How do Beginners Learn Software Engineering?

Software engineering is a technology area focused on designing, developing, and testing new technologies to solve real-world problems. Software Engineers bring comprehensive knowledge of programming, design, and engineering principles to build software. These computer science professionals create the web applications, mobile applications, video games, robots, operating systems, and network systems in use daily. 

Getting Started with Software Engineering

If you want to learn software engineering to build your own website or to explore a new career, it's a good idea to sign up for a bootcamp class or certificate course. This is the fastest, most efficient way to learn the new skills you will need.

If you want to explore software engineering before your class starts, you can get started for free on your own. Noble Desktop offers many free videos on its website, like Intro to React or Intro to Node.js. The videos are each about an hour long and are presented by experienced web developers. 

The First Steps When Learning Software Engineering

When you sign up for a software engineering course, there are basic skills that you’ll learn as a beginner. These are coding, version control, libraries and frameworks, testing and debugging, and design skills.

Coding

Software Engineers use many different coding languages depending on the project they are working on. You’ll need to know front end languages like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, as well as Python, Ruby, and SQL for the back end. 

Libraries and Frameworks

Web Developers use libraries and frameworks to save themselves time and effort when coding. Instead of coding everything from scratch, these libraries and frameworks contain pieces of code you can use to perform particular tasks. JavaScript has many libraries, like jQuery, Lodash, and D3.js, and numerous frameworks, including React, Angular, and Vue. software engineering classes go into depth on the libraries and frameworks and what they do.

Testing and Debugging

Another skill you will learn in a software engineering class is how to look for mistakes. This is called testing and debugging, and Software Engineers spend a lot of their time making sure their website or software works the way it is supposed to. A class will teach you the fastest, most efficient and most effective ways to do this.

Object-Oriented Design 

OOD is a software development approach that uses objects, which contain data, as building blocks for creating software solutions. OOD has been a popular design principle for years and is taught as a way to write robust, reusable, and clean code in object-oriented programming (OOP) languages, such as Java, C++, and Python. 

Data Structure and Algorithms

An understanding of data structures and algorithms helps Software Engineers manipulate and store data in various situations. This is an important skill to have as Software Engineers will need to be able to solve increasingly more difficult problems as they progress through their careers. 

Free Software Engineering Tools for Beginners

You can start learning about software engineering with free seminars and tutorials. Noble Desktop offers many free videos on its website, like Intro to React or Intro to Node.js. The videos are each about an hour long and are presented by experienced web developers. 

The Odin Project offers free tutorials on web development, like Intermediate HTML and CSS, Advanced HTML and CSS, JavaScript, and Python. These are prerecorded tutorials, blogs, and courses with projects and a community of developers to interact with.

Live Software Engineering Training for Beginners

Many people find live classes to be the quickest and most efficient way to learn skills like software engineering. Professional training centers offer bootcamp and certificate-granting programs for people who want to build technical skills. Classes meet in person or live online, on a part-time or full-time schedule. 

Bootcamp classes are perfect for beginners because they are short, intensive classes focusing on one topic, like HTML and CSS, JavaScript, or Python. These intensive classes begin with the basics and move through more advanced material.

The Next Step

After a bootcamp class or two, you may be interested in signing up for a certification course. These are usually made up of a series of bootcamp classes around a topic like software engineeringt. Certification courses are a good way to get a thorough education in coding techniques. Some training programs offer courses to help you put together a digital portfolio to prepare for a job search

After a software engineering course, there are many directions you can go next. If you are particularly interested in data, data science or data engineering are an option. Jobs in machine learning are growing as are cybersecurity positions. Software Engineers also sometimes move on to careers in video game development. 

Learn Software Engineering with Noble Desktop

Noble Desktop's Software Engineering Certificate can give you the skills you need to start a new career in the software development industry. This program is divided into four sections: front end development, React Development, and Django (Python) Development. In this program, you will learn the most pivotal skills needed to secure a career in software and web development. The assignments in the course are designed to help you create a portfolio of projects, and the course also includes interview preparation, practice responding to common interview questions, how to polish your resume and LinkedIn profile, and tips for applying to jobs. 

Noble's Full Stack Web Development Certificate covers developing every aspect of a digital application or website. You’ll learn how to program the visual appearance of a web application (the front end) and the infrastructure that allows it to function (the back end) to create complete websites. In this course, you’ll learn how to use programming languages like HTML/CSS and JavaScript to program memorable, interactive websites. You’ll also use the MERN tech stack (MongoDB, Express.js, React, and Node.js) to add databases, APIs, AWS and other server environments, and interactivity for those web applications. The Full-Stack Web Development Certificate provides students with a robust programming education that can help them break into the in-demand world of web development, software engineering, and computer science.

This is a project-oriented course that teaches students how to code a website from scratch. By the end of the course, you’ll have developed a portfolio of working web applications that you can take with you onto the job market. This course also includes portfolio and job search help. You can also attend Noble's SQL and WordPress Bootcamps for free as part of this certificate course.

If you prefer, you can take these Noble classes included in the certificates one at a time. Web Development with HTML & CSS covers building websites with HTML & CSS; creating multi-page websites with text, images, and graphics; styling with CSS; and uploading files using FTP. 

Advanced HTML & CSS includes important CSS concepts like positioning, advanced selectors, and relative type sizing. You will also learn to work with multiple background images, transparent color using RGBA, CSS gradients, and shadows. The course also covers creating animated effects with CSS transitions and transforms.

Flexbox, Grid, and Bootstrap covers laying out and aligning website content with CSS Flexbox. Learn CSS Grid to layout websites and Bootstrap to build layouts quickly.

JavaScript for Front End teaches you to make dynamic and engaging websites with JavaScript and GreenSock. Learn the basics of JavaScript and how to use free pre-made JavaScripts to add functionality. Create animated slideshows and build animated image enlargers.

Noble's Python Programming Bootcamp covers built-in data types and their behavior and Control Flow Statements, the programming essentials used across many languages. You’ll also learn how to professionally structure your programs and solve real-world challenges by creating objects in Object-Oriented Programming. In addition to covering these core programming concepts, we’ll also discuss the most common coding interview questions and demonstrate the best programming practices used by professionals. Throughout this course, you’ll practice these new skills by working on programming exercises with instructor guidance. By the end of this course, you’ll have a portfolio of projects and code samples on GitHub to show to employers.