CodinGame

Overall Opinion: With computer programming becoming one of the most lucrative and in demand careers available, there's no lack of entrepreneurs and visionaries looking to turn the process of learning coding into a business, and the results span everything from traditional courses adapted to the internet landscape to resources that try to make the whole process easy and fun. CodinGame is perhaps the most gamified form of code training available. While resources like Codecademy break down the aspects of coding into bite sized components and reward you with badges and accolades for progress and CodeWars puts you head to head against other players in complex coding competitions, CodinGame ups the stakes by tethering their exercises to a visual interface that literally transforms your code into an arcade style game. Whether this is an effective approach to learning the complex components of coding science is another case entirely, but the interface is slick and exciting, likely to draw in prospective coders who may be scared off by the streamlined and alien interface of traditional coding command lines. One of the hardest barriers to entry for learning coding is relaying to students exactly what sort of impact their code can have on the environment. It can take a long time before the building block principles like classes and variables come to have substantive meaning and users can understand how they interact with each other to produce meaningful results. What CodinGame does so well is transform even these most basic functions into tangible results. Simple behaviors like ordering numbers in a set translate on the game interface are conveyed concretely as a spaceship targeting higher risk targets. This fusion of principle with results is elegantly executed, and concepts build atop one another over the course of hundreds of real world examples that appear in the game's arcade. Unfortunately, for a learning platform that seems tailor made for users completely new to coding, there's not much in the way of assistance. There are advantages and disadvantages to this. Unlike sources like Codecademy - which walk you through lessons with little context - CodinGame forces you to dig through online resources in pursuit of solutions. But for new users with little coding experience, the notion seems to run contrary to the welcoming stepladder approach to design. Even the first exercise, which serves as a tutorial, will likely look entirely foreign to anyone who doesn't understand the syntax or fundamentals of how languages work. Despite its apparent value as an introductory course, it's probably a better fit for experienced users who aren't afraid to the process of trial and error that frequently accompanies the learning experience where coding is concerned. But the features available are rather meaty. The single player component, which takes you through increasingly more difficult trials, is available in 23 of the most common coding languages, and it's supplemented by robust multiplayer tournaments that are sure to challenge even experienced programmers.

Pros: Great visuals and interface bridge the gap between theory and results Regularly updated with new puzzles and challenges Constant rewards encourage users to keep learning

Cons: Not as accessible to new users as the design would suggest Interface can be a cluttered distraction for more experienced coders