Coding is one of the most sought-after skills in today’s world. Coding is the skill of solving problems and has been there since a long time.
Are you someone who wants to be a coder or want to find a job in programming field, but you have no knowledge of coding?
If that is the case then this blog will tell you about how you can start coding and be proficient at it so that you can get a job even if you have no prior knowledge in the field of coding.
This blog explains the whole process of becoming a good coder who can solve real life problems and build projects and give it to clients and be useful to companies as a programmer.
Whether you are coming from a tech background or you are from a non tech background where you don’t have any idea about coding, I will explain to you all the steps that are needed for you to be a good programmer and solve problems through coding.
To become a good programmer from zero level, you need to follow the following steps –
- First of all, understand why you want to learn coding.
- Second step is to choose a programming language.
- Third step is for you to set up your own local environment where you can code.
- Fourth step would be for you to learn the basics of coding.
- Fifth step involves regular problem solving through coding.
- Sixth step is to start working on projects.
- Last but not the least, to be part of a community of coders.
Let me break all these seven points for you to make it simpler and make it easier for you to follow and be good at coding.
Make sure that you read and follow all the steps and details that I am mentioning in each of these steps because they all are very much important and don’t miss anything to make sure the journey is smoother and you are aware of all pitfalls and expectations.
What Will You Learn?
Understand Your “Why” Before Coding
Understanding your why at the beginning of starting coding is the most major factor that will make you go till the end and not give up in the middle of your coding journey.
Before starting your coding journey, answer this simple question: why are you interested in starting coding?
Is it because you want a job in this background or is it because you are interested to learn coding?
Did you watch someone score on social media and got impressed and want to do the same thing because you think it would be cool for you to do?
There is no good reason or bad reason for you to start coding, but what I must say is depending on how weak or strong you have to start coding will decide how long you will go and how much you will grow in the coding journey.
If you want to start coding because you want to get a job quickly and get paid more money because you are in a field which is paid usually more than that is also fine, given that your wish is so strong that you can persist till the end.
Even if you just want to start coding after watching some reels or videos on social media and thought it would be cool if you also can do it, that is also a good reason given that you yourself know that you will be able to persist.With that motivation.
At the end of the day, in your coding journey, the most important thing that matters is, how much effort do you put into learning coding every day?
At first it might look very exciting, but as you go and keep learning for a long time, you’ll start feeling a little bit bored. And it will make you stop coding if your why is not strong enough.
After you understand your why, it is important that you immediately start your journey and don’t delay it. You need to choose a programming language for that.
Choosing Your Coding Language
If you’re someone from a tech background, then you might already be familiar with some of the coding languages. If that is the case, then you can choose any of the language that you always wanted to learn.
You are from a non tech background or even if you are from a tech background but are not familiar with any of the coding languages then what I am suggesting to you is choose C programming language or any high level programming language like Python, Java, JavaScript etc.
There are thousands of coding languages out there in the market which you can start from and it is up to you to choose any language that seems easy for you.
When I first started my coding.I started from C language. Although I did not follow any kind of guide, I think starting from C language gave me a lot of low level understanding of how things work behind the scenes?
Usually high level programming languages like Python or JavaScript do not teach you such low level concepts. And you sometimes do not get a complete understanding of how things are working behind the scenes because these languages hide many low label details.
But even if you think that any of these programming languages are much easier for you to start from than learning C language, then go ahead! That will not be a big issue in your journey.
What matters is, you choose a programming language and start your coding journey. Later you can change what kind of language you want to go ahead with after you understand the basics of coding.
But if you take my suggestion and go with C language then one playlist I highly recommend which I also followed would be Saurabh Shukla’s YouTube playlist for C language.
After you have successfully chosen your first programming language, you need to make sure that you can practice coding in that language and learn about coding by writing real code.
And for that, it is important that you make a local coding environment in your machine.
Setup Local Environment For Coding
Before you start your coding journey and Start learning about the coding language of your choice, you need to make sure that you can practice the concepts that you are learning on the go.
For that you need to have a local coding environment where you can write your code, run the code, get the output and review the output and also debug the code.
As you are learning coding, it is very very important that you also write the same code that you have just learned and see by yourself what happens when you run the code.
When you write code by your own hand, you make sure that you get used to the syntax of the coding language.
If you do not code the syntax and write it down by your own hand, then the chances are high that you will immediately forget the concept and immediately forget the syntax later.
To make sure that you understand the concept and in future, can write the same syntax and logic by your own hand without looking at the existing code, you need to code side by side.
After you set up your local coding environment, it is time for you to jump into the basic coding concepts.
Learn Basics of Coding
After you have decided your programming language and set up the environment, it’s important that you immediately jump into the basic concepts of the programming language and start practicing them on your own.
For different programming languages, the syntax could be different, but the logic behind all of them will be similar and will give you an idea of how coding languages work and how machines interact with humans.
Remember that in this step, what you are doing is just learning the basics of any kind of programming language. It does not matter how much mastery you have in the programming language. As long as you have the basic concepts grinded in your brain, it will be much easier for you to pick any other programming language and start learning it.
Basics are important for coding because no matter the programming language, basics will hardly change. So make sure that you build up a strong base for your basic knowledge in coding.
Basics of programming involves data types, variables, loop, conditional statements, functions, error handling, and data structures.
Now you have got an idea of the basics and have practiced the syntax of each of them in a programming language. Next, you have to make sure you can solve problems with the things you have learnt.
Problem Solving with Coding
Programmers, whether they are in web development, Android development, data science, AI, they all are paid because they are able to solve some problem using software.
To become a coder who is good at programming, you’ll also need to know how you can solve problems with your coding knowledge.
You can start from simple problems which you can easily solve and go to medium level problems and maybe later when you are a little bit good at it you can go for hard problems.
There are platforms who are providing multiple difficulty label questions to test your problem solving skills.
Some of the platforms are LeetCode, Geeksforgeeks, HackerRank, HackerEarth, Codeforces and Codechef.
Depending on how much you want to be good at problem solving, you can choose any kind of platform where you can regularly practice programming and solve problems.
For your reference, if you just want to be good at programming and want to solve problems to a certain level of difficulty, you can choose LeetCode, Geeksforgeeks, HackerEarth and HackerRank.
But if you want to be a world class problem solver and need to be able to solve a really difficult problem then you can go for Codeforces and Codechef where you will regularly get coding contests and you can participate and get better at it every day.
While problem solving is one of the most important things that you need to do while in your coding journey, it is also important to work on projects which will help you build your skills in building softwares.
Working on Coding Projects
Projects could be of different types like beginner projects, intermediate projects or advanced projects.
As a beginner, obviously you should start from basic projects that you can feel confident in building and immediately start building with your current knowledge.
And believe me even if they are basics, as you are at a zero level, they are definitely going to help you reinforce your learning and make you more confident in coding.
There’s another warning for you when you are working on a project.
Never pick a project which seems too high for your current level.
Working on a difficult project will make you demotivated and make you quit that project, and you don’t want that, right?
You can find a lot of websites where you can see lists of projects from basics, intermediate and advanced level and you can choose any of the projects and maybe some of the platforms also give you the sample code which you can use for that project.
But my recommendation would be just look at the name of the project, understand what the project is about and start working on it and when you feel stuck, then only reference the answer of the project.
Another great option for you could be to work on open source projects, but that will be an option for you only when you are at the level of working on the intermediate or advanced level projects.
Open source projects will help you learn a lot of things outside of your coding journey like Git, how pull requests are created, how they are merged, how people collaborate in open source projects and a lot of things which will make you a good programmer.
Now that you know your “Why”, you are motivated to go on in your coding journey, You have learned the basics, your basics are solid, you have done a lot of problem solving, and you have worked on a lot of projects – open source or personal, but what if you can’t figure out something on your own?
You might need help from somebody And that is where communities come into picture.
Becoming part of coding communities
There are a lot of communities in different platforms like Facebook, Discord, LinkedIn, Instagram.
The best platform you can go for is Discord because there are a lot of channels in Discord where you’ll see a lot of fellow programmers working on projects, learning and sharing their knowledge.
You get to bond with other people who are going in the same direction as you. You also share some similar likes and dislikes and values and this helps you make friends in these communities.
There will be people who are on the same label as you, but there will also be people a lot more experienced than you – from whom you can get feedback and learnings on what they know, and maybe they will be able to help you on other aspects of coding as well, that you might have missed.
Conclusion
Remember that coding is a journey.As you learn, you will see there will be things that you’ll not understand or no matter how much time you’re giving, you still feel confused about them.
Don’t let that demotivate you.And quit the journey. It is part of the journey that you will not understand some of the concepts. You will feel confused even after reviewing the same concept again and again.
When that happens, you have to make sure that you get some rest and keep patience while you’re learning the concepts that you are finding difficult.
If today you are not learning and if you give some time, then you might be able to understand it tomorrow or day after tomorrow.
Patience is the key of everything, even coding needs your patience and you can become a pro at coding only if you are patient and keep on learning and moving forward.
Like the post? Start reading the next blog from The Startup Coder.
See you soon, Arup.
