Learning JavaScript

Your First Programming Language

A gentle, hands-on introduction to programming using JavaScript. This guide assumes you have never written a line of code before. Every idea is explained from scratch, in plain language, and you can run every example yourself in about ten seconds - no downloads, no setup, just your web browser.

Who this is for

Complete beginners. If you have never programmed and don't know what a variable or a loop is, you are in exactly the right place. We start by explaining what programming even is, then build up one small idea at a time until you can write your own little programs. If you already know another language, this will feel slow - try the TypeScript or Rust guides instead.

You don't need to install anything

Your browser already runs JavaScript. To follow along, open the developer Console: press F12 (or right-click the page → Inspect) and click the Console tab. You can type code there, press Enter, and see the result immediately. That's your playground for this whole guide.

Contents

Work through the chapters in order - each one builds on the last. Don't just read: type every example into the Console and change it to see what happens. Breaking things and fixing them is how you learn.