Boot.dev Blog
Computer Information Systems vs Computer Science
by Winston Wagner - Technical author at Boot.dev
As technology continues to advance, the need for professionals who are capable of utilizing and understanding computers continues to grow. This demand creates a strong job market, with excellent pay and exclusive opportunities. However, there are two fields of study when it comes to working with this technology: Computer Information Systems and Computer Science. Both are useful areas of study with in-demand skills, but what are the benefits of each, in comparison to each other? We explore that below.
The History of Computer Science - A Timeline
by Winston Wagner - Technical author at Boot.dev
The Antikthyera Mechanism
Certificates vs Diplomas in Computer Science
by Zulie Rane - Data analysis and computer science techincal author
When I was looking into getting my first job related to programming, I had no idea what the difference between a certificate and a diploma was. I was terrified that I'd have to go back to school and spend 2-4 years getting a degree in computer science before an employer would even blink in my direction. Unfortunately for me, two degrees in conservation biology aren't enough to attract any serious coding employers. Then I learned about boot camps, which eased my concerns some, but I didn't have the time or money to spend on a 15-week program.
Examples of Heuristics in Computer Science
by Winston Wagner - Technical author at Boot.dev
Heuristics in computer science and artificial intelligence are "rules of thumb" used in algorithms to assist in finding approximate solutions to complex problems. Often, there's simply too much data to sift through to come to a solution promptly, so a heuristic algorithm is used to trade exactness for speed. However, because heuristics are based on individual rules unique to the problem they are solving, the specifics of the heuristics vary from problem to problem.
How to Create a Custom Checkbox Form in Vue
by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineer
You have a problem. The browser's default checkbox form is ugly and outdated, but importing an entire library just to change the styling seems like overkill. Instead, let's build a custom checkbox form component from scratch. It will take 15 minutes to type up, or just 3 if you just copy and paste my boilerplate code.
How to Make a Custom Slider Component in Vue
by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineer
Creating a custom slider component can be tricky, especially if you want to create a lean standalone Vue component. In this quick article, you'll learn how to build a fully customizable slider component in Vue. Feel free to swap out the majority of the CSS to get the styling you want, but I'll give you a good jumping-off point.
Why Students Struggle Getting a Job After Coding Bootcamp
by Zulie Rane - Data analysis and computer science techincal author
Imagine, like so many folks, that you decide what you want to study when you're just 18. You go to college, finish a four-year degree in mechanical engineering, and then realize what you actually want to do is get a job in coding. There are tons of benefits - pay, flexibility, personal satisfaction. It's a no-brainer.
Comprehensive Guide to Learn Computer Science Online
by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineer
Be careful about deciding the best way to learn to code. Not all paths are equally effective. Self-taught developers and bootcamp graduates often struggle a lot to find their first coding job. In my experience, it's much easier to get your foot in the door when you spend the time learning the CS basics that so many "crash courses" skip over when trying to get students to dive directly into the deep end of application code.
Should You Commit the Vendor Folder in Go?
by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineer
If you're asking "should I commit the vendor folder in my Go project to Git?", the answer is "almost always". Let's talk about why committing is generally better than not.
How Long Does It Take To Learn To Code?
by Zulie Rane - Data analysis and computer science techincal author
There are so many obvious reasons to learn to code: freelancing opportunities, career advancement, salary increase, and personal satisfaction among others. The advantages are so many that it's worth the investment, no matter how many obstacles you might encounter.
How Much Do Software Engineers Make?
by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineer
Software engineering continues to be one of the most lucrative career paths in the tech industry. The rewards go well beyond a high salary, corporate health insurance plans, and an increased opportunity to advance. Software engineers often receive benefits like unlimited time off, not needing to have shifts covered, lax or no dress code, and cool office amenities like free drinks, snacks, ping pong, etc. It can be a really great work culture.
JavaScript vs Java - Differences, Similarities, and History
by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineer
The naming of Java and JavaScript confuses many new programmers. They sound so similar, so one might think they have the same use-cases, similar properties, or maybe the same company created both languages. None of those assumptions are true! JavaScript is primarily used as a front-end in-the-browser language, like how we use it for boot.dev's courses. Java has been used for everything from games, to desktop apps, to backend APIs. Let's go over the differences between JavaScript vs Java in this quick read.
Top Web Development Programming Languages; A Comparison
by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineer
The software development industry is growing at a break-neck pace. Currently, there are close to 19 million software developers in the world, and this number is expected to double by 2030.
Base64 vs Base58 Encoding
by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineer
Base64 is one of the most popular encoding formats for representing data. Have some binary data? Base64 encodes it for convenient readability and parsing. Base58 is just another encoding format (with 58 characters instead of 64, and has gained popularity largely due to Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Also, if you came here confused, encryption and encoding are not the same! Take a look at this article for more information on encryption vs encoding.
Learn Go Fast - Top Courses and Resources
by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineer
Want to learn Go fast? The good news is that Go is one of the simplest programming languages out there. It was designed to have a compact feature set, which means you can learn it much faster than most other languages.
Best Practices for Commenting Code
by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineer
I often hear that we need more and better comments in the code we write. In my experience, we frequently need better comments, we rarely need more, and we sometimes need less. Before you crucify me for my sacrilege, let me explain by giving you some of the "rules of thumb" I use for deciding when I should add a comment to my code.
How to Restart All Pods in a Kubernetes Namespace
by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineer
Where I work, we use a repo-per-namespace setup and so it often happens that I want to restart all pods and deployments in a single Kubernetes namespace. Maybe I want to see the startup logs, or maybe I want to shut down production for a few seconds. Don't question my motives.
The Nuances of Constants in Go; Go Isn't JavaScript
by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineer
Constants can be confusing and easy to misuse in Go if you are coming from an untyped language. Let's take a look at some of the nuanced details of how they work in Go. It's probably unsurprising, but Go's constants are almost nothing like JavaScript's bastardized version of the concept.
6 Things to Avoid When Contributing to Open-Source Projects
by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineer
With #HacktoberFest being a thing, there has been an influx of devs desperately trying to contribute to their favorite Open-Source projects. Unfortunately, many of these pull requests have been a waste of time, with the maintainers ultimately unable to use the contributions. Maintainers don't want to waste their time reviewing bad PRs, and contributors don't want to waste their time writing code that will never make it into production.
Functional Programming Course Released
by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineer
We just launched our new "Learn Functional Programming" course, and frankly, I'm a bit exhausted (more on that later). This course is an interactive code-in-the-browser course that teaches the basics of FP in JavaScript and PureScript.
How To Correctly Validate Passwords - Most Websites Do It Wrong
by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineer
You've probably visited a site and attempted to sign-up only to be met with errors such as:
6 Tips for Hiring Developers
by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineer
So you want to hire a developer? Or maybe you just want to know what is going through the heads of employers like myself. Either way, let's dive right into what I think are best practices for hiring programmers. I've found my opinions to be quite controversial, but I do put them into practice in my own career and at boot.dev. When you inevitably disagree with some of my points, feel free to @ me.
Running Rust in the Browser with Web Assembly
by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineer
I've recently been working on getting Rust support in the boot.dev app. To write a more engaging course, I want students to be able to write and execute code right in the browser. As I've learned from my previous posts on this topic, the easiest way to sandbox code execution on a server is to not execute code on a server. Enter Web Assembly, stage left.
Top 4 Coding Languages To Learn For Beginners in 2026
by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineer
Coding languages, tools, and frameworks are in a constant state of flux, improvement, deprecation, and popularity swings. Let's take a look at the top 4 languages for new programmers to learn in 2026.
Education's Shameful State of the Art
by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineer
Higher education had its problems before Covid-19. Now the crippling inefficiencies, backbreaking cost, and lack of alternatives are being forced into the spotlight. We're working on what will eventually grow into the alternative to overpriced universities and ineffective Bootcamps at boot.dev. In the meantime, let's take a look at education's biggest problems, and how we can solve them.
