News, views & projects

Considering changing your career to work in tech? You’re not alone. Google Trends data suggests that people are searching more often for careers in tech, with a steep increase over the last 18 months. Although it’s great to hear all the good things about working in this industry, true coders like to put things in numbers! We’ve…

The idea behind test driven development is that you let the tests ‘drive’ your development process. How does this work? Start by writing a test that fails, then develop the code to make that test pass, then refactor. This cycle is called red, green, refactor. A diagram to show the red, green, refactor TDD cycle RED: The…

Choosing which programming language to learn can be very daunting. There are over 700 languages currently listed by Wiki. Where should you begin? If you take anything away from reading this, it should be one key point; we strongly recommend learning one language in-depth and not two or three casually. What can happen if I choose…

If you’re starting to code, you’ll have a few different routes to take with your learning process. Everyone is different, so working out what’s the best option for your journey is important. We’ve outlined some pros and cons of bootcamp vs. self-study to help you make a decision. Self Study Pros Cons Coding Bootcamps Pros…

Whether you used to tinker with your MySpace profile or have no idea what the difference is between Python and HTML, one thing’s true: everyone starts somewhere. And the great news is, there are more free (and friendly) ways to get into coding today than ever before. Here are some great places to start… freeCodeCamp…

What even are JavaScript Array Methods? Now that you’re getting started with the basics of JavaScript, at some point soon you’ll likely come across three seemingly magical words in many code examples: .forEach(), .map() and .filter(). When you go to loop through (or iterate through) an array, the first thing you think of is probably a for loop. .forEach(), .map() and .filter() are all just other ways…

You don’t need to study computer programming at uni to get your foot on the coding career ladder. With the right help, training and support, you could go from absolute beginner to junior engineer in as little as 13 weeks — no qualifications required. Here’s how… For those pursuing a career in software development, the…

…for the best thing in JavaScript The array method reduce is the best thing in JavaScript, but it’s only existed as a native method of the language since 2009 or so, when the 5th Edition of ECMAScript was released. Before then, people would have relied on their own or other implementations. Even now, there are arguments for going elsewhere…

Our React teaching team follow developments in the Facebooks UI-creating library very closely. We update our curriculum every 2 weeks, and recently they came across an update worth sharing with everyone! This is a blog for anyone who builds User Interfaces with React! Some very important features are improving – but it’s important everyone knows…

The spread operator is awesome. It can do SO much — it’s efficient, readable, and can save a whole load of mess. I don’t know how you can not love it! It’s a reasonably new feature of JavaScript that came with ECMA2015 (or ES6, if you prefer, although the former is technically correct!) — or for those unfamiliar with…

Take your JavaScript knowledge to another level, a ‘higher-order’.  I remember reading about Higher Order Functions, watching videos and still not being 100% sure about what they are and what I should understand about them. Maybe it was a case of trying to run before I could walk but it all seemed so mysterious. This…

Test Driven Development (TDD) is an industry best practice, and it’s a method we teach our students from week 1 of the course. Throughout this post, I will be using Mocha as a testing framework, and Chai as an assertion library. If you’re new to programming, you’ll need to ensure you have Node installed on your machine before you read up…