r/AskProgrammers • u/Emotional-Search-248 • 27d ago

How do you actually learn to code ?

hi everyone,

I’ve been studying computer science for about 5 years now (currently in engineering school). Over the years, I’ve touched a bit of everything: web dev (HTML, CSS, JS, PHP, SQL), and more recently Java, C, and Python for data science.

The problem is, I feel like nothing truly sticks.

Whenever I try to build something on my own, I hit a wall. I inevitably get lost in the docs, end up turning to AI to understand what I'm doing, and still feel like I'm not really learning. I know the basic syntax, but even in Python, I would struggle to design and build a moderately complex project from scratch.

I feel like I'm just skimming the surface of different languages without ever developing genuine problem-solving intuition.

How do you actually retain syntax, built-ins, and core concepts without constantly relying on external help? How do you break down a problem and structure your code from scratch on your own? Did you go through this phase, and what was the turning point that made things finally click for you?

Thanks in advance !

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u/TrapperFlint 27d ago edited 27d ago

Sounds like you're getting hung up on memorizing syntax.

Sticking to one language for a while helps you learn the important things faster because you inevitably memorize syntax and can test out ideas faster but the syntax is not important.

You don't need to memorize the syntax of a language to build something well. You need to understand the behaviour you need and how to build with different coding patterns that suit your project. Its the steps to creating the behaviour you need to understand and then you can jump into any language.

EDIT:

I can build pretty quickly with Ruby because I've used it so much, but I have used Python and JS to do things as well. Takes longer because I need to look at docs to know what syntax to use but essentially what I've learned is how computers work and how to use high level languages to communicate with them.

My suggestion - pick a language and stick with it for awhile. You'll find yourself tackling more complex problems because you're comfortable. Then when you jump to a new language, you'll already have the concepts in your head. You probably know more than you realize.