Boot.dev Blog
Maybe You Do Need Kubernetes
by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineer
Theo has this great video on Kubernetes, currently titled "You Don't Need Kubernetes". I'm a Kubernetes enjoyer (I even wrote a course on it, but I'm not here to argue about that. The part of the video I do want to discuss has nothing to do with k8s. It's where Theo draws the "Line of Primeagen".
The Boot.dev Beat. March 2024
by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineer
Pythogoras escaped this month. The community rallied against the Serpent God, and while he was wounded and beaten back, he escaped. We'll be trying again later this month. Happy coding.
The Boot.dev Beat. February 2024
by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineer
609,179. That's the number of lessons you crazy folks have completed on Boot.dev in the last 30 days. Good work my fellow pupils.
Give Up Sooner
by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineer
As a developer, how many times each day do you look something up online? I'm not talking about a simple piece of syntax, I'm talking about the things that are a bit harder to find. For example:
The Boot.dev Beat. January 2024
by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineer
Hope you had a wonderful holiday! I know you might not have been able to take time off, but I hope you were able to spend some time with family and friends. I spent the whole week driving up and down the state of Utah. It was fun, but I'm happy to be back in my office. Kids can be exhausting. Love 'em, but they're exhausting.
Troubleshooting the Boot.dev Code Editor: Common Snags
by Hunter Beckmann - Head of engineering at Boot.dev
As a Boot.dev student, you may have encountered frustrating moments when your code editor freezes or is stuck "Setting up your environment", leaving you wondering what went wrong. Don't worry; we're here to help. These issues can be caused by various factors, and in this blog post, we'll explore some common culprits and provide solutions to help you get back to coding smoothly.
9 Months with GPT-4: Can I Fire my Developers Yet?
by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineer
GitHub has been re-founded on copilot, rumors of an AI superior to GPT-4 abound, and you're trying to decide if it's worth it to learn what a red-black tree is.
The Boot.dev Beat. December 2023
by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineer
Hope you had a splendid Turkey month. My wife, two kids, and I spent Thanksgiving in southern Utah. The fresh air was nice, AQI here in Northern Utah is 100+ right now... wouldn't recommend. Anyway, back to coding.
You're Not Qualified to Have an Opinion on TDD
by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineer
One of the marks of a good senior developer is that they have lots of interesting opinions. After years of working on different software projects, they'll be able to passionately explain why they think MongoDB is ass, paired programming is no fun, and the GitHub CLI changed their workflow.
Put that Framework Down Before Someone Gets Hurt
by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineer
There is only one question that ignites my inner rage more than "How do I get a developer job in 3 months?"? That question is:
The Boot.dev Beat. November 2023
by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineer
Hope you had a fantastic Halloween. I spent last weekend in Seattle with Allan and Hunter (the other two full-timers here at Boot.dev) at the DotA 2 International. Absolute blast. I've never been to such an enormous gaming event in person. Ah, well, back to coding.
Queue Data Structure in Python: Ordering at Its Best
by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineer
A queue is an efficient collection of ordered items. New items can be added to one side, and removed from the other side.
Can Go Be Used in Web Development?
by Natalie Schooner - Computer science educator and technical writer
Recently I saw an interesting post on Reddit: "I would like to be more full-stack," user Fenugurod said. "I was studying Tailwindcsss and I'm pretty sure I can create really nice UIs with it. But what do you guys think about web development with Go? Most of my friends simply say to embrace the JS ecosystem with Nuxt or Next and use Go simply as an API."
Understanding Stacks: Python Implementation of a Core Data Structure
by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineer
A stack is an abstract data type that serves as a collection of elements. The name "stack" originates from the analogy of items physically stacked on top of each other. Just like a stack of plates at a buffet, plates can be added, removed, and viewed from the top. However, plates further down are not immediately accessible.
The Boot.dev Beat. October 2023
by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineer
Happy All Hallow's Eve. I hope you enjoy this month's cover art. It might be my favorite so far.
What Does a Web Developer Earn?
by Natalie Schooner - Computer science educator and technical writer
As always, the short answer is easiest: On average, according to Indeed, an American web developer earns \$81,034 per year.
Learn to Code the Slow Way
by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineer
Ever since starting Boot.dev, I've been flooded with what I call "quicksand questions". On the surface, a quicksand question seems like a good question. If you could answer it, it would catapult you from where you are (nightshift at the Wendy's drive-in) to where you want to be (telling friends that you work at Netflix btw).
Top 10 Books on Web Development in 2026
by Natalie Schooner - Computer science educator and technical writer
If you’re looking for good web development books, you’re probably interested in becoming a web developer. Makes sense – great pay, solid job security, and interesting work. But beyond that broad goal, you might be looking for some web development reading to satisfy other goals.
The Boot.dev Beat. September 2023
by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineer
The best part of working on Boot.dev is seeing you all make almost unbelievable strides in not only your understanding of fundamental concepts, but what you can now build from scratch. It's not just that, I've been hearing a lot of stories about the confidence that's being gained by our alumnis after shipping so much code. That's a critical part of the journey.
Python Web Development: How It Works and What to Learn
by Natalie Schooner - Computer science educator and technical writer
Learn how Python fits into web development, when to use Django, Flask, or FastAPI, what front-end skills you still need, and how to start building web apps.
The One Thing I'd Change About Go
by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineer
Go is built for grug brained programmers like me.
What is Backend Web Development?
by Natalie Schooner - Computer science educator and technical writer
The boring answer is that backend web development is the process of building the server-side of websites and web applications. It primarily focuses on handling the logic, data processing, and communication between the user's web browser and the server.
The Boot.dev Beat. August 2023
by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineer
As I'm writing this on July 28th, we've had 118,984 lessons successfully completed by students on Boot.dev so far this July. This marks the first time we've had over 100k lessons completed in a month. While I'm ecstatic that we've been able to join you in so many of your learning journeys, I just want to emphasize that it's your journey. We're here to provide the best resources and experience that we can, but you deserve every ounce of credit for your hard work. Keep it up friends.
The Pros and Cons of Django for Backend Development
by Natalie Schooner - Computer science educator and technical writer
Django is a popular Python-based framework for building web applications. It provides pre-built components and conventions, which simplifies the web app development process and allows developers to focus on writing their application's specific logic rather than dealing with repetitive tasks. Basically, it’s all about reusability.
I Mock Your Mocks
by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineer
Several years ago I started my first job as a "senior" Go developer. You see, after a modest 3 years in the industry, my arcane ability to use the Go standard library's strings.Contains() function managed to leave a powerful impression on the hiring team.
