Learn JavaScript

Where to start with JavaScript

JavaScript is the one language the browser runs. Every site with anything interactive, every button that responds and page that updates without reloading, leans on it. That makes it less a choice than a starting point. Do anything web-facing and you'll meet JavaScript, whether you planned to or not. It reaches the server too, through Node, so the same language can carry you across the whole stack. Few skills in tech travel that far on a single syntax.

The best courses above share one habit: they teach the language before the framework. Look for real coverage of the core: variables, functions, the DOM, and how asynchronous code actually works. The good ones pair that with projects you build, not just videos you watch. Check the date, too, because JavaScript changes faster than most subjects. A course from a few years back can teach patterns the language has since moved past.

Should you learn JavaScript before a framework?

Especially with JavaScript, yes. Its frameworks come and go faster than any other ecosystem's: React, Vue, Angular, Svelte, and whatever ships next. Skip the language and go straight to a framework, and your skills ride on one tool that won't stay current. Build the language first, and you can move between frameworks, or pick up whatever comes next, without starting from zero. Master it once and the same skill follows you from the browser to the server to the next framework in line. That reach is the whole point of starting here.