ZTM – Complete Web Developer

I started my first Udemy a few days ago. I was watching one of those “How I’d learn to code if I started over” YouTubes, mainly because I’d like to know enough JavaScript to write little REST API’s on Node.js, but also because I’m starting to think web development makes more sense for a couple of the applications I’ve got on my (ever growing) list of app ideas.

The video recommended a “Zero to Mastery” course. When I googled it, I could see on Udemy it had a stack of people enrolled, had been updated recently, it had 40 hours of video content, good ratings (4.7 from 57K reviews), and claimed to cover:

HTML/HTML5
CSS/CSS3
SemanticUI
Responsive Design
Flexbox
CSS Grid
Bootstrap 5
DOM Manipulation
Javascript (including ES6/ES7/ES8/ES9/ES10/ES2020/ES2021/ES2022)
Asynchronous JavaScript
HTTP/JSON/AJAX
React + Redux + React Hooks
Git + Github
Command Line
Node.js
Express.js
NPM
RESTful API Design
PostgresSQL
SQL
Authentication
Authorization
Scalable Infrastructure
Security
Production and Deployment

Which is a lot for $20!

So far I’m up to section 9 (out of about 30) which is still in the 2nd item above – CSS, and I have a couple of observations, especially in comparison with my experience of Paul Hudson’s 100 Days of Swift UI.

Video v Text

The content in the ZTM course is more video orientated. Under each of Paul’s videos is a text version that very closely follows the video (although no dog snacks). If you’re a person who likes to follow along all the code, the text versions are valuable. I’ve found myself winding the ZTM videos back and forward a few times to see the code on their screen to figure out where I’ve gone wrong.

Since I’ve been doing #100Days I’ve gone back and forwards a bit on watching the videos or reading the text. It probably just comes down to mood, but the option is very nice to have.

Size of the bites

The ZTM seems to go a bit faster, and leave the student to do some of their own research. I guess they’re covering a bigger topic (full stack web development including tools v SwiftUI) in less time – Paul is asking for 100 hours, ZTM is around 40. But I am used to leaving each of Paul’s sessions feeling like I really know it, whereas with the ZTM stuff it’s more like “I know that thing exists and I could probably remember it well enough to google it if a situation called for it”.

On the current topic – CSS, I am definitely going to have to spend some time on content outside of the course to get my head around it, and I think that’s likely to be the same with the JavaScript content.

Currency

Both of these courses are being kept up to date, which is crucial (and probably a pain for the course owners), but I feel Paul must do a better job of re-writing and re-shooting his content – I’ve never bumped into any out of date content yet. In the ZTM, they include some old stuff (for example BootStrap) but prefix it with advice that it’s not current best practice, and several videos have either overlays about or are preceded with advice about how to make things work in current versions. It’s great they have those, but not as good as Paul’s system. Again, that might also just be easier with SwiftUI – everything comes from Apple each September, so it’s on a regular schedule as well as being a much smaller volume (than all the possible third party stuff going on in web development each month).

Student Activity

Paul seems to have more challenges along the way to check that you’ve actually absorbed the learning, and if you’re a hacking with swift+ member (I am) there’s a feedback video. I’m about 20% the way through the ZTM and just got to my first one – it’s been a more passive experience so far. That might change as the content get harder – so far it’s been pretty straight forward HTML, and I’m only now feeling challenged in all the CSS layout stuff, so this challenge and feedback is coming at the right time.

Cost

Although Paul’s 100 Days is completely free, it is so good, I felt obliged to pay for the + membership, and I bought a book I don’t have time to read in his Black Friday sale – so that’s about $340 total. The ZTM Complete Web Developer was “on special” for $18 when I bought it, but is now saying it’s back up to $27. I have a feeling if I visited it in incognito mode it might be on special again. I have heard a couple of people on podcasts mention they have bought more Udemy courses than they can every complete – it’s the Steam business model. So I’m sworn off any more until this one is finished.

Overall, I’m very happy with this course so far. I’d heartily recommend it based on what I’ve done so far.