Wednesday, November 7, 2018

The Complete Web Developer Course 2018: Zero To Mastery (ZTM) Comprehensive Review



Two Lines Summary For Those In A Hurry, TL;DR: 
A course that provides value after value again. This has become the most valuable and community-active current Udemy course of the ones I purchased or enrolled.


The Complete Web Developer Course 2019: Zero To Mastery (ZTM) - 30.5 Hours On-Demand Video



Here goes my Zero To Mastery review:

Overall: 
Really good for both refresher and beginners. It is focused on getting a job. Of course, that’s up to you.

I purchased this course on 1 November 2018.  Currently about more than completed 30% the course. I believe the course quality will continue to be good.

Firstly, I am looking specifically for a REFRESHER course that covers html/css/javascript/node/restful api/react. Why? Because I saw that list from Joe’s How does web developer earn money course - post here. This is perhaps the ONLY udemy complete web developer course that covers these specifically. The projects building assignments / exercises will of course be welcome additions relevant to my cause.

 Why This Popular Complete Web Developer Course?

  1. You do not want to scarp for free bits and pieces around the internet for ages trying to put or learn all the MANY different web development elements together but still going nowhere. Your time and energy is not worthless. This course is not about teaching you everything but the common useful matters.
  2. This popular course has a large active community you can reach out to, and for a good reason. You do not want to feel stranded on an island of Udemy ocean.
  3. You want to learn from an evidently experienced developer who can present the complex points across clearly or even simplify without lengthy ramblings.
  4. You want to feel like learning a valuable course that teach you culminating to a professional or impressive project, not just a common school or educational assignment.
  5. You do not want to pay hundreds or thousands for a bootcamp or full institutional certificate that may or may not pay off or a free one that still does not make you attain that professional proficiency. 
  6. Your are willing to pay a generally affordable price tag of less than 15 bucks for quality training of VALUE.
Andrei has posted testimonials of students who got or upgraded jobs here, although that is not the goal for me. RJ Quindoza's testimonial.

Some points to check out before taking Andrei’s Zero To Mastery course:
  • Community support on Udemy & elsewhere (discord)
  • Must not be outdated. 
  • Reviews (many students and above average) 4.7 is acceptable
  • Html/css/javascript/node/restful api/react
  • Long video content of 30 hours
  • Continuation option - even has Part 2: Junior to Senior (Optional depending what you aim for) & a new course on data structures & algorithms recently released 

Going through the course:

This is probably the only Udemy course I saw where Q&A has texting assistant to help answer and even the discord community has a management team. Feels like a professional class. The course is designed in such a way different from any other Udemy course I have taken, you can possibly pair with a programming buddy and even together with course mates contribute to open source projects through Github - no longer just read about. The discord community is impressive. This should be the most active Udemy course I have signed up for, setting a high bar for the rest. I do like the way and what Andrei teaches.
One Of The projects - Landing Page To Sign Up

What I like:
  • Big Discord Community With Support.
  • Important: Delivers value in content - starting even from the beginner who doesn’t know much about internet. So you can become a web developer from scratch without useless information overloading. His developer experience shines as he shows you the essential shortcuts. 
  • A roadmap of first to five months what to learn (his medium post)
  • Does not waste time dragging content
  • Good course content structure
  • Clear presentation and explanation
  • Good resources of current value

Yes Freecodecamp (review here) is free and has its fun and educational value, but to me ZTM (Zero To Mastery) gives better better value in terms of fast tracking to study the essentials and building a more impressive app - Face recognition app - that others like employers can recognise its worth. Just for about $9.99 - $11.99, I prefer ZTM. I took ZTM because I need a refresher course to the Front-end web development certificate from Freecodecamp about 3 years back, and I don’t think I want to go through that really long though conducive course all over again - I think I took like 1.5-2 months full time to complete it. 

Freecodecamp is a detailed roadmap with class or educational assignments i.e. wikipedia search, games, weather and streamers api.

ZTM is an experienced developer guiding with quality content to professionally practical or impressive projects i.e. professional clean landing page with email subscription, star wars api, face detection project. I think Andrei is experienced, clever and gifted enough to teach the essence of what is important to the course subject clearly and effectively.  Which do you think employers want to see or better for personal web development growth should be? Winner.


Another mini project following instructions

 I spent years on my computer studies diploma and beyond including Freecodecamp certificate, so I’m glad Andrei’s course really seem like people can now acquire web developer proficiency just going through his course video content of 30 hours plus coding practise! That saves so much money, effort and time for people. Of course, Andrei’s course is new in comparison but you now have the advantage to leverage on quality and applicable course content for a greater chance of succeeding in getting a coding job or whatever. For just mere 9.99-11.99 bucks, I think it really can help save you thousands and shaved even years off a long computing course if you just want to be equipped with proficient skills of a web developer provided you follow through and put in the coding efforts because Andrei does not waste time and teaches pretty much the current essentials.

I remember I also learned C programming from the Learn 'x' in 21 days legacy series, it kind of helped, but nowadays video learning in condensed form like Udemy is really helpful - It’s fast and effective to learning both visual and audio materials if the instructor is good. Done well it is close to having attended a lecture or class teaching at home or self-paced. And the option to play it faster can also save you time if you were familiar. Oh, one thing about programming courses, you do have to code along and not just watch the videos because you need to ensure there is no problem in getting the results if you do it yourself. Coding can be unforgiving as the little details can cripple your program. The course is structured into easily identifiable sections and lectures so it is good just to refresh and re-learn certain topics, and not feel overwhelmed or discouraged by a long detailed roadmap of challenges. Andrei shared the most common commands or syntax so you just have to follow along to code, meaning you do not have to scroll through the very long documentations to know which to start first, well most will not tell you which are the most popular syntax anyway, so what do you think of saving your time and effort so you can focus on the final goal or project instead - another advantage. It does feel like he was guiding you through how a web developer does his stuffs, kind of like a masterclass with a pro. With this level of teaching and expertise with increasing advanced topics, this can cost much higher as in a bootcamp. You can go learn from Youtube, but don't you think what you want to learn can be all over the place and no strong support if any at all from youtube comments section.
Shopping List Project - DOM & Javascript
Just follow accordingly to what Andrei teaches!

HTML coding from lectures 21, the teachings before 21 is informative, useful and short overview. The videos' visual and voice are clear. 

Andrei uses Sublime Text in the course to have a smooth learning experience for newbies. You can use visual studio code, atom or even emacs/vim later on after. They are all free, except Sublime text which has free evaluation anyway. I setup Visual Code Studio and it is satisfactory, remember to use the Auto-save Off-Focus feature to quickly save so you can check the browser output. No Sublime Text nagging feeling of guilt for not paying continued use. Visual Studio Code is free, easy to use and advance anyway. Oh remember to select the codes for commenting and press cmd+/ on Mac. Ease.

Andrei’s brief explanation in lectures so far makes it easy on beginners and refreshers alike. He gives a good feel to the course and the support going forward reassuring - quite a difference from many other Udemy courses. Even if other Udemy courses may offer good value and clear presentation, still the on-going support must be quite invaluable to students. 

I think there is value in Andrei teaching from his experience. I do have experience in programming/web development but for example I appreciate the subtle instruction he shared like code collapsing to paste more code. Organisation for programming clear overview is important to me at least. And oh did I mention he taught the quick & short but important & useful stuffs, again - no need to learn everything. For example, in Bootstrap he covers smoothly from navbar -> modal -> btn -> layout grid (container/row/col) A layout concept is one I find challenging and I wasn’t alone back in Freecodecamp but Andrei clarified with ease, thanks!  I definitely like the way Andrei explains concepts clearly like some people can if you know what I mean.

Moreover, Andrei went on to teach Mailchimp - free for first 2000 contacts, which is what I was using, and yes it’s good content because I did spent time before this just navigating and understanding how to set it up, so I appreciate and again Andrei can quickly help or save your time.
Background Generator Project - DOM & Javascript

By the end of having learned this Bootstrap plus Mailchimp and Github, you know you can setup a pretty good looking landing page with Mailchimp on your GitHub page, all for free. What value is that? Well, landing page monkey will charge $47 annually for landing pages, optins & hosting.

Another valuable element are the quality online resources introduced, mostly or all free, that I probably missed before OR didn’t knew before. And he introduced good ones! Like where to get good landing pages with email sign ups templates, this alone can save you continuous monthly fees, put to good use, would more than cover the cost of this course, don’t you agree?

I also find value in the structure. So far, Andrei covers and explains the different aspects of web development in a good & logical order I believe so the student can learn with least confusion. For example, he covers flex box first, then next move on and explains why bootstrap. Followed by building in mailing subscription and then GitHub for deployment...

 He does move smoothly from basic to more advance in ZTM itself.  i.e.

// Functions similar examples that I come out with after
// Andrei explaination
// Basic --
function a() {
console.log("Just a simple function named a");
}
a(); // Just a simple function named a

// Next --
var nextA = function() {
console.log("Next way");
}
nextA(); // Next way

//Later --
const laterA = () => "Later on";
console.log(laterA()); // Later on

//Advanced
const advanced = (b,c) => (a) => b(c(a));
const plus = (num) => num + 2;
console.log(advanced(plus, plus)(3)); // 7

// Also covers
// array filter , array map and array reduce
// objects, class, constructor and super, extends and this

Oh wait till he shares his experience and talks about Html, Css and Javascript in Section 8. I kind of agree with him on this. You can spend a lot of time without the right focus. ZTM stays current with the popular technologies (2018), I am inclined to agree with his choices that he picked for good reason of the many available options out there, so that can accelerate your skill learning value just by following along and concentrates on this path. Further, he moves on to share with research about career of a web developer. 

 As mentioned in this post 4.8/5 Or Higher Rated Udemy Technology Related Courses, please use the back arrow ← to rewind some seconds to reinforce an important point. Know that Andrei is cram-packing what he learned over the years or even concept he struggled as a web developer into digestible video lengths, so you can learn to grasp important concept quickly with a clear explanation i.e. How Javascript works lecture where he covered single thread and nonblocking, and module lecture where he covers the reasoning from Inline Script - Script Tags - IIFE - Browserify to ES6 + Webpack2, something that a scammer or inexperienced instructor can hardly fake don't you agree. Oh on using say Visual Studio Code to learn or comment, you can comment text in html or css or javascript by highlighting the text and press  CMD+/ in mac osx.


The Complete Junior To Senior Web Developer Roadmap (2019) - 33 hours On-Demand Video

How responsive is the discord community?
I did asked my first technical question, and the respond was pretty fast like after about 5/10 minutes by a management staff with an accurate solution after he looked. I guess this is very good in terms of support compared to some others Udemy courses’ questions that even goes unanswered. Not just discord and Udemy actually, students can also reach out at another dedicated site.

 So far, it gets even more challenging at DOM with Javascript for a Shopping List that can toggle strike-through, delete li item and add new li items with delete function as of today 10 Nov 2018. I'm not doing the course super-fast but consistently. Another tip, in whatever you do, please pace yourself and not overdo it or burn yourself out. For example, you can spend an hour or more each day to learn the lectures and coding but rest when you are too tired. Have a cup of tea 🍵, love your cat 😽 and continue later or next day.

 As a refresher or newbie, it is a big advantage that Andrei also explains from the history the timeline of progress over the years and why certain frameworks to choose or learn instead currently. This is important because if you pick the less useful ones, it can be really time-consuming and less effective use of your effort. If you just google or youtube with tons of results, it is possible to get confused what to settle on. There is no need to learn everything on the internet to get simple things done, and in a better way as taught by Andrei.

If you are a newbie without a web developer course as such, how do you filter out so much noise and colours from general internet or youtube to keep yourself from distracted, overloaded or dis-heartened? 

With a Udemy course this good, no way I am going for a refund, this is a keeper. Honestly, how many people can claim the institutional or other web developer courses they took can measure up to the level of quality Andrei delivers here? Quality deserves to be rewarded, which is understandably why more than 500 students signed up just days after Andrei launch his third new course Master The Coding Interview: Data Structures + Algotithms.

 Master The Coding Interview: Data Structures + Algotithms - 18 Hours On-Demand Video



Whatever you do, choose good and kindness. 

Good luck! 

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