Reviewing "Go By Example"

I started Go By Example in April with the goal of learning the language for work. Khan Academy (and my old company Niche) use Go for their back-end services. And while I am focused on the front end, knowledge of the Go language is valuable for my work.

It took me 80 days from start to finish to complete the 79 examples. After a few starts and stops in the beginning, I settled into a routine of starting each day (barring Sunday) by working through an example. This felt like a good pace to learn the syntax and patterns slowly so that it sticks. And I think that it has, for the most part!

Overall, I enjoyed the exercises, and I would recommend Go By Example to anyone who is interested in learning the Go language. The examples were focused and clear, and the progression of concepts was logical. After completing the course, I feel confident reading and writing Go, and feel like I could contribute to an existing project.

One criticism of the course is that it does little to explain how Go projects work beyond simple scripts. I don’t have clear understanding of “packages” in Go which made it difficult to explore the language with side projects. There was an example on how to make a simple HTTP server but no details on how to deploy one.

To be fair, that wasn’t the point of the course. But if you’re looking for a more holistic introduction to Go, you might need to supplement Go By Example with something else.

So I’m looking for an additional resource to fill in some of those knowledge gaps. If you have any recommendations, please let me know. Otherwise, I’ll write again when I have found something that works well.