How to Google effectively

Even senior developers Google every day. You will never be expected to remember everything about coding, there is just way too much for any human to be able to hold in their heads. Plus as tech is constantly changing, you will never ever know everything.

It is not "cheating" to Google In fact, being able to Google effectively is a skill every employer will expect you to have.

Here are some tips to help you get useful answers from Google:

• Start with a simple short question like you are talking to a human. Someone else has almost certainly asked this question online before, so phrasing your question like a human is more likely to pull up a link to the same question - and the answers that came with it.

• Remember to include relevant keywords in your question. Things like the language, library or framework you are using like CSS, JavaScript, Python. Relevant versions like Bootstrap 4, FontAwesome 5, Django 3 etc.

• Did you get an error message? Great! Error messages don't generally change, so including the error in your search will often pull up useful results. If the error message on its own doesn't bring up enough useful posts, remember to add other relevant keywords to your question (see the previous tip), and check the error message carefully, if there is a reference to something specific to your project in it - like a file name or variable name - remove it from the error message and try searching again.

• Filter for Stack Overflow posts only, If you are still getting a lot of results that aren't right Stack Overflow almost always has answers. It is the most popular forum for all questions related to development and a tool developers use constantly, so learning it is an essential skill in the eyes of employers.

• Be open to digging deeper. The first results you get may not give you the answer even after following all the tips above, often you will need to google further terms or keywords that come up as you read through the results you get from each search.

• Remember that Slack has search functionality too. Maybe your question is to do with a specific challenge or lesson on our course. You can use the search bar in the top right corner as your own personal course related Google.