Reddit is a great place for software developers to go to tap into the spectrum of community knowledge that’s out there. If you’re new to Reddit, it’s a user-generated online community, a social media platform, a news aggregator and, in its own humble opinion, “the front page of the internet”.

Whether you’re a rookie or a seasoned trooper, there will be a few subreddits you can learn from and/or contribute valuable insight to. Regularly checking a few carefully-chosen subreddits can help you stay up-to-date with the news in your chosen field. It’s also a great way to canvass the skills and wisdom of other developers to get a quick tip about an obscure piece of coding lore. A quick query on the right subreddit can save the day.

Here’s a rundown of five subreddits that can offer you everything from a beginners’ bootstrap to the sage advice of veterans:

Subreddit #1: r/Programming

Members: 2.9 million

This is one of the longest-established subreddits (going back to February 2006, about six months after the whole platform was launched). Typically, the threads feature professionals comparing notes and sharing tips. Reading that can, in itself, be a really useful learning tool, although this subreddit isn’t really concerned with tutorials or helping to uplift newbies. That’s what r/LearnProgramming is for!

This subreddit covers a wide and ever-changing range of subjects which is why, in common with other such wildly-popular subreddits, the moderators have put together a detailed FAQ, which covers many of the most common subjects and also features links to other helpful resources, such as the blogs you must read (but can’t admit to), or the books other programmers recommend you read. There are even links to another useful user community: Stack Overflow, which could be thought of as one of Reddit’s competitors.

Subreddit #2: r/LearnProgramming

Members: 1.7million

If you’re new to the world of coding, or are simply embarking on a language that’s new to you, the first and most obvious place to go is r/LearnProgramming. Since this is a subreddit dedicated to helping you understand programming in literally any language, there is a vast amount of information here. As it covers such a wide spectrum of languages, you might have to hunt for the information you’re looking for relating to your specific language or query.

The admins have helpfully put together an extensive FAQ to help you with the most common issues developers encounter. So, that should really be your first port of call, as it might be the quickest solution to your problem.

Subreddit #3: r/webdev

Members: 578,000

Possibly the most obvious place to go for matters relating to web dev is r/webdev. If you’re looking to develop existing skills or looking for work, r/webdev, describes itself as “a community dedicated to all things web development: both front-end and back-end”. Although it’s more of a discussion forum than a place to find tutorials, this subreddit offers a monthly ‘Getting Started / Web Dev Career’ thread, which is updated constantly throughout the month – so it’s a great place to visit regularly if you’re looking for your next web dev challenge.

Again, they have assembled a brilliantly inclusive FAQ which deals with a lot of the most commonly-occurring issues, plus there are links branching out to official websites and other subreddits dealing with specific languages.

Subreddit #4: r/coding

Members: 253,000

Similar to r/LearnProgramming, this subreddit is rich with advice and inspiration, which seasoned professionals are happy to share. It isn’t formally about tutorials, it’s a discussion forum but, with coders swapping tips and tricks, libraries and tools, you can learn a lot.

Like r/Programming, this subreddit covers a range of development tasks and languages, so you might need to filter through the subjects covered, looking for your own area of interest. As it says in the ‘About’ panel, r/coding is for “a pure discussion of programming with a strict policy of programming-related discussions. As a general policy, if your article doesn’t have a few lines of code in it, it probably doesn’t belong here.”

Subreddit #5: r/Frontend

Members: 101,000.

This rapidly-growing subreddit claims, semi-seriously, that it has been “bringing the web out of 2007 since 2013”. It is a community of frontend developers and it deals with new tools and resources, new standards, new techniques and news.

It’s a great place for web developers who want to be involved in the cutting-edge of moving the web forward. It is full of pro-tips, useful links and up-to-the-minute discussions on everything to do with the front end of the internet.

The language of subreddit:

It’s worth bearing in mind that, as well as these industry-focused threads, there are also specific dedicated subreddits for most languages, like:

• C (90,000 members)
• C++ (154, 000 members)
• CSS (74,000 members)
• HTML (25,000 members)
• HTML5 (34,000 members)
• Java (202,000 members)
• Javascript (1.1 million members)
• PHP (127,000 members)
• Python (665,000 members)
• SQL (71,000 members)

If you’ve found a subreddit that you visit regularly and find particularly useful, or you can recommend a subreddit that helped you when you were starting out, share the love by visiting us on Facebook or Twitter and tell the world.