Google recently released a Google Drive API to provide developers an easier way to save and share data from the cloud, but in order to reap the benefits, developers need to understand how it works.

Google has partnered up with Code School, an online school that teaches programming and Web design skills, to offer a free Discover Drive course that teaches developers how to utilize the API in applications.

“The most challenging part of learning anything new is often simply getting started,” wrote Google technical writer Greg Knoke on the company’s Developers Blog. “Unfortunately, when it comes to programming, the first few minutes (or more!) are often occupied with cumbersome details such as setting up an environment, which results in very little time spent actually writing code. We were certain there must be a better way.”

The Discover Drive course, which will be taught by the founder of Code School Gregg Pollack, will take developers through 10 levels. Each level will start with a video, and afterward participants can partake in challenges to put the skills they learned to work. If a participant gets stuck in a challenge, there are hints available.

Levels include:
• Save to Drive button
• Google Picker with Drive
• Authenticating with Drive
• Uploading files
• Retrieving metadata
• Downloading and sharing files
• Updating and deleting files
• Push notifications
• Installing and showcasing your application

“As you play through each level, you’ll become increasingly familiar with the developer tools that allow you to save files to Google Drive in your application, share those same files with ease, set up push notifications for file changes, and other API features,” Code School wrote on its blog.

More information about the Discover Drive course is available here.