How to Learn Angular?

Angular is unequivocally one of the most widely-used and popular JavaScript web application frameworks. Apart from the fact that Angular is loaded with powerful features, another big reason for its widespread popularity is that it is developed and maintained by Google.

Before proceeding further, one important thing that you should be clear about is that we are talking about the Angular framework, which represents the Angular version2 and above. The first-ever version of Angular is known as AngularJS and is quite different from Angular.

It simply indicates that you are interested in learning Angular for you to be reading this guide. If you want to make a career in web development and that too with JavaScript as your main programming language, then you are on the right path.

However, before you start learning Angular, you must understand that this JS framework has a steep learning curve. Also, while Angular works completely fine with JavaScript, the programming language preferred for Angular web development is TypeScript, a JS version developed by Microsoft.

To put it simply, all the JavaScript programs are also TypeScript programs, but the opposite is not true. It’s similar to saying that every square is a rectangle, but every rectangle is not a square. Here, the square is a JavaScript program, and the rectangle is a TypeScript program.

In all, if you want to master Angular, you will need serious determination and perseverance, especially if you are an aspiring web developer.

Whether you are looking for some good reasons to learn Angular or want guidance on how you can start learning Angular, you have landed just at the right place. This detailed blog covers all the essential aspects that one should know for learning Angular effectively. So, without wasting any more time, let’s get started.

Why Should You Learn Angular?

A beginner who is willing to build a promising future in web development must have suggestions to learn Angular. Also, you may have wondered if it would be a good idea to learn Angular in the first place.

To be honest, there is no straightforward answer to this as it completely depends on your requirements. For instance, if you are ready to go through a challenging learning experience, and want to code and manage projects in a highly organized manner, then Angular can be your best pick.

Here are some of the key features of Angular that often become the reasons why many geeks pick this leading JS framework as their tool of choice for front-end development:

1. Ideal for Developing SPAs (Single-Page Applications)

Building responsive and high-performance single-page applications become easier with Angular. If you don’t know, a SPA is a web application that does not require loading multiple HTML pages as all the data and content are injected dynamically in a single HTML page. The content or elements are displayed or removed according to the user’s actions on the page.

Single-page applications are extremely fast, easy to develop and debug, highly reusable, and offer a better user experience. All these characteristics have made SPAs a popular choice among businesses and developers alike. Angular streamlines the process of developing SPAs, making this framework of great value for developers.

2. Better Management With Components

Angular helps you to streamline the process of web development and also allows sound management of all the application code through components. A component is considered to be the basic building block of an Angular application. Every component has 3 main elements that are:

An HTML Template: defines the structure of the component that is to be rendered within the app,
A CSS Stylesheet:decides the look and feel of the component, and
A TypeScript File: This contains the code that defines the behavior of the component.

Usually, a component is created for each application to make it easier to keep the whole application well-organized and easy to manage.

3. Quick Production with the Angular CLI

Creating the basic structure of an Angular application and even adding new components and services could have been quite difficult and time-consuming without the Angular CLI.

With the Angular command-line interface, creating a new project with all the basic dependencies, files and directories are just a command away. To create a new project, you simply need to use the ng new command followed by the project's name.

Also, you can easily add new components and services to your project by simply executing single-line commands in the Angular CLI. Also, you can build your Angular app, run it on a local server, and do more by using various Angular CLI commands. All this leads to quicker app production and ensures more focus on writing code rather than setting up project files.

4. Animation Support

With Angular, one can build modern apps with a myriad of functionalities. However, there’s one more thing that you can add to your apps without any significant challenge, and that is animation. Angular comes with native support for complex animations that allow you to enhance your apps' overall appearance and user experience.

The animation API offered by the JS web framework is easy to use and offers a variety of functions. So, you can introduce animations in the various sections of your app that tend to gain users' attention and prompt them to engage with the app in a better way.

5. Cross-Platform Framework

Being a cross-platform framework is one of the most notable reasons for developers to shower Angular with love. It not only lets you create innovative and progressive web applications but also native mobile apps as well as desktop apps.

By gaining the knowledge and experience working with Angular, you can create applications for almost all the major platforms, be it Android, iOS, Windows, macOS, or Linux. Surely, you have to take assistance from various other technologies, but Angular will play a pivotal role in developing apps for these platforms right from scratch.

This feature gives you the flexibility to expand your horizons when it comes to app development. Also, all this concludes that Angular is one of the most power-packed and versatile JS frameworks out there.

6. Type Checking Minimizes Coding Errors

As mentioned earlier, the programming language used by Angular is TypeScript. As you know, Angular completely supports JavaScript code as well as all other libraries like jQuery. The intention of using TypeScript is to curtail code error to the minimum possible.

TypeScript is a strongly typed language that allows you to declare the type of variables and data structures. This allows the detection of errors before the code enters execution. The type of declared variables and data structures are validated in runtime so that no conflicts occur later during code execution.

In all, TypeScript allows faster development and, at the same time, reduces the chances of errors in code that come in handy, especially when creating large and complex applications.

So, these are some of the most common reasons that make Angular a viable choice for developing top-notch applications. Now, if you have decided to learn the popular JS framework, it's time to move forward and see how you can actually embark on the journey to become an Angular developer.

Prerequisites for Learning Angular

Angular is widely used for web development, and there are certain requirements that you must meet to learn Angular. By checking off all the prerequisites, you can make sure that you proceed in the right direction and learn the popular web framework in the best possible way. The prerequisites for learning Angular are as follows:

Sound knowledge of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
The basic idea of the MVC (Model-View-Controller) architecture.
Basic knowledge of Node.js and npm (Node Package Manager).
Experience working with the command line.
Exposure to TypeScript.

The first prerequisite mentioned above, i.e., knowledge of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, is essential for learning Angular. The other prerequisites can be easily satisfied, and you can learn the basics of MVC, Node.js, npm, and command-line pretty quickly. Also, if you know JavaScript quite well, picking up the fundamentals of TypeScript won’t be an issue.

Nonetheless, as soon as you meet all the requirements stated above, take a step ahead and choose an IDE to work with Angular.

IDE

As you might already know, the need for a source code editor for writing code and an IDE (Integrated Development Environment) comes with it. Also, IDE combines various tools and features, including a debugger, compiler, version control, code completion and refactoring, and syntax highlighting that makes it a complete package for developing, testing, and deploying apps.

You can undoubtedly use a dedicated source-code editor like Visual Studio Code or Atom to write Angular code. Still, eventually, you may need to switch to an IDE to ensure faster and efficient development. So, it would be a little better to start your journey with some IDE; else, you can go with a source-code editor too.

Below are 3 of the most popular IDEs to use for Angular development:

1. Angular IDE

Anyone looking for a dedicated IDE for Angular can consider using Angular IDE. It is one of the most powerful IDEs out there for developing Angular applications of any scale.

The best thing about this IDE is that it is utterly suitable for beginners who want to build small projects to test their skills to expert professionals required to develop and maintain enterprise-grade web applications. Also, you need to note that this is a paid IDE, and its pricing starts at $5 per user per month.

Key Features

Comes integrated with Angular CLI, which allows you to generate components and services for your app quickly.
The Angular control panel makes it possible to work and manage a complete project from one single place.
Auto-completion and real-time validation of code.
Supports TypeScript debugging.
Offers a free 45-day trial.

2. WebStorm

This is probably one of the most popular and widely used paid IDEs for web development and supports Angular. WebStorm is a product of the world-renowned IT company JetBrains. While WebStorm is a dedicated JavaScript IDE, many professionals worldwide use it for developing Angular applications.

One needs to integrate the Angular and AngularJS plugin to start developing apps using the integrated development environment. Nonetheless, WebStorm has a very intuitive user interface, allowing beginners to use it with complete ease.

Key Features

Supports HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
Its smart editor comes with auto-code completion and code refactoring features.
You can even create, run, and debug the backend of your Angular application developed with Node.js.
IT allows integration with popular version control systems, including Git and Mercurial.

3. StackBlitz

StackBlitz is different from the two IDEs mentioned above because it is a cloud-based or, you can say, online IDE. As such, you do not need to install it on your system for using it to develop Angular apps. All you need is a web browser and an active internet connection for using StackBlitz to create Angular projects.

Also, it is worth noting that Visual Studio Code powers StackBlitz online IDE, so you can always expect reliable performance from it. Going for this IDE is a great choice for you if you do not want the hassle of downloading, installing, and managing an IDE for Angular on your system.

Key Features

Allows setting up an Angular project with only a few clicks.
Adding or removing dependencies is quite easy.
The Preview screen allows you to visualize all the changes that you made to code in real-time.
You can share project links with others collaboratively.
Offers a free version, which comes with all the features that you need as a beginner.

Learning Angular can become a mess if you don’t have the right set of resources. As you know, there is plenty of study material and guides available on the internet that can help you get familiar with the underlying concepts of Angular. However, you should know that not all of them are easy to understand.

You will likely need to go through many resources and follow them to see which one works best for you. Obviously, this is time-consuming, and you may lose interest in learning Angular if you do not find some learning material that you can stick to.

To ensure that you start learning with the right set of resources, check out the list of best Angular tutorials available out there. The biggest advantage of these tutorials is that they are laid out in a well-planned manner, which is especially helpful for beginners to ingest the concepts in Angular. Here are the best tutorials that you can consider for learning Angular effectively:

Free Tutorials

While many of us believe that tutorials available for free are not very effective, the reality is quite different. While there are plenty of free tutorials that promise an exceptional learning experience, there’s one particular tutorial that you should consider and is mentioned below:

1. Learn Angular Step-by-step - YouTube

This tutorial or video playlist available on YouTube will help you learn Angular efficiently. 19 videos will guide you through the basic concepts of Angular, and also you will be creating a web app with the help of Firebase and Reactive programming.

At the end of this tutorial, you will learn about DOM manipulation, components, services, and RxJs observables. Also, you will be making http requests to get data from an API and render it on your Angular app; however, you need to keep in mind that Angular 2 and Angular 4 are utilized in the tutorial, but the concepts are pretty much the same even if you consider the latest Angular version.

Official Documentation

If you want to dive deep into Angular concepts, check out the official Angular documentation. You can get a quick introduction to Angular, learn how to set up a local environment on your system for Angular development, and dig into the fundamental concepts of Angular with this documentation.

The documentation is well-managed and explains everything required to take your Angular development skills to the next level. Also, some tutorials are provided within the documentation to learn by practice and get a good head start working with the Angular code.

Angular Projects

Being an aspiring Angular developer, you must polish your skills and showcase them to grab a good job; however, merely getting familiar with the fundamentals of Angular will not do much good. So, what’s important is that you work on some projects on your own to hone your skills and add your experience developing these projects on your resume.

So, if you are ready to test your learning and need some good project ideas to work on, don’t worry; we’ve got you covered. Following are some of the most popular Angular projects that you can consider working on to gain hands-on experience:

1. Notepad Web Application

This is one of the simplest Angular projects that are quite popular among beginners. The Notepad application allows users to create, modify, and delete notes. It is completely up to you how you want to sort the notes, but it is advisable to organize them per the time they’ve been added or modified.

While working on this project, you can either use mock APIs or create a backend with Node.js and use MongoDB as your database. This is important because the notes data you’ll create need to be accessed and rendered within the app using REST APIs. This will also help you to become familiar with the backend development using Node.js and MongoDB.

2. Chat App

Chat applications are highly popular, and Angular is a preferable choice for making a fully functional chat app, but as a beginner, you need to create a simple chat app to learn how things work. Once you get a good idea of how things work, you can add more functionality to your chat app.

While creating a chat app, you need to use concepts like services, dependency injection, RxJS, observables, and more. Your chat app should allow two users to connect and send messages in real-time. Also, create a server that will establish a connection between users and deliver messages.

If you want to make this project a bit more challenging and interesting, you can add functionalities like user login and authentication, chat rooms, etc. You can use popular libraries like socket.io to enable your chat app with real-time, event-based communication.

3. Simple Blogging App

As a beginner, this is another project that you will love working with. The concept of a blogging app is straightforward; it should allow users to add, delete, modify blogs having a title and the main content. Creating a basic blogging app is quite easy, but you will be implementing many Angular concepts, which is why this project can prove advantageous for you.

While developing this app, allow users to create and log in to their accounts to add blogs. Create an admin account that will be responsible for managing users and their content. The admin should have the authority to remove the content of other users.

To create the blogging app, you have to use various fundamental concepts of Angular, including form validation, services, pipes, routing and navigation, HttpClient, etcetera. Also, you need to enable CRUD operations in your app to deal with the blog data, such as adding or modifying blog content.

4. Responsive Admin Dashboard

The next project that we have is a responsive admin dashboard that can display an array of information handy for managing an online store, a marketing tool, etc. The basic purpose of an admin dashboard is to collect the desired data and display it in such a way that the admins can use it to make informed decisions.

But before you start working on this project, understandthat this project is complicated and challenging. So, it would be better to work on this project if you have already worked on a few Angular projects.

You can build an admin dashboard for an online store that sells some sort of product. So, the information that you need to track and display within the admin panel would be the number of visitors, products sold, sources of traffic, total revenue generated, etc. Also, you can use bar charts, pie charts, etc., to display the data in a meaningful way.

Angular Certification

Once you have done all your basic learning about Angular, your next aim would be to grab a well-paying job. For that, your knowledge alone about the technology is not going to be enough. So, what you need is a valid certification that will attest to your skills and achievements.

When you apply for the Angular developer job role, your resume will be scrutinized by recruiters. They will try to figure out if you have the skills that they are looking for or not. Also, you may have the right set of knowledge as an Angular developer, but how will your resume testify that?

So, it’s advisable to enroll yourself in an Angular certification program. A certification program is very much like a course that will help you learn Angular, but it also awards you with a certificate after you complete the program successfully. In such a case, having a valid certification will be of great help.

The biggest advantage of having a certification highlighted on your resume is that it will help you stand out from the crowd. Consequently, your chances of making it to the interview round will increase many times. So, if you are ready to get certification in Angular, all you need to do is explore some of the best Angular certifications on the web and enroll yourself with the one that seems the best.

Angular Interview Questions

You might be able to make it to the interview round for your dream job as an Angular developer, but the thought of how you would prepare yourself for the interview in the best way is something that can haunt you.

As you know, Angular is a complex web framework and has a wide array of concepts that will make it difficult for beginners to figure out what they should focus on while appearing for an interview.

However, you need not worry as certain Angular interview questions are asked quite commonly, and getting to know them will come in handy for you. Here are 10 popular interview questions that might give you a good idea of how interviewers test your knowledge about Angular:

What is Angular?
Why was Angular introduced as a client-side framework?
Define the ng-content Directive.
Please explain the various features of Angular.
State some advantages of Angular over other frameworks.
What is the difference between Angular and AngularJS?
What are Lifecycle hooks in Angular? Explain some life cycle hooks.
Could we make an Angular application to render on the server-side?
Demonstrate navigating between different routes in an Angular application.
What is the AOT (Ahead-Of-Time) Compilation? What are its advantages?

If you want to know more questions like these, you can check out our Top Angular Interview Questions blog. Also, you will get succinct answers for each question so that you do not have to go through the trouble of finding the answers on your own.

To Wrap it Up

Angular is surely among the most difficult JS frameworks to master. However, its wide range of features allows the creation of powerful and modern web apps. Also, being backed by the tech giant Google, you can expect that this framework to be endowed with more and more outstanding features in the future.

For learning Angular, it’s important to have at least some exposure to HTML, CSS, and Javascript. Also, there are some more prerequisites for learning Angular, including basic knowledge of Node.js and npm. To start coding with Angular, you can use a source-code editor, but choosing to work with an IDE can be more beneficial for you in the long run.

To get familiar with the Angular concepts, follow one or more tutorials that are easily available online. Be consistent as well as determined to make sure that learning is smooth and fruitful. Also, it’s advisable to undertake a couple of projects once you have learned the fundamentals of Angular and are ready to write some code on your own.

You can improve the chances of getting hired by a reputable organization for the role of Angular developer by going for a certification program. A certification in Angular will attest to your skills and convince recruiters that you are ready to take up the responsibilities as an Angular developer. Also, don’t forget to go through the most common Angular interview questions, as this may come in handy for cracking an interview and getting your dream job.

Finally, I hope you are now well-equipped with all the essential knowledge and resources you need to learn and master Angular. If you are still stuck up with something and need guidance, drop your comments below.

Good luck! ?

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How to Learn Angular? - A Comprehensive Guide

Why Should You Learn Angular?

1. Ideal for Developing SPAs (Single-Page Applications)

2. Better Management With Components

3. Quick Production with the Angular CLI

4. Animation Support

5. Cross-Platform Framework

6. Type Checking Minimizes Coding Errors

Prerequisites for Learning Angular

IDE

1. Angular IDE

2. WebStorm

3. StackBlitz