How to learn Symfony?

As the creator of Symfony, we are often asked what is the best way to learn Symfony. Symfony can become critical in your development project, but it requires several technical skills to fulfill its full potential. Keeping in mind that there is not only one way to learn Symfony, we provide you in this infographic with helpful tips and advice to upgrade your skills on Symfony.

If you are still unsure about the benefits of Symfony to your project, take a look at our guide “Why Symfony?”

Here are the main steps to start learning Symfony:

1- Get ready to learn Symfony

Symfony is a PHP framework. So we highly recommend you to have basic knowledge of PHP, before starting to learn Symfony.

It is also better to get used to object-oriented programming because Symfony is based on this programming paradigm. You will experience a hard time if you don’t have any clue about object-oriented programming.

2- Find useful resources

There are plenty of resources online to learn Symfony on your own:

Many eLearning platforms and online tutorials like SymfonyCasts can help you during your first steps on Symfony.

The official Symfony documentation is available online, and you can find an amazing amount of information there.

Fabien Potencier often writes books about Symfony. The last one he wrote is available online in many languages: Symfony 5: The Fast Track.

Each year, Symfony organizes conferences named SymfonyLive or SymfonyCon. They feature technical talks about Symfony’s new features. That’s ideal to discover Symfony’s latest functionalities.

3- Attend official Symfony trainings

As the creator of Symfony, we often organize remote or on-site training classes on Symfony and each of its components.

Courses are taught in English or French and are adapted to all levels: from beginners to advanced Symfony developers reviewing the Symfony certification exam.

Take a look at the SensioLabs training page to get more information.

4- Always keep learning Symfony

Our best advice to upgrade your Symfony skills is to stay curious and open to learning new things. Follow Symfony news on Twitter, in particular posts from the Symfony Core Team members and SensioLabs.

Contributing to Symfony can also be an excellent way to challenge yourself and progress on the framework. You will receive feedback from the Core Team, and you will have the opportunity to put your skills into practice.

And don’t forget to prepare yourself for the Symfony certification exam. In addition to entering the very closed circle of the Symfony certified experts, you will review every aspect of the framework, and you will get a comprehensive understanding of Symfony.

We also developed a platform to assess your knowledge of Symfony: SensioLabs University eLearning Platform. Questions are tough, but they always refer to the documentation. So you can learn by doing.

You have one free test available per month. Start now to challenge yourself!