JavaScript Essential Training: what the LinkedIn Learning exercise repository gives you

Exercise files for a paid LinkedIn Learning course, not a deployable open source project

This repository holds exercise files for JavaScript Essential Training, a course published on LinkedIn Learning and instructed by Morten Rand-Hendriksen. It is not a library, a framework, or a tool: it is a set of code snapshots that accompany specific videos in a paid subscription course. The README makes the dependency explicit, describing the repository as being for the LinkedIn Learning course and pointing to the course URL on that platform.

Without course access, the files show what the finished code looks like but not what each exercise asked, what the starting condition was, or what concept the video was teaching. There are no embedded instructions in the exercise folders, no per-chapter README files, and no description of what skill each folder is meant to build. The text of every exercise lives in the course videos, not in this repository.

The description in package.json adds a date: it identifies the package as exercise files for a course 'published 2020.' That places the course content and its tooling decisions at a specific point in time, which matters once you run npm install.

No branches means one code state per exercise, with no workflow for starting from scratch

No branches is an unusual design for a teaching repository. The README states it directly: 'This repository does not have any branches.' When you download or clone the repository, you receive a flat set of folders with no commit history to step through and no branch to check out as a clean starting point.

For 9 of the exercise folders, two versions exist: one folder for the beginning state and one marked with an 'e' suffix for the end state. The folder 03_08 holds the starting condition and 03_08e holds the expected result. Nine pairs follow that pattern across the repository: 03_08, 03_13, 04_01, 04_02, 05_09, 08_05, 08_07, 08_08 and 08_10 each have a corresponding 'e' folder.

For the remaining exercise folders, which have no 'e' counterpart, the only version available is the final result. A learner who wants to attempt those exercises from a blank file has to create one manually. There is no git reset path, no starter branch, and no archived version of how a folder looked before the code changes shown in the video. The GitHub listing shows no releases, so no tagged snapshot exists to pin against either.

CHAPTER#_MOVIE# folder names map each exercise to a course video by number

Every folder name follows the pattern CHAPTER#_MOVIE#, placing the chapter number first, a _ character as separator, and the movie (video) number after it. The folder 02_03 corresponds to chapter 2, video 3. That naming scheme requires you to have the course open alongside the repository: without the video, there is no way to know from the folder name alone what the code inside is doing or which concept it demonstrates.

The chapter distribution is uneven. Chapter 1 has 4 folders (01_01, 01_04, 01_05 and 01_06), with no 01_02 or 01_03 in the listing. Chapter 3 is the densest with 13 folders. Chapter 7 has 4 folders, and chapter 8 has 11, of which 4 are 'e' end states. Chapter 1 contains only 4 of the possible video numbers, with 01_02 and 01_03 absent from the listing.

The naming convention is consistent across every exercise folder, which makes it straightforward to locate the file that matches a specific video. The limitation is that the mapping works only in one direction: from video to folder. Opening a folder first gives you chapter and video numbers but nothing else.

npm install pulls ESLint 7 and Prettier 2, with VS Code extensions doing the in-editor work

Four prerequisites are required before the install step: a code editor (VS Code is recommended), Node.js, the Prettier code formatter extension for VS Code and the ESLint extension for VS Code. The Prettier extension is identified by the publisher Prettier, and the ESLint extension is identified by the publisher Dirk Baeumer. Both extensions use the packages installed by npm for their underlying logic.

From the repository root, the install command is:

npm install

That pulls in the devDependencies from package.json: eslint 7.11.0, eslint-config-standard 14.1.1, eslint-plugin-import 2.22.0, eslint-plugin-node 11.1.0, eslint-plugin-promise 4.2.1, eslint-plugin-standard 4.0.1 and prettier 2.1.2. All version ranges use the caret (^) operator, so npm will install a compatible version at or above those floors.

The repository root contains .eslintrc.js, which holds the ESLint configuration the exercises rely on, and a .vscode/ folder that holds workspace settings for the editor extensions. Neither file comes with any explanation of the rules they enforce.

package.json names index.html as the entry point, but no index.html exists at the repository root

A close look at package.json reveals a discrepancy with the actual file listing. The 'main' field is set to 'index.html', which declares that file as the package entry point. The top-level entries in the repository are .eslintrc.js, .github/, .gitignore, .vscode/ and the numbered chapter folders. No index.html appears in that listing.

For a package with module exports, a missing 'main' file would break any require() or import statement targeting the package. This project has no such statements: it exposes no module, has no runtime code at the root, and the only npm operation documented is npm install. The 'main' field has no functional effect here. That field is not corrected in the current repository state, and a developer inspecting package.json for a starting point would find a pointer to a file that does not exist.

The mismatch is worth noting because someone inspecting package.json to understand the project structure would find a pointer to a nonexistent file. The package.json description identifies the package as 'javascript-essential-training-exercise-files', which clarifies the purpose, but the entry point field remains misleading.

Eight chapters span variables through DOM scripting, weighted toward later topics

The course scope covers 'core principles like variables, data types, conditionals, and functions through advanced topics including loops, and DOM scripting.' Those topics map onto an eight-chapter structure visible in the folder numbers, from 01 through 08.

Folder counts hint at where the course spends its time. Chapter 3 has 13 folders, chapter 8 has 11 and chapter 5 has 9. Chapters 1, 4 and 7 each have 4. The heavier chapters come later in the sequence, which is consistent with more complex concepts requiring more examples. No chapter titles appear anywhere in the repository, so any mapping of folder numbers to specific topics requires the course videos.

The course includes challenges from the instructor, which he describes as opportunities to practice new skills. Those challenges are audio-visual rather than text-based: they are delivered in the videos and responded to in the exercise files, not written out in any README or comment file in the repository.

No embedded exercise instructions, no test suite, and no self-directed path through the course

Without the course, this repository gives a JavaScript developer a set of working code examples organized by chapter and video number, but not a curriculum. Each folder contains code at a specific stage of an exercise. There is no prose description inside any folder of what the exercise was asking, no expected output to compare against, and no automated tests to confirm that a solution is correct.

A developer who wanted to use these files independently would need to reconstruct the exercises from the code itself, comparing start and end states where both exist. For the majority of folders, where only a final state is present, that reconstruction is harder. You have a solution but no question.

The devDependencies include eslint-plugin-node 11.1.0, which targets Node.js project linting, and eslint-config-standard 14.1.1, a widely used style guide configuration. Those choices fit a JavaScript course that covers both browser and Node.js environments. No documentation in the repository covers which specific ESLint rules are active or why eslint-config-standard was chosen over other configurations.

Editorial conclusion

Use this repository if you are enrolled in the LinkedIn Learning JavaScript Essential Training course by Morten Rand-Hendriksen. Without that subscription, the exercise folders give JavaScript code with no explanation of what each exercise requires or how to verify a solution. The devDependencies in package.json date from the 2020 publication, with eslint at 7.11.0 and prettier at 2.1.2. Run npm install from the root folder before opening any exercise, and verify the install completed without peer dependency errors before you start.

Frequently asked questions

Official sources

1. Issues
2. LinkedInLearning/javascript-essential-training-2832077 on GitHub
3. README