Coding Made Easy

Take a look around you, wherever you are. Chances are, something you just looked at was made with code or uses something that was made with code. Yep — your phone, laptop, tablet and even some of your clothes may have been made with code.

Not all schools offer courses in coding and computer science, but luckily, there are countless free resources out there to help you learn any coding language, whether its Python, CSS or JavaScript. We’ve put together a list of some of the best ones we found for beginners, but as always, definitely leave your suggestions in the comments!

Mozilla’s Appmaker

If you’re just getting started with figuring out what code even does, Mozilla’s Appmaker is perfect for you. It’s a fun interactive where you can build your very own app, which you can eventually download and share with friends! Add a chatroom, a camera, YouTube player and much more. There’s no actual coding, but it’s a great place to get an idea of how good apps are made.

Made With Code

Created by Google as a way to get more girls involved in computer science, Made With Code is a country-wide project that hosts workshops designed to remove the fear from coding and get more girls and women into technology. They have lots of projects on their website, including one where you can add Christmas lights to a fake tree using their Blockly coding language.

Code Studio

Many schools don’t start teaching computer science skills until high school, if ever. Code Studio is designed for coders of all ages, from kindergarden right up to adulthood. Their block-based style of learning is combined with fun games that let you see your progress right away, and you can switch between the blocks and code–a format of learning that even Harvard uses! You can recreate the Flappy Bird game or get Elsa from Frozen to safety.

E.A.K. (Erase All Kittens)

If we know one thing, it’s that the Internet loves cats. In Erase All Kittens, you control the adorable Arca and use HTML and CSS to “hack” into the game code and help save kittens across different imaginary worlds. Best of all, there’s a code editor right in the game so you get to build your code AND rescue cats. Very cool.

Code Academy

If you’re ready to dive right into coding, Code Academy is one of the best ways to get hands-on instruction while building something you can see right away. Their tutorials allow you to recreate popular sites like Flipboard or Etsy from the ground up. Along the way, you learn valuable vocabulary and practices that are essential for writing good code.