3 places to go to practice frontend

Have you recently finished a CSS/HTML course and looking for more practice? Online courses can be a bit boring sometimes. It’s much more fun to work on real websites. You may try to start working on your portfolio or some dummy projects. But it’s hard to come up with UI out of the blue, and you may want to join a community to participate with other people. So if you want to improve your skills by solving real-world frontend problems, try one of these resources:

The Odin Project

The Odin Project is an open-source free web development course. It has HTML/CSS and Javascript sections. Each section has several assignments they call “projects”. A project is a task to build something on your own, following given instructions (example). When you finish your project, you can submit it for peers to review and like. You can also see a list of submissions from other people.

Frontend Mentor

Frontend Mentor is a web app specifically designed for users to practice frontend. They have real-world challenges that you can implement using HTML/CSS/JS. They also have a large community of developers you can join to discuss challenges. You can only access JPG files of challenges with a free tier. To unlock Sketch and Figma files, you would have to pay for a pro version. But JPG should be good enough for the beginning.

Internship

The internship is one of the best ways to practice frontend. It may seem that to apply for a job, you have to build some skills and put together a portfolio. It’s not always the case. There are plenty of companies out there that would love to get you onboard to work for free. It may be a great opportunity for you to learn real-world web dev processes on actual projects. Eventually, it may evolve into paid junior position. So don’t be afraid and apply for an internship. Be honest and don’t lie about your skills and experience, and you will have a good chance of getting it.

Good luck in your career!