Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Exercism VS The Coding Train

Compare Exercism VS The Coding Train and see what are their differences

Exercism logo Exercism

Download and solve practice problems in over 30 different languages.

The Coding Train logo The Coding Train

Online learning resource for beginner-friendly creative coding tutorials and challenges.
  • Exercism Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-06-28
  • The Coding Train Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-14

Exercism features and specs

  • Free Access
    Exercism provides free access to a wide range of coding exercises and learning resources, making it accessible to everyone regardless of their financial situation.
  • Mentorship
    Offers personalized mentorship from experienced developers who can provide feedback and guidance on your code submissions.
  • Wide Variety of Languages
    Supports numerous programming languages, which allows users to learn and practice coding in multiple languages.
  • Structured Learning Tracks
    Organizes exercises into structured tracks, guiding learners through progressively challenging problems in a logical order.
  • Community Support
    Has an active community forum where users can discuss problems, share insights, and ask for help.
  • Open Source Contributions
    Encourages contributions to the platform itself, offering an opportunity for users to give back and improve the resources available to others.
  • Focus on Clean Code
    Emphasizes writing clean, well-documented code, which is beneficial for developing best practices.

Possible disadvantages of Exercism

  • Variable Mentorship Quality
    The quality of mentorship can vary, as it depends on the availability and expertise of volunteer mentors.
  • Learning Curve
    There can be a steep learning curve for beginners who may find some exercises too challenging without sufficient initial guidance.
  • Limited Interactivity
    Exercises are primarily text-based without interactive or visual learning aids, which might be less engaging for some users.
  • Dependence on Volunteers
    The platform relies heavily on volunteer mentors, which can lead to delays in getting feedback and may affect the consistency of support.
  • Interface Complexity
    Some users find the interface and workflow somewhat complex and unintuitive, particularly for those new to the platform.
  • No Real-Time Collaboration
    Lacks real-time collaboration features, meaning users cannot code together or get instant feedback.
  • Focus on Individual Learning
    The platform predominantly focuses on individual learning rather than collaborative projects, which can be a downside for those looking to develop team-working skills.

The Coding Train features and specs

  • Comprehensive Content
    The Coding Train offers a wide range of tutorials and courses that cover various programming languages and technologies, providing a comprehensive learning resource for beginners and advanced users alike.
  • Engaging Teaching Style
    Daniel Shiffman, the creator of The Coding Train, is known for his enthusiastic and engaging teaching style that makes complex topics more approachable and fun to learn.
  • Community Support
    The Coding Train has a strong community of learners and contributors, providing additional support, collaboration opportunities, and feedback through forums and social media platforms.
  • Free Access
    A significant amount of content on The Coding Train is available for free, making it accessible to learners from different backgrounds and financial situations.
  • Creative Approach
    The platform encourages a creative approach to learning programming by integrating art and visual experiments, which can be particularly appealing to visual learners and those interested in creative coding.

Possible disadvantages of The Coding Train

  • Variable Depth
    While The Coding Train covers a wide variety of topics, the depth of coverage can vary, and some complex topics may not be explored in detail, potentially requiring supplemental resources for thorough understanding.
  • Unstructured Paths
    The coding tutorials and projects are available in a non-linear format, which might be overwhelming for new learners who benefit from a more structured, step-by-step learning path.
  • Focus on JavaScript and p5.js
    Much of the content focuses on JavaScript and the p5.js library, which might not be ideal for learners looking to study other languages or frameworks comprehensively.
  • Limited Interactive Features
    The platform primarily consists of video tutorials, which might not offer the same level of interactivity and immediate feedback as some modern coding platforms with in-browser coding and hands-on exercises.

Analysis of Exercism

Overall verdict

  • Yes, Exercism is considered good for learning and improving programming skills.

Why this product is good

  • Exercism offers free access to a wide variety of exercises in over 50 different programming languages, catering to both beginners and experienced programmers.
  • The platform provides a unique mentorship model where volunteers review submitted solutions, offering personalized feedback and guidance.
  • The exercises are well-structured, facilitating both practice and mastery of language-specific concepts and problem-solving skills.
  • Exercism encourages learning through doing, promoting an active learning environment which can be more effective compared to passive learning styles.
  • The platform allows for self-paced learning, enabling users to progress at their own speed and revisit topics as needed.

Recommended for

  • Beginner programmers seeking practical coding exercises to reinforce their learning.
  • Intermediate and advanced developers looking to hone their skills or learn new programming languages.
  • Individuals who appreciate personalized feedback and mentorship to improve their coding practices.
  • Students and educators searching for supplementary resources to support coursework or syllabus requirements.
  • Professionals aiming to practice coding interview problems and enhance their problem-solving abilities.

Exercism videos

Learn with Exercism.io

More videos:

  • Review - JavaScript Exercise | Learn JavaScript with Exercism | #0 Setup
  • Review - exercism.io 01 hello-world

The Coding Train videos

No The Coding Train videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.

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Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Exercism and The Coding Train)
Online Learning
97 97%
3% 3
Education
82 82%
18% 18
Online Education
100 100%
0% 0
Open Source
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Exercism and The Coding Train

Exercism Reviews

LeetCode Alternatives: Top platforms for coding practice
What are LeetCode and LeetCode alternatives good for?LeetCode๐Ÿ’กInterested in leveling up your career? Apply to the Formation Fellowship today!ApplyHackerRankCodeSignalAlgoExpertCodewarsGeeksforGeeksEdabitExercismTopCoderShould you use LeetCode for advanced interview prep?Get holistic interview prep with Formation
Source: formation.dev
8 Best LeetCode Alternatives and Similar Platforms
Exercism is the alternative to LeetCode learning platform, with over 4000 activities in up to 52 popular programming languages. It is very different from other comparable programming websites in that it emphasizes solo practice and also mentor-based learning. The greatest part about this software is to have an active developer community that assists novices all around the...
The 10 Most Popular Coding Challenge Websites [Updated for 2021]
Exercism is a coding challenge website that offers 3100+ challenges spanning 52 different programming languages. After picking a language that you'd like to master, you tackle the coding challenges right on your machine (Exercism has their own command line interface that you can download from GitHub).
Top 25 websites for coding challenge and competition [Updated for 2021]
Best qualities: Exercism starts off with language tracks that allow users to choose their preferred languages. Moreover, there are human mentors who will check your code and help you improve as you progress. This makes the platform perfect for total beginners who want to deepen their understanding of a new programming language.

The Coding Train Reviews

We have no reviews of The Coding Train yet.
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Exercism seems to be a lot more popular than The Coding Train. While we know about 318 links to Exercism, we've tracked only 24 mentions of The Coding Train. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Exercism mentions (318)

  • AI made me lazy. I didnโ€™t notice until it was too late.
    Exercism.org structured deliberate practice, no AI required. - Source: dev.to / 4 months ago
  • Free Python Resources
    Providing free coding exercises and mentorship, Exercism helps developers practice and improve their programming skills step by step. Their Python Track offers a series of exercises that guide learners from beginner to more advanced levels. - Source: dev.to / 7 months ago
  • Collaboration Circles for Developers (2026)
    Exercism is a code practice + mentoring platform in 74 languages. Why it can work: although it is not exclusively focused on groups of five, its mentoring and peer review model allows forming mini-circles where participants give each other mutual feedback. Limitation: it is not originally intended as a "venting circle" (My favorite), but more technical-practical. - Source: dev.to / 9 months ago
  • Cracking Blackjack with Go: A Step-by-Step Guide to Your First Move
    Keep practicing, keep coding, and most importantlyโ€”have fun with it! If you enjoyed this exercise, explore more challenges on exercism to continue building your Go skills. As always, you can find the complete code in my GitHub repo: https://github.com/RubenOAlvarado/algorithms. - Source: dev.to / 10 months ago
  • Ask HN: What book should my CS1 students read?
    (concepts/topics) : The New Turing Omnibus, 66 Excursions in Computer Science[1] Code Complete [2] Debugging The 9 Indispensable Rules of Finding Even the Most Elusive Software and Hardware Problems [3] Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software [4] -- backround stories on how 'computer' things came to be -------- [1] : https://www.amazon.com/New-Turing-Omnibus-Sixty-Six-Excursions/dp/0805071660... - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
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The Coding Train mentions (24)

  • p5.js
    He has a knack for picking visual interesting problems/algorithms and his enthusiasm is unmatched. https://thecodingtrain.com/. - Source: Hacker News / about 2 years ago
  • Was BASIC that horrible or better?
    I'd say Scratch is the #1 way kids to day are introduced to programming For parent that have some 8bit experience, Pico-8 (LUA) is also relatively popular. It's basically like running an Apple 2, Atari 800, Commodore 64 as if it booted into LUA instead of Basic. You can trivially draw things, and peak and poke bytes into "Screen memory" if you want to feel like you're "touching the hardware" JavaScript is also... - Source: Hacker News / over 2 years ago
  • Sketch execution issues
    You can always look at the help videos by Shiffman at (the coding train) Specifically: help guide to p5js. Source: about 3 years ago
  • Ask HN: How to teach a kid of 15 Linux and programming
    > how do I get him learning programming in a fun way? Processing / P5.js can be pretty fun to learn. You use a real programming language to create art and animations. With little code you can get a circle on the screen, then making it move, then following your mouse, then adding other shapes, then changing colour depending on some eventโ€ฆ Itโ€™s conductive to experimentation and a way to gradually introduce concepts.... - Source: Hacker News / about 3 years ago
  • Help needed: Rinkeby and other test networks won't appear
    Another great free site https://thecodingtrain.com/ to have in your pocket :D have fun out there! Source: over 3 years ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Exercism and The Coding Train, you can also consider the following products

Codecademy - Learn the technical skills you need for the job you want. As leaders in online education and learning to code, weโ€™ve taught over 45 million people using a tested curriculum and an interactive learning environment.

p5.js - JS library for creating graphic and interactive experiences

edX - Best Courses. Top Institutions. Learn anytime, anywhere.

Nature of Code - How can we capture the unpredictable evolutionary and emergent properties of nature in software?

Treehouse - Treehouse is an award-winning online platform that teaches people how to code.

Processing - C++ and Java programming at the speed of thought.