Ruby isn't dead, but it's much less popular now than it was when The Odin Project came out. In terms of practicality the Node.JS path is better. However, don't overthink it. You won't regret learning other programming languages and frameworks - in fact, the more you learn, the more it helps everything else make sense. There are a lot of cool ideas in Ruby and Rails, it can be worth learning to learn why it was popular for so long. Same with Python, totally worth learning and it's currently quite popular, for much more than just backend. Answer from dmazzoni on reddit.com
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/learnprogramming › wich path to take in the odin project?
r/learnprogramming on Reddit: Wich Path to take in The Odin Project?
January 14, 2025 -

Hey, I want to know what course would be the best to take in The Odin Project. I was looking on everything that each path contains(currently working on the Foundations course) and have a fe.questions...

How good is Ruby right now in the programing world? Did any one of you took the Ruby path and how worth do you think it is compared to NextJS.?

I have seen what each path contains and I think that the Ruby path has more content but how good is Ruby? Ive seen that Ruby is most compared to Python and Java, because it's a back-end language, what do you guys think about this? Is it better to take a path of a Ruby developer or a Python developer?

Right now I am thinking on sticking with the Full Stack JavaScript path because I have some knowledge with NodejS, and also in the future I want to take on a Python course that I found on google which has related content to what the Full Stack JavaScript path has. Or I might just jump to the Full Stack Open course that I've seen so many people recommending here on the subreddit. What do you guys think about this?

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Reddit
reddit.com › r/learnprogramming › the odin project: choose your path
r/learnprogramming on Reddit: The Odin Project: Choose your path
February 2, 2022 -

Getting close to finishing up the fundamentals. Obviously I have to choose a path forward.

Which would you recommend? I've heard that RoR is more comprehensive in that it goes into data structures, but I'm also aware that NodeJS is the in thing and there are more jobs out there going the javascript fullstack way.

But more so than getting a job, which path is actually going to help me be a better programmer. For anyone who's gone through the curriculum.

Also I wanna git good with algorithms as well and was wondering what books y'all would recommend?

Cheers folks

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Reddit
reddit.com › r/learnprogramming › which odin project path would you recommend?
r/learnprogramming on Reddit: Which Odin Project Path would you recommend?
June 21, 2021 -

Link: https://www.theodinproject.com/paths

Choices:

  1. Full Stack Javascript

    1. Node.js

    2. Mongo

    3. Express

    4. React

  2. Full Stack Ruby on Rails

    1. Ruby

    2. SQL

    3. Ruby on Rails

    4. React

I was leaning towards Full Stack Javascript because I read in stack overflows 2020 survey that people do not like Ruby or Ruby on Rails and like using Node.js. Thoughts?

Top answer
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Look up jobs in your area that you'd be applying for and see which technologies come up more. You'd likely be required to learn a new technology not even listed here for any job you apply for, so either works fine just make sure you understand the concepts deeply and not just replicating the code. You should be able to even do both and fly through the second one, just with the difference in database( NOSQL(Mongo) vs SQL), though knowing both I'd say is great to have under your belt. Express is more about the code you write, Ruby on Rails is more about knowing the platform(it has a lot of auto-generated code from commands like an admin panel or CRUD features). They both have their place, depends moreso on your style. Express is more in-depth with making things exactly how you want it, though that means it's going to take more time. RoR you can quickly add a ton of features fast, though its more templately and might not be exactly what you want all the time. Depends on the project budget, timeline, and structure of codebase to determine which route is better.
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Heavily opinionated reply here: I did Odin Project years ago back when it only had RoR. I'd go back and choose Node.js route if I could do it over again. Ruby on Rails work demand is definitely there, but it's also lost quite a bit of luster since its heyday. Right now I see RoR as an aging tech stack with not a lot of new platforms being built on it. But yeah like others said, choose what's best for the area you want to live in.
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/learnprogramming › i just finished the odin project foundation path, here's my story
r/learnprogramming on Reddit: I just finished The Odin Project Foundation Path, here's my story
July 15, 2022 -

As the title says, I just finished TOP Foundation!Even thought I saw posts like this in the sub recently, I'm still exited to post this, as I am proud of my achievements so far (and I hope I don't get much hate ahah).

Here's my story

A little background
I'm a 20 years old guy from Italy, and I had to quit college (an engineer field) some months ago because I was struggling a lot financially and my parents were having hard time keeping up with my education Anyway I thought that the education system is kinda broken. Why do I have to pay for thousands of euros per year, to learn something that is accessible for free on the Web? And is basically taught by some professors that are there to "teach" only because this way they get the funds for doing their researches (basically they don't give a f... about teaching).

During my last semester at university, I had to take a C programming course as long with Data Structure and Algorithms. And dammit, even if I hated my teachers, I fell in love with programming. I remember how hard it was to understand the basics of programming in general...variables, control flow, conditional and loop statements...let alone when I got pointers and memory management.However, as time past, as I said, something clicked inside of me and I fell in love with coding in general. I aced the exam and I kept coding on my own, for fun.

Finding TOP
When I quit college, for the reasons I stated before, I started working on a factory, 8 hours per days, 5 days a week. The usual 9 to 5 job. However, before starting this job, I came across this resource called The Odin Project (maybe from Youtube, not sure tho), and since I was still into coding a lot, I decided to give it a try.

Boy I found it beautiful. It was literally my most preferred way of learning something. Looking at different docs, doing a lot of researches before coding is what made it for me. Idk if it was university that taught me to work this way, but I found this approach of learning very cool and it fit me perfectly.Doing projects at the end of research was like the topping on the cake.

After a week of doing the TOP foundation (maybe the first part until git), I started working, and damn I must say I struggled a lot. I was coming back to work, tired as hell, and managed to study from 5.30 pm to 7 pm and from 8 pm to 11 pm. Sometimes I was falling asleep on my laptop too. It has been two months. Dammit was it difficult. I loved weekends not because I could go out with friends, but because I had more time to study basically ahah, during Saturday and Sunday I managed to study too. Thank god now I have one month free from work and I can relax a little bit more :)

Aftermath
Anyway, after almost 2 months, I was able to finish the Foundation!I understand the basic of HTML, CSS and JS (I guess).I think that I was really helped by the fact that at college I programmed for 6 months in C, hence it gave me a strong foundation of the topics.

In fact, I somehow found more difficulty on learning CSS and Flex layout than JS itself lol; I did not have an hard time learning the basics of JavaScript and arrays, while DOM manipulation was something new for me and I gave it more time.

One thing I really liked is when I discovered how to use git, damn if I knew this thing existed before I would have surely used it even in college!

I have built the projects that the curriculum present, and I'm pretty happy with the results, especially with the last one! It took me a lot of headaches, but I managed to get it working and I think that the calculator is good looking too ahha :)

Here's a link to my Github, if you want to take a look at my projects (I have to say that the calculator is the project I spent the most time on, other ones are pretty ugly and I should restyle them).

Now I'm looking for to start the Ruby path and I'm more exited than ever!

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Reddit
reddit.com › r/learnjavascript › question on the odin project and my path forward
r/learnjavascript on Reddit: Question on the Odin project and my path forward
February 7, 2023 -

Hi! So I’ve been working on TOP for a good while now and I am through fundamentals and I have reached the computer science portion of the JavaScript path. I feel like I have learned so much! To be honest though, I’m really dreading the CS portion and at this point I really just wanna build my own stuff. I am hesitant to start doing my own thing before I 100% TOP. My ultimate goal is to get a job and I don’t want this to stunt my progress. What do you guys think? There are still other sections I have to do like Testing that also sound not fun. I just don’t want to jump the gun but my imagination is running wild at this point, and I feel the most rewarded when building.

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Reddit
reddit.com › r/theodinproject › does the odin project js path keep up in depth toward the end?
r/theodinproject on Reddit: Does The Odin Project JS path keep up in depth toward the end?
May 7, 2025 -

Hey everyone,
I just finished the Foundations section and really loved it. Clear explanations, solid exercises, and a good pace overall.

Now I’m starting the JavaScript path, but I’m wondering: does the quality and depth stay consistent all the way through, especially in the later sections (like asynchronous JS, testing, or the backend stuff)?

I’m also considering switching to Full Stack Open once I get through the core JavaScript concepts. I’ve heard FSO dives deeper into React, backend (Node.js), and testing practices. Maybe better for more advanced/full-stack stuff?

Has anyone here done both? Would love to hear if TOP’s JS path still holds up all the way, or if mixing in something like Full Stack Open makes more sense once you’ve got your fundamentals solid.

Thanks!

Find elsewhere
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/learnprogramming › is the odin project's (top) javascript pathway still half baked? is it still worth spending substantial amount of time on this pathway? would you rather suggest that i take the ruby on rails pathway and learn javascript from a udemy course?
r/learnprogramming on Reddit: Is The Odin Project's (TOP) javascript Pathway still half baked? is it still worth spending substantial amount of time on this pathway? would you rather suggest that I take the Ruby on rails pathway and learn JavaScript from a udemy course?
May 14, 2022 -

It's pretty self explanatory actually. Would you go so far as to say that the Javascript pathway's curriculum is incomplete.

Also, is learning Ruby on rails in 2022 worth it? Is that language still relevant?

Or are there any other web development courses you would rather I take? Is TOD still the best course out there for developing web development skills?

Top answer
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I did TOP's RoR and found a job 9-months ago. When I was just hunting, I found plenty of remote job listings. I learned a lot more than how to sling together basic websites, but you also get out of it what you put into it. If you try to speed run through the curriculum by skipping lessons and projects, you will find yourself with half-baked knowledge.

From being a part of their Discord community, I know lots of people that only did the JavaScript path and were successfully able to get jobs.

I believe the main thing that the javascript path does not have, that the Ruby path does, is a DS&A section. You can complete that section as is, but use JavaScript if you want. Although that section is important, I think most companies that prioritize a solid understand in DS&A is also going to require a CS degree. During my job hunting, I focused on companies in other sectors that had their own in-house dev team. From my experience, these types of companies focused more on wanting someone that can break down a large problem into smaller sub-problems and how they approached trouble-shooting through a problem/bug.

As far as I am concerned TOP is the best free one-stop resource out there. Sure it does not teach you every single thing (because then it would be even longer and honestly no one could ever finish it), but it gets you most of the way and sets you up to learn how to research and teach yourself even more after the curriculum. If you try to curate your own material, you will end up repeating similar information (tutorial hell). Plus, you don't know what you don't know, so expecting that someone who is learning web-dev can patchwork together the best web-dev resources is a fools journey IMO.

Discovering TOP was the best thing that happened to me. I used it as my roadmap and occasionally did my own exploration when it covered a topic that I wanted to know more about.

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TOP is the shit.

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Reddit
reddit.com › r › learnprogramming › comments › k9ag6d › odin_project_paths
r/learnprogramming - Odin Project Paths
December 9, 2020 -

Hi all! I am a complete newbie to the world of programming, but looking to learn a new skill and possibly start a new career path.

I think I’ve decided to start with the Odin Project, but I can’t decide which path to take. They offer both a path covering Ruby on the Rails and a path covering JavaScript. It looks like the RoR path also covers some JavaScript as well.

In your opinion which path would be more beneficial to someone who is just starting out in the world of programming?

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Reddit
reddit.com › r/ruby › finished the odin project foundations (bit of html / css / js) and have to choose between ruby or js path. why ruby?
r/ruby on Reddit: Finished The Odin Project foundations (bit of html / css / JS) and have to choose between Ruby or JS path. Why Ruby?
May 18, 2022 -

Hello all,

I have been learning to code for +- 6 months now. I did the freecodecamp HTML / CSS part as well as the JS.

After this, I started The Odin Project which I am really enjoying, it is way "harder" and really project based. Anyway I finished the foundations part and have to choose between Full Stack Ruby or JavaScript.

Full Stack Ruby on Rails

Ruby (41 lessons)

- Introduction, Basic Ruby, Basic Ruby Projects, OOP Basics, Files and Serialization, Advanced Ruby, A Bit of Computer Science ( ds & algorithms included), Intermediate Git, Testing Ruby with RSpec, Conclusion.

Intermediate HTML and CSS (23 lessons)

- Not worth mentioning tbh

Databases (3 lessons)

- Databases, Databases and SQL, Project.

Ruby on Rails (38 lessons)

- introduction, Rails Basics, Active Record Basics, Assets and Navigation, Forms and Authentication, Advanced Forms and Active Record, APIs, Rails Sprinkles, Mailers and Advanced Topics.

Advanced HTML and CSS (16 lessons)

- Not worth mentioning tbh

JavaScript (42 lessons)

- Introduction, organizing JS Code, JS in the Real World, Asynchronous JS and APIs, Testing JS, React, Conclusion.

Getting Hired (13 lessons)

- .......

_____________________________________________________________________________

The JavaScript path is:

Intermediate HTML and CSS (23 lessons)

JavaScript (42 lessons)

Advanced HTML and CSS (16 lessons)

NodeJS (24 lessons)

Getting Hired (13 lessons)

So basically, by choosing the Ruby Path I am essentially doing the whole JS path minus the NodeJS part, which I can alway end up doing at the end if I want / need. Plus I get exposed to 2 languages. Also the ruby path seems more dense and robust.

In 85% of the places people always say to choose JS because it is much more popular and there are more jobs but I feel that by choosing the ruby path I will end up learning way more, even tho if my end goal in a couple years is to work with JS.

And also there are quite some job offers where I live (Portugal) for ruby, so not bad at all.

Could you guys give me some of the benefits of choosing the Ruby path instead of JS? Which one would you choose if you had just started to code 6 months ago?

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Reddit
reddit.com › r/learnprogramming › odin project order of learning?
r/learnprogramming on Reddit: Odin Project order of learning?
October 20, 2023 -

Hey. I'm going through the Odin Project's Foundations path. I'm in the Javascript/Chrome Dev Tools section and everything up till now felt like they were in a good order.

But I feel like, right now, I haven't learned much Javascript to use all these debugger features. It feels like I should have first learned to make some projects using JS to be able to appreciate these features...

I'm having doubts with TOP as also some people on reddit mentioned that the paths after the Foundations are not as good.

How was your experience with TOP?

Is it normal for some sections to not make a lot of sense at first? Because this one felt way too early.

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Reddit
reddit.com › r/learnprogramming › which path should i take to become a frontend or mern stack developer? odin project, scrimba, boot.dev, or others?
r/learnprogramming on Reddit: Which Path Should I Take to Become a Frontend or MERN Stack Developer? Odin Project, Scrimba, boot.dev, or Others?
January 28, 2025 -

I’ve been working with WordPress and SEO since 2016, both as a freelancer and in my current remote job, where I earn {{EDITED}} a month. However, I feel like I can’t grow much more with WordPress or get a better job. I want to switch to becoming a frontend or MERN stack developer.

At first, I was looking into the Odin Project’s JavaScript path, but I’ve also seen people recommend Scrimba, boot.dev, Frontend Masters, and Full Stack Open.

Which path or program should I choose? I can study 2 hours every day and more on weekends.

I have money to spend, so what resources should I use to become a developer?

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Reddit
reddit.com › r/learnprogramming › i finished odin project foundations section. here's the hourly breakdown.
r/learnprogramming on Reddit: I finished Odin Project Foundations section. Here's the hourly breakdown.
June 1, 2022 -

I'm making this post because I saw many people ask the same question..."How long will the Odin project take?". So I decided to time myself while going through the course. As said in the title I haven't finished the entire course but I do plan to time myself all the way.

Disclaimer: I'm not a complete beginner to programming. I'm doing a degree in ECE so we have to do stuff with micro-controllers. So I know a bit of c/c++ and assembly.

So here's how long each section of the foundations took me:

Introduction: 1hr 30

Installations: 7hrs

Git Basics: 1hr

Html Foundations: 4:hrs

Css Foundations: 6:hrs

Flexbox: 10hrs

JavaScript Basics: 43hrs

The BackEnd: 1hr 30

Total: 74hrs

Those times include the projects. Also I didn't go through the additional resources sections.

And here's how long each project took:

Recipes project: 2hrs

Landing page: 2hrs 30

Rock paper scissors : 3hrs

Etch a sketch: 3hrs 30

Calculator: 11hrs

As it regards to projects. I could have easily spent another 10-20 hours making them prettier and getting all the extra credits ..which I'lll probably do later. You might end up spending way more time on the design aspects.

So I started on May 10 and finished foundations today. Worked on it 19 days during that time. So on average about 4hrs a day. Hopefully this helps anyone who may have been wondering how long this might take them.

My thoughts? I'm really liking the project focused method and lack of hand holding. What's next for me? I'm going to go through the ruby track because it has a data structures and algorithms section ...and a javascript section . After that I'm going through full stack open but would be later in the year if all goes well.

Edit: Rock paper scissors actually took 3 hours. It seems I had the Revisiting rock paper scissors section recorded as a Dom manipulation session. Here's how I checked. Again Apologies

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Reddit
reddit.com › r › PinoyProgrammer › comments › 15x2h1f › the_odin_project_path
The Odin Project Path : r/PinoyProgrammer
Community of Pinoy programmers to share ideas, projects, job vacancies and socialize with fellow programmers.
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/learnprogramming › do you guys recommend the odin project to become a front end developer?
r/learnprogramming on Reddit: Do you guys recommend the Odin project to become a front end developer?
November 21, 2021 -

I'm confused whether I should go with Udemy courses which are long (like the one from Jonas on JavaScript which is about 68hrs) or the Odin project? I fear the Odin project does not go in as much detail as other 40-50 hours Udemy courses ?

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Reddit
reddit.com › r/theodinproject › anyone actually finish the odin project studying
r/theodinproject on Reddit: Anyone Actually Finish The Odin Project Studying <2 hours/day?
April 15, 2025 -

The Odin Project (TOP) involves significant reading and projects. Rough online estimates suggest the Foundations + Full Stack JavaScript path takes about 1000 hours, a figure often supported by success stories I've read.

Most successful students report spending 3-8 hours daily, typically finishing within a year. Some even finish in a few months by studying 10-12 hours daily, which is unsustainable for most people. However, success stories from those studying less than 2 hours a day are rare.

Based on the 1000-hour estimate (I know that it's a really rough one), this slower pace implies completion would take several years. This makes me wonder: has anyone successfully finished TOP studying 2 hours, 1 hour, 30 minutes or less daily on average? If so, how long did it take?

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Reddit
reddit.com › r/reactjs › has anyone here used the odin project? what was the learning path you took to get you from 0 to the dev you are now?
r/reactjs on Reddit: Has anyone here used the Odin Project? What was the learning path you took to get you from 0 to the dev you are now?
October 14, 2021 -

I want to build a web app and have no clue where to begin. Went to school for cs, coded c++. I have understanding of some technical concepts but 0 when it comes to webdev.

I really don't want to flail around in the dark trying to find the right process. Would be open to a hands-on tutor/consultant that helps me learn and builds the app alongside me. This would be compensated of course. For context, I pitched the platform to the Maryland Dept of Health and they want to pilot it in 5 counties as the first step towards statewide procurement. Just need to build it.

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Reddit
reddit.com › r/learnprogramming › how is going your path with odin project?
How is going your path with Odin Project? : r/learnprogramming
January 6, 2023 - Without writing multiple huge paragraphs, the Javascript module needs work. Unfortunately, this is the most important part, so it's a big hit to the overall quality of the curriculum. Can't speak on the Ruby path. ... The Odin Project has been pretty great for me so far (I'm getting toward ...
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/learnprogramming › the odin project is great but people should be more realistic about what it teaches
The Odin Project is great but people should be more realistic about what it teaches : r/learnprogramming
January 29, 2022 - I hope there would be a path for Django Development for the peeps who had Python as their first language. ... IMO CS50W is a very good resource for that. ... Thanks, but I mean in Project Odin itself as a third path because currently there are only for Rails and Nodejs Continue this thread Continue this thread