Hacker Rank can teach you algorithms, a bit of programming way of thinking, and how to solve problems. But not how to actually organize code and have best practices implemented.
Yeah, I think that would be the best approach. The only problem being that I live in a country where difference in pay when you work in a local company and if you work freelance is 7-8 folds. Literary. If it were like 2-3 folds I might think about sacrificing that for knowledge but this is just crazy.
I never used tools like this, but honestly I am not sure if a code analysis tool can show bad practices. Maybe it can show badly implemented algorithms or something like that.
Anyway I will look into in, thanx.