Best Coding Games to Elevate Your Programming Skills

Learning a programming language can be intimidating. Many beginners can become overwhelmed by the strict language rules, causing them to lose interest or make progress at a much slower pace than anticipated.
Although coding can be fun, engaging, and rewarding, it can also be tedious and repetitive. So, if you want to make your study sessions a bit more exciting, you might want to consider learning through coding games.

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Best coding games

Illustration: L. T.

CodinGame

CodinGame community’s mission is to help people acquire the necessary skills for their dream coding job, even without a degree. They’ve created a platform where programmers can improve their coding skills in a fun and interactive manner by solving a variety of challenges. The more you play, the more prepared you’ll be to tackle any problem and brainstorm creative ideas.

CodinGame

Source: CodinGame

With CodinGame puzzles, games, and challenges, you’ll learn how think like a programmer and write cleaner code. More importantly, you’ll acquire these skills through play, which allows you to explore the programming language you’re trying to learn and make sense of it on your own terms.

Additionally, players can learn independently or compete with others and even play in 25+ languages, including JavaScript, Python, and Java.

Tackling CodinGame challenges could be a fun way to unwind after work or encourage healthy competition in the workplace. And if you’re yet to find a programming job, CodinGame will help you prepare for technical interviews, discover new programming techniques, and stay motivated.

CodeCombat

CodeCombat offers one of the most playful ways to immerse yourself in programming. People behind the project strongly believe that you need to write a lot of code and gain hands-on experience to learn programming, and their mission is to give you just that.

CodeCombat is a community project with hundreds of experts volunteering and building the game further. Impressively, over 20 million people have played the CodeCombat game to learn to code and have written over one billion lines of code together.

CodeCombat

Source: CodeCombat

CodeCombat does a beautiful job of teaching students of all ages how to code through an interactive role-playing game experience. Once you embark on this journey, you will progress through the game by exploring forests, dungeons, and similar landscapes that will test your knowledge and help elevate your skills. All the quests are created to gradually level up your skills and keep you entertained, even when challenging tasks need to be solved.

Robocode

Robocode is a simple programming game that will teach you how to create a robo-tank that you’ll send into real-time battle once the challenge is complete. Unlike CodeCombat, for example, it doesn’t take you on an exciting journey that will allow you to explore a variety of possibilities and keep you entertained for hours. Instead, you’ll have one mission, and one mission only – to build a virtual tank that will lead you to victory.

Roboclone

Source: Robocode

The motto of Robocode is ‘Build the best, destroy the rest!’ That said, you will have to utilize your knowledge to create a robot and program it to face the opponents and, ultimately, win the battle. It’s a fun way to put your skill to the test and learn how to improve your code to make your tank more battle-ready. You can build your robot-tank using Java, Kotlin, or Scala, so if you’re looking for ways to master these programming languages, the Robocode coding game could be a good place to start.

Elevator Saga

Elevator Saga is an excellent coding game for all JavaScript enthusiasts. The only task is to program elevators that can handle various loads of passengers, and if you do it well, you’ll get to try out more complicated challenges.

Elevator Saga

Source: Elevator Saga

The best part is that you can’t move forward until you get it right. This ensures you don’t skip over important lessons critical for building your JavaScript knowledge base. You’ll also have to put your creativity to the test and exercise your little gray cells, which is a perfect combo for keeping the learning spark alive.

Codewars

Codewars is an online platform where you can practice a range of coding challenges called ‘kata’ by the community members. If you decide to join, you’ll first have to prove yourself by completing a challenge in any language available on the platform. Once completed, you can start solving kata exercises and connecting with a robust community that will help you master coding and gain honor. 

Codewars

Source: Codewars

What’s great about Codewars is that it paves the way for honest and constructive feedback. You can also compare your solutions to other people’s work and find more efficient ways to complete specific tasks.

Learning from skilled programmers has never been easier, so if you already have some programming skills you can put to the test, Codewars is worth checking out. And you want to give back to the community and help them learn something new, you can create unique kata exercises that revolve around your skillset.

Benefits of Learning Through Coding Games

Play is critical for every child’s development, but it’s beneficial for adults, too. It can help you fall in love with the learning process and boost your productivity levels. Playing games could be a fun way to initiate those processes, so merging coding with this pastime activity is worth trying.

Playing coding games can help you with the following:

  • Concentration: If you’ve noticed that gaming keeps you engaged for hours, but you can’t say the same for learning a new skill, playing coding games could improve your concentration and minimize distractions. Immersing yourself in a new learning environment will increase your attention and motivate you to practice new skills.
  • Creativity: Programming requires a lot of creativity. You often need to think of new solutions or approaches that could help you complete the project, and what easier way to do it than putting yourself in a playful mood and allowing new ideas to emerge? Coding games will likely boost your imagination, allowing you to solve problems faster.  
  • Relaxation: Performance pressure can affect your learning journey, which is why it’s critical to learn how to manage this anxiety that often manifests during study sessions. Gamifying your coding journey will take a lot of stress and pressure off your shoulders and make you more receptive to learning.
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