Tutorial

Write your first program

Start the JavaScript course from zero and run your first working code, all inside the browser.

Applies to Novus Learn 0.1.0

1. Open the course, not the path

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Language paths are curated routes to good external material. The JavaScript course is different: it is a written curriculum authored here, lesson by lesson, starting from no prior knowledge. Start there.

2. Read the objectives before the code

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Every lesson states what you should be able to do at the end of it. Read those two lines first — they are the difference between following along and learning, and they tell you whether you can safely skip ahead.

3. Type the exercise, do not paste it

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The exercise runs in a WebAssembly sandbox in your browser with no network and no access to the page. It checks your code and tells you which assertion failed, so a wrong answer is information rather than a red cross. Nothing is sent anywhere to be marked.

4. Break it on purpose

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Once an exercise passes, change something and run it again. The scratchpad is the same sandbox with no lesson attached, which makes it the right place to find out what an error message actually means.

5. Go to the source

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When a lesson summarises a rule, the course reference lists the specification or official documentation it rests on. Reading the primary source early is a habit worth more than any single lesson in the course.

Consent version 2026-08-21.1

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