Can we talk about those free online coding bootcamps?

Signed up for one last month. Thought it would be a solid way to learn Python on the cheap. Total mess. The videos were from 2019 and half the links were dead. No instructor. Just a forum with 2 people answering questions. I spent more time fixing broken code examples than actually learning. Gave up after 3 sessions. Switched to a $15 Udemy course and got further in one weekend. Anyone else get burned by these 'free' resources that just waste your time?

2 comments

2 Comments

claire9991mo ago

Oh man, that's rough. I had almost the same experience with a free web dev bootcamp. The videos felt like they were recorded on a potato and the guy kept coughing into the mic. I get that free stuff has limits but when the code literally doesn't run because they used a library from 2017, it's not even worth the bandwidth. Good call on the Udemy course though, that's what I ended up doing too and it's night and day.

jesse_burns81mo agoMost Upvoted

Honestly that potato comment made me laugh because it's so true. Some of those free bootcamps feel like they were filmed in a basement with a webcam from 2012. Ngl I had one where the guy was using an outdated version of React and kept complaining about bugs that were fixed years ago. It's wild how some people think "free" means "no quality control at all." Tbh at that point you're better off just reading the docs or watching a five year old tutorial that at least had some effort put into it.