Published on: 2024-1-26
Written by Nathan Pulver
Intro
I started learning on boot.dev after hearing recommendations from ThePrimagen and TJ via their YouTube channels and twitch streams. I have been programming in python for close to six years. All of the work I have done has been related to scientific computing, not any sort of software development. As I have gained experience writing code, I really started to fall in love with it but felt I was lacking a lot of fundamental knowledge to keep up with what many developers talk about. This is why boot.dev stood out to me. Starting from the advertising they focus on fundamentals. I also really like that they are not advertising things like “get a tech job in 2 weeks”. As a PhD student, I am fully aware that there is no way to thoroughly learn things in that amount of time. So I signed up.
Thoughts so far
I really like it. I skipped the python intro course because I am very well versed with the syntax of python. I started with the OOP course. Although I knew the syntax of writing classes in python, I never did it. It always seemed like it took too much planning when all I was doing for the most part was calculations and plotting. I think the course taught OOP well, not only in python but the concepts of it as well. I just finished the functional programming course, and it was much harder for me. That being it was a lot of fun, and I am certain I learned a lot in just these two courses. Next up is the data structures and algorithms course. As you can see from these first three courses, they practice what they preach with the focus on fundamentals. This is exactly the sort of learning I was hoping to get. It is also a lot of fun to level up and gain achievements. They are clearly going for a gamified learning model. If that is something you don’t really like then you can mostly ignore it, but I find it quite fun.
Would I recommend boot.dev?
See 2026 update
2026 update
I finished much of the courses but not all of them. I did a bit of Go, the C garbage collection course, the personal projects and I don’t remember what else. I guess I just ran out of motivation. I liked the courses and stuff - but it really comes down to the same thing with all the other online courses - do you have the motivation to start making stuff yourself? I realized the work I am doing outside of boot.dev isn’t really in line with the boot.dev course so I had a hard time applying much of it to my own work. In that sense, boot.dev doesn’t provide any silver bullet. Yes it pushes you to do personal projects and such but really most of it is still just a normal course. The discord community is great for getting help when you’re stuck but the “weekly checkin” which pings you to update your progress and talk about what you’re working on feels robotic. There is just spam of hundreds of users and no responses. So you’re just shouting into the void, sort of like I am doing right now. If there was more interaction maybe that aspect would be more motivating. I tried to do this myself by taking the time to respond to at least 5 people everytime I sent an update but never really got the same back.
Additionally, the personal projects require you to post them for feedback but I, and I have seen many others, often don’t get much feedback. Of course, the feedback part is a free service provided by the other users of boot.dev so it is not like I am blaming anyone, but it feels hollow. I don’t really know if an organic community can form from a paid product like this.
If you like the gamification and earning points, you’d probably do well with boot.dev but don’t think it will be so much different from other online courses. Yes there are influencers who write courses, but that doesn’t really mean anything. Influencers aren’t teachers and teachers are usually not influencers.
See the comment section here for some more feedback from others.