Boot.dev Blog
Python Dictionaries: How to Create and Use Them
by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineer
Dictionaries are one of Python's most useful data structures. Instead of accessing values by a numeric index like you do with lists, you access them by a key — usually a string. If lists are like numbered shelves, dictionaries are like labeled drawers.
Python Lists: A Complete Beginner Guide
by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineer
A natural way to organize and store data is in a list. Some languages call them "arrays", but in Python we just call them lists. Think of all the apps you use and how many of the items in them are organized into lists — a social media feed is a list of posts, an online store is a list of products, the state of a chess game is a list of moves.
Python Loops: For, While, and Range Explained
by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineer
Loops let you run the same code over and over without rewriting it each time. Whether you need to count through numbers, process items in a list, or keep going until a condition changes, Python gives you for loops and while loops to handle it.
Python If, Elif, and Else Statements: What's the Difference?
by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineer
How Python's if, elif, and else statements work, the difference between elif and else, why there's no else if, and how to combine conditions with and and or.
Python Functions: How to Define and Call Them
by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineer
Functions allow you to reuse and organize code. Instead of copying and pasting the same logic everywhere, you define it once and call it whenever you need it. They're the most important tool for writing DRY code.
Python Variables: A Complete Beginner Guide
by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineer
Variables are how we store data as our program runs. You're probably already familiar with printing data by passing it straight into print(), but variables let us save that data so we can reuse it and change it before printing it. This guide covers everything you need to know about Python variables: creating them, naming them, and understanding the basic data types they can hold. If you're just getting started, you might also want to know why Python is worth learning in the first place.
The Boot.dev Beat. February 2026
by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineer
A new year and another record broken! In January a combined 4,016,641 lessons and challenges were completed by you, dear pupils! And to top it off, we're now releasing the much anticipated Power BI Course by none other than Alex the Analyst! I hope you enjoy it.
The Boot.dev Beat. January 2026
by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineer
We're off to an incredible start to 2026. December of 2025 broke a new record with 3,075,904 lessons completed and 82,578 training grounds challenges completed during the month! In January, I'm writing this on the 13th, and we're already at 1,657,581 lessons and 47,795 challenges - so it's looking like this is going to be a monster month. Best of luck to you all in the contest of the resolute.
The Boot.dev Beat. December 2025
by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineer
We plan to wrap up 2025 with some important quality of life updates! League placement badges, lesson bookmarks, and major improvements to the Training Grounds are just a few of the highlights. Thanks for learning with us, we're gearing up the platform for a ton of new courses in 2026.
Supply and Demand Are Broken in Programming Education
by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineer
Markets are efficient, right?
The Boot.dev Beat. November 2025
by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineer
Isaac's new Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) course is now live! It's a very in-depth course. It's not for the faint of heart, and it will teach you not just about AI search, but full keyword and semantic search systems as well... the "RAG" name actually sells it a bit short.
I'm in Vibe Coding Hell
by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineer
When I started thinking about the problems with coding education in 2019, "tutorial hell" was enemy number one. You'd know you were living in it if you:
The Boot.dev Beat. October 2025
by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineer
Searchable challenges in the Training Grounds, and realtime voice chats with Boots are now a thing. Also, my children and those of half my employees are sick with the flu... I hope you've all been able to avoid it!
The Boot.dev Beat. September 2025
by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineer
The training grounds are LIVE! 21,000 challenges have been generated between the launch and as I write this, and we're just getting started. Big things to come.
Boot.dev Launches the Training Grounds
by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineer
We've always said Boot.dev is fun... but we've never said it's easy. I mean, it's not for lack of trying. We do everything we can to make the content as easy to understand as it can be:
The Boot.dev Beat. August 2025
by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineer
We ran the biggest hackathon I've ever been a part of (500+ participants!) and saw some incredible projects come out of it. Thanks to everyone that participated, I'm excited for the next one!
2025 Hackathon
by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineer
The 2025 Boot.dev Hackathon has been completed! We had an amazing turnout this year, with over 500 participants across two categories: Amateur and Pro. The projects were incredible, and the competition was fierce.
The Boot.dev Beat. July 2025
by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineer
This month we were heads down building a lot of background stuff for big releases that are coming up - but we still did manage to get a few new features out the door!
The Boot.dev Beat. June 2025
by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineer
We've capitulated into the vibe coding era? Well... not really. But it's cool to understand how AI agents like Cursor and Claude Code work under the hood.
Are Boot.dev Courses Free?
by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineer
Sometimes folks get confused and wonder, are Boot.dev's programming courses really free?
The Boot.dev Beat. May 2025
by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineer
Our biggest content release ever just dropped: the complete backend learning path, but now in Python and TypeScript! This is a massive update that we've been working on for a year, I hope you enjoy it!
The Boot.dev Beat. April 2025
by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineer
The Lord of the Mire has been the hardest boss yet (by far), weighing it with 150,000,000 HP. The community rallied during the event, dealing a whopping 132,282,452 damage in total, but not quite enough to bring him down.
The Boot.dev Beat. March 2025
by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineer
Our new JavaScript course is live! ThePrimeagen's course on building your own HTTP server from scratch is just around the corner, and the TypeScript track couldn't be closer.
The Boot.dev Beat. February 2025
by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineer
It's official: TJ's C course walkthrough was released before GTA6! This is a great month for Boot.dev, and for humanity as a whole.
18 Months with GPT-4: Now Can I Fire my Developers?
by Lane Wagner - Boot.dev co-founder and backend engineer
As the founder of a company where my largest static expense is engineering salaries, I'm over here just chomping at the bit, eagerly awaiting the moment I can fire everyone and line my pockets with all those juicy savings. See, about one year ago, I wrote an article titled, "9 Months with GPT-4: Can I Fire my Developers Yet?" and I thought I'd give you a little update on Allan's employment status.
