I haven't done CodeAcademy, so I can't say. It doesn't really matter though. From your posts, it sounds like you're focused on the language part of programming. The language isn't really the important part though. If you're already a programmer, learning a new one takes very little time. The hard part is learning how to reason about programs & breaking down a problem into something that can be expressed as a program. This is something you need to learn by doing. Unless it's got the world's best homework assignments, I wouldn't spend any money on a basic programming course. All the information you need is freely available. And if you go with Python, keep in mind which version of it you're using. There are small but significant differences between 2.7.x and 3.x, so be aware what the tutorials you're reading refer to (if you see 'print("text")' in it, it's python 3. If you see 'print "text"', it's python 2) . Both versions are widely used, but I think 2.7.x is still more popular.