How long does it take to learn Programming?

Soumya Somasundaran
Nov 5 · 2 min read

How long does it take to learn Programming? The last time I heard this question was couple of weeks ago from an English Professor in my college. It was such an amazing thing to know that he is interested in learning Python. I convinced him that python is so easy and he can learn it fast.

But how long will it really take to learn coding?

I would like to answer that question in an elaborate way. The process of learning programming can be divided into 3 steps.

Step 1:

You learn about programming languages in general. You learn stuff like what is a compiler or interpreter, the syntax and constructs. You learn the basic syntax and constructs of a particular language (preferably python for beginners) like variables, if-else,loops,list/array. This is enough. I believe anyone who wishes to start with programming can always confidently take up python as their first programming language, because its quite easy to start with python. Python will never disappoint you.

Step 2:

Once you are comfortable with the syntax and basic constructs of a language, You start reading. Don’t get me wrong here. You don’t read any more theory. Read and try to understand programs that are already solved. 1000’s of Example programs are available in the internet. If you have doubts you can go back to step 1 and learn something new. If you can read someone else’ program and explain it to a third person, Congratulations! 50% of learning is done.

It takes a weekend to learn to code, and years to master it.

Step 3:

Here comes the most important and the last step. Now that you are comfortable reading and understanding programs. Start writing your own code. You can start by solving(and executing) simple numerical problems available in undergraduate or even school text books and later move to problem statements available in codechef.com, projecteuler.net etc. Believe me step 2 and step 3 are repetitive . You can increase the complexity of learning step by step because we all know that “Learning is a never Ending Process!”

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