first path10 steps

Data Analyst

You dig through data to answer real business questions, like "why did sales drop last month?" Then you explain what you found, clearly, to others.

See the roadmap
9 steps

Data Engineer

You build the pipelines that move, clean, and store data, so analysts and scientists always have data they can trust. It's different from the Data Analyst path: they study the data, you make sure it arrives clean and on time.

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10 steps

Data Scientist / ML

You go further than describing data. You build models that predict things, like which customers might cancel their subscription.

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9 steps

AI Engineer

You build apps powered by AI. This ranges from smart chat features to models that spot patterns in data.

See the roadmap

Ship & run

Ship it & keep it running2 paths

Get code online and keep it fast, safe, and always up.

10 steps

DevOps Engineer

You build the pipelines and tools that move code from a developer's laptop to real users. This happens safely and automatically.

See the roadmap
10 steps

Cloud Engineer

You design and manage the online systems that apps run on. You use services from providers like AWS, instead of physical servers.

See the roadmap

Quality & security

Keep it safe & working2 paths

Catch bugs before users do, and keep attackers out.

10 steps

QA / Test Automation

You make sure software actually works. You test it by hand, and you write code that tests it automatically, every time.

See the roadmap
10 steps

Cybersecurity

You learn how systems get attacked, so you can defend them. You protect data, accounts, and apps from people trying to break in.

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Product & comms

Shape it, explain it, run the team6 paths

Decide what to build, document it, tell its story, and help the team work well — lighter on code.

9 steps

Product Manager

You decide what the team should build and why it matters — not the code itself. Your job is to point everyone at the right problem, then help them ship a solution users actually want.

See the roadmap
Good first path9 steps

Business Analyst

You're the bridge between the business and the tech team. You figure out what the business actually needs, then turn it into clear requirements developers can build. It's light on code and heavy on listening, asking, and writing clearly.

See the roadmap
Good first path9 steps

Product QA

You test the product by hand to catch problems before real users hit them — clicking through it, thinking like a user, and trying to break it. This is hands-on manual and exploratory testing. It's different from the QA / Test Automation path, which is code-heavy and focuses on writing automated tests.

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9 steps

Scrum Master & Agile

You help a team work well together using Agile ways of working — often with little or no coding. It's a facilitation and coaching role, not a boss role, and it only really works when the team genuinely wants to work this way. Done badly, it's just running meetings; done well, it quietly removes the friction that slows everyone down.

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Good first path9 steps

Technical Writer

You turn complicated technical things into clear docs, guides, and tutorials that people can actually follow. It's a real, in-demand job, and one of the most common ways strong writers get into tech without a heavy coding background.

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9 steps

Developer Advocate (DevRel)

You're part engineer, part teacher, part communicator. You help other developers succeed with a product through demos, tutorials, talks, and community — and you carry their honest feedback back to the team that builds it. DevRel is short for Developer Relations.

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Emerging

Emerging & specialized3 paths

Newer or niche fields for when you want something different.

9 steps

Blockchain / Web3 Developer

You build apps that run on a blockchain — smart contracts and the apps on top of them. Be honest with yourself: it's a smaller, fast-moving, and volatile niche, with big swings in hype and jobs. Learn it because the tech interests you, not because of promised riches.

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9 steps

Embedded / IoT Developer

You write low-level code that runs directly on physical devices and sensors — the tiny computers inside gadgets, appliances, and machines. It's a hands-on path where software meets real hardware.

See the roadmap
9 steps

AR / VR (XR) Developer

You build immersive 3D experiences for headsets and phones — augmented reality that adds things to the real world, and virtual reality that drops people into a made-up one. XR is the umbrella word for both.

See the roadmap

Grow

Where can my career go?

Climb from Student to Senior. Then pick your next step: keep building, or lead a team.

See the growth tree

Learn

Understand the hard stuff

Data structures, algorithms, design patterns, and more. Each one has an everyday example and code you can run.

Open the lessons