Intro to Programming

Lessons

• 1

  What's a computer anyway?

  Goal: Ask and try to answer some simple, but important questions: what's a computer anyway? Is it smart? Does it speak programming languages?

  theory (05:32)  
• 2

  Human and computer languages

  Goal: Explore the idea os programming languages and figure out what language should you strat with.

  theory (05:43)  
• 3

  Writing your first program

  Goal: Write your very first program in JavaScript and get to know the Hexlet's virtual computer that you'll be working in during the course.

  theory (05:10)   quiz   exercise  
• 4

  Constants and E=mc2

  Goal: Learn about basic math in JavaScript, work with numbers and constants to calculate the total energy of your body using Einstein's famous formula.

  theory (05:04)   quiz   exercise  
• 5

  Making functions — black boxes

  Goal: Learn about functions — the building blocks of programs, how to create and run functions.

  theory (05:11)   quiz   exercise  
• 6

  IF conditions and programs making decisions

  Goal: Learn about conditions and boolean algebra, the mechanism that allows programs do one thing or do another thing based on some information.

  theory (05:43)   quiz   exercise  
• 7

  Oh, no, errors! And dealing with them

  Goal: Understand how errors arise in computer programs, how to recognize them and fix them.

  theory (07:54)   quiz   exercise  
• 8

  Recursion: when function calls itself

  Goal: Wrap your head around one very powerful and extremely important concept in programming — recursion.

  theory (06:31)   quiz   exercise  
• 9

  Iterative process and not being lazy

  Goal: Recursion is great, but the plain recursive process is not too efficient. Learn about an alternative way to compute recursively.

  theory (06:05)   quiz   exercise  
• 10

  Variables and repetitions

  Goal: Learn about variables and a way of repeating code with loops. Understand the important distinction between declarative and imperative programming.

  theory (07:14)   quiz   exercise  
• 11

  Strings

  Goal: Get to know text data, strings and learn to manipulate them: glue together or take apart.

  theory (05:27)   quiz   exercise  
• 12

  Mutators and for loop

  Goal: Learn some arithmetic shortcuts to quickly change the values of variables, and get to know the for loop — another way to create repeating code.

  theory (02:36)   quiz   exercise  
• 13

  Testing code with other code

  Goal: Understand the idea of testing code — writing code that checks the behavior of other code, look at some examples and write your own tests

  theory (05:19)   quiz   exercise  
• 14

  Dividing code into modules

  Goal: Learn about dividing code into meaningful and reusable modules.

  theory (05:35)   quiz   exercise  
• 15

  Expressions vs. Statements

  Goal: Understand the important distinction: expressions vs. statements in JavaScript. And learn how this knowledge will help you.

  theory (04:38)   quiz  
• 16

  Environment, scope and closures

  Goal: Understand how and why isolated environments are created in JS, what scoping is and how cool are closures.

  theory (07:39)   quiz   exercise  
• 17

  Typing: dynamic vs. static and weak vs strong

  Goal: Learn about types in JavaScript, and understand the difference between dynamic and static typing and weak and strong typing.

  theory (07:22)   quiz   exercise  
• 18

  Pure functions and side effects

  Goal: Explore the idea of determinism, side effects, and purity in functions. Get to know the beauty of pure functions.

  theory (06:55)   quiz   exercise  
• 

• Challenges

  We recommend you to work on these challenges after completing the course. They will help you obtain more experience in programming and strengthen new skill.

  #	Challenge	Success rate
  1	Formatted time	89%
  2	DNA to RNA	92%
  3	Perfect numbers	88%
  4	Difference between angles	91%
  5	Happy ticket	90%
  6	Sum of squares	92%
  7	Palindrome	87%