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@@ -5,6 +5,58 @@ This repository is an archive of Quincy Larson's weekly email newsletter.
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A big thanks to Sourabh Joshi for creating this repo and helping maintain it. He's a software engineer from Bengaluru who works at https://quso.ai.
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### August 2, 2025
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1. Don't be content merely knowing how algorithms work – understand WHY they work the way they do. freeCodeCamp just published this advanced Python course that will level up your computer science knowledge. CS Professor Qiang Hao will help you refine your algorithmic thinking and your intuition for translating abstract mathematics into working code. He touches on Sorting Algorithms, Divide-and-Conquer Algorithms, Amortized Analysis, the Master Theorem, and more. Put your thinking cap on and dive in. (6 hour YouTube course): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/algorithm-analysis-deep-dive/
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2. Learn Object-Oriented Design Patterns using Java. This interactive course built by prolific freeCodeCamp contributor and computer science professor Dr. Mark Mahoney will teach you the Composite Pattern, the Observer Pattern, the Visitor Pattern, and more. (interactive course): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/object-oriented-design-patterns-with-java/
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3. freeCodeCamp also published this comprehensive course on cloud-based AI engineering. AWS software engineer Suman Debnath will teach you all about LLM Embeddings, RAG, Multimodal Models, and LangChain-powered Agents. You'll build an end-to-end app that automates insurance claims: claim creation, document management, data retrieval, and more using a variety of AWS services including Bedrock. (6 hour YouTube course): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/learn-enterprise-ai-embeddings-rag-and-multimodal-agents-using-amazon-nova-and-bedrock/
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4. On this week's freeCodeCamp podcast I interview Nick Taylor, a Montreal-based software engineer and prolific open source contributor. He shares tips on getting started contributing to open source projects, and then converting that track record into job opportunities. He also talks about the changing nature of working in tech, and how he gets mileage out of both emerging AI tools and time-tested open source libraries. (1 hour watch or listen in your favorite podcast app): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/how-to-turn-open-source-into-a-job-with-nick-taylor-podcast-181/
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5. And if you're already working as a developer and are keen to climb the ladder at your organization, this is the article for you. freeCodeCamp contributor Shruti Kapoor wrote this detailed guide to progressing from Senior Engineer up to Staff Engineer. She shares her own journey upward at big tech companies. Then she breaks down the differences in engineering roles and the typical promotion process. She shares practical tips for evaluating your own readiness and building a portfolio of work that will impress your higher-ups. (25 minute read): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/how-to-get-promoted-from-senior-to-staff-engineer-tips-from-my-experience/
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Quote of the Week: *“The real skill for working with AI is communication. If you can’t explain precisely what you want, the tool will churn out junk. Soft skills suddenly matter a lot.”* — Software Engineer Nick Taylor on this week's freeCodeCamp podcast
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### July 25, 2025
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1. freeCodeCamp just published a new course that will teach you how to gracefully answer common LeetCode-style questions you'll get asked during developer job interviews. It covers essential data structures and algorithmic patterns. You'll build up your intuition so you can recognize which patterns to apply, and how to avoid brute force solutions. You'll start by learning fundamental data structures like Arrays, Sets, and Hashmaps. Then you'll bust out Python and learn about Big O Notation, before moving on to more advanced concepts like Sliding Windows, Binary Search, Backtracking, and Priority Queues. (1 hour YouTube course): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/data-structure-and-algorithm-patterns-for-leetcode-interviews/
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2. And if you want to go much deeper into Python Machine Learning, this week we also published a comprehensive Computer Vision course. You'll use the open source PyTorch library to implement one of the most influential convolutional neural networks: Visual Geometry Group Networks (VGGNets). You'll learn the theoretical origins of VGGNets and the math that powers them. Then you'll fire up Colab and start implementing one for yourself. Whenever you're looking for courses on advanced topics like this, remember to use freeCodeCamp's search bar. We have thousands of tutorials, books, and full-length courses like this. (5 hour YouTube course): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/implement-vgg-from-scratch-with-pytorch-deep-learning-theory/
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3. Want to get a developer job? Be shameless. That's the advice of this week's freeCodeCamp podcast guest, Namanh Kapur. He's a senior software engineer at LinkedIn and has a ton of hot takes on where the field is heading. He shares tips for how to interact with recruiters, which foundational developer skills he thinks you should prioritize learning, and how to get hired in what he calls the “post-LeetCode world.” (1 hour watch or listen in your favorite podcast app): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/we-are-truly-in-the-hackathon-era-namanh-kapur-interview-podcast-180/
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4. Not every codebase is run by a team of developers. A lot of projects are built by a single person who's just iterating on their ideas and trying to find customers. That's where this week's Ultimate Tool Stack for Indie Hackers comes in. Manish breaks down a lot of Lean Startup Methodology and translates it into specific tools you can use to quickly build the first version of your products. He covers prototyping tools, payment gateway tools, analytics, and more. (10 minute read): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/ultimate-tool-stack-for-indie-hackers/
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5. freeCodeCamp also published this quick guide for more experienced developers. It shares some practical tips for incorporating AI tools into your day-to-day programming workflows. Author Spruce Emmanuel doesn't pull any punches or sugar-coat any of his observations about the utility of these tools or the future of manually writing most code. (12 minute read): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/how-to-use-ai-effectively-in-your-dev-projects/
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Quote of the Week: *“Let's get one thing straight: AI is here to help, not to replace. Your job, my job, was never just to write code. Writing code was always just a part of it. Our real job is to build software solutions that work.”* — Spruce Emmanuel, developer and prolific freeCodeCamp contributor, in his article on incorporating AI tools into your software development workflows
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### July 18, 2025
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1. freeCodeCamp just published this comprehensive guide to AI app security and the most common vulnerabilities. You'll learn about Threat Modeling, Prompt Injection, Data Poisoning, supply chain risks, and more. (1 hour YouTube course): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/learn-how-to-build-security-into-ai/
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2. JavaScript is the most popular language on the planet. But it's also super duper prone to errors. Luckily, freeCodeCamp just dropped this comprehensive handbook to help you understand how JavaScript's error handling works. You'll learn about Try-Catch, Error Rethrowing, the Finally keyword, and the Error Object itself. We also show tons of example code that you can scrutinize and learn from. (full-length handbook): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/the-javascript-error-handling-handbook/
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3. On this week's podcast, I interview a developer who had to apply to 800 jobs, but eventually landed one. Braydon Coyer started out building mobile apps in high school. At one point his iPhone game even out-sold Angry Birds for a day or two. He shares tons of strategies for applying for developer roles, sane ways to integrate AI into your developer workflows, and how to switch from mobile app dev to full stack dev. This dude is a blast. (1 hour watch or listen in your favorite podcast app): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/799-rejections-but-he-got-the-job-braydon-coyer-developer-interview-podcast-179/
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4. I'm a huge fan of data visualization, and I love me some D3.js. So I was jazzed about this new course that'll help you shore up your Data Viz fundamentals. You'll go from bare-bones scatter plots to dynamically updating charts with fancy animations. If you want to learn how to make your data more accessible and more fun, this course is for you. (90 minute YouTube course): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/learn-interactive-data-visualization-with-svelte-and-d3/
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5. As you may know, freeCodeCamp is a big open source project. And we have tons of developers who jump in to help us improve our curriculum and our codebase. But it's common for many of them to lose steam and drop off the map. This guide will help ensure that this doesn't happen to you. It'll give you actionable tips for setting open source goals, finding the right projects to get involved in, engaging with fellow devs, and more. (15 minute read): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/how-to-build-a-sustainable-open-source-contribution-routine/
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Quote of the Week: *"When I was learning to code, the big picture didn’t click until I needed to solve real problems. That’s when variables and arrays started making sense — not in theory, but in practice."* — Software Engineer Braydon Coyer on this week's freeCodeCamp podcast
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### July 11, 2025
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1. freeCodeCamp just published this comprehensive course that will teach you how to build apps using the LAMP Stack – Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP. This is a classic toolchain that a huge number of websites still use to this day. You can code along at home and build your own clone of Google Calendar – complete with multi-appointment support and booking conflict logic. Then you'll use JavaScript to add a dynamic user interface. This project will help you expand your horizons and get in some serious reps. (3 hour YouTube course): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/build-a-google-calendar-clone-with-php-mysql-and-javascript/
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2. You may have heard the term “vibe coding”, where you write the specifications for your app, then hand it over to code generation agents who write the code for you. This approach has been a bit polarizing in the developer community, with vocal critics and vocal advocates. My advice is don't listen to any of them. Think for yourself. freeCodeCamp just published this course that will introduce you to vibe coding tools like n8n – an open source workflow automation tool – so you can wire together APIs and services without needing to write a ton of code manually. (2 hour YouTube course): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/how-to-vibe-code-with-help-from-n8n/
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3. On this week's podcast I interview Joe Hill. He's a software engineer who works on a data platform for NASA. Joe taught himself programming for 4 years while working as a janitor. As the single father of two Autistic boys, he first used his programming skills to build an iPad app to help them learn how to talk. He shares tons of practical tips for learning new skills and for getting things done inside big orgs. (1 hour watch or listen in your favorite podcast app): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/from-freecodecamp-to-nasa-with-data-engineer-joe-hill-podcast-178/
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4. Learn how to write Python tests so you can make your codebase more robust. This tutorial will teach you the basics of pytest and show you tons of examples. You'll learn about Markers, Fixtures, Parameterization, and more. (20 minute read): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/how-to-use-pytest-a-guide-to-testing-in-python/
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5. Tell your gardener friends: freeCodeCamp just published a tutorial on how to monitor the moisture of your soil using an Arduino microcontroller. This tutorial will show you what hardware to get and how to wire it up. Then it'll walk you through the code you'll run, and explain how everything works. (30 minute read): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/how-to-use-a-resistive-soil-moisture-sensor/
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Quote of the Week: *"Becoming tool agnostic is one of the biggest strengths you will ever have as a programmer. If you walk into a place and they say "we use XYZ", you can go “Great. I'll learn it." That is so powerful."* — Software Engineer Joe Hill on this week's freeCodeCamp podcast
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### July 6, 2025
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1. We just published a full-length interactive book by computer science professor and freeCodeCamp contributor Dr. Mark Mahoney. It will teach you the foundations of both back end and front end web development. You'll learn some Node, Express, SQLite, GraphQL, Web Components, React, and more. Mark even built his own open source “code playback” system to walk you through the book's code step-by-step with detailed explanations. Pretty cool. (full interactive book): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/an-animated-introduction-to-web-development-from-back-to-front/
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