I started to take interest in learning programming in 2017, but after doing the HTML and CSS challenges on freeCodeCamp, life got in the way and I abandoned the program to concentrate on some other ventures.

Fast forward to 2020, and I feel that was probably not the best decision I've ever made. So I've now resolved to restart the freeCodeCamp web development track and actually follow through this time till I achieve the success I want which is to become a professional developer.

I just completed the first two projects in the responsive web design section (Tribute page and Survery form) and I wanted to share a few thoughts on how I tackled each project to try to help anyone who is in a similar situation.

Looking through the sample projects was a bit scary for me because I wasn't sure how to create a similar output. But I remembered that I only need to use the bits and pieces of information gleaned from the challenges and bring them together in the projects.

So here's the process I used to complete each project:

• I read through the user stories more than once.
• I thought of the elements that would work for each user story.
• I tried to visualise how the page will look like in my head. I did this even though I still have to look at the sample to see how the project looks like.
• I start writing the code based on the user stories.
• While I didn't look at the code of the sample project, I found other solutions online and compared with what I was doing.
• I got the HTML part done first before moving to the CSS.
• I always used Google whenever I got stuck on what element to use or how to apply CSS rules for an effect.
• I didn't do anything extra apart from the user stories because I know there are more projects on the way, and so that I'm able to move fast.
• I put my code on Codepen and submitted the link to freeCodeCamp.

I do feel the projects are becoming more challenging as I move from one to the other, but knowing that I can always break it down makes it much less daunting.

To view my completed projects, please visit the links below:

Tribute page
Survey form

Feedback is welcome, and thanks for reading!