How I Would Learn To Code If I Could Start Over!
I’ve been coding for a while now. I don’t remember the exact day I started, but I’d say it’s about 2 years. I’m not the best, and neither am I claiming to be the best. I still have a ton to learn.
Today I thought I’d write a blog on how( if I were to start over) I would learn to code. And you can use this “roadmap” for yourself or even recommend it to someone who is getting into coding!
Firstly I think it is important to know that wasting a ton of time on a bug, or feature or even trying to learn a new “little” feature is not a waste of time!
I used to be very frustrated with myself when I “wasted” time while coding. I used to think that spending time on a bug is just throwing away time. But it isn’t. Debugging and spending time to understand bugs isn’t a waste of time at all! On the contrary, it’s quite useful.
Secondly, I think it’s important to know that you should only focus on one field.
Coding is a very big “subject”, which is broken down into “sub-subjects”. That’s why you have people who specialize only in web development, game development, data science, etc.
When I first started coding I wanted to do them all. I wanted to make games, I wanted to build websites, and the list goes on and on. As a result, I would learn different technologies at the same time. I would spend a portion of the day learning game dev and another portion learning web dev, etc.
What I didn’t know is that it’s damn hard to be able to do all those things. I still don’t know if it’s possible to be a game/web/app dev and a data scientist at the same time. However, it’s important to choose one and stick with it until you feel very comfortable in that field.
Thirdly, you mustn’t spend the entire day coding. I wrote a blog about this before, but long story short, you will get burned out quickly. So don’t do that.
Fourthly, it’s important that while you learn to code you develop the skills needed for coding, and don’t skip over them. Those skills are:
- Searching on Google
- Debugging
- Documentation
- Commenting Code
- Marketing Your Skills
Now for the list:
- Learn The Basics — Having good fundamentals is very important. If you’re a hothead like me once you learn the very basics you’ll jump on to the more advanced topics. However, you should hone your skills. Firstly pick a( or even better 2, but don’t do more than 2) language( I’d start with C++ and after I would learn Python), learn the basic principles and syntax, and start making beginner projects( I have a blog about this, read it here). After making those projects move on to algorithms and data structures( for this you could read books or even watch courses online).
- Git & GitHub — This maybe might not be coding itself, but you must have a GitHub account and know what it is. It’s also important that you build your GitHub account as it could be useful in the future!
- Start Learning Modules — Once you’ve learned the language now you’re ready to start learning what you want to be. So if you want to be a web dev, start learning web dev in your language. Start again by learning the principles and making projects. Start with basic projects, and move on to the more advanced ones.
- Build Your Portfolio — Once you’ve built advanced projects in your field, now is the time to start making your portfolio. Search on google what projects( related to your field) you should put on your portfolio. Build those, and your portfolio is done.
After that I think the only thing left to say is that:
Coding can only be learned by making projects!
