What is your goal?
The first thing you have to do is to decide why you want to learn to code and what the potential outcome would be? Taking a few moments and really think about it – do you want to do programming for a living? Then taking some professional courses would be best. Or maybe you just want to build websites as a hobby? Then you can start small and do a few free online lessons.
Start from the basics
No matter if you want to become a professional or just having some fun, start small and start from the very beginning. College usually lasts 4 years for a reason – you can’t possibly learn everything you need to know in just a week. Allocate few hours a week (or how many you can) solely to studying coding and be patient – progress will come with time.
Use kids apps
Kids apps are great for complete beginners! They tend to be very clear and good at explanations, and who doesn’t love children games? https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/editor/?tip_bar=getStarted
Use YouTube and other free resources
There are a lot of various computer science online schools, courses and video channels out there and most of them are indeed to pay for but many offer free introductory courses. Do a few online lessons, see what you like best and then consider paying for further knowledge. https://www.codecademy.com/
Books are good, too!
You might think it is quite stupid to learn online coding from offline sources but books offer good theory base and proper explanations of concepts. There are also a lot of free coding e-books available online – no need to spend money!
Play programming games!
Fill in your iPad with useful games! It would be 2-in-1: learning something new but playing as well. There are tons of games, both for computers and for phones/tablets available on the web – download a few and start improving your skills! https://code.org/learn
Get a mentor
It is like studying engineering – you can get a mentor and learn from those who already know the subject. The coding community is huge and many people are happy to help the younger generations and pass their knowledge to someone else.
Learn with your friends!
Even if you are the only one in your group of friends who is thinking about coding, you can find a lot of people online who are just in the same starting position as you are. Gather up and learn together! Online platforms like Codeacademy allow you to take courses with friends and study together.
Consider training programmes
If you have already done all the tasks on this list and want to take a step further, consider taking an extensive training course – not in an online school but with real-life instructors and physical meetings. This might be a costly investment but what do we need the money for anyway if not to pursue our goals and dreams?
University courses
Taking a coding course at your local university or college is an alternative to training programs. These courses tend to be much cheaper but will also provide you with opportunities to interact with other students and teachers.