rubyschool.us

What It Is

RubySchool is a Ruby and Ruby on Rails learning resource created by Роман Пушкин. The site clearly presents its core offering as a “100-hour” free video course covering the Ruby language and the Rails platform. It lists 50 lessons in total, along with the beginner book 《Руби для романтиков》, the free English book Ruby Is For Fun, homework assignments, lecture notes, and a Telegram study group. Overall, it is positioned not as a commercial bootcamp, but as an open, self-paced programming course.

Core Evaluation

The curriculum focuses on Ruby and Rails web development, making it suitable for learners who want to enter programming through backend and web application development. The teaching format is mainly recorded video. The site mentions that live courses were offered in the past, but the current resources are open to everyone. There is no visible commitment to 1-on-1 tutoring, a dedicated class mentor, or fixed Q&A support. The primary teaching language is Russian, which is the main barrier for Chinese users. Although an English book is available, the video-based learning experience is still better suited to Russian speakers. In terms of certification, we found no information about certificates, completion credentials, or industry-recognized accreditation, so it is not a good fit for users whose main goal is earning a certificate.

Pricing and Support

Pricing is a major strength: both the courses and books are marked as free, and the books can be downloaded without registration. The site offers donation options including USDT, PayPal, Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Мир bank cards, suggesting that it relies mainly on voluntary support to keep its materials updated. For learning support, the Telegram group has 2300+ members; the site describes it as beginner-friendly and also provides homework, lecture notes, a Telegram navigation bot, and other auxiliary resources. However, this kind of support is closer to community-based mutual help than the teaching assistant service typically found in paid commercial courses.

Pros, Cons, and Who It’s For

The advantages are clear: it is free, substantial in scope, and relatively friendly to complete beginners. Student feedback includes multiple examples of career switching, freelancing, Upwork, remote work, and finding Ruby/Rails-related jobs. The course also includes partial notes on Rails 6.1, Rails 7, Docker, and similar topics, indicating some awareness of ongoing maintenance. The downsides are also obvious: the course began in 2014, and while there are update notes, learners need to judge version differences on their own; it lacks systematic assessment, job placement guarantees, and formal certificates; and the Russian-language barrier is significant for Chinese learners.

Access from China and Alternatives

The source text does not provide details on mainland China accessibility, payment availability, or the video hosting platform, so access from China can only be considered unknown. If the videos rely on YouTube, Vimeo, or Telegram, actual usability may be affected by the network environment, but this cannot be confirmed from the text alone. For payments, PayPal and cryptocurrencies may not be convenient for some Chinese users, though the impact is limited because the course itself is free. Alternatives include freeCodeCamp, The Odin Project, Codecademy, GoRails, Ruby/Rails courses on Udemy, or web backend courses from domestic Chinese platforms. Overall, RubySchool is best suited to self-motivated beginners who can use Russian-language materials and want to learn Ruby/Rails at low cost.