free go lessons for beginners

Learn Go, one small program at a time.

Start at Hello, world and build up to real programs. No programming experience needed, and quick going if you already know another language.

Start lesson 1 See all lessons

Free, and written for complete beginners

hello.go

package main import    "fmt" func main() {fmt.Println( "Hello, 世界" )}

the learning path

Six stages, from your first line to your first tool

Each lesson builds on the one before. Follow them in order, or jump to what you need.

what’s new in go

Go 1.27.3 and 1.26.10: Why You Should Update and Rebuild NowNovember 8, 2026
Go 1.27.3 and 1.26.10 block trust in compromised eMudhra intermediate certificates. Here’s what happened and why you need to rebuild your programs.
Go 1.27 Is Out: Generic Methods and What Else Matters for BeginnersNovember 8, 2026
Go 1.27 lets methods declare their own type parameters. Here’s what that means, plus the other changes worth knowing if you’re learning Go.
Go 1.26 Highlights: new() With Values, errors.AsType and a Faster GCNovember 8, 2026
Go 1.26 is still everywhere, and it added features you’ll see in real code. Here are the ones that matter most when you’re learning.

beyond the lessons

build

Strip debug info with linker flags, then compress the result with UPX.

The standard log package, and when to reach for a library like Zap.

about

I’m Erik. I also run Python Land, and I write these lessons the way I wish I’d been taught.