Pick-Up Front-End Web Development Skills Easily with this Udacity Program

Harshit Kedia

07 June 2023

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Course Overview

Front End Web Developer Nanodegree Program aims to provide learners with the skills necessary to create and maintain a wide range of websites and applications. This Nanodegree program will prepare graduates to create responsive websites using CSS, Flexbox, and CSS Grid, develop interactive websites and user interface applications using JavaScript and HTML and connect a web application to backend server data via JavaScript.

The students will also be able to automate application build and deployment with Webpack, and improve the offline performance of websites with Service Worker. This program helps the candidates to learn how to build high-quality websites and dynamic applications to create stunning user experiences for the web.

Some handy knowledge concerning web development will be useful, but the students completely new to this field can take this course as well. The course covers all important aspects of developing a website using modern front-end technologies. They also cover advanced topics like Webpack, React, and service workers.

"This course contains many assignments and projects which helped me apply learned skills and have hands-on experience in HTML, CSS, DOM Manipulation, Git and GitHub."

- Harshit Kedia

Course Structure

This certification program is an intermediate-level course. It is an online course and is designed as a self-paced curriculum keeping the working professionals in mind. It is spread for a duration of not more than 4 months and requires an effort of not more than 10 hours per week. Some of the critical areas you cover in this curriculum include Style Sheets, Document Object Model (DOM), Node.js, HTML, etc.

The professors associated with this course have degrees from renowned institutions in the field of cloud development. The course offers a great opportunity to study under international professors. The applicants get to be a part of a Capstone project that enhances the concepts and lets them learn in an innovative way.

The course offers instructor-moderated discussions that offer great opportunities to make and build connections. The learners get to enjoy the benefits of hands-on training. The curriculum prepares the learners for a career in the real world. Moreover, the prescribed modules of this course are detailed, comprehensive, and practical.

Technically, the course is spread over 3 prime modules formulated as:

Module 1: CSS and Website Layout

Module 2: JavaScript and the DOM

Module 3: Web APIs and Asynchronous Applications

Module 4: Build Tools, Webpack, and Service Worker

Insider Tips

In order to get the best out of this course, below I have included some important tips that I think you might find useful:

Devote Enough Time for Capstone and Assignments

This course contains many assignments and projects that will help you apply your skills and have hands-on experience. I recommend giving enough time and energy to these projects. You will get to learn something new from each project, which may even be challenging at times.

In your first major project, you will be working on your portfolio site using basic HTML and CSS. Later, you can improve this project and keep it your official portfolio website!
Then, in your second project, you will be working on a memory game involving a lot of JavaScript. You will learn how to play around with DOM elements using JavaScript, which is an essential skill. You will also be expected to use Git to version control your project.
In your third project, you will be working on cloning a classic arcade game. This will also be JavaScript heavy, and you will gain good experience in DOM manipulation.
In your fourth project, you will be working on writing tests for a given application. From your fifth project, it will start to get much more demanding.
In your fifth project, you will build a restaurant review app involving APIs.
In your sixth project, you will build a book tracking app. And finally, in your seventh project, you will work on a Neighbourhood map in React, which will cover all the concepts you learned in this course.

Add Git and Terminal to your Charts

Git and GitHub are very essential skills for any developer, no matter what you work on. It makes managing code and collaborating with other developers easier. Almost all the major companies use it. It is even marked as a prerequisite for this course.

First, you should familiarize yourself with basic commands like add, commit, amend, commit, checkout, and push. You should create an account on GitHub and create repositories to play with. If time permits, you should also try advanced Git commands like rebasing, merging, squashing, and resetting. If needed, you can take Udacity’s free course on Git: https://www.udacity.com/course/version-control-with-git--ud123

Learn Prerequisites

Learning web development in one go can be overwhelming. It is important to learn one skill at a time and give your brain some time to absorb new concepts. This course expects some basic understanding of HTML, CSS, JavaScript, git, and debugging in the browser. I would recommend enrolling in some fundamental courses beforehand, such as:

Build a Side Project

As you go through the course and projects, I am sure you will get plenty of themes in your mind to build a website. Being a developer gives you a superpower - you can create anything you can imagine and also help the world with your work. Imagine creating a website to help connect blood donors with patients, a local community (like your college) to share cab rides, or create a classified platform for people to sell and buy used products.

Note down these ideas, research them, and build on the one which seems most promising to you! You might need to collaborate with someone who can create the backend for it.

Overall, it will be like your mini-startup, and you will be a star in your community. This opportunity to learn and polish technical and collaboration skills is too good to be missed! It will also be a great add-on to your resume. You can also create hobby projects like making a tic-tac-toe game web application, which I am sure you will enjoy making. Showcasing such projects to your friends and family will boost your confidence.

Learn Testing Methods

This course does cover how to test your JavaScript code and web application interface. Testing a UI interface and testing a piece of JavaScript code - are two different aspects of testing in front-end development.

Both are equally important and complicated. Testing is often overlooked by beginner programmers, but this is a very important and sought-after skill in the industry. Developing a testing mentality from the beginning will help you to incorporate testing in your code easily later on, as you progress in your career.

Final Take

Currently, I’m working as a Frontend Web Developer at Rippling. I hope you were able to get a fair idea of how this course is going to be like and what it will help you to learn. Learning web development can seem overwhelming at first, but it's also a lot of fun and rewarding if you stick to it. You will eventually learn the essential technical and behavioral skills necessary to be a successful web developer.

If you have completed this course and want to move further in front-end development, the next course I would recommend is: https://www.udacity.com/course/react-nanodegree--nd019.

Key Takeaways

Learn to develop interactive websites and user interface applications using JavaScript, HTML.

Learn to connect a web application to backend server data via JavaScript.

Learn to create responsive websites using CSS, Flexbox, and CSS Grid

Learn to automate application build and deployment with Webpack.

Learn to improve offline performance of websites with Service Worker.

Course Instructors

Harshit Kedia

Software Engineer (UI) / Frontend Developer

Experienced Technical Head with a demonstrated history of working in the computer software industry. Skilled in HTML, Front-end Development, Web Development, and Project Management. Strong informa...