#203 First developer job at age 38 with lawyer turned software engineer Zubin Pratap

Today Quincy Larson interviews Zubin Pratap, a software engineer and manager from Melbourne, Australia. After nearly two decades working as a corporate lawyer, he taught himself programming using freeCodeCamp.org. Within two years, he landed a job as a software engineer at Google. We talk about: - How tools are making programming easier, but other parts of being a developer harder - How 2009 - 2022 was NOT a normal job market and how devs are adapting - "The purpose of communication is to be understood" and other lessons Zubin's learned over the years Support for this podcast is provided by a grant from AlgoMonster. AlgoMonster is a platform that teaches data structure and algorithm patterns in a structured sequence, so you can approach technical interview questions more systematically. Their curriculum covers patterns like sliding window, two-pointers, graph search, and dynamic programming, helping you learn each pattern once and apply it to solve many problems. Start a structured interview prep routine at https://algo.monster/freecodecamp Support also comes from the 10,104 kind folks who donate to our charity each month. Join them and support our mission at https://donate.freecodecamp.org Get a freeCodeCamp tshirt for $20 with free shipping anywhere in the US: https://shop.freecodecamp.org Links from our discussion: - Zubin's LinkedIn and other social media: https://meetzubin.carrd.co/ - Zubin's "Easier said than done" podcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ky4Hhd-k1js&list=PLAPuklwJx5V3fpXiSD9CMh3RhPQTCSemj Community news section: 1. Let's kick off 2026 with a ton of announcements. We just launched Version 10 of freeCodeCamp's JavaScript certification, along with updated Python, SQL, and Responsive Web Design certifications that you can earn. We even launched our beta Spanish and Mandarin Chinese curricula. (10 minute announcement article with tons of data): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/christmas-gifts-freecodecamp-community-2025 2. Now you can learn Spanish on freeCodeCamp. We just launched our FREE A1 Level Spanish curriculum. You'll learn: pronunciation, introductions, numbers, and more. More than 200 steps are live now. ¡Aprendamos! https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/freecodecamps-a1-professional-spanish-curriculum-beta-is-now-live/ 3. Over the holiday break I took my kids to Johnson Space Center in Houston. If you're in Houston you should absolutely go here. We visited the Mission Control center that NASA used during the Apollo missions to the moon. They also had an awesome multimedia experience created by Tom Hanks about this year's Artemis mission to the moon. This is an incredible museum. We spent 7 hours there. It wasn't particularly expensive. Just make sure you book tickets to mission control a few months in advance of your trip. 4. During the road trip, I re-listened to Guns 'n' Roses's entire catalogue. Which brings me to today's song of the week: the 1991 epic Estranged. The is maybe the most mature-sounding song they've ever done, with introspective lyrics and a series of tastful, emotional guitar solos. Great drum fills, too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpmAY059TTY

Today Quincy Larson interviews Santosh Yadav. The son of a textile worker, he grew up inner-city Mumbai and studied hard to get into university. From there he's worked as a software engineer for 16 years. Along the way, he's picked up every distinction imaginable including Google Developer Expert, GitHub Star, and Microsoft MVP. Santosh shares tips for: - How to get promoted as an Individual Contributor without needing to becoming a manager - How to rise within a company without needing to change jobs to move up - How to succeed socially on a team while working remotely remotely - How to not just survive but thrive after a Type 2 Diabetes diagnosis Support for this podcast is provided by a grant from AlgoMonster. AlgoMonster is a platform that teaches data structure and algorithm patterns in a structured sequence, so you can approach technical interview questions more systematically. Their curriculum covers patterns like sliding window, two-pointers, graph search, and dynamic programming, helping you learn each pattern once and apply it to solve many problems. Start a structured interview prep routine at https://algo.monster/freecodecamp Support also comes from the 10,338 kind folks who donate to our charity each month. Join them and support our mission at https://donate.freecodecamp.org Get a freeCodeCamp tshirt for $20 with free shipping anywhere in the US: https://shop.freecodecamp.org Links from our discussion: - Santosh's freeCodeCamp article: "From the Slums of Mumbai to a Rented Apartment – My 30-Year Developer Journey": https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/my-journey-into-tech-from-slums-of-mumbai-to-my-own-apartment/ - Santosh's freeCodeCamp article "My Developer Journey – How I Got a Remote Job and Increased My Salary While Contributing to Open Source": https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/my-developer-journey-how-i-increased-my-salary-and-got-a-remote-job/ - Santosh's journey to Staff Engineer and tips for getting promoted as an IC: https://www.santoshyadav.dev/blog/2025-03-29-my-journey-to-staff-engineer/ - Santosh's podcast on working in tech: https://www.youtube.com/c/ThisisTechTalks -Santosh's article on how he realized he was introducing toxicity as a manager: https://dev.to/this-is-learning/how-i-made-workplace-toxic-1ici Community news section: 1. freeCodeCamp just launched our new JavaScript Data Structures and Algorithms Certification and our new Python certification. The are 300-hour interactive courses. You can now take the final exams for both of these and earn a free verified certification, which you can then it to your LinkedIn, CV, résumé, or personal website. These are part of version 10 of the core freeCodeCamp curriculum. The community collectively spent thousands of hours developing all this to serve as your shortest path to acquiring programming fundamentals. (300 hour interactive curriculum – announcement article and FAQ): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/freecodecamps-new-javascript-certification-is-now-live/ and https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/freecodecamps-new-python-certification-is-now-live/ 2. Tell your friends who are learning English: freeCodeCamp just launched our English for Developers curriculum. You can learn vocab, grammar, reading, and listening – all through stories set in a Silicon Valley tech company. This is level A2 English, meaning it's lower intermediate. We'll introduce other CEFR levels in the coming months as well. (interactive curriculum with certification – announcement article and FAQ): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/freecodecamps-a2-english-for-developers-certification-is-now-live/ 3. Now you can learn Spanish on freeCodeCamp. We just launched our FREE Spanish curriculum. You'll learn: pronunciation, introductions, numbers, and more. More than 200 steps are live now. The rest of CEFR level A1 will go live in 2026. ¡Aprendamos! https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/freecodecamps-a1-professional-spanish-curriculum-beta-is-now-live/ 4. Today's song of the week is the 1982 Disco Soul anthem "Walk on By" by D Train. You'll love the busy synth bass and soaring strings. Even though it's a sad song, I've listened to this song dozens of times and it never fails to pick me up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmEgxqSnHXQ

Today Quincy Larson interviews Jason Lengstorf. He's a college dropout who taught himself programming while building websites for his emo band. 22 years later he's worked as a developer at IBM, Netlify, run his own dev consultancy, and he now runs CodeTV making reality TV shows for developers. We talk about: - How many CEOs over-estimated the impact of AI coding tools and laid off too many devs, whom they're now trying to rehire - Why the developer job market has already rebounded a bit, but will never be the same - Tips for how to land roles in the post-LLM résumé spam job search era - How devs are working to rebuild the fabric of the community through in-person community events Support for this podcast is provided by a grant from AlgoMonster. AlgoMonster is a platform that teaches data structure and algorithm patterns in a structured sequence, so you can approach technical interview questions more systematically. Their curriculum covers patterns like sliding window, two-pointers, graph search, and dynamic programming, helping you learn each pattern once and apply it to solve many problems. Start a structured interview prep routine at https://algo.monster/freecodecamp Support also comes from the 10,338 kind folks who donate to our charity each month. Join them and support our mission at https://donate.freecodecamp.org Get a freeCodeCamp tshirt for $20 with free shipping anywhere in the US: https://shop.freecodecamp.org Links from our discussion: - Jason's previous freeCodeCamp podcast interview, with his developer origin story: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/from-drop-out-to-software-architect-with-jason-lengstorf-podcast-167/ - The first season of Web Dev Challenge on CodeTV: https://codetv.link/wdc  Community news section: 1. freeCodeCamp just published a Git and GitHub for beginners course. Git is a powerful version control tool that most developers now use to build software projects together. GitHub is a popular platform that adds tons of collaboration features on top of Git. You'll learn the basics of both in this course, which covers branching, merging, pull requests, and other key concepts. Well worth your time. (1 hour YouTube course): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/git-and-github-crash-course-for-beginners 2. freeCodeCamp also just launched our new Responsive Web Design Certification. You can now take the final exam and earn this verified cert, then add it to your LinkedIn, CV, or personal website. This is version 10 of the core fCC curriculum. The community collectively spent thousands of hours developing all this as your shortest path to front-end development skills. This announcement and comprehensive FAQ will help you figure out where this fits into your journey toward your learning goals. (100+ hour interactive curriculum): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/freecodecamps-new-responsive-web-design-certification-is-now-live/ 3. freeCodeCamp also just published a new Harvard CS50 course that will teach you R, a popular programming language for statistical computing and data science. You'll work with real-world datasets inside the RStudio Integrated Development Environment. You'll learn about Vectors, Matrices, Data Frames, filtering, visualizations, and more. (9 hour YouTube course): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/learn-r-programming-from-harvard-university/ 4. freeCodeCamp's JavaScript certification is now live. It's 1,033 steps long. and you'll build dozens of projects then sit for the final exam. This is a FREE verified certification you can earn then add to your LinkedIn, CV, and portfolio website. Dive in. Full announcement article and FAQ (5 minute read): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/freecodecamps-new-javascript-certification-is-now-live/ 5. Today's song of the week is 1982's soul classic Risin' to the Top by Keni Burke. I love the laid back bass groove and spacious piano chords. The lyrics are about overcoming setbacks, which I know anyone who's attempted to learn programming can relate to. https://youtu.be/euysGPy2t0M

Today Quincy Larson interviews Kunal Kushwaha. He's a software engineer and prolific computer science teacher on YouTube. He failed the JEE, the Indian Engineering Entrance Exam, TWICE. But he persevered. He did 4 years of university but attended ZERO lectures. Instead he built his own learning path by contributed to open source projects and using free learning resources including freeCodeCamp. He moved from Delhi to London on a UK Global Talent Visa. He works at Cast AI and is the founder of the WeMakeDevs community. We'll talk about: - How he teaches himself new skills, then teaches those skills through his YouTube channel - His day-to-day working remotely at startups - His role in building out cloud regions as a field CTO at Civo, a cloud native service provider - The Indian higher education system Support for this podcast is provided by a grant from AlgoMonster. AlgoMonster is a platform that teaches data structure and algorithm patterns in a structured sequence, so you can approach technical interview questions more systematically. Their curriculum covers patterns like sliding window, two-pointers, graph search, and dynamic programming, helping you learn each pattern once and apply it to solve many problems. Start a structured interview prep routine at https://algo.monster/freecodecamp Support also comes from the 10,338 kind folks who donate to our charity each month. Join them and support our mission at https://donate.freecodecamp.org Rep the freeCodeCamp community with pride. Get your fCC t-shirt for $20 with free shipping anywhere in the US: https://shop.freecodecamp.org Links from our discussion: - Kunal's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@KunalKushwaha - WeMakeDevs, an inclusive global community for anyone passionate about technology that puts on events: https://www.wemakedevs.org/ - CastAI where Kunal now works: https://cast.ai/ Community news section: 1. freeCodeCamp's New Responsive Web Design Certification is now live. You can now take the final exam and earn this FREE verified cert, then add it to your LinkedIn, CV, or personal website. Announcement article: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/freecodecamps-new-responsive-web-design-certification-is-now-live/ 2. Before modern Large Language Models, scientists and developers worked with more fundamental Natural Language Processing tools. freeCodeCamp just published a handbook that will help you understand the tools that power chatbots, machine translation, text summarization, and more. You'll learn how computers analyze syntax, model semantics, and interpret context. Then you'll use popular Python libraries to apply those concepts to real projects. (full length handbook): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/how-to-use-nlp-techniques-and-tools-in-your-projects-full-handbook/ 3. freeCodeCamp also published a handbook that will give you a nuanced understanding of one of the trickier aspects of JavaScript development: Closures. First you'll learn about functions, parameters, and lexical scope. Then you'll learn how a Closure "closes over" a variable to keep it safe, while still granting you access to its values through function calls. If this sounds complicated, it is. But fear not – this handbook will give you tons of code examples of Closure mechanics, and teach you when to use them. (full length handbook): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/how-closures-work-in-javascript-a-handbook-for-developers/ 4. Flexbox is a powerful CSS feature that lets you build user interfaces that fit any screen size. If you've ever struggled to center something with CSS or tried to make columns line up nicely, well, Flexbox simplifies this dramatically. freeCodeCamp just published a Flexbox for beginners course where you'll learn both the concepts and the code syntax while building a responsive website navigation bar. (2 hour YouTube course): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/learn-css-flexbox-for-beginners-free-2-hour-course 5. When you're working with Large Language Models, every additional token adds cost and latency. Microsoft just open-sourced a tool called LLMLingua that will compress your prompts and other context window data. freeCodeCamp published this tutorial to help you understand how this works and how you can add it to your Python projects. (10 minute read): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/how-to-compress-your-prompts-and-reduce-llm-costs/ 6. It is with great pride that I announce our Top Open Source Contributors of 2025. It's been a super productive year for the global freeCodeCamp community. As we start our 12th year as a community, we're firing on all cylinders, pushing forward more steadily than ever toward a future of open source education: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/freecodecamp-top-open-source-contributors-2025 7. Today's song of the week is 1983 anthem Rock of Ages by British rock band Def Leppard. This is a silly, feel-good song with excellent vocal harmonies and massive-sounding drums. As a kid, when I saw the music video with the singer wielding a giant sword in a cave it blew my mind.

Today Quincy Larson interviews Andrea Griffiths, who taught herself programming using freeCodeCamp while working in construction. She moved to the US from Colombia when she was 17, and within 6 months she joined the US Army. She ran a chain of gyms before landing a support role at a tech company, then ascending to Product Manager and ultimately Developer Advocate at GitHub. Support for this podcast is provided by a grant from AlgoMonster. AlgoMonster is a platform that teaches data structure and algorithm patterns in a structured sequence, so you can approach technical interview questions more systematically. Their curriculum covers patterns like sliding window, two-pointers, graph search, and dynamic programming, helping you learn each pattern once and apply it to solve many problems. Start a structured interview prep routine at https://algo.monster/freecodecamp Support also comes from the 10,338 kind folks who donate to our charity each month. Join them and support our mission at https://donate.freecodecamp.org Get a freeCodeCamp t-shirt for $20 with free shipping anywhere in the US: https://shop.freecodecamp.org We talk about: - Tips for busy parents who want to learn new skills. - How AI tools are no substitute for your own critical thinking - and problem solving skills. - How even though it's getting easier every day to learn programming for free, people are so distracted, and for many it feels harder and harder to sit down and do it. Links from our discussion: - Article about AI and product management (which includes some blunt takes from Quincy): https://thenewstack.io/for-devs-a-fix-for-ai-complexity-is-hiding-in-plain-sight/ - Andrea's weekly newsletter: https://mainbranch.beehiiv.com/ - Learn How to Learn course by Dr. Barbara Oakley: https://www.classcentral.com/course/learning-how-to-learn-2161 Community news section: 1. freeCodeCamp just published this beginner-friendly back-end development course. You'll learn how to build your own web servers and APIs using Node.js, Express, and MongoDB. freeCodeCamp's website and mobile apps are built using these tools, which make up the popular MERN stack. You'll also get some exposure to database architecture, security principles, testing best practices, and more. (2 hour YouTube course): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/intro-to-backend-web-development-nodejs-express-mongodb/ 2. freeCodeCamp also published a comprehensive Blender and Three.js course where you'll build your own 3D portfolio piece: a render of an adorable home office. If you're interested in 3D rendering and computer graphics, this is the course for you. You'll learn key concepts like Quad Topology, Raycasting, OrbitControls, and more. By the end of the course, your 3D model will be live on the web so you can share it with your friends. (9 hour YouTube course): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/create-a-cute-room-portfolio-with-threejs-blender-javascript/ 3. freeCodeCamp also published a handbook on using Docker with Node.js. You'll learn how to set up Docker and Docker Compose. You'll also learn fundamental concepts like Volumes, Images, and Containers. This is an excellent resource for you to read through and code along with. Bookmark it for future reference. (full length handbook): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/how-to-use-to-docker-with-nodejs-handbook/ 4. Level up your JavaScript implementation skills with this new freeCodeCamp course on Clean Code. You'll learn how to detect "code smells" and refactor your JavaScript accordingly. You'll also learn how to use ESLint and Prettier to automate some of the more error-prone aspects of shipping code. (1 hour watch): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/level-up-your-javascript-detect-smells-and-write-clean-code/ 5. Classic text adventure games Zork I, II, and III are now open source with an MIT license. Microsoft has published their full source code on GitHub: https://github.com/historicalsource/zork1 6. Today's song of the week is 1985 classic "Something About You" by Level 42. I love the slap bass, the vocal harmony, the falsetto, and the huge synth sounds. It's impossible to listen to this song and still be in a bad mood: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpdQQoc-gkk

Today Quincy Larson interviews Alison Co and Cindy Cui, two university students who won the NW Hacks hackathon with their tool that helps people who are losing their vision learn to read Braille. He met them when GitHub invited them to their big San Francisco conference, GitHub Universe to present their project. Alison Co is a software engineer who's graduating Fall 2026. She's among the prestigious Major League Hacking Top 50 hackers. She's interned at Hubspot and will soon start interning at Rippling.  Cindy Cui is a software engineer who's graduating Spring 2026. She's interning as a backend developer at Shopify. She also teaches violin and holds the prestigious Level 10 Violin certification from the Royal Conservatory of Music. We talk about: - Tips for securing good internships - How they use AI as university students and as devs, and its limits - How they built their winning hackathon project to help people losing their vision learn to read braille Support for this podcast is provided by a grant from AlgoMonster. AlgoMonster is a platform that teaches data structure and algorithm patterns in a structured sequence, so you can approach technical interview questions more systematically. Their curriculum covers patterns like sliding window, two-pointers, graph search, and dynamic programming, helping you learn each pattern once and apply it to solve many problems. Start a structured interview prep routine at https://algo.monster/freecodecamp Support also comes from the 10,338 kind folks who donate to our charity each month. Join them and support our mission at https://donate.freecodecamp.org Get a freeCodeCamp tshirt for $20 with free shipping anywhere in the US: https://shop.freecodecamp.org Links from our discussion: - A 45-second demo of Braillelearn I recorded in the shuttle with Alison and Cindy at GitHub Universe: https://youtube.com/shorts/a7B-JvPgTQs - The Braillearn website: https://braillearn.vercel.app/ - Braillearn on GitHub: https://github.com/co-alison/nwhacks-2025 - Alison on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alison-co-3634721b7/ - Cindy on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cindy-cui/ Community news section: 1. freeCodeCamp just published a Discrete Mathematics for beginners course. It'll teach you tons of math concepts that are key to modern Machine Learning. You'll learn some Number Theory and Combinatorics, then use Python to explore the Pigeonhole Principle, the Stars and Bars Principle, Stirling Numbers, the Chinese Remainder Theorem, and more. (9 hour YouTube course): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/learn-discrete-mathematics/ 2. We also published this JavaScript course on the open source n8n agentic workflow automation tool. freeCodeCamp instructor Gavin Lon will teach you core concepts like working with loops, trigger nodes, webhooks, and more. You can code along at home and build 4 real-world projects, including a chatbot and an emergency notification app. (3 hour YouTube course): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/build-complex-workflows-with-n8n-and-master-ai-integration/ 3. Learn the popular Vue.js front end JavaScript framework. You'll learn Vue's core building blocks like components, reactivity, template syntax, dynamic data binding, and asset handling. By the end of the course, you'll have a simple Vue app that you can show to your friends. Also note that I recently interviewed Evan You, the creator of Vue, on the freeCodeCamp podcast. (2 hour YouTube course): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/learn-vuejs-javascript-framework-course/ 4. Learn how to run an open source LLM locally on your own hardware using Ollama. This is a great way to unlock the power of LLMs without the privacy and security tradeoffs of using public LLM websites and APIs. This freeCodeCamp guide will walk you through the setup process and give you a feel for the options at your disposal. (10 minute read): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/how-to-run-an-open-source-llm-on-your-personal-computer-run-ollama-locally/ 5. Learn about the eccentric designer Luigi Colani and his biomorphic designs that imitate nature. This video essay dives into the German designer's life history and his body of work. Why were his designs so broadly disliked by the design establishment? In what ways was he ahead of his time? How did he influence the development of cameras, or design a gas-powered car that got 130 miles to the gallon? I learned a ton from this and you will to. 30 minute watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVo7H3EheMY 6. Today's song of the week is Leon Ware's 1982 classic "Why I Came to California". I love the positive energy of the song, the brass blasts, and the duet vocals. I thought it'd be perfect since I met today's podcast guests in California when they were visiting from Canada. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1gwc9HJARU

Dr. David J. Malan teaches computer science at Harvard. Over the past decade, millions of people have taken his CS50 course both in person and online. He joins us to talk about: 1. Why he still recommends learning the C programming language in 2026 2. How he intentionally nerfs hist student's coding editors and LLMs to help them learn fundamentals faster 3. His vision for self-paced learning, and how it improves on traditional university education 4. Where the software engineering field is heading in light of recent AI tool improvements Links from our discussion: - Teaching Computer Science with Theatricality: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMiNIjePZlo - Teaching CS50 with AI: https://youtu.be/ggshaJcOc6Y Dr. Malan's paper on Academic Honesty in CS50: https://cs.harvard.edu/malan/publications/Teaching_Academic_Honesty_in_CS50.pdf - Dr. Malan's paper, Toward an Ungraded CS50: https://cs.harvard.edu/malan/publications/Toward_an_Ungraded_CS50.pdf - My 2019 interview with Dr. Malan and Colton Ogden, one of his CS50 instructors: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/podcast-harvard-cs50s-david-malan-and-colton-ogden-on-computer-science/ Community news section: 1. Learn how cryptography works, and how developers use it to secure both data and communication. freeCodeCamp just published a course that will teach you Python functions for symmetric and asymmetric encryption. You'll learn about SHA-256, AES, RSA, and public / private keys as well. You'll even code your own command-line cryptography tool. (1 hour YouTube course): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/cryptography-for-beginners-full-python-course-sha-256-aes-rsa-passwords/ 2. freeCodeCamp also published a course on building your own 3D games that run in a browser using Three.js and Blender. You'll learn how to model characters, design levels, detect collisions, and make the camera follow your playable character. You'll even deploy your game to the cloud so your friends can play it. (6 hour YouTube course): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/creative-web-development-with-threejs-and-blender/ 3. Learn Event-Driven Architecture. freeCodeCamp published this advanced JavaScript handbook that will teach you about Event Loops, Task Queues, Call Stacks, Backpressure, Websockets, Pub/Sub, and more. Take your full stack development skills to the next level and be sure to share this with your developer friends. (full length handbook): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/event-based-architectures-in-javascript-a-handbook-for-devs/ 4. freeCodeCamp also published our first ever guitar course. You'll learn beginner music theory concepts like chords and scales. You'll then map them to the guitar fretboard. You'll also learn guitar-specific techniques like barre chords. I learned guitar during the pandemic and am having an absolute blast with it. I hope you will, too. (1 hour YouTube course): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/guitar-theory-course-for-beginners-learn-fretboard-major-scale-and-triads 5. Check out the winner of this year's JS13k competition, Cat Strike. This cat stealth game was built using only 13 kilobytes of JavaScript, sound, assets, everything. You avenge your fallen human using wall climbing, rolling, meowing to distract, and of course, your claws. https://js13kgames.com/2025/games/clawstrike Song of the Week: "Kiss Like Judas" by It Bites 1988: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LK4T8HnSdEI

Abbey Perini taught herself programming at age 27 while working as an admin at an engineering recruitment agency. She has worked extensively with large legacy codebases and taught best practices to developers internationally. We talk about: - How to hit the ground running with a large legacy codebase - How to get employers to remember you and actually respond to you - How she adapted to her ADHD diagnosis and stays focused and ships code - How knitting and cosplay give her perspective as a dev Links we discuss: - Abbey's blog: https://abbeyperini.com/ - Robby Russell (OhMyZSH maintainer) interview: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/podcast-oh-my-zsh-creator-and-ceo-robby-russell/ - Leon (100Devs founder) interview: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/playing-the-developer-job- search-game-to-win-in-2025-with-danny-thompson-and-leon-noel-podcast-188/ - AskJan to help you figure out if you need accomodation at work and your options: https://askjan.org/ - Little Old Lady Memory: https://www.amusingplanet.com/2020/02/that-time-when-computer-memory-was.html Links from the community news section: 1. freeCodeCamp just published a new course taught by legendary Harvard computer science professor Dr. David J. Malan. This comprehensive cybersecurity for beginners course will teach you how to secure accounts, databases, and entire software systems. Dr. Malan also shares tons of practical tips for securing your privacy in an increasingly adversarial world. (8 hour YouTube course): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/learn-cybersecurity-from-harvard-university/ 2. freeCodeCamp also published a guide to passing the Certified Kubernetes Administrator Exam. Beau Carnes teaches this course, which will walk you through key DevOps concepts. You'll start by setting up your K8s practice environment. Then you'll bootstrap a multi-node cluster and your control plane. You'll learn about Helm, High Availability Autoscaling, CoreDNS, and more. (2 hour YouTube course): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/prepare-for-the-kubernetes-administrator-certification-and-pass/ 3. Learn how to build high-performance mobile apps using Google's open-source Flutter framework. freeCodeCamp uses Flutter for our Android and iPhone apps, and it's way easier than maintaining two separate app codebases. This Flutter handbook will teach you how to efficiently lay out your apps with minimum widget rebuilds. You'll learn state management techniques, asynchronous patterns, and image caching best practices. You'll also learn how to use Isolates and lazy loading to make your apps really snappy. (full length handbook): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/how-to-build-scalable-and-performant-flutter-applications-a-handbook-for-devs/ 4. Learn Serverless Architecture using C# .NET and Azure cloud. This jam-packed course will teach you common microservice patterns, Onion Architecture, IoT functions, and more. (5 hour YouTube course): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/serverless-and-microservices-with-c-and-azure/ 5. If you want to listen to lofi music in the background while you work with lower data consumption (64kbps or 128kbps) than YouTube and no ads, freeCodeCamp has got your covered: https://coderadio.freecodecamp.org The song of the week is Marvin Gaye's "A Funky Space Reincarnation" released on New Year's Day 1978. Tons of funky solos, a laid back drum groove, and Marvin doing some James Brown-style vocal punctuations: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zk8-EXnFSjw Buy a freeCodeCamp shirt: https://shop.freecodecamp.org The freeCodeCamp community is working hard on so many improvements to our core curriculum. You should support our charity's mission, and by extension the entire open source ecosystem that relies on our learning resources: https://www.freecodecamp.org/donate

Patrick Hartley is a self-taught developer with nearly a decade of software engineering experience. When he was 21 he had to dropped out of college to provide for his family. He taught himself programming while working at a thrift store. After building his own apps and freelancing, he became the founding engineer at startup that got acquired, and has since worked as a dev at other tech companies. A few months ago he turned down an opportunity at Amazon so he could continue to work remotely from his home in Oklahoma City. He shares tips for: - Teaching yourself programming while raising kids - How to build foundational skills with JavaScript and Python - Getting a remote job when you have to compete with the global developer talent pool - Surviving as an introvert in a networking-heavy and meeting-filled profession Patrick Hartley on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrick-hartley-jr/ Links from the Community News intro:  1. freeCodeCamp just published a massive course that will teach you almost every major data structure and algorithm that may come up in a developer job interview. You'll learn about Time Complexity, Space Complexity, and Big O Notation. Then you'll learn concepts like Trees, Graphs, Dynamic Programming, Backtracking, and more. (49 hour YouTube course): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/master-technical-interviews-by-learning-data-structures-and-algorithms/ 2. freeCodeCamp also published a handbook that will teach you React for beginners. React is a powerful front end development library that tons of companies use to make their websites more interactive. If you already know some basic HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, this handbook is for you. You'll learn about JSX, components, event handlers, hooks, and more. (full length handbook): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/react-handbook-for-beginners-learn-jsx-hooks-rendering/ 3. This SwiftUI for Beginners course will give you the tools you need to build your first iPhone app. You can code along at home and build your own movie browsing app with powerful search features and the ability to stream movie trailers. You'll learn about navigation, API networking requests, SwiftData, and more. (4 hour YouTube course): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/learn-swiftui-and-create-an-ios-app-from-scratch/ 4. freeCodeCamp published an advanced Python tutorial on Machine Learning Lineage. This is important to establish the safety of mission critical AI systems. You'll learn about ETL Pipelines, Data Drift Checks, Model Tuning, and Model Risk Assessment. (20 minute read): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/how-to-build-end-to-end-machine-learning-lineage/ 5. This relaxing 3D browser game where you deliver messages around town. You can customize your appearance and watch other messagers spawn into the game and deliver their packages, too. A chill way to spend 15 minutes. https://messenger.abeto.co/ 6. Song of the week: A full live set from Anime-inspired French House producer Moe Shop. He takes his new album and glitches the ever living heck out of. If you like dance music I think you're going to love this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7DxUZmqvQA

Eric Carlson is a self-taught software engineer at Cisco. In his early 20s, he worked his way up to manager at the busiest Dominos Pizza in Canada. He eventually went to college and studied liberal arts, then worked as a teacher for two decades before teaching himself programming using freeCodeCamp.  He got his first developer job at age 45 by using his programming skills to pivot into a more technical role within a big telecom company. And he's since gone further down the stack, doing back end work and now DevOps. Eric shares tips for: - Teaching yourself programming while raising young kids - Building up your mental stamina so you can program for many hours in one sitting - How to learn just-in-time so you don't waste time chasing "shiny object" tools - How to reinforce your learning by taking detailed notes on basically everything Links we discuss during the show: - Eric's 2022 freeCodeCamp forum post about his journey into software development: https://forum.freecodecamp.org/t/i-got-a-dev-job-after-9-months-on-freecodecamp-or-was-it-2-years-and-9-months/516049 - The 1990 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles pizza scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-teYcHSWkg Links from the Community News intro:  1. freeCodeCamp just published a course on how to build your own MCP server with Python. Model Context Protocol Servers are like APIs for AI agents. Lots of developers are now building them to help agents interact with their websites' data more accurately. This course will teach you how to leverage the open source FastMCP library to build a calculator project that agents can then directly interact with. (1 hour YouTube course): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/learn-mcp-essentials-and-how-to-create-secure-agent-interfaces-with-fastmcp 2. Learn how to pass Google's new Generative AI Leader Certification Exam. Andrew Brown is a CTO who has passed practically every DevOps exam under the sun, and he teaches this course. He'll give you a business-level understanding of Google Cloud's gen AI offerings. By the end of this course, with the help of Andrew's practice materials, you'll be ready to sit for the exam. (3 hour YouTube course): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/pass-the-google-generative-ai-leader-certification-exam/ 3. Teach your apps how to learn. This comprehensive Machine Learning fundamentals course will walk you through building systems smart enough to create their own algorithms. You'll use C++ to implement a Preceptron, which will then look at images of shapes and figure out ways to reliably label them. (interactive course): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/machine-learning-tutorial-how-to-program-without-creating-your-own-algorithms/ 4. Strix is a relatively new open source tool for testing the security of your apps and identifying vulnerabilities. It's essentially an AI-powered white hat attacker that you set loose in your codebase. This tutorial will explain how it works and how you can use it to harden your apps against common exploits. (15 minute read): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/how-to-use-strix-the-open-source-ai-agent-for-security-testing/ 5. Learn fun facts about the atmosphere and space while riding the space elevator. Did you know that the fastest elevator in the world moves 42 miles per hour and even at that speed, it would take 80 minutes to reach space? https://neal.fun/space-elevator/ 6. Song of the week: 1980 progressive rock classic Don't Be Late by the legendary Canadian band Saga. This song features lightning fast keyboard arpeggios that are so precise (and before the era of sequencers). And the clearest annunciated lyrics ever. It's perfect for late night driving. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYt7dWb2knc