Is there a digital ocean sandbox where you can experiment with digital ocean before you pay?
Can I learn and experiment with digital ocean before I pay for droplet? Is it possible or do I have to get one and experiment with it?
Sadly there is no sandbox or free-tier option with DO.
You have a couple of options thought; 1 - Spin your own VM test image locally using something like VMWare Player 2 - Contact a friend or college who may already use DO and see if they are willing to spin another basic droplet up for you.
To save account sharing DO have a teams feature.
DigitalOcean teams allow you to invite multiple users to access and manage shared resources (like Droplets, DigitalOcean Load Balancers, and Spaces) without sharing login credentials or billing information.
Teams are useful for project leaders and business owners who want to share control of server infrastructure with trusted collaborators, such as developers and system administrators. They’re available to anyone with a DigitalOcean account at no additional cost.
It's also worth point out that if you decide to spin your own local image you can actually take that image with you to DO at a later date and turn it into a droplet.
They have some documentation here though it's not great. If you do decide to go this route there are 2 very important things you must do when you make your local VM.
ext4vmdk file