If you want to become a software developer outside a traditional classroom, you're going to need help. You're going to need a community to support you.

When teaching yourself programming, it's good to pick up a few related skills, like expertise with databases, computation, networks, or advanced algorithms.

Learning programming is more than picking up a language or two. You also need language concepts, mathematical proofs, and a bunch of good practices.

If you're going to be a software developer, you need to understand algorithms. Fortunately, there are lots of ways to get what you need without college.

Coding bootcamps are great. But to really learn software development, you need some computer science basics. Fortunately, you can find them online.