National Coding Week 2025

Over the week, we’ve sat down with members of the dev team to pick their brains about what they love about being a dev, their favourite apps, and their best advice. Read on to find out more.

Visual Studio Code

Visual Studio Code (VS Code) is an open-source code editor from Microsoft. It’s highly customisable and supports over 25,000 extensions. This means each dev here at Si digital can completely customise their individual working environment to suit their own ways of working.

As well as being highly customisable, VS Code works cross-platform, meaning developers can work on macOS, Linux, or Windows to build their digital products. It’s also got a built-in Git repository feature, so devs can stage, commit, and push code directly inside the editor.

Docker

Docker is a platform for building, running, and managing applications in containers. It underpins most of our projects here at Si digital because it gives us consistency. Instead of spending hours setting up each environment, we can spin up a project and all its dependencies in around 20 seconds. Every developer works with the exact same setup, so there’s no “but it works on my machine,” and sharing containers makes collaboration quick and seamless. Essentially, Docker lets developers ship software faster, more reliably, and with fewer environment headaches.

GitHub

GitHub is central to our workflow at Si digital. It enables us to develop and deploy projects quickly and efficiently, removing unnecessary hurdles and streamlining our processes. It’s a key tool that keeps our work moving fast and smoothly.

Meet Rich, our Lead Backend Developer. We sat down with him to talk about what it’s really like getting into development and what he loves about being a developer. Here’s what he had to say.

When did you first start getting interested in development and why?

I first got into development in Year 9, and it quickly became something I was passionate about. I went on to take a GCSE in Computing, and I absolutely loved it. Problem-solving always felt natural to me, and I’ve always enjoyed the challenge of tackling a tricky problem. There’s something really satisfying about working through an issue and finally finding the solution, and that sense of reward has kept me motivated ever since.

How much has your role changed since you started?

There’s been quite a lot of change over the last decade or so in terms of both frontend and backend development.

PHP has evolved, adding features that make writing better and code cleaner. On the front end, frameworks like React have completely changed how projects are built and structured. It’s been interesting to see the digital world develop and change.

What’s the toughest bug you’ve had to fix?

One of our clients’ apps had an issue with some mapping where the map would track the user’s location, then jump back. It took four devs a few days to work out what the issue was. Definitely a tricky bug to squash, but we worked it out!

Favourite language to code in and why?

I love building in PHP. It’s the language I’ve used the most and feels most comfortable to work with, probably due to years of building and maintaining projects in it. I know its quirks, strengths, and best practices inside out, so it’s definitely my go-to language to build in.

What’s been your favourite project to build and why?

It’s got to be Harwin. Not only is their website a huge technical challenge, but from a backend development point of view, I was excited to try out Elasticsearch for the product filtering. It was a good challenge and fun too.

What do you think the future looks like for developers?

Obviously, AI is a big thing right now, but I think the impact from that will be felt the most by junior developers since it excels at automating tasks and repetitive coding tasks. Experienced developers add architectural understanding and problem-solving that AI can’t replicate.

When it comes to learning new skills, it can be a bit of a minefield of information. So, finding good-quality dev learning resources can be a tricky task. We’ve pulled together a short list of our go-to learning resources. We’ve covered everything from resources for news and updates to keep your finger on the pulse, through to tutorials to get you started.

Dev Community

Dev Community is a forum for developers to keep up-to-date with the latest news and updates in the world of code. With 3m+ developers part of their community, it’s the perfect place to gain insight into new tech and updates, as well as a great place to get questions answered.

Visit Dev Community

MDN

MDN is a vast, open-source project owned and run by Mozilla, in partnership with a global community of volunteers and partners. The platform boasts 45k+ pages of resources, with over 46m views a month. Resources range from comprehensive documentation for languages like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, to learning resources and interactive courses to kickstart your web career. There’s also a blog and a playground to try out your code.

Visit MDN

Wes Bos

Wes Bos is a developer and teacher from Ontario, Canada. He set up a website to help fresh developers learn new skills in languages like HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and TypeScript. Each week, he creates free and premium courses and hosts a podcast called Syntax, which covers everything from the latest industry news to tackling the big issues.

Visit Wes Bos

Focus on one thing at a time 

Try to focus on one thing at a time; don’t split your attention across multiple tasks at once. So, if you‘re starting out and trying to learn PHP, stick with it and focus on it until you’re comfortable. Don’t try to learn too many technologies in one go.

Rich – Lead Backend Developer

Don’t aim for perfect code right away

Mistakes and messy first drafts are part of the learning process. Focus on getting things working first, then come back and improve it, one function at a time. If you chase perfection from the start, you’ll slow yourself down and miss out on valuable lessons. Mastery takes time, refine as you go, and keep learning.

Alfie – Full Stack Developer

Learn the core principles first, then the framework

Don’t start by learning a framework right away (like React or Laminas). First, focus on the core language the framework is built on. JavaScript before React, PHP before Laminas. Once you understand the fundamentals, learning the framework will be much easier and make more sense.

Mike – Backend Developer

Build stuff you care about to practice your skills

Instead of endlessly starting new things you’ll never finish, focus on actually building projects you genuinely care about. When you work on something that excites you, you’ll stay motivated long enough to push through the challenges, rather than leaving behind a trail of half-finished experiments that don’t teach you much.

Cameron – Frontend Developer

If you’re just starting out as a developer, or want to expand your knowledge, we regularly post about the latest technologies and resources we’re using, so give us a follow on LinkedIn and Instagram to keep up.