The founder, Quincy Larson, is a software developer who took up programming after graduate school and created freeCodeCamp as a way to streamline a student's progress from beginner to being job-ready.

The curriculum was updated in January 2016 to rely less on outside material, remove the unconventional section names, and switch focus from AngularJS to React.js as the front-end library of choice.

[19] The curriculum emphasizes pair programming, intended to foster a culture of collaboration and shared learning, which can overcome a student's doubts about the adequacy of their skills (popularly referred to as “impostor syndrome”).

[20] The languages and technologies currently taught by freeCodeCamp include HTML, PHP, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery, Bootstrap, Sass, React.js, Node.js, Python, Express.js, MongoDB, SQL, and Git.

[21] To celebrate freeCodeCamp's 8th birthday on October 25, 2022, Quincy Larson published a tweet that announced free accredited degree programs in mathematics and computer science are currently in active development.

[29] Mail for Good is one of the projects, which helps organizations send bulk email messages at a low cost,[30] which serves as a cheaper alternative to services such as MailChimp.

[38] Some groups have been featured in local news, citing freeCodeCamp as an introduction to programming in order to fill the estimated vacancy in programming-related jobs in the next decade.

[39][40] Other technology companies have described freeCodeCamp as, "a renowned charity with a world-class learning platform",[23] and "maintains an excellent YouTube channel, and is a good place to start.