Start here: how GoNomicon works

Welcome, and congratulations. You just decided to learn Go the hands-on way, and most people never get this far. GoNomicon is free, and it is built to take you from complete beginner to someone ready for application support, backend support, triage and junior backend roles.

How the course works

Every topic follows the same loop:

1. Read a short lesson (about five minutes).
2. Fetch a lab: a small coding exercise, downloaded to your computer.
3. Edit one file, following the lab's instructions.
4. Submit. Our server runs the visible tests and some hidden ones, then tells you pass or fail.
5. Repeat. Passing every graded lab in a tier earns you a certificate.

Reading lessons have a Mark complete button at the bottom. Labs complete themselves when you pass. Your dashboard shows where you are.

Set up your terminal

You will type commands, so you need a terminal (a window where you give the computer written orders).

• macOS or Linux: open Terminal.
• Windows: install WSL2, a real Linux inside Windows. Open PowerShell as administrator, run wsl --install, restart, then open the Ubuntu app. Use Ubuntu for every command in this course.

Install the GoNomicon tool

Do this once. The first line installs the gonomicon tool; the second connects it to your account (it shows a link to approve in your browser).

curl -fsSL https://gonomicon.com/install.sh | sh
gonomicon login

Check it worked:

gonomicon whoami

It prints the account you logged in with. If you see a "command not found" message, close the terminal, open it again, and retry.

Do your first lab

Each lab page ends with a Run it box showing its exact commands. They look like this (the name is an example):

gonomicon fetch week-1/07-01-hello-world-printed
cd 07-01-hello-world-printed
gonomicon submit

fetch downloads the lab into a new folder, cd walks into it, and submit sends your work for grading. Between fetch and submit, open the folder in any editor and change only the file the instructions name. Run all commands from inside the lab folder.

If you have Go installed (you will install it in the Go lessons), gonomicon test runs the visible test on your own computer first. You do not need Go for the early labs: gonomicon submit is enough.

What grading tells you

• Visible test: the example you can read. Passing it is not enough.
• Hidden checks: extra cases that catch answers that only work for the example. Feedback on these is deliberately short. Re-read the instructions: the rules usually cover the case you missed.
• Hints: each lab has three, from gentle to nearly the answer. Try before you peek.
• Limits: there is a short wait between submissions and a daily cap. They keep grading free for everyone. Test locally or think it through before you resubmit.

Certificates

Finish every graded lab in a tier and its certificate appears on your dashboard, with a public link anyone can use to verify it. You can share it on LinkedIn.

How to learn this well

• Type the commands yourself. Pasting teaches your clipboard, not you.
• Read error messages slowly, top to bottom. They usually say what is wrong.
• Stuck for twenty minutes? Take a break, then use a hint or ask for help.
• A little every day beats a lot once a week.

Something looks wrong?

Typos, a confusing instruction, a test that rejects a correct answer: click Report a problem at the bottom of any lesson. It takes ten seconds and every report helps the next learner.

Join the community

Come say hello, ask questions, and share wins on our Discord: Join the GoNomicon Discord.

You are about to build a skill that people get hired for. Start with the next lesson. See you inside.