Amazing Web Development Communities That Every Web Developer Should Know

Communities. No matter whether you’re an old hand at coding or you just learned what a boolean is, communities are often the most important resource available to you as a programmer, though they are so often overlooked.“Community” is a somewhat amorphous term; in the coding world, it covers everything from a forum to download centers. Communities are your go-to spot whenever there’s a bug you can’t quite figure out, or you want to start learning a new language and you’re having some difficulties with syntax. There are hundreds of communities out there — some targeted to beginners, others to experts, and plenty in between — so to narrow the pool a bit, we’ve gathered together a list of some of our favorites. These are not the be-all and end-all of the communities! This list is just meant to help you get involved in programming communities from all corners of the web so you can start finding the ones that will help you the most. Check them out!

1. Toptal

Toptal is our favorite spot at the moment for all sorts of tips about how to get hired as a freelance developer (or, for those who are interested, how to hire freelancers). Check out their sample interview questions, so you can get an idea of how tough it’ll be to land a gig with an elite company. Make sure you prepare answers that are at least as thoughtful as the sample ones they offer! Once you’ve gone through them, check out the Toptal Engineering Blog– you’ll find tips about how to market your skills, as well as news on the latest trends in the programming world. Make sure your skills and knowledge are up to date! If you think you’re up to the challenge, you can even check out their application process.

2. Web Development Communities for Education Wiki

Wow. That’s a bit of a mouthful, but if you can manage to its name five times fast, this site may be the one for you! In all seriousness,Web Development Education Community Wiki is one of the most helpful communities for new developers. This is the place to go if you want to build a website and have absolutely no idea how to do so. First, you can read all of their extremely helpful tutorial articles, and get an idea of the uses of and differences between JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. Once you’ve done that, they have an excellent references section, which will direct you to more advanced resources. Finally, they have an incredibly helpful section for teachers, where you can get some ideas and resources for crafting lesson plans for teaching the above three languages.

3. Codewars

Codewars is a totally different sort of site — it’s geared towards coders who want to test their problem-solving and technical skills. Here’s how it works: you pick your preferred coding language, and then answer a few questions to determine your technical level (kyu). You can up your level by answering challenges (katas) from users from all over the world, and eventually craft your own challenges for others! Once you’ve come up with a solution, you can discuss your process with others to see how they went about solving the same quandary. Though Codewars doesn’t feature all coding languages, you can vote for any ones you don’t see on the site!

4. Sitepoint

Sitepoint is geared towards developers of all levels, though they predominantly have resources for beginners and intermediate coders. They feature tutorials, tips, and debugging help for PHP, JavaScript, and Ruby, among other languages. You can also check out their helpful articles, forums, and APIs to take your coding to the next level. If you like the site, you can get access to more resources by joining their premium membership, but there’s enough free stuff at Sitepoint to make it a great community regardless of whether you pay.

5. Meetups

Close the screen, put on some clothes, and go meet some fellow developers. Online communities provide a wide variety of benefits — quick responses, interactions with millions of programmers, and others — but sometimes what you really need is to network and brainstorm with fellow developers in person. If you’re tired of endlessly browsing job listings or waiting for other users to answer a question, head to a local meetup in your area and see if you can network your way onto a cool project. At the very least, it’ll be a chance to meet some new people and get some alternate perspectives on whatever you’re working on. Stretch those legs!

Boom. The above five options are certainly not exhaustive — far, far from it. We hope, though, that they give you an idea of the vast quantity of resources out there for you, regardless of how long you’ve been programming. There are entire communities dedicated to helping you find work, improve your skills, learn new languages, and become an all-around better programmer. Go find the right ones for you!

This article is written by Irina Papuc from Toptal as Guest Writer.