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Fundamentals

First-time coder? Start here.

Our other courses cover topics front-end, back-end, databases, taking payments, web servers, and more.
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What to expect

In this course we focus on the foundations of back-end programming: variables, conditionals, loops, and methods. By completing this course you’ll be able to write object oriented Ruby scripts that:

  • fetch data from authenticated APIs
  • manipulate files from the command line
  • automate small tasks through executable utilities
  • quickly generate data and intelligence for projects

After completing Fundamentals, enroll in 24 Hour MVP to begin building web applications.

Course Format

Lectures

Code alongside me for 17 hours. I assume you know nothing, and we build from there.

Exercises

Reinforce what you've learned through quizzes, real world use cases, and refactoring projects.

Resources

Every lecture is packed with notes and examples to bolster your understanding of each concept.

Curriculum

Mindset

The What, Why, and How behind this course.
What?
Why?
How?

Setting Up Your Environment

The tools we need to hack.
Overview
Install Wizard (Ruby, Git, Homebrew, Rails)
Accessing your Terminal (Mac/Windows)
Creating / Starting a Rails App (Mac users only)
Troubleshooting
Tools I Use

Learning Stack

Recommendations to get the most from this program.
Learning How to Learn
How to Watch Lectures
Useful Programming Hotkeys

Variables

Variables are the first building block to any back-end programming language. Luckily, assigning and working with variables in Ruby is easy and (sometimes a little) fun.
Overview
Getting Started
Project: Twitter Profile
Project: Twitter Profile (Solution)
Mind the Quotes
Conventions and Gotchas

Operators and Conditionals

Overview
Getting Started
More Operators
More Conditional Expressions

Methods (Part 1)

Overview
Methods are Recipes

Hack Pack (A)

Quiz
Project: Methodology

Types

Overview
Arrays
Hashes
Accessing Arrays
Accessing Hashes
Accessing Arrays of Hashes
Useful Methods By Type
Project: Mary Poppins
Project: Mary Poppins (Solution)

Looping

Overview
Getting Started
Scoping and Loops
More Looping Strategies
Hashes and Nested Loops
Shorthand Syntax and Debugging
Even More Looping

Methods (Part 2)

Overview
Concepts Recap
Project: Rap Name Generator
Default Parameters and Keyword Arguments
Pass by Value and Reference
Built-in vs Custom Methods
Debugging Revisited
Introducing Rescue

Hack Pack (B)

Quiz
Project: Company Directory
Types exercises
Looping exercises

Terminal, Scripts, and CLIs

Overview
CLI Commands (Windows users only)
Getting Started
Executing Scripts
Interactive Scripting
Project: Weatherman
CLI Patterns

APIs

Overview
Traversing API Payloads (JSON + XML)
Introduction to HTTP
Open APIs
Project: Open API Playground
Authenticated APIs
Introduction to Debugging APIs
Introduction to OAuth2
Revoked Tokens, Deprecated Endpoints, and Rate Limits
API Wrappers vs HTTP Requests
Webhooks

Hack Pack (C)

Quiz
Project: Go Fetch
Ruby vs Python

Intro to Git

Overview
Getting Started
More Git

Object Oriented Programming (OOP)

Overview
Refactoring Procedural Scripts
OOP Paradigms (Part 1)
OOP Paradigms (Part 2)
Method Hacking
Making OOP Executable
OOP Everywhere
Where You're At
Project: Refactors and Kata

Next Steps

Thank You
[Bonus] Lecture Requests