Frequently Asked Questions

The Odin Project is for absolute beginners in the world of web development and those who have tried other resources without success. In reality, The Odin Project is for anyone who wants to work as a web developer, do freelancing work, build a startup, or just hack together a homepage for yourself. All the tools you need are here. You should consider yourself fairly competent with personal computers and open to using a non-Windows based Operating System.

We’ve built an in-depth curriculum designed to take you 100% of the way to becoming a web developer. Many other resources out there teach you just the basics of programming. With The Odin Project you’ll create your own websites, games, and social media sites.

The curriculum has also been designed in a modular fashion, making skimming through lessons a breeze.

The goal of The Odin Project is to provide a complete path for students to go from zero programming knowledge to employed as web developers while working with other students and picking up the skills to become self sufficient along the way.

We won't have any of this 'Learn it all in two days!' BS. You can't start from scratch and learn true web development in such a short period of time and you know it. It's highly unlikely that you'll be employable after a weekend workshop or a one-month part-time course.

On the other hand, you don't necessarily need to put in 4 years getting a CS degree. 80% of what they cover won't be used during a typical web developer's early career and it's not necessary to get hired. So why not learn the 20% and learn the rest while you're getting paid on the job?

We've essentially distilled down what you most need to learn to hit that employable level, but it's still a healthy dose of learning. Depending how fast you learn, it will take roughly 1000 hours of work to hit that sweet spot. If you're naturally more technical or come from a technical background, it may be a bit faster. If you're less technical or brand new to all this, it will take longer. Don't despair! When you think about it, that's pretty much the same learning curve you had to climb to learn anything worthwhile so far in life.

The Odin Project contains three tracks for students to choose from: Fullstack Ruby on Rails, Fullstack Javascript, and Frontend only. The Ruby on Rails track gives a general overview of what fullstack is. This is the default track for most beginners. The Javascript track focuses more on the connection between the webpage and the data with Javascript and NodeJS. The Frontend track primarily goes over HTML, CSS and Javascript but no Ruby on Rails. Below are some courses that are included in these curriculums:

The Web Development 101 course will give you a chance to explore several of the languages and technologies you’ll need to know on your journey to becoming a web developer. Web Development 101 introduces HTML, CSS, Javascript, Ruby, Rails, Git, databases and more. We’ve also created mini-projects that give you a chance to test your new knowledge by building your own applications and websites!

The Odin Project takes a back-to-front approach to learning Ruby on Rails. We start with a strong foundation in Ruby and an understanding of databases before migrating into Ruby on Rails (which is a framework built using Ruby).

The Odin Project then delves deep into HTML and CSS, along with Javascript to give you all the tools necessary to make websites flow, load quickly, and look great. Along the way you’ll learn Git and deployment so you can build your own portfolio, collaborate with others, and see your work on the web.

Finally, The Odin Project will provide you with opportunities to work with legacy codebases and open-source projects. We’ll also cover areas specifically intended to help when you’re looking for employment.

The Odin Project is different from other online programs in that it pulls the best resources from around the web and compiles them to create a complete curriculum. In many other programs the material is formatted to meet their specific curriculum. This means that not all of the lessons are top-notch. The Odin Project sidesteps this downfall by pulling various free resources from around the web and compiles them in one place.

The Odin Project also attempts to develop your problem solving skills when it requires you to install programs on your local computer. As developers, programming errors frequently arise and knowing how to decipher error messages is critical. These problem solving skills are frequently ignored by other programs.

Lastly, The Odin Project is project based. Other programs require you to simply input the correct answer. It is difficult to retain any knowledge by learning the bare minimum syntax. The Odin Project is designed with projects built from the ground up giving you real-world experience that you can use to build your portfolio and get hired as a web developer!

There are dozens of frameworks and technology stacks to choose from and, frankly, they do pretty much the same thing. Ruby on Rails is attractive because it’s straightforward and well documented. It’s also used by many tech companies and has a strong community of developers who support it.

Ruby on Rails lets you deploy a functioning website in hours instead of weeks. Rails also provides a great platform to build the skills you need to carry you to the next phase.

Odin is a figure from Norse mythology, the allfather of the gods. He is portrayed as powerful and fickle (as they often are) but also wise and cunning. His search for knowledge is a thing of legends - he gave his eye for the wisdom of ages and hung from the world tree, pierced by his own spear, for nine days and nights to gain the knowledge of runes.

Learning web development is not an easy task and the tools laid out here are merely the path; you must walk it yourself. Should you possess a thirst for knowledge and persistence of spirit akin to that storied in Odin's mythos, you will find success on your journey.

You don’t have to! Dive right in, the content is free and available. It’d be best if you started at the beginning and went through in order but everyone’s goals are different so we made the full curriculum available if you want to cherry-pick lessons or projects.

However, by signing up you are able to check off completed projects and lessons, easily keeping track of your progress. We don't collect any user data and keep emails to a minimum.

Yes! The Odin Project is an open-source project created and maintained by hard working volunteers. To find out how you can help us, please visit our how to contribute page.

We don't provide a certificate for course completion. Employers will be much more impressed with your amazing personal portfolio of projects, many of which you'll hopefully have built with inspiration from The Odin Project.

Yes! While interacting with other Odinites you agree to the following:

The Odin Project Code of Conduct

The Odin Project’s online communities are intended to be informative and relaxing spaces where Odinites can find answers to their programming questions or simply hang out. Since we aim to be an inclusive and friendly community, we request that all Odinites follow the guidelines laid out in this Code of Conduct. Following these guidelines will ensure that all Odinites have a positive learning experience:

1. Be polite, welcoming, and inclusive.
2. Inappropriate conduct and harassment of any kind will not be tolerated. Any such remarks will result in an immediate ban.
3. Actions that seem specifically designed to test the limits of what is offensive and serve no other purpose (i.e., trolling) will not be tolerated, and such sessions will be immediately terminated.
4. Do not post someone’s personal information or post links to personal information.

Additionally, The Odin Project and it’s core members reserve the right to ban or otherwise disable the account(s) of users in defiance with this code of conduct or for any other reason they see fit.

Our Standards

Examples of behavior that contribute to creating a positive environment include:

• Using welcoming and inclusive language.
• Being respectful of differing viewpoints and experiences.
• Gracefully accepting constructive criticism.
• Focusing on what is best for the community.
• Showing empathy towards other community members.

Our Responsibilities

The Odin Project’s core members are responsible for clarifying the standards of acceptable behavior and are expected to take appropriate and fair corrective action in response to any instances of unacceptable behavior.

The Odin Project’s core members have the right and responsibility to remove, edit, or reject comments, commits, code, wiki edits, issues, and other contributions that are not aligned to this Code of Conduct, or to ban temporarily or permanently any contributor for other behaviors that they deem inappropriate, threatening, offensive, or harmful.

Enforcement

Instances of abusive, harassing, or otherwise unacceptable behavior may be reported by contacting the project team at contact@theodinproject.com. After investigating and reviewing each complaint, the project team will respond in a way that it deems appropriate to the circumstances. The project team is obligated to maintain confidentiality with regard to the reporter of an incident. Further details of specific enforcement policies may be posted separately.

The Odin Project is licensed under two pieces: the curriculum and the main website. The main website is a fully open-source project under an MIT license, so you can use the code for whatever you want. The curriculum is currently licensed under a Creative Commons license which restricts it to noncommercial use without prior authorization.

This means you can use The Odin Project’s curriculum to teach at your club, meetup, or with your friends (In fact, we’d love it if you did that and told us how it went!). You can’t, however, use it to start a bootcamp without having a conversation first. Please reach out with any questions to contact@theodinproject.com

If you have questions about The Odin Project itself, feel free to contact us. There is also a friendly Odin community in our Discord chat rooms.