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W3Schools VS Exercism

Compare W3Schools VS Exercism and see what are their differences

W3Schools logo W3Schools

W3Schools is a web developers information website, with tutorials and references on web development...

Exercism logo Exercism

Download and solve practice problems in over 30 different languages.
  • W3Schools Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-06-25
  • Exercism Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-06-28

W3Schools features and specs

  • Beginner-Friendly
    W3Schools offers tutorials and examples that are straightforward and easy to understand, making it accessible for absolute beginners.
  • Interactive Learning
    Provides a hands-on learning experience with Try-It-Yourself editor, which allows users to edit code and see results in real-time.
  • Wide Range of Topics
    Covers a broad spectrum of web development technologies including HTML, CSS, JavaScript, SQL, PHP, Python, and more.
  • Free Access
    Most of the content on W3Schools is available for free, making it a cost-effective resource for learning web development.
  • Regular Updates
    Content is regularly updated to reflect the latest standards and practices, ensuring learners have current information.

Possible disadvantages of W3Schools

  • Lack of Depth
    While good for beginners, more advanced developers might find the material too basic and lacking in depth.
  • Criticized for Inaccuracy
    Some industry professionals have pointed out occasional inaccuracies in tutorials and examples, which could hinder learning.
  • Limited Community Interaction
    The platform does not offer forums or a strong community aspect, limiting opportunities for peer interaction and support.
  • Ads and Subscription Content
    The free version includes ads, and some advanced content is behind a paywall, which might be a deterrent for some users.
  • Not Comprehensive for Backend Development
    While it's strong in front-end technologies, its coverage of backend development tools and practices is not as extensive or detailed.

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.

W3Schools videos

W3Schools is just... Better

More videos:

  • Review - Learn Web Designing from scratch || Website Review || W3Schools || OhMyCode!
  • Review - Is the W3Schools PHP Certification Worth it?
  • Review - W3schools Spaces Review
  • Tutorial - How to Learn Any Programming Language using w3schools

Exercism videos

Learn with Exercism.io

More videos:

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

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to W3Schools and Exercism)
Online Learning
48 48%
52% 52
Education
67 67%
33% 33
Online Education
32 32%
68% 68
Online Courses
41 41%
59% 59

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare W3Schools and Exercism

W3Schools Reviews

  1. Arya Deep Singh
    Simple

    Simple and Modest approach articles are better prepared for young learners.


Best Alternatives to LeetCode For Data Science
W3Schools, as one of the best alternatives to LeetCode, claims to be the world's largest web developer site. It's a simple and no-frills tool to learn web development skills including Python and SQL. Their methods and approach to learning work for many people. Their teaching method is simple and basic. The courses on W3Schools are outlined from simplest to most advanced...

Exercism Reviews

LeetCode Alternatives: Top platforms for coding practice
What are LeetCode and LeetCode alternatives good for?LeetCode💡Interested 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.

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Exercism should be more popular than W3Schools. It has been mentiond 314 times since March 2021. 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.

W3Schools mentions (187)

  • Is getting a Degree a good thing for Web Developers?
    I myself, in 2009, started my Bachelor of Science degree at the University of Northumbria (in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, United Kingdom) in Web Design & Development. On this degree program we learned how to create websites (both static and dynamic using databases etc.), applications (desktop as well as web based), multimedia (images, video and audio), how to plan and implement a project, work as part of a team of... - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
  • 🔥 Top 10 Best Websites to Learn Coding for Free! 💻
    W3schools W3schools is a classic resource for learning web development. With its extensive tutorials and references on HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and more, it's a go-to destination for beginners and professionals alike. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • Where is the best place to learn web-development?
    I learned from W3Schools. I know it has a bad rep, but seriously. I was 10 years old and was on this site constantly learning stuff. Worth checking out. They have live code editors that allow you to test/modify code immediately in your browser. Source: over 1 year ago
  • I'm 14 and want to be a programmer but I don't know what kind of programmer.
    Go to w3schools.com, and use it as a reference for the upcoming HTML/CSS/JavaScript steps. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • Ask HN: Anyone still using PHP to build side projects or webapps
    YES! I'm using PHP to build my Search Engine for Kids Activities (http://twkids.app) and its been great! I love PHP as there's no other language that provides the same simplicity and immediacy of results. I tried learning multiple frameworks but it was just too overwhelming and complicated. With PHP, its very easy to just get started as you can mix it right into your html. I just learned the basics on... - Source: Hacker News / almost 2 years ago
View more

Exercism mentions (314)

  • 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 / 8 days ago
  • Build Code-RAGent, an agent for your codebase
    The only thing left to do then was to build something that could showcase the power of code ingestion within a vector database, and it immediately clicked in my mind: "Why don't I ingest my entire codebase of solved Go exercises from Exercism?" That's how I created Code-RAGent, your friendly coding assistant based on your personal codebases and grounded in web search. It is built on top of GPT-4.1, powered by... - Source: dev.to / 13 days ago
  • I Finished The Odin Project's Foundation Track
    This is where sources like freeCodeCamp or Scrimba absolutely shine. With Odin, you read an article and may follow along with examples. But it’s unlikely you develop the muscle memory to implement the concepts on your own. Odin does offer some in-house exercises and often assigns external ones too. Still, I believe it’s not enough. You don’t lift weight only 5 times and say I’ve got this! You keep lifting until... - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • Exercism 48in24 Recap
    If I get the time I would very much like to share my notes on adopting the various languages and perhaps even my solutions to some of the exercises. I have some reservations to doing the latter, since it does spoil the fun of solving the exercises for you. I have made some basic tooling which could be of interest/inspiration to you if you are in on Exercism. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • Ask HN: Platform for senior devs to learn other programming languages?
    I think you are looking for Exercism: https://exercism.org/ Great website! - Source: Hacker News / 5 months ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing W3Schools and Exercism, you can also consider the following products

Free Code Camp - Learn to code by helping nonprofits.

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

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

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

Pluralsight - Pluralsight is a learning management system (LMS) that helps aspiring tech professionals learn the basics of the trade and lets established professionals expand their skill sets.

Coursera - Build skills with courses, certificates, and degrees online from world-class universities and companies