Introduction
For a long time Microsoft has put a lot of effort into educational material for .NET and C#. There are of resources in their technical documentation and learning platform, targeting from absolute beginners to senior developers seeking to improve their skills. Such an extensive library has the downside of sometimes being confused, particularly when considering the variety of technologies, their different versions accross the years and the constant evolution of .NET.
In August 2023, FreeCodeCamp and Microsoft paired up to offer a single unified learning resource, which gives students a professional certification when completed. This certification is comprised of a step-by-step list of topics in a curriculum provided by FreeCodeCamp, but the studying and completion of the modules happens within Microsoft's learning materials. It's a fantastic resource that prevents learners from getting lost in tutorial hell when learning the basics.
Requirements
- You need to complete FreeCodeCamp's Foundational C# With Microsoft certification
- Upon completion you need to submit a screenshot of your certificate either via our Discord Server (Code Reviews Channel) or via E-mail, along with the username/email you use to log into the academy.
What you'll learn
- You might be tempted to speed through the certification, rushing past the topics you might be familiar with. Instead, read each paragraph carefully. There are always gaps in your knowledge. We don't know what we don't know.
- You don't need to complete the coding challenges in the certification to mark a section as completed. But we recommend you actually complete them, no matter how easy they are. If an exercise is too easy, try using an approach you haven't used before.
- Make lots of notes, but don't fall into the trap of writing EVERYTHING down. Notes are useful when you can have a quick glance at them for reference. A good approach is to write down concise bullet points with concepts you were not familiar with. You can also have separate notes with follow-up topics you want to study.
- Although you can complete the certification in a few hours, we recommend doing each section in a different day, so you're always studying with maximum focus.
Challenges
- Upon completion of your project, have a go at completing the Math Game project without watching the video tutorial in the project's page. It might be challenging if this is your first time building something yourself but this approach will speed up your learning.