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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?
  • 3 mins
  • 205 MB
Why?
  • 3 mins
  • 250 MB
How?
  • 5 mins
  • 400 MB

Setting Up Your Environment

The tools we need to hack.
Overview
  • 2 mins
  • 132 MB
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
            • 4 mins
            • 291 MB
            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
                • 2 mins
                • 124 MB
                Getting Started
                • 12 mins
                • 178 MB
                Project: Twitter Profile
                • 2 mins
                • 24.2 MB
                Project: Twitter Profile (Solution)
                • 12 mins
                • 186 MB
                Mind the Quotes
                • 9 mins
                • 59.8 MB
                Conventions and Gotchas

                  Operators and Conditionals

                  Overview
                  • 2 mins
                  • 139 MB
                  Getting Started
                  • 15 mins
                  • 101 MB
                  More Operators
                  • 11 mins
                  • 79.7 MB
                  More Conditional Expressions
                  • 24 mins
                  • 131 MB

                  Methods (Part 1)

                  Overview
                  • 1 min
                  • 69.4 MB
                  Methods are Recipes
                  • 21 mins
                  • 129 MB

                  Hack Pack (A)

                  Quiz
                    Project: Methodology

                      Types

                      Overview
                      • 2 mins
                      • 158 MB
                      Arrays
                      • 7 mins
                      • 43.9 MB
                      Hashes
                      • 7 mins
                      • 37.2 MB
                      Accessing Arrays
                      • 10 mins
                      • 62.3 MB
                      Accessing Hashes
                      • 6 mins
                      • 37.5 MB
                      Accessing Arrays of Hashes
                      • 4 mins
                      • 25.2 MB
                      Useful Methods By Type
                      • 31 mins
                      • 225 MB
                      Project: Mary Poppins
                        Project: Mary Poppins (Solution)

                          Looping

                          Overview
                          • 2 mins
                          • 185 MB
                          Getting Started
                          • 20 mins
                          • 141 MB
                          Scoping and Loops
                          • 16 mins
                          • 127 MB
                          More Looping Strategies
                          • 25 mins
                          • 205 MB
                          Hashes and Nested Loops
                          • 21 mins
                          • 162 MB
                          Shorthand Syntax and Debugging
                          • 29 mins
                          • 198 MB
                          Even More Looping
                          • 14 mins
                          • 96.5 MB

                          Methods (Part 2)

                          Overview
                          • 1 min
                          • 91.7 MB
                          Concepts Recap
                          • 4 mins
                          • 14.7 MB
                          Project: Rap Name Generator
                          • 40 mins
                          • 333 MB
                          Default Parameters and Keyword Arguments
                          • 14 mins
                          • 112 MB
                          Pass by Value and Reference
                          • 12 mins
                          • 123 MB
                          Built-in vs Custom Methods
                          • 11 mins
                          • 85.4 MB
                          Debugging Revisited
                          • 16 mins
                          • 108 MB
                          Introducing Rescue
                          • 30 mins
                          • 262 MB

                          Hack Pack (B)

                          Quiz
                            Project: Company Directory
                            • 6 mins
                            • 48.6 MB
                            Types exercises
                              Looping exercises

                                Terminal, Scripts, and CLIs

                                Overview
                                • 1 min
                                • 47.4 MB
                                CLI Commands (Windows users only)
                                  Getting Started
                                  • 26 mins
                                  • 229 MB
                                  Executing Scripts
                                  • 23 mins
                                  • 132 MB
                                  Interactive Scripting
                                  • 54 mins
                                  • 675 MB
                                  Project: Weatherman
                                    CLI Patterns
                                    • 6 mins
                                    • 52.6 MB

                                    APIs

                                    Overview
                                    • 2 mins
                                    • 117 MB
                                    Traversing API Payloads (JSON + XML)
                                    • 49 mins
                                    • 242 MB
                                    Introduction to HTTP
                                      Open APIs
                                      • 39 mins
                                      • 560 MB
                                      Project: Open API Playground
                                        Authenticated APIs
                                        • (1h 00m 12s)
                                        • 891 MB
                                        Introduction to Debugging APIs
                                          Introduction to OAuth2
                                          • 24 mins
                                          • 349 MB
                                          Revoked Tokens, Deprecated Endpoints, and Rate Limits
                                            API Wrappers vs HTTP Requests
                                            • 19 mins
                                            • 240 MB
                                            Webhooks
                                            • 59 mins
                                            • 862 MB

                                            Hack Pack (C)

                                            Quiz
                                              Project: Go Fetch
                                                Ruby vs Python

                                                  Intro to Git

                                                  Overview
                                                  • 2 mins
                                                  • 131 MB
                                                  Getting Started
                                                    More Git

                                                      Object Oriented Programming (OOP)

                                                      Overview
                                                      • 2 mins
                                                      • 98.1 MB
                                                      Refactoring Procedural Scripts
                                                      • 28 mins
                                                      • 458 MB
                                                      OOP Paradigms (Part 1)
                                                      • 37 mins
                                                      • 438 MB
                                                      OOP Paradigms (Part 2)
                                                      • 31 mins
                                                      • 309 MB
                                                      Method Hacking
                                                      • 28 mins
                                                      • 202 MB
                                                      Making OOP Executable
                                                        OOP Everywhere
                                                        • 3 mins
                                                        • 265 MB
                                                        Where You're At
                                                          Project: Refactors and Kata

                                                            Next Steps

                                                            Thank You
                                                            • 1 min
                                                            • 24.8 MB
                                                            [Bonus] Lecture Requests