Web Development Change Log

Codecademy Team
Take a look at the at the recent changes to the Web Development domain content

March 14, 2024 - Updates to Javascript Content

We have made some updates to quiz content in some of our Javascript Curriculum that will be going live on Friday, March 15. Previously, the Introduction to JavaScript quiz contained questions related to both the Introduction to JavaScript and Variables lessons. We’ve added a new quiz called Variables to separate these questions according to which lesson covers the material, in order to create a more focused learning experience.

This additional content may cause you to have a drop in your progress in affected courses and paths.

October 26, 2023 - Updates to Our React Content Effective November 16, 2023

Great news! We are continuing to update our React content. In this fourth and last release of our improved React content, the Learn Advanced React course will be updated to use React v18.

Why?

React has undergone some significant changes with the release of v18. In order to help you stay up to date on the latest technology, we will be updating our React content in Learn Advanced React.

When?

These changes will go live on November 16, 2023.

How does this impact you?

We will apply updates directly to our existing content. This means that if you’re already enrolled in any of the affected courses or career paths, you’ll automatically get the latest updates on November 16, 2023. For a full list of affected courses, take a look at the “Where?” section below.

What are the specific changes?

We’ve made improvements to all content items in the Learn Advanced React course. Some major changes are:

  • Syntax has been updated to use React v18.
  • React Development Tools module was removed from the course as it contains content already covered in the Learn React course.

Where?

Applicable changes will appear in the following course and skill path:

Career paths:

TL;DR

We are improving our React content to reflect changes introduced in React v18. This wave of improvements updates our Learn Advanced React course.

October 2, 2023 - Recommending Render in Place of Heroku, Effective October 3, 2023

Great news! We have a new recommendation for deploying web applications, Render! We used to recommend Heroku, but since they’ve dropped their free tier, we’ve been researching an alternative solution and we finally landed on Render. Render provides an all-in-one solution for deploying and hosting a web app, has a seamless deployment flow, and provides a plethora of tools for hobbyists and professionals alike.

Why?

Without a free tier, it’s hard for budding developers to learn and gain experience with the deployment process. Render offers a free tier and paid offerings for those who need it.

When?

These changes will go live on October 3, 2023.

How does this impact you?

We’re creating new content that teaches deployment using Render! While we won’t outright remove our Heroku content, we will be swapping out Heroku content for this new Render content in our Courses and Career Paths.

If you’ve taken our Heroku content in a Career Path, you’ll see a drop in progress because of these new content items.

For a full list of what’s affected, take a look at the “Where?” section below.

What are the specific changes?

We’ve made new content focused on deploying with Render, teaching:

  • Deployment as a general process
  • Deployment using a sample Render repository
  • Creating a PostgreSQL database in Render
  • Maintaining and monitoring a deployed app in Render
  • Deploying a back-end app with a database
  • Deploying a full-stack app with a database

Where?

We’ll be removing Heroku content from Deploying with Netlify and Heroku and renaming it to Deploying with Netlify.

The existing Heroku content will live in a course called Deploying with Heroku.

We created a new course called Deploying with Render.

The deployment content in our Full-Stack Engineer and Back-End Engineer will contain Render content instead of Heroku.

Note: you will see a drop in progress in the Career Paths because of these changes.

TL;DR

We’re recommending Render instead of Heroku for your deployment needs. We’ve replaced existing Heroku content in Courses and Career Paths to use Render.

August 17, 2023 - Updates to Our React Content Effective August 31, 2023

Great news! We are continuing to update our React content. In this third release of our improved React content, the Learn Redux course will be updated to use React v18.

Improvements to the Learn Advanced React course are to come, so stay tuned!

Why?

React has undergone some significant changes with the release of v18. In order to help you stay up to date on the latest technology, we will be updating our React content in Learn Redux.

When?

These changes will go live on August 31, 2023.

How does this impact you?

We will apply updates directly to our existing content. This means that if you’re already enrolled in any of the affected courses or career paths, you’ll automatically get the latest updates on August 31, 2023. For a full list of affected courses, take a look at the “Where?” section below.

What are the specific changes?

We’ve made improvements to all content items in the Learn Redux course. Some major changes are:

  • Syntax has been updated to use React v18.
  • Connect to React with React Redux was removed from the course. Redux Toolkit will be introduced as the primary method of connecting React and Redux.
  • Refactoring with Redux Toolkit module is renamed to Redux Toolkit.
  • Implementing the Redux Store from Scratch article has been moved to the Redux Toolkit (previously named Refactoring with Redux Toolkit) module.
  • Redux DevTools video has been moved to the Async Actions with Middleware and Thunks module.
  • Contents in the Redux Middleware and Managing Promise Lifecycle Actions lessons have been combined into the Redux Middleware and Thunks lesson.
  • Contents on redux-thunk package have been replaced with Redux Toolkit.

Where?

Applicable changes will appear in the following course and skill path:

Career paths:

TL;DR

We are improving our React content to reflect changes introduced in React v18. This wave of improvements updates our Learn Redux course.

July 18, 2023 - Updates to Learn Ruby on Rails Effective August 3, 2023

Wonderful news! We are updating our Ruby on Rails content. We’ll be updating the Lessons, Projects, and Quizzes in our Learn Ruby on Rails Course and Learn Authentication with Ruby on Rails course to use Ruby on Rails 7, the latest version!

Why?

Our Ruby on Rails content was one of the earliest courses we’ve introduced on Codecademy. With this major version update, we’ll be able to also use the latest gems and teach up-to-date technology.

When?

These changes will go live on August 3, 2023.

How does this impact you?

We’ll be making these updates to our existing Lessons, Projects, and Quizzes. That means that if you’ve already finished the Learn Ruby on Rails course, you’ll maintain your progress! However, any code you’ve written for the previous version will revert back to a new fresh state to allow you to use Ruby on Rails 7.

What are the specific changes?

We’ve updated the existing Lessons, Projects, and Quizzes in Learn Ruby on Rails and Learn Authentication with Ruby on Rails to use Ruby on Rails 7, the latest version.

Where?

We’re updating the Lessons, Projects, and Quizzes in:

TL;DR

Learn Ruby on Rails and Learn Authentication with Ruby on Rails content now uses Ruby on Rails 7!

July 13, 2023 - Updates to Our React Content

Great news! We are continuing to update our React content. In this second release of our improved React content, the Learn React Testing and Connecting Front-End to Back-End courses will be updated to use React v18.

More improvements to the rest of our React courses (Learn Redux and Learn Advanced React) are to come, so stay tuned!

Why?

React has undergone some significant changes with the release of v18. In order to help you stay up to date on the latest technology, we will be updating our React content in Learn React Testing and Connecting Front-End to Back-End.

When?

These changes will go live in July 13, 2023.

How does this impact you?

We will apply updates directly to our existing React content. This means that if you’re already enrolled in any of the affected courses or career paths, you’ll automatically get the latest updates on July 13, 2023. For a full list of affected courses, take a look at the “Where?” section below.

What are the specific changes?

We’ve made improvements to all content items in the Learn React Testing course. Some major changes are:

  • Syntax has been updated to use React v18.
  • Function components are used instead of class components.
  • Jest test is now set up using create-react-app.
    • Note: We recommend using create-react-app to focus on learning React. You will be able to take what you learn and apply it to React frameworks like Next.js in the future.
  • Test logic is contained within the it() function instead of the test() function.

We’ve also made improvements to all content items in the Connecting Front-End to Back-End course. Some major changes are:

  • Syntax has been updated to use React v18.
  • Function components are used instead of class components.

Where?

Applicable changes will appear in the following courses:

Career paths:

TL;DR

We are improving our React content to reflect changes introduced in React v18. This wave of improvements updates our Learn React Testing and Connecting Front-End to Back-End courses.

April 13, 2023 - Updates to Our React Content

Great news! We are updating our React content. In this first release of our improved React content, the Learn React course will be updated to provide content that teaches React v18.

More improvements to the rest of our React courses (Learn React Testing, Connecting Front-End to Back-End, Learn Redux, Learn Advanced React) are to come, so stay tuned!

Why?

React has undergone some significant changes with the release of v18. In order to help you stay up to date on the latest technology, we will be updating our React content, starting with Learn React.

When?

These changes will go live on April 13, 2023.

How does this impact you?

We will apply updates directly to our existing React content. This means that if you’re already enrolled in any of the affected courses or career paths, you’ll automatically get the latest updates on April 13, 2023.

Your progress may decrease in certain areas of the course since we’ve swapped out some older content for newer material. (That means more content to learn and revisit!) In other areas, your progress will likely increase, since we have removed some outdated content and combined some lessons. For a full list of affected courses, take a look at the “Where?” section below.

What are the specific changes?

We’ve made improvements to all content items in the Learn React course. Some major changes are:

  • Function components are now taught as the primary method of creating React components.
  • The this.state lesson has been removed from the Components Interacting module.
  • The Lifecycle Methods module has been removed.
  • The Function Components lesson has been removed from the Hooks module.
  • The Stateless Components From Stateful Components module has been replaced with the React Programming Patterns module.
  • The Additional React Basics module has been split up into two modules: React Styles and React Forms.
  • The PropTypes lesson has been removed from the Additional React Basics module.
  • The Container Components from Presentational Components lesson has been removed from the Additional Basics module. Topics taught in this lesson will be covered in the new React Programming Patterns module.

We’ve also made improvements to content items in skill paths and career paths:

  • The Jammming project has been updated to use React v18 syntax and is now a kanban project. This project appears in:
    • Create a Front-End App with React
    • Front-End Engineer
    • Full-Stack Engineer
  • The Ravenous projects (Parts 1 - 4) have been updated to use React v18 syntax and are now challenge projects. These projects appear in:
    • Create a Front-End App with React

Where?

Applicable changes will appear in the following courses:

Skill paths:

Career paths:

TL;DR

We are improving our React content to reflect changes introduced in React v18. This first wave of improvements updates our Learn React course.

January 31, 2023 - Updates to Our React Router Content

Great news! We are updating our React Router content. This update will introduce new content that teaches React Router v6 while still maintaining our existing content that teaches React Router v5.

Why?

React Router has undergone some significant changes with the release of version 6. In order to help you stay up to date on the latest technology, we have updated our Learn React Router course to teach React Router v6. The new name for this course will be Learn React Router v6. We understand that you may have reasons to learn version 5 of React Router, so we will maintain our legacy Learn React Router content in another course called Learn React Router v5.

Our original course led you through creating an application in your local environment that implements static, dynamic, and nested routing, among other features. The new Learn React Router v6 course will guide you through building the same application within the context of React Router version 6.

When?

These changes will go live on January 31, 2023.

How does this impact you?

We will add a new Learn React Router v6 course to our catalog that includes a lesson, project, and quiz while maintaining our existing content that teaches React Router v5. This means that you will have access to the new Learn React Router v6 course on January 31, 2023. If you are currently enrolled in the existing Learn React Router course, your progress will be reset since all the content is brand new!

You will have access to the new Learn React Router v6 course on January 31, 2023.

What are the specific changes?

We’ve created a new Learn React Router v6 course that contains a single module: React Router.

Learn React Router v5 content will live in a separate course. You can access this content, along with Learn React Router v6, on January 31, 2023.

Where?

You can find the new Learn React Router v6 course at the following link:

The existing Learn React Router course is available at the following link:

TL;DR

We’re adding a new Learn React Router v6 course to our catalog to teach you the fundamentals of the latest version of React Router while maintaining our legacy Learn React Router content.

December 8, 2022 - Updates to Our Web Dev Career Path Content

We’ve updated some Web Dev Career Path content to remove the content on the deprecated csurf module.

When?

These changes will go live on December 8, 2022.

How does this impact you?

You will likely see your progress increase in whatever content you are in, but you will not be able to access the removed csurf content.

What are the specific changes?

Due to the csurf module being deprecated for security reasons, we are removing a lesson and a project as well as updating a quiz and a portfolio project to remove content that uses that module. We will look into secure alternatives, but we did not want to leave in insecure content and mislead learners trying to secure their applications!

Where?

Applicable changes will appear in the following Career Paths:

TL;DR

We’ve removed deprecated Cybersecurity content to ensure the best possible experience.

December 2, 2022 - Updates to Our Web Dev Career Path Content

Great news! We are updating our Web Dev Career Paths. This update will introduce new content to the Interview Prep section of our Web Dev Career Paths (Front-End Engineer, Back-End Engineer, and Full-Stack Engineer) to give you more well-rounded technical interview topics.

Why?

In order to help you prepare more thoroughly for technical interviews, we’ve added a new module on Dijkstra’s Algorithm, an important search and graph search algorithm. You’ll gain a conceptual understanding of Dijkstra’s algorithm, then we’ll walk you through how you can implement it using JavaScript. The module also includes two quizzes to test your knowledge along the way.

When?

These changes will go live on December 2, 2022.

How does this impact you?

We will add a new module that includes two lessons and two quizzes in the Interview Prep section of our three Web Dev Career Paths. This means that if you’re already enrolled in Front-End Engineer, Back-End Engineer, and Full-Stack Engineer Career Paths, you’ll get the additional content on December 2, 2022.

If you are enrolled in any of the three Web Dev Career Paths already, your progress will decrease slightly due to the additional content being added.

What are the specific changes?

We’ve added the following new content to Front-End Engineer, Back-End Engineer, and Full-Stack Engineer Career Paths:

New Module: Dijkstra’s Algorithm

  • Lesson: Dijkstra’s Algorithm: Conceptual
  • Quiz: Dijkstra’s Algorithm: Conceptual
  • Lesson: Dijkstra’s Algorithm: JavaScript
  • Quiz: Dijkstra’s Algorithm: JavaScript

Where?

Applicable changes will appear in the following Career Paths:

TL;DR

We’re updating and expanding our existing Web Dev Career Paths to help you on your learning journey.

November 18th, 2022 - Addressing Heroku Content

On September 26th, 2022, Heroku announced that they plan to deprecate their free offering (called the Hobby plan) to deploy applications, starting on November 28th, 2022. Currently, specific courses and paths (see list below) use Heroku as a free way to deploy the applications. We are working hard on creating content that uses a free alternative. In the meantime, any course, path, or content item that uses Heroku, will now have a banner that includes information about the changes to their offerings. Thank you for your patience.

What Content is Affected?

The following content will be impacted by the changes to Heroku’s offerings:

Courses and Skill Paths:

Career Paths:

How Does This Impact You?

Starting on November 28th, 2022:

  • If you are currently enrolled in any of the courses or paths listed above, you will no longer be able to use Heroku’s free plan to deploy an application. However, Heroku does offer a new low-cost plan, and there are other free alternatives.
  • If you currently have an application deployed on Heroku you can visit Heroku’s FAQ on new plans for more information.

TL;DR

We are aware of a change to Heroku’s free deployment offering. We are working hard to create content that uses a free alternative and replace all content that uses Heroku.

July 11, 2022- Updates to Our Advanced React Course

Great news! We are adding to our Learn Advanced React Course! This small update will introduce a new quiz.

How does this impact you?

We will add a new quiz to the Debugging React with React Developer Tools Module. This means that if you’re already enrolled in Advance React, you’ll get the newly updated content on July 11, 2022. If you are enrolled in Learn Advanced React already, your progress will decrease slightly due to the additional content being added.

Where?

Applicable changes will appear in the following course:

TL;DR

We’ve updated our Advanced React Content to provide you with assessments to help you on your learning journey.

May 26, 2022- Updates to Our Go/Golang Content

Great news! We are updating our Learn Go course. This update will introduce new content to our current Go course to give you a more well-rounded foundation in this language.

Why?

In order to help you develop a greater understanding of the basics, we have added a new module to our existing Learn Go course and created an additional course, Learn Go: Loops, Arrays, Maps, and Structs to add to our Go offerings. Our original course led you through variables & formatting, conditions, and functions. In Learn Go, we are adding a project and quiz to the formatting content. In the new course, we are adding content covering loops, maps, arrays, and structs!

When?

These changes will go live on May 26, 2022.

How does this impact you?

We will add a new module that includes a lesson, project, and quiz in Learn Go. This means that if you’re already enrolled in Learn Go, you’ll get the newly updated content on May 26, 2022. If you are enrolled in Learn Go already, your progress will decrease slightly due to the additional content being added.

What are the specific changes?

We’ve added the following new content to Learn Go:

New Modules:

  • Fmt Package

The additional course will include:

New Modules:

  • Loops
  • Maps
  • Arrays
  • Structs

Where?

Applicable changes will appear in the following course:

TL;DR

We’re updating and expanding our existing Learn Go Course to help you on your learning journey.

Slight Change to the Full-Stack Engineer Career Path

Quick update — we’re going to be updating the Full-Stack Engineer Career Path!

Why?

Upon closer inspection, we should’ve introduced the “User Authorization and Authentication” Unit earlier. That is because we want to build out this functionality in “Portfolio Project: E-Commerce App (REST API)”!

Currently “User Authorization and Authentication” is Unit 38, after this change, it will become Unit 27. And will follow up directly after Unit 26, “Build a Back-end with Express.js”.

How does this impact you?

This change will affect only the Full-Stack Engineer Career Path. If you’re taking it currently, and you’ve already taken Unit 26, “Build a Back-end with Express.js” but haven’t got to Unit 38 “User Authorization and Authentication”, we recommend taking the unit before you get to “Portfolio Project: E-Commerce App (REST API)”.

Otherwise, if you haven’t gotten up to Unit 26, or you’re well past Unit 38, then this change won’t affect you!

We should also note that this change won’t affect your progress either!

When?

This change will take place on May 2nd, 2022.

Recap

We’re updating the Full-Stack Engineer Career Path on May 2nd, 2022. We’re going to shift up the “User Authorization and Authentication” earlier. This change will help prepare you to tackle the “Portfolio Project: E-Commerce App (REST API)”. Good luck and happy coding!

March 31st - Updates to Our JavaScript Content

Great news! We are releasing updates to some of our most popular JavaScript content. This update will address bugs in our existing content, as well as introduce some new content to help provide a smoother learning experience for you!

Why?

Much of our JavaScript content has been around for some time and is due for a refresh. Based on your feedback, we’ve made some updates that will solve some of your most common concerns and provide a more seamless learning experience overall. These changes will address bugs, redundancies, and inconsistencies within JavaScript lessons and projects across Codecademy. As we worked through these updates, we found that some of the content was outdated or too far beyond its intended scope. We’ve replaced this content with new materials that will provide a more approachable and straightforward learning experience.

When?

These changes will go live on March 31, 2022.

How does this impact you?

We will apply these updates directly to our existing JavaScript content. This means that if you’re already enrolled in any of the affected courses or career paths, you’ll automatically get the latest updates on March 31st, 2022! If you are enrolled in JavaScript courses such as Learn JavaScript, Learn Intermediate JavaScript, Building Interactive JavaScript Websites, or any of the web development career paths, your progress may decrease in certain areas of the course since we’ve swapped out some older content for newer material. (That means more content to learn and revisit!) In other areas, your progress will likely increase, since we have combined some lessons. For a full list of affected courses, take a look at the “Where?” section below.

What are the specific changes?

We’ve made improvements to the following lessons:

  • Higher Order Functions
  • The Document Object Model
  • JavaScript and the DOM

We’ve also updated these projects:

  • Magic 8 Ball
  • Whale Talk
  • Meal Maker
  • Chore Door
  • Number Guesser
  • Lodash
  • Team Stats
  • Mini Linter

Finally, we’ve created some brand new content items:

  • Wanderlust project has been replaced with a new Film Finder project
  • Requests I and II lessons have been combined into a single lesson: Requests with Fetch API
  • A new quiz has been added to test what you learned in The Document Object Model and JavaScript and the DOM lessons

Where?

Applicable changes will appear in the following courses:

TL;DR

We’re updating our existing JavaScript content to give you a more seamless, and straightforward learning experience. We’ve improved existing materials and added new, more appropriately scoped items to better support you in your learning journey.


February 11th, 2022 - Changes to the Web Development Career Paths

Fantastic news! We’re updating our three Web Development Career Paths: Full-Stack Engineer, Front-End Engineer, and Back-End Engineer.

Why?

The world of web development is constantly changing, and it can often feel daunting to understand what one should learn. In this update, we’re streamlining the content for what to learn to land an entry-level job as a full-stack, front-end, or back-end engineer.

The existing Career Paths will be updated to focus on the foundational skills that employers look for when hiring an entry-level engineer. For skills that could provide a competitive edge and go beyond a core foundation, we’ve still included this material as links in Review Informationals — this means you have the option of exploring these links, but they’re no longer something you must click through as part of the syllabus itself. The overall ordering of the syllabi will also get updated for a smoother connection between topics.

Many of these changes are a result of the constantly changing technologies in the engineering world. In addition, we have taken into account a vast amount of learner feedback. For instance, we’ve created newer Codecademy content for a more cohesive experience. Some of this content is drawn directly from other Courses and Skill Paths that we’ve recently created, such as Learn React Router, Design Databases with PostgreSQL, Connecting Front-End to Back-End, and more. These decisions collectively aim to provide a cohesive Codecademy experience tailored to your engineering career journey.

How does this impact you?

We will apply these updates directly to the existing Career Paths. This means that if you’re already taking any of these paths, you’ll automatically get the latest updates on February 11th, 2022! Your progress to these updated Paths will decrease since we’ve swapped out some older, or external, content for newer Codecademy content. (That means more content to learn and revisit!)

If you’ve already started or completed any of the previous Career Paths, you can still revisit these Career Paths and re-enroll through the following links:

Keep in mind that the links above contain the previous syllabi for each of the Career Paths. Also, these old syllabi will no longer be accessible from the Catalog. You won’t lose progress on the coursework that you’ve completed and will be able to continue and finish the Path.

When?

All three Web Development Career Paths: Full-Stack Engineer, Front-End Engineer, and Back-End Engineer, will be updated Friday, February 11th, 2022. During this time, the old syllabi will no longer be available through the Catalog.

Take a look below to get an overview of the updates broken out by Career Path.

Notable Changes to All Three Paths:

  • Book and book chapter recommendations are now optional resources and not embedded into the syllabi
  • Complete overhaul of content ordering to better support learning journey
  • Review Informationals contain additional resources for continued learning
  • Introduction of new Codecademy features like Workspaces and the Career Hub
  • New and improved Codecademy Testing content
  • Reorganization of the technical interview content
  • Inclusion of newly created GitHub content

Full-Stack Engineering:

  • HTML and CSS Units go before JavaScript Units
  • Added new Codecademy React content
  • Database content now uses all Codecademy content
  • Cybersecurity content now uses all Codecademy content
  • Added a new Unit for DevOps topics

Front-End Engineering:

  • Web Development Fundamentals section is broken up into 5 separate sections (Overview of Web Development, Fundamentals of HTML, Fundamentals of CSS, Developing Websites Locally, Deploying Websites)
  • Added new Codecademy Git and GitHub content
  • Added new Codecademy React content
  • CSS-in-JS and Build Tools content in the Advanced Web Development Unit now uses all Codecademy content

Back-End Engineering:

  • HTML and CSS Units are now ordered to appear before JavaScript Units
  • The following back-end Units now have all new Codecademy Content (replacing most external content):
    • Databases (multiple Units)
    • DevOps
    • Caching
    • Scalability
    • Security (multiple Units)
    • Software Development Principles
    • API Design & Development with Swagger
    • Operating Systems Fundamentals

Recap

We’re updating our three Web Development Career Paths. The old Paths still exist but will no longer be in the Catalog. The new Career Paths have more Codecademy content, a better flow, and a major focus on the core skills necessary to land an entry-level engineer position. Thanks for taking the time to check out this post and we hope you also take some time to check out the updated Paths (or Path of your choice)!


January 12th, 2022 - Updates to Our Learn JavaScript: Request’s Wanderlust Project

Great news! We are updating our Wanderlust project, found in our JavaScript course: Requests. This course can also be found through our Create a Front-End App with React Skill Path, and through our Full-Stack, Front-End, and Back-End Career Paths. This update is in response to the newly updated Foursquare API that is used in the project.

Why?

With Foursquare’s updated API, the way we need to interact with the API has also changed. This means we need to update the project narrative, some of the project steps, and also some of the provided starter code.

When?

These changes will go live on January 12th, 2022

How does this impact you?

  • If you’ve previously completed the Wanderlust project, you’ll keep your progress. However, your existing code will be replaced with our new starter code. You can opt to re-do the project if you want to — the project steps will already be updated for you. If you want to save your code, make sure to do it before January 12th, 2022!

  • If you’re currently working through Wanderlust, your code will be replaced by the new starter code. The steps will be updated on January 12th for you to work alongside the new instructions.

  • If you haven’t started on Wanderlust then you’re in luck! You can start anew on this project that practices making API requests from a clean slate.

What are the specific changes?

  • The narrative that explains the project will have updated links to the Foursquare API.
  • The project steps that reference how to interact with the previous version of the Foursquare API will have its text and hints updated.
  • Starter code that previously supported requests to the previous Foursquare’s API now accurately reflects the new API’s structure.

Where?

Applicable changes will appear in the following course:

Skill path:

Career paths:

TL;DR

Wanderlust is being updated since it uses the Foursquare API, which has also gotten an update.


November 17 - Updates to Our Intermediate JavaScript Content

Good news, everyone! We are updating Learn Intermediate JavaScript for our JavaScript learners.

This update will add further intermediate JavaScript content to the existing intermediate JavaScript course.

Why?

We’ve heard you, loud and clear: you want more depth of content! Our new content provides a deeper understanding of how JavaScript operates under the hood, as well as best practices for JavaScript programming.

When?

These changes will go live on November 17th, 2021.

How does this impact you?

  • If you’re currently enrolled in Learn Intermediate JavaScript, your progress is likely to DECREASE.
  • If you’ve completed the Learn Intermediate JavaScript course, your progress will DECREASE.

What are the specific changes?

  • New article on how Memory Management works in JavaScript.
  • Explore how to debug for memory leaks.
  • New article on Design Patterns in JavaScript.

Where?

Applicable changes will appear in the following course: Learn Intermediate JavaScript

TL;DR

Learn Intermediate JavaScript is getting more advanced content.


September 13th - Introducing the Learn Build Tools Course and Updates to Our JavaScript Content

Great news! We are introducing the Learn Build Tools course and making changes to our Learn JavaScript content.

This update will move the Learn JavaScript’s Browser Compatibility and Transpilation module to the new Learn Build Tools course. The module’s lesson, project, and quiz will also be updated to focus on addressing browser compatibility issues using Babel.

Why?

As we continue to revise our JavaScript content, we’ve recognized that the Browser Compatibility and Transpilation module fits better in the newly launched Learn Build Tools course.

This update will also ensure that Learn Javascript is beginner-friendly.

When?

These changes will go live on September 13th, 2021

How does this impact you?

If you’ve previously completed Learn JavaScript, you’ll keep your certificates and progress.

If you’re currently enrolled in Learn JavaScript, your progress will likely INCREASE as the Browser Compatibility and Transpilation module will be removed.

What are the specific changes?

  • Learn JavaScript’s Browser Compatibility and Transpilation module will be moved to the new Learn Build Tools course.
  • The lesson, project, and quiz in the Browser Compatibility and Transpilation module will be updated.

Where?

Applicable changes will appear in the following courses:

TL;DR

Learn JavaScript’s Browser Compatibility and Transpilation module will be moved to the new Learn Build Tools course.


August 30, 2021 - Updates to Our JavaScript Content

Great news! We are introducing Learn Intermediate JavaScript as a course for our JavaScript learners.

This update will break up our Learn JavaScript into a shorter, complete beginner course, while moving some of our more advanced concepts, and some brand new content, to the Intermediate course.

Why?

As we continue to add more JavaScript content to our catalog, we want to differentiate between beginner and more advanced content while also breaking up the JavaScript content into digestible chunks.

When?

These changes will go live on August 30th, 2021.

How does this impact you?

If you’ve previously completed Learn JavaScript, you’ll keep your certificates and progress.

If you’re currently enrolled in Learn JavaScript, your progress will likely INCREASE.

If you’ve completed some of the more advanced Learn JavaScript content, you will additionally now show progress on the new Learn Intermediate JavaScript course.

What are the specific changes?

  • The back of Learn JavaScript will be broken off and titled Learn Intermediate JavaScript.
  • Additional content items on currying, hoisting, concurrency model, and event loops will be added to this new Learn Intermediate JavaScript course.
  • Additional contextual informationals will be added to Learn JavaScript.

Where?

Applicable changes will appear in the following courses:

TL;DR

Learn JavaScript is being broken into two courses — Learn JavaScript and Learn Intermediate JavaScript — and there will be additional new content in Learn Intermediate JavaScript.


July 1, 2021 - Updates to Our Learn Node.js Content

Good news! We’re improving our Learn Node.js content with more modules to help learners Updates to the existing Learn Node.js course expand the one-module course into a four-module course. More core Node.js modules are introduced and one module is dedicated to introducing learners to HTTP and creating servers using the built-in HTTP module.

Why?

Oftentimes, Node.js courses are bundled with external packages such as Express. Our updated Learn Node.js will focus on the core Node.js packages that are built into the framework, making sure that learners gain a strong fundamental knowledge in Node.js before moving on to learning about other popular packages such as Express and SQLite.

When?

These changes will go live on July 1st, 2021.

How does this impact you?

If you’ve previously completed Learn Node.js or any of the affected paths, you’ll keep your certificates and progress.

If you’re currently enrolled in Learn Node.js, chances are you’ll see your progress decrease, as we’ve added more to the course.

What are the specific changes?

  • Learn Node.js lesson is being updated and divided into two lessons: Introduction to Node.js and Node.js Essentials.
  • New lesson on Setting up a Server with HTTP
  • Updated and new quizzes on core Node.js modules and HTTP
  • New projects: Message Mixer and Rock-Paper-Scissors
  • New articles on JavaScript for Node.js, Node Package Manager
  • Added articles on What is JSON, Implementing Modules in Node, Node modules, and What is REST?
  • Updated the Setting up Node.js Locally article

Where?

Applicable changes will appear in the following Paths and courses:

Learn Node.js

TL;DR

Learn Node.js is expanding to a 4-module course that will give learners in-depth preparedness for back-end development with popular packages.


April 15th, 2021 - Updates to Our Learn CSS Content

Get excited! We’re improving our Learn CSS content with bug fixes, 3 completely new modules, and a division into two parts: Learn CSS and Learn Intermediate CSS.

Why?

At first, we just wanted to create some more intermediate CSS content to help you up your skills. Then we realized we had an opportunity to reorganize Learn CSS for the better. Instead of turning Learn CSS into a giant, 13 module course, we wanted to help you find the content you needed by separating the intro material, like syntax, from the more advanced stuff, like transitions. So now we have a whole bunch of new content and a better way of finding it!

On top of this, we made a giant list of all of the feedback you’ve provided us and bugs you’ve reported, and we fixed as many as we possibly could.

When?

These changes will go live on April 15th, 2021.

How does this impact you?

If you’ve previously completed Learn CSS or any of the affected paths, you’ll keep your certificates and progress.

If you’re currently enrolled in Learn CSS, chances are you’ll see your progress increase, and you might also already have some progress in Learn Intermediate CSS! This is because we’re moving some content from Learn CSS to Learn Intermediate CSS. However, because we’re also dividing the very first lesson of Learn CSS into two halves, you won’t see the new, second half of that first lesson marked as complete. In order to obtain 100% progress in Learn CSS, you’ll have to complete the new lesson, CSS Selectors.

Lastly, if you’ve previously reported a bug in our Learn CSS course, chances are we’ve fixed it!

What are the specific changes?

  • We’ve split Learn CSS into two courses: Learn CSS and Learn Intermediate CSS.
  • Three completely new modules for Learn Intermediate CSS: Variables and Functions, Browser Compatibility, and Accessibility
  • We’ve moved 3 modules from Learn CSS to the new intermediate course: Layout with Flexbox, Grid, CSS - Transitions,
  • We’ve also moved the Responsive Design module from Learn Responsive Design to the new Intermediate course
  • An overhaul of the first lesson in Learn CSS. We’ve split it into two more cohesive lessons, CSS Setup and Syntax and CSS Selectors, and we’ve added 4 new exercises to boot!
  • We’ve deprecated the CSS Grid: Architecture Blog project. Instead, we’ve given the CSS Grid: PupSpa project an overhaul.
  • Bug fixes all throughout our existing CSS content

Where?

Applicable changes will appear in the following Paths and courses:

TLDR

We’re dividing Learn CSS into two courses and adding some more advanced content. Any progress and certificates you have will be retained.


March 18, 2021 - Updates to our JavaScript Modules Content

Good news! We’re updating our JavaScript curriculum with new content on ES6 and Node modules.

Why?

We’re constantly looking for ways to improve our curriculum and the Modules content within our JavaScript curriculum has been in need of a refresh!

In particular, we wanted to highlight the different syntaxes used in implementing modules in front-end applications and back-end applications. To help with this, we’ve added an article on JavaScript Runtime Environments, which is essential to understanding the differences between front-end and back-end web development. We also wanted to revamp the projects to more accurately reflect how modules may be used in front-end and back-end applications.

Applicable changes will appear in the following Paths and courses:

When?

These changes will go live on March 26th, 2021.

How does this impact you?

If you’ve previously started or completed the Modules content in the Learn JavaScript course or any of the relevant Paths, you’ll notice that the Intermediate JavaScript Modules lesson has been replaced with two interactive articles and the projects have been rewritten to be more engaging and instructive.

If you’ve previously completed the course and/or one of the Paths, you’ll keep your certificates and progress.

Even if you’ve completed these older content items, we highly encourage you to take the new and improved versions.

What are the specific changes?

  • A new article on Runtime Environments
  • The Intermediate JavaScript Modules lesson has been condensed into two interactive articles. One article focuses on ES6 syntax for implementing modules in front-end applications. The second article focuses on Node syntax for implementing modules in back-end applications.
  • Revamped projects that highlight and illustrate the differences in implementing modules in a front-end application vs. a back-end application
  • A revised quiz to align with the new articles

Recap

We’re updating our JavaScript modules content on March 26th, 2021 to be more engaging and to provide a better learning experience. Any progress and certificates you have will be retained.


March 12, 2021 - Full-Stack, Front-End, and Back-End Updates

After a successful launch of the same feature in Full-Stack (see February 12, 2021 for more details), we added Career Path groups to the Front-End and Back-End Engineer Career Paths.

Based on your feedback, we also added some new instructional content, re-ordered some of the units to avoid testing a concept that we haven’t yet taught, and replaced our old Redux articles with lessons, quizzes, projects, and videos from the recently released Learn Redux course.

Career Path Groups

  • Pair Programming, Code Review, and Group Project Informationals are added throughout Front-End and Back-End
  • Updated the opening unit of the Front-End and Back-End Career Paths to include ‘Community Resources’ and clarified information in the other Informationals

New Content

Not all of these additions apply to all paths. The applicable paths are marked in [square brackets], where Full-Stack is FS, Front-End is FE, and Back-End is BE.

  • Improved Redux content: Replaced a majority of the Redux unit with our newly produced Learn Redux content. Most of the external articles we used are replaced by interactive lessons, projects, quizzes, and videos [FS, FE]
  • New Challenge Projects: Added the React ‘Appointment Planner’ Challenge Project and the Redux ‘Flashcards’ Challenge Project [FS, FE]. In FS, the ‘Appointment Planner’ Challenge Project is now the recommended project for the Code Review in ‘React, Part II’. Previously, the recommended project was the ‘Copycat’ project.
  • Additional Articles: Added ‘Intro to Mozilla Developer Network’, ‘The for…of Loop’, ‘What is Markdown?’ articles, [FS, FE, BE] and assorted deployment articles on Netlify and Heroku [‘Deploy a React Application with Netlify’ in FE and FS, ‘Deploying Back-Ends with Heroku’ in BE]
  • New introductory interview unit: Added ‘What to Expect in a Technical Interview’ before the data structures units [FS, FE, BE]
  • Resolved broken dependencies: Moved ‘Learn CSS: Documentation and Debugging’ after Flexbox [FS, FE]; Added ‘Learn HTML: Tables’ before ‘Build Your Own Cheat Sheet’ Challenge Project [FS, FE]; Moved ‘Running JavaScript’ after learners have covered basic JavaScript [FS, FE, BE]; Moved ‘Setting Up Your Dev Environment’ after learners have covered basic JavaScript [FS]

FAQ

I’m already enrolled in the Front-End or Back-End Engineer Path, do I have a group?
Everyone who is currently enrolled in either Path has automatically been placed in a group-based on your enrollment date. All you need to do is click the link in the informationals to be connected with your group in the forums!

Do I have to do these activities with my group?
While you’ll first join your group on the forums, you’re welcome to use any of our other community spaces (Discord, Codecademy Chapters, Facebook) to connect with other Codecademy learners and do group programming activities.

Do I need to do these activities?
These activities are fully optional and you do not need to complete them in order to complete the path. However, we highly encourage everyone to try at least one of the activities! You’re also welcome to do these activities as often as you like—no need to wait for our suggestions.