FreeCodeCamp

Before founding freeCodeCamp, Quincy Larson was a school director for six years before he started to learn to code so that he could create tools for making schools more efficient.{{cite web |last1=SE Daily |date=20 December 2019 |title=freeCodeCamp with Quincy Larson podcast |url=https://softwareengineeringdaily.com/2019/12/20/freecodecamp-with-quincy-larson/ |access-date=22 March 2020 |website=Software Engineering Daily}} His own journey into learning to code was long and winding{{cite web |last1=Larson |first1=Quincy |date=13 November 2014 |title=A Cautionary Tale of Learning to Code. My own. |url=https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/a-cautionary-tale-of-learning-to-code-my-own-eddb24d9d5a7/ |access-date=23 March 2020 |website=freecodecamp}} and he recognized the need for a single-track curriculum for new developers. Upon analyzing data on coding boot camps in the US and realizing how inaccessible coding education was,{{cite web |last1=Larson |first1=Quincy |date=9 November 2014 |title=Free Code Camp's First Month |url=https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/free-code-camp-s-first-month-9bed140da1f4/ |access-date=22 March 2020 |website=freecodecamp}} he set out to create a fully-online inclusive free platform for peer-driven learning of coding — the result of which is freeCodeCamp.

He currently lives in Texas with his family and spends his time working on freeCodeCamp, writing and interviewing authors for the freeCodeCamp publication, co-ordinating open source projects such as Chapter (a free and open-source Meetup alternative),{{cite web |title=Chapter |url=https://github.com/freeCodeCamp/chapter |website=GitHub}} advocating for a free and open internet{{cite web |last1=Larson |first1=Quincy |date=16 March 2017 |title=The future of the open internet |url=https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/inside-the-invisible-war-for-the-open-internet-dd31a29a3f08/ |access-date=22 March 2020 |website=freeCodeCamp}} and playing with his two young kids.{{Citation needed|date=January 2024}}

File:Budapest, UP center, freeCodeCamp.jpg

freeCodeCamp was launched in October 2014 and incorporated as Free Code Camp, Inc. The founder, Quincy Larson, is a software developer who took up programming after graduate school and created freeCodeCamp as a way to streamline a student's progress from beginner to being job-ready.

In a 2015 podcast interview, he summarized his motivation for creating freeCodeCamp as follows:

freeCodeCamp is my effort to correct the extremely inefficient and circuitous way I learned to code. I'm committing my career and the rest of my life towards making this process as efficient and painless as possible. [...] All those things that made learning to code a nightmare to me are things that we are trying to fix with freeCodeCamp.{{cite web |title=Free Code Camp with Quincy Larson |url=https://softwareengineeringdaily.com/2015/10/28/free-code-camp-with-quincy-larson/ |first=Pranay |last=Mohan |website=Software Engineering Daily |date=28 October 2015 |access-date=16 January 2017}}

The original curriculum focused on MongoDB, Express.js, AngularJS, and Node.js and was estimated to take 800 hours to complete.{{cite web |title=Our 1,600 Hour JavaScript Coding Curriculum |url=https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/our-1-600-hour-javascript-coding-curriculum-d4f151b782d2/ |author=freeCodeCamp |website=freeCodeCamp.org |date=30 April 2015 |access-date=29 January 2017}} Many of the lessons were links to free material on other platforms, such as Codecademy, Stanford, or Code School. The course was broken up into “Waypoints” (quick, interactive tutorials), “Bonfires” (algorithm challenges), “Ziplines” (front-end projects), and “Basejumps” (full-stack projects). Completing the front-end and full-stack projects awarded the student with respective certificates.

The curriculum was updated in January 2016 to rely less on outside material, remove the unconventional section names, and switch focus from AngularJS to React.js as the front-end library of choice. There were a number of additions to the coursework, including D3.js and Sass, which brought the total time estimate to 2,080 hours and two more certificates, data visualization, and back-end.

Also in 2016, freeCodeCamp ran a survey on about 15,000 developers with questions on basic demographics and coding-related.{{Cite web |last=Coldewey |first=Devin |date=2016-05-04 |title=Free Code Camp survey reveals demographics of self-taught coders |url=https://techcrunch.com/2016/05/04/free-code-camp-survey-reveals-demographics-of-self-taught-coders/ |access-date=2024-01-23 |website=TechCrunch |language=en-US}} Some findings include "only 18 percent said they’d like to work for a startup" and "thirty-eight percent don’t plan on specializing in UX, backend stuff or other specific disciplines".

In November 2017, freeCodeCamp launched a podcast.{{Cite web |date=2017-11-17 |title=The freeCodeCamp Podcast is live. Here are 6 episodes you can binge-listen now. |url=https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/the-first-6-episodes-of-the-new-freecodecamp-podcast-ready-for-you-to-binge-on-e9391055edc0/ |access-date=2024-01-16 |website=freeCodeCamp.org |language=en}} Following a hiatus from November 2019 to August 2023,{{Cite web |date=2023-07-12 |title=The freeCodeCamp Podcast Season #2: Quincy's Back to Interview Devs |url=https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/freecodecamp-podcast-season-2-developer-interviews/ |access-date=2024-10-20 |website=freeCodeCamp.org |language=en}} the podcast is currently released weekly and as of October 2024, has 146 episodes. The podcast has had some notable guests such as Joel Spolsky (creator of Trello and Stack Overflow), Jeff Atwood (co-founded Stack Exchange), and David J. Malan (lead instructor of CS50).{{Cite web |title=freeCodeCamp Podcast |url=https://freecodecamp.libsyn.com/ |access-date=2024-03-08 |website=freecodecamp.libsyn.com |language=en}}

freeCodeCamp launched its internet radio station titled [https://coderadio.freecodecamp.org/ Code Radio] in 2018. It originally started as a YouTube live stream and later moved to its own website, promising to be faster and data efficient. Music streamed on Code Radio are of instrumental downtempo genre.{{Cite web |last=Larson |first=Quincy |date=2019-07-18 |title=Code Radio: 24/7 music designed for coding |url=https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/code-radio-24-7/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250131064853/https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/code-radio-24-7 |archive-date=2025-01-31 |access-date=2025-06-27 |website=freeCodeCamp.org |language=en}}{{Cite web |date=2024-12-09 |title=Introducing Code Radio: Your Productive Soundtrack for Coding |url=https://thelinuxcode.com/introducing-code-radio-your-productive-soundtrack-for-coding/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250627082437/https://thelinuxcode.com/introducing-code-radio-your-productive-soundtrack-for-coding/ |archive-date=2025-06-27 |website=The Linux Code}}

File:FreeCodeCamp logo.png

The self-paced curriculum{{Cite news|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurencebradford/2016/12/08/11-websites-to-learn-to-code-for-free-in-2017/#1cdf00b77892|title=11 Websites To Learn To Code For Free In 2017|last=Bradford|first=Laurence |newspaper=Forbes |date=8 December 2016 |access-date=2017-01-29}} involves 1,400 hours of interactive coding challenges and web development projects, plus 800 hours of contributing to open-source{{cite web |title=Free Code Camp |url=https://www.freecodecamp.org |access-date=2019-12-05}} projects for nonprofits and is constantly expanded by more challenges and projects.{{Cite news |last=Garfield |first=Robynn |date=26 April 2016 |title=Students learn to code for free while donating skills to nonprofits |url=http://www.ksl.com/?nid=1012&sid=39516051 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170204130534/http://www.ksl.com/?nid=1012&sid=39516051 |archive-date=2017-02-04 |access-date=2017-01-29 |work=KSL-TV |language=en}} This translates into about one year of full-time coding. The curriculum is divided into Responsive Web Design, JavaScript Algorithms and Data Structures, Front End Libraries, Data Visualization, APIs and Microservices, and Information Security and Quality Assurance. Participants receive a certificate after completing each section.{{cite web |title=Free Code Camp Curriculum |url=https://learn.freecodecamp.org |website=freeCodeCamp |access-date=2019-12-05}}

The curriculum emphasizes pair programming, intended to foster a culture of collaboration and shared learning, which can overcome a student's doubts about the adequacy of their skills (popularly referred to as “impostor syndrome”).{{Cite news |title=You Can Do Real-World Work at This Free Coding Boot Camp |first=Klint |last=Finley |newspaper=Wired |date=18 June 2015 |url=https://www.wired.com/2015/06/can-real-world-work-free-coding-boot-camp/ |access-date=January 1, 2017}}

The languages and technologies currently taught by freeCodeCamp include HTML, PHP, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery, Bootstrap, Sass, React.js, Node.js, Python, Express.js, MongoDB, SQL, and Git.{{cite web |url=https://www.freecodecamp.org/map |title=freeCodeCamp's map of challenges |access-date=2017-01-13}}

File:Npm explainer tutorial video - Expand Your Project with External Packages - Managing Packages with npm - freeCodeCamp Tutorial.webm

To celebrate freeCodeCamp's 8th birthday on October 25, 2022, Quincy Larson published a tweet that announced free accredited degree programs in mathematics and computer science are currently in active development. Official release dates are still to be determined.{{cite web |url=https://twitter.com/ossia/status/1584952740605677568?s=19 |title=Quincy Larson's free college degrees announcement |access-date=2022-10-25}}

In 2023, freeCodeCamp partnered with Microsoft to develop a Foundational C# Certification.{{Cite web |last=Savage |first=Katie |date=2023-08-28 |title=Announcing the New Foundational C# Certification with freeCodeCamp |url=https://devblogs.microsoft.com/dotnet/announcing-foundational-csharp-certification/ |access-date=2024-01-16 |website=.NET Blog |language=en-US}}

Launched in 2015, the freeCodeCamp YouTube channel reached 10 million subscribers in October 2024.{{Cite web |title=freeCodeCamp.org |url=https://www.youtube.com/@freecodecamp |access-date=2024-01-16 |website=YouTube |publisher=Google LLC}} The channel contains more than 700 full-length free-to-watch programming courses, and new courses are published every week.{{Cite web| url=https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/freecodecamp-press-kit/| title=freeCodeCamp Press Kit| website=freeCodeCamp.org News| publisher=freeCodeCamp| date=2022-07-14| access-date=2023-04-17}}

Until 2017, as students of freeCodeCamp finished all certificates of the curriculum, they get the opportunity, and were encouraged, to work with nonprofit organizations.{{Cite news |url=http://www.inc.com/larry-kim/7-more-places-to-learn-to-code-for-free.html|title=7 (More) Places to Learn to Code for Free |first=Larry |last=Kim |date=2015-06-24 |work=Inc. |language=en|access-date=2017-01-29}} Examples include Indonesia-based nonprofit Kopernik{{cite web |url=https://www.recruiter.com/i/employers-are-crowdsourcing-coding-heres-why/ |title=Employers Are Crowdsourcing Coding: Here's Why |first=Joseph |last=Rauch |date=1 June 2015 |work=Recruiter.com |access-date=2017-01-24}} and People Saving Animals.

In 2016, freeCodeCamp announced their "Open Source for Good" initiative, which extends and open sources their nonprofit work to all nonprofits and organizations to use.{{Cite web|url=https://medium.freecodecamp.org/open-source-for-good-1a0ea9f32d5a|title=Open Source for Good|last=Johnson|first=Michael D.|date=23 September 2016 |website=freeCodeCamp |access-date=2017-10-18}} Within ten months of launching, the initiative has created seven open-source tools.{{Cite news |url=https://medium.freecodecamp.org/open-source-for-good-now-its-easier-than-ever-to-code-for-a-cause-91901096c4e0 |archive-url=https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20190118123936/https://medium.freecodecamp.org/open-source-for-good-now-its-easier-than-ever-to-code-for-a-cause-91901096c4e0?gi=4ed511220067 |url-status=dead |archive-date=January 18, 2019 |title=Introducing the Open Source for Good Directory: Help Nonprofits with Code |first=Michael D. |last=Johnson |work=freeCodeCamp |date=21 July 2017 |access-date=2017-10-18 }} Mail for Good is one of the projects, which helps organizations send bulk email messages at a low cost,{{Cite web|url=https://associationsnow.com/2017/09/nonprofit-launches-open-source-take-email-marketing/|title=Nonprofit Launches Open-Source Take on Email Marketing |first=Ernie |last=Smith |date=18 September 2017 |website=Associations Now |language=en-US|access-date=2017-10-18}} which serves as a cheaper alternative to services such as MailChimp.

The three projects listed under "Open Source for Good" directory{{Citation |title=freeCodeCamp/open-source-for-good-directory |date=2023-10-25 |url=https://github.com/freeCodeCamp/open-source-for-good-directory |access-date=2024-01-16 |publisher=freeCodeCamp.org}} have all been archived on GitHub in 2020.{{Citation |title=freeCodeCamp/pantry-for-good |date=2024-01-12 |url=https://github.com/freeCodeCamp/pantry-for-good |access-date=2024-01-16 |publisher=freeCodeCamp.org}}{{Citation |title=freeCodeCamp/mail-for-good |date=2024-01-04 |url=https://github.com/freeCodeCamp/mail-for-good |access-date=2024-01-16 |publisher=freeCodeCamp.org}}{{Citation |title=freeCodeCamp/meeting-for-good |date=2024-01-04 |url=https://github.com/freeCodeCamp/meeting-for-good |access-date=2024-01-16 |publisher=freeCodeCamp.org}}

freeCodeCamp's platform is used by about 350,000 unique visitors per month,{{cite tweet |number=818527316792016897 |user=ossia |first=Quincy |last=Larson |date=9 January 2017 |title=showing website analytics for the end of December 2016 |access-date=2017-01-10}}{{cite web |last=Larson |first=Quincy |url=https://medium.freecodecamp.org/how-to-get-published-in-the-freecodecamp-medium-publication-9b342a22400e#.7zth1t3qa |title=How to get published in the freeCodeCamp Medium publication |date=11 January 2017 |website=freeCodeCamp |access-date=2017-01-12}} with students from over 160 countries.{{Cite web|url=https://techcrunch.com/2016/05/04/free-code-camp-survey-reveals-demographics-of-self-taught-coders/|title=Free Code Camp survey reveals demographics of self-taught coders|last=Coldewey|first=Devin |website=TechCrunch |date=4 May 2016 |access-date=2017-01-29}}

freeCodeCamp has international, community-run groups where students can interact in person.{{Cite news |url=https://medium.freecodecamp.org/free-code-camp-now-has-local-groups-1e0b58bae363 |title=Free Code Camp now has Local Groups |author=freeCodeCamp |date=2015-05-09 |work=freeCodeCamp |access-date=2017-10-12}} Some groups have been featured in local news, citing freeCodeCamp as an introduction to programming in order to fill the estimated vacancy in programming-related jobs in the next decade.{{Cite news |first=Victor |last=Quezada |url=http://newsok.com/okc-residents-coding-camp-gives-students-experience-through-helping-nonprofits/article/5558043 |title=OKC resident's coding camp gives students experience through helping nonprofits |date=2017-07-31 |work=The Oklahoman |access-date=2017-10-12|language=en-US}}{{Cite web |url=http://cms.air1.com/news/2017/09/26/LISTEN-Code-Camp-Teaches-Programming-Helps-Non-Profits.aspx |title=LISTEN: Code Camp Teaches Programming, Helps Non-Profits |first=Jonathan |last=Ellyson |website=Air1 |language=en |date=1 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171012151439/http://cms.air1.com/news/2017/09/26/LISTEN-Code-Camp-Teaches-Programming-Helps-Non-Profits.aspx |archive-date=2017-10-12 |url-status=dead}}

Other technology companies have described freeCodeCamp as, "a renowned charity with a world-class learning platform", and "maintains an excellent YouTube channel, and is a good place to start."{{Cite web |date=2023-06-15 |title=Super-charge your coding skills! - Coding Education - Grasshopper Support |url=https://support.grasshopper.app/t/super-charge-your-coding-skills/58 |access-date=2024-01-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230615074537/https://support.grasshopper.app/t/super-charge-your-coding-skills/58 |archive-date=June 15, 2023 }}

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