Coding during Covid: There are many short-term courses you could take

Being at home during the lockdown and practising social distancing can give you the time to pick up some skills. Many are using it to learn coding, learn new programming languages.
Abhinav S, who has been a .net developer since 2015, is using the lockdown to get an introduction to Python, a programming language which forms the base for data science, analytics and machine learning.“I have always wanted to change track and work on Python. This lockdown period gives me three hours to spare every day and is perfect for me to do that,” he says.
Some digital platforms already have courses that can be done in under a month, while others are making use of the lockdown to launch coding courses and challenges that can enable people, including school and college students, to learn coding in a short time. Companies specialising in the K-12 learning space are launching courses in Python, graphical user interface and DIY (do it yourself) coding courses.
IIT Gandhinagar has introduced coding exercises for its students under its Project Isaac. It has the "12 days of code" programme in which students will work for 24 hours on new coding problems released daily.
Coding Ninjas, whose primary market segment is college students, has launched a 21-days’ code challenge – referring to the lockdown period – in languages including Java, C++, Python, front-end development and machine learning. This is a paid course for a duration of two months, but if the students complete it in 21 days, they get 50% cashback.
“We wanted to incentivise coding among college students who are uncertain about when the lockdown and quarantine phase would end and are looking to up their coding skills,” says Ankush Singla, founder, Coding Ninjas. The company, which also offers advanced courses to corporates, has seen its users double in the last two weeks.
Singla says 40% of those who have taken up the challenge are corporate professionals. For college students, these courses will help them figure out their career while they are at home with time to spare. “A first year student can use this break to kickstart his career,” he says.
Simplilearn has .NET, node.js and Java certification programmes that can be completed in 21 days. “Coding is a major part of these software development programmes, and also full-stack development,” says Anand Narayanan, chief product officer at Simplilearn.
Great Learning and Upgrad that specialise in long-term courses and diploma programmes in data science and ML have launched short-term courses for the lockdown period. Great Learning has courses that involve 300 hours of learning. Top courses include data science, machine learning and cloud computing. “It is our belief that everyone willing to put in the effort needed to learn should have access to the best learning opportunities possible regardless of their economic situation,” says Mohan Lakhamraju, founder and CEO of Great Learning.

Masai School of Coding, which is predominantly offline, has just launched online courses in full-stack web development, foundation of web development, and backend development.
upGrad is launching 15 short-term courses just for the lockdown period, all free of cost. These are in Blockchain 101, Java, JavaScript, Ethereum and data-science related languages including Python. “We want people to utilise their time at home because there is no information on whether the lockdown would extend,” says Mayank Kumar, co-founder of upGrad.

Freshers and mid-level professionals are the target for these coding courses. While companies typically count long-term courses as upskilling/reskilling, these shorter-term courses could well be a nudge in that direction. We are giving the content free in the hope that those who take them will take a deeper plunge later, says Kumar.

Developers and community hiring platforms are also organising virtual coding marathon sessions around Covid-19, to keep the coding spirit running. Skillenza is among them. Over 6,000 people are participating in its Covid-19 hackathon to develop an app to help seamless e-learning, or solutions to 3D-print ventilators, or build community maps to gauge the spread of infections and put a check on them. Subhendu Panigrahi, co-founder of Skillenza, says that with developers having a little more time, coming up with solutions to solve Covid issues would help the country a great deal. It will also help them build their coding skills.
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Introduction to Python
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