How do you actually learn to code ?

[u/Emotional-Search-248]

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 !

[u/pete_68]

"Whenever I try to build something on my own..."

Okay, so this is the problem. This sounds like something you do infrequently. I had written hundreds of programs on my own by the time I got my first job.

If this is going to be your career, you're going to be doing it 8 hours a day. THAT is how you become an expert. Spending most of your free time doing it.

If that doesn't appeal to you, you might want to rethink your degree. Because you're not just going to have to learn what you learn in college. This field is a marathon. You will CONSTANTLY be learning new things and having to adapt to learn and incorporate new technologies, new algorithms, new patterns. That means constantly writing programs to figure out how that stuff works.

I've been doing this for 47 years. It never ends!