Learning programming might seem difficult, but it’s doable with the right approach. Whether you need a job soon or have more time, this guide gives you a simple, step-by-step way to learn programming. From picking a language to creating projects and finding a job, you’ll get all the help you need to start and keep going on your programming journey.
Select Any Programming Language
If you need to start earning within six months, check job portals or Facebook groups to see which programming languages (like JavaScript, Java, or PHP) are in high demand. If you’re not in a rush for a job within six months, here’s a simple guide:
– If you’re in 9th grade or below, learn Python.
– If you’re an intermediate student or a first-year CSE student, learn C.
– In other cases, learn Python.
Don’t spend more than one day deciding which language to learn. Once you decide, stick to it for the next six months and avoid seeking other opinions. If someone tries to give you advice, ignore it.
Just YouTube
Don’t buy any courses or books right away. Instead, search for the programming language you want to learn on YouTube by typing its name followed by “for beginners.” For example, type “Python for beginners,” “JavaScript for beginners,” or “PHP for beginners.” Watch the first five videos that were published in the last two or three years. If you don’t make progress after three months on YouTube, then consider buying a course.
Don’t Learn, Just Watch
Assume you’re not a super genius or super talented. You won’t become an expert in a day or a week, and it’s unrealistic to expect to understand everything immediately. For the first four days, don’t try to learn or understand anything.
Just watch videos for at least 4 hours every day. You don’t need to install any programming language or software on your computer. Just watch the videos, regardless of whether you understand them. If you feel sleepy, stand up and watch. If you don’t feel sleepy, lean against a wall and watch. Just watch. The goal is to watch videos consistently for four days. This will help you build a regular habit, which is crucial for becoming a programmer.
Write Before You Practice
Before you start practicing programming, especially if you’re following tutorials, avoid installing any software for the next three days. Keep a notebook beside you while watching videos. If you see something in one video and hear it explained differently in another, write it down in your own words. Writing code on paper will help you understand the concepts more deeply than just running code on a computer.Practice this for a week.
Don’t Plan, Create an Outline
Avoid making plans like “I’ll finish this today, that tomorrow, and conquer the world the day after.” Instead, create an outline of what you need to learn. Whether you finish one thing or five things in a day, commit to spending four hours daily on this. With a solid commitment, you won’t get discouraged even if you get stuck on something for two days.
Create Your Own Path by Combining Others’ Paths
You will find many suggestions in various videos and tutorials, and you’ll also get advice from people around you. While you can take hints from different suggestions, don’t expect any single guideline to work perfectly for you. As you work, you’ll develop your own method. If you can’t follow someone else’s guideline exactly, don’t get discouraged.
After a week, install an IDE for the programming language you’re learning. If you have trouble installing it, use a website like repl.it to practice writing code.
Programming Basics
No matter which programming language you learn, you must master the basics. The five most common basics, which I call the “Five Gems of Programming,” are variables (variable types), conditionals (if-else), arrays (lists), loops (for loop, while loop), and functions.
Learn these five basics and practice solving problems with them.
Examples of problems to solve include:
– Swap two variables
– Convert Celsius to Fahrenheit
– Sum of all digits in a number
– Check if a number is prime
– Generate a random number
– Remove duplicates from a list
– Reverse a string (Check if a string is a palindrome)
– Calculate the GCD
– Merge two sorted arrays
– Number guessing game
– Calculate age
Learning to solve these problems will help you understand how to apply the “Five Gems” in programming. Without this understanding, you won’t know how to build things like houses, roads, or bathrooms with bricks, cement, and sand.
Data Structures, Algorithms, and OOP
To do software development or programming, you need to handle data, so you must learn basic data structures. These include stacks, queues, dictionaries, tuples, trees, and linked lists. You also need to understand algorithms, especially linear search and binary search, as well as sorting algorithms like bubble sort and selection sort. Additionally, learn about recursive functions (e.g., factorial, Fibonacci series) and time complexity (linear, quadratic, constant).
You also need to understand objects and object-oriented programming (OOP). Learn what an object is, how to declare a class, and how to write properties, methods, and constructors within a class. Get a good grasp of OOP concepts.
This step can take anywhere from two months to a year, depending on the individual. The duration doesn’t matter as long as you learn.
Life Without Friends is Incomplete
Learning programming is a long journey. You’ll get stuck and might not understand how certain things work, or you might get bored. In these situations, you need a plan to get unstuck. You can seek help from Stack Overflow, GitHub issues, or various Facebook groups. You might also have friends you can share and learn with. This is very important.
Databases
When learning programming, you need to understand GitHub and databases. Learn what SQL is and how to use it for queries, creating tables, and performing select, update, and delete operations. Understand SQL functions like AVG, MAX, COUNT, as well as INNER JOIN and OUTER JOIN. Learn how to use MySQL or alternatives like SQLite or Pandas with your programming language.
Additionally, learn about APIs, microservices, JSON, and REST API.
Projects
There are two main ways to learn programming: competitive programming or building projects. Many people find problem-solving or competitive programming intimidating, so focus on building at least three professional projects. These should be complete projects, such as an e-commerce website, an authentication project, or a data science/machine learning project.
Whatever type of project you choose, do it on your own. Use Google, Stack Overflow, or GitHub issues for help, but don’t just follow videos. After completing the project, upload the code to GitHub and deploy it on Heroku, AWS, or Digital Ocean.
Job Hunting
The final step in learning anything is to showcase your skills to get a job or internship or to earn money online through freelancing. Earning money is important because it validates your skills. You can start with unpaid internships if necessary.
To get a job, you need to create a resume, prepare for interviews, and set up a LinkedIn profile.
Don’t Be Intimidated
Seeing a long list of steps can be overwhelming, but the key is consistency. Spend four hours daily on this for a year, and most of it will become clear. You’re not the first person to learn these things; millions of programmers have learned them before you, many of whom were less talented. If they can do it, so can you.
Tips for your Comfortable Learning
- Set Realistic Goals
- Find a Learning Community
- Balance Theory and Practice
- Take Breaks
- Stay Curious and Experiment
- Use Quality Resources
- Keep a Learning Journal
- Ask for Feedback
- Stay Updated
- Remember Why You Started