The freeCodeCamp Podcast

• #198 When NOT to use AI in your hackathon project with MLH winners Cindy Cui and Alison Co

  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

  --------  

  1:03:35

  --------

  1:03:35
• #197 Harvard CS50 prof David J. Malan on why you should take your time learning programming

  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

  --------  

  1:17:06

  --------

  1:17:06
• #196 Applying into the void with recruiter admin Abbey Perini

  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

  --------  

  1:08:55

  --------

  1:08:55
• #195 He Turned Down a FAANG Dev Job to Keep Working Remotely with Patrick Hartley

  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

  --------  

  50:49

  --------

  50:49
• #194 First dev job at 45 – Interview with self-taught freeCodeCamp grad Eric Carlson

  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

  --------  

  1:10:52

  --------

  1:10:52

More Education podcasts

Trending Education podcasts

About The freeCodeCamp Podcast

The freeCodeCamp Podcast: Podcasts in Family