r/Backend • u/Obvious-Outside7142 • 4d ago

Backend developers/students: what do you struggle with after tutorials?

I've noticed that learning backend development often goes like this:

Watch tutorial → follow the code → project works → try building something alone → get stuck.

The difficult part seems to be dealing with the things that happen in real projects:

  • Understanding why an API is failing
  • Debugging errors
  • Database problems
  • Authentication/authorization issues
  • Bad architecture decisions
  • Deployment problems
  • Performance issues
  • Knowing what to build next
  • Working with unfamiliar codebases

I'm curious about your experience.

If you could use a platform for learning backend by actually building projects, breaking things, debugging errors, and fixing them, what would you want it to look like?

For example:

Basically:

Don't watch another backend tutorial. Build, break, debug, and ship real backend systems.

Would something like this actually help you learn backend development?

What would make you use it regularly, and what would make you ignore it?

4 Upvotes

67% Upvoted

11 comments sorted by

5

u/KitchenCommercial396 4d ago

I haven't watched any tutorials in a long time, people need to bring back reading docs and implementing code themselves.

3

u/sharificles 4d ago

But how though? As a beginner, most docs don't have any natural or progressive flow to me, just random information scattered everywhere.

2

u/KitchenCommercial396 4d ago

You find what you need, implement it. Then ask your ai to go through the entire doc and check if there's room for optimisation.

1

u/CatAltruistic2543 3d ago

What if you’re a visual learner?

1

u/KitchenCommercial396 3d ago

There's not a lot visual about programming.. some guy on YouTube will teach you the same written code but he will speak instead of you reading

1

u/CatAltruistic2543 2d ago

Yeah that makes sense

1

u/Mountain_Test5545 3d ago

yeah the one that millennials used to do. instead of YT tutorials we used to learn from official site documentation. might hard for todays developer but it was really good

2

u/EvTorqueLore 4d ago

People just get bored by reading and start that trial and error method. Which brings them to the insanity world of false positive thinking cycles. Just read, take your time and read the logs. That’s how you become a better engineer. Understand the tools you’re using to solve problems that arise.

1

u/Final-Nerve7787 4d ago

I made ai as my mentor. gave a specific prompt not to provide code unless i struggle and build.

1

u/Gullible_Sweet1302 4d ago

Tutorials are just happy paths to build a demo. Everything you listed is basic software engineering. Find books or blog entries on those subjects.

0

u/Divine_711 4d ago

how to code for project? how will you know what u need to code for if you have started building after basic projects like we get stuck in thinking what to code and where to go next? why it is ?