MDN Curriculum

The essential skillset for new front-end developers

The MDN Curriculum provides a structured guide to the essential skills and practices for being a successful front-end developer, along with recommended learning resources.

Last updated: February 2024

About the curriculum

  • Beginner's level
  • Self-paced
  • Free

The go-to resource for the essential skills and knowledge every front-end developer needs for career success and industry relevance.

Developed by Mozilla and refined with insights from the broader MDN community.

Learn more

Modules


    1. Soft skills

      Develop a great attitude towards learning, researching, and collaborating to enhance your chances of success.

      Best Practices

    2. Environment setup

      Familiarize yourself with your development environment and the tools you'll use to build websites.

      Tooling

    Let's begin
    1. Web standards

      Understand how the web works at a high level, and the process for creating web technologies.

      Web Standards & Semantics

    2. Semantic HTML

      Learn the fundamentals of HTML, the language used to define and structure web content.

      Web Standards & Semantics

    3. CSS fundamentals

      Dive into the fundamentals of CSS, the language you'll use to style and layout websites.

      Styling

    4. CSS text styling

      Focus on using CSS to style text and apply custom web fonts.

      Styling

    5. CSS layout

      Learn modern techniques for creating flexible layouts that work on a wide variety of devices.

      Styling

    6. JavaScript fundamentals

      Focus on the core JavaScript language and fundamental surrounding topics.

      Scripting

    7. Accessibility

      Understand the need for universal access to web content and how to write accessible code.

      Best Practices

    8. Design for developers

      Appreciate basic design theory, how to speak design language, and what makes websites look good.

      Best Practices

    9. Version control

      Understand why version control is necessary, and use GitHub to store code and collaborate with others.

      Tooling

    Let's begin
    1. Transform & animate CSS

      Add animations to your toolbox to enhance user experience and perceived performance.

      Web Standards & Semantics

    2. Custom JS objects

      Create custom JavaScript objects to gain a deeper understanding of object-oriented programming.

      Scripting

    3. Web APIs

      Study common WebAPIs in depth to appreciate how WebAPIs work in general.

      Scripting

    4. Performance

      Explore how to create performant, fast-loading websites and enhance perceived performance.

      Best Practices

    5. Security and privacy

      Learn how to protect data from unauthorized access and how to treat user data responsibly.

      Best Practices

    6. Testing

      Explore the need for testing, and learn how to implement common test types.

      Best Practices

    7. JavaScript frameworks

      Study the features of popular JavaScript frameworks, and use them to implement common use cases.

      Tooling

    8. CSS tooling

      Look at popular CSS tooling and understand what code problems they can solve.

      Tooling

    9. Other tooling types

      Understand the purpose and usage of other tooling types commonly found in a web project.

      Tooling

    Let's begin

How can youboost your employability with the MDNCurriculum?

Learn about research collaboration and other essential soft skills.Balance between modern tooling and long-term best practices.Get access to hight-quality recommended resources.Get guidance from trusted voices.

Don't know where to
get started?

  • Embarking on your coding journey?

    Begin with our "Getting started" and "Core" modules to grasp the essential skills for web development. Core modules
  • Beyond the basics?

    Dive deeper with our "Extensions" modules to develop specialized skills. Extensions modules
  • Seeking employment?

    Our "Soft skills" module, part of "Getting started", offers crucial insights to help you land your job. Getting started modules
  • Crafting courses?

    Utilize our modules to guide your teaching and support your students' learning journey. Core modules