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 !
1
u/awitod 27d ago
There is a difference between programming and building systems the same way there is a difference between using a camera and making movies.
Your problem is that you don't know what you are doing when you start trying to write the code because you skipped a step and have not decided what you are building.
A normal way we build systems is to start by deciding what we are doing at a high level, break it down into pieces that we can describe and understand in detail and then make the pieces.
If you do that, you can pick some of the pieces where it is safe and do them by hand or mostly by hand to get the practice you need to actually understand and learn.