What are the best coding tutorial sites for learning programming from scratch?

Here are some of the best coding tutorial sites for learning programming from scratch, grouped by style so you can pick what fits you best.

Best all-around beginner sites

• freeCodeCamp — Great for complete beginners. Free, hands-on lessons, lots of practice, and project-based learning.
• The Odin Project — Excellent if you want to become a web developer. Very structured, free, and focused on real-world skills.
• Codecademy — Interactive and beginner-friendly. Good for learning fundamentals quickly, though some content is paid.

Best for interactive practice

• Khan Academy — Very approachable for absolute beginners, especially for JavaScript, HTML, CSS, and basic programming logic.
• LeetCode Learn / Explore — Better after you know the basics, but useful for structured practice.
• SoloLearn — Mobile-friendly and easy to start with short lessons and quizzes.

Best for university-style learning

• CS50 by Harvard — One of the best free intro programming courses available. Challenging but outstanding for building real understanding.
• Coursera — Courses from universities and companies; many are beginner-friendly, though some are paid.
• edX — Similar to Coursera, with strong beginner computer science and programming courses.

Best for web development beginners

• MDN Web Docs — Not a tutorial site in the traditional sense, but one of the best references for HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
• freeCodeCamp — Especially strong for front-end and full-stack web development.
• The Odin Project — Very good if you want a full roadmap to web dev.

Best for a gentle introduction

• W3Schools — Simple explanations and examples, easy to browse quickly.
• Tutorialspoint — Broad coverage of many languages, useful for quick introductions.

Best for project-based learning

• freeCodeCamp
• The Odin Project
• Scrimba — Especially good for interactive coding and building small projects.

If you want my top 5 picks

1. freeCodeCamp
2. CS50
3. The Odin Project
4. Codecademy
5. Scrimba

Quick advice

If you’re starting completely from zero:

• Learn HTML/CSS + JavaScript if you want web development.
• Start with Python if you want a general-purpose beginner language.
• Focus on one site at a time so you don’t get overwhelmed.

If you want, I can also recommend the best site based on your goal:

• web development
• Python
• app development
• game development
• computer science fundamentals