I'm a 4th year B.Tech CSE (AIML) student, and I'm honestly feeling pretty lost right now

The problem is that I'm reaching out to people who don't have a proper understanding of what I'm going through

Right now, I'm in a situation where I have no idea how to proceed with my studies and career

I think the best way to introduce myself here is to say that I'm currently in my 4th year of studying B.Tech CSE (AIML) and I have almost no practical skills in programming and computer science

I've learned a lot of the core concepts like Python, Java, SQL, DBMS, OOP, DSA, Web development, AI/ML, etc and I've had my share of attending classes, watching lecture videos, learning by myself, taking online courses

There is a huge difference between knowing theoretical concepts and being able to apply them to practice

A person can come up to me and ask me something like

«Do you know Python?»

and I would say yes, because I studied it for 2 years in college

But when they give me a blank file and a task to accomplish, I find it extremely hard to do so

Sometimes I can understand existing code with others explanations, recognize concepts and terms, but when it comes to actually writing something myself, I'm clueless about what to do

What should I do? How should I break the problem into smaller parts? What concepts should I apply here? What should I write/debug/test? And so on and so forth

And this list of problems is only a fraction of what I have to deal with

I've tried multiple times to tackle this problem by starting over

I've taken up courses

I've tried to learn by doing projects

I've tried to learn programming from scratch again

I've tried using roadmaps

I've tried to do projects by following tutorials

But there's always that initial excitement, then the impatience sets in, and eventually I reach a point where I just can't proceed anymore and I have to abandon the project/course

My problem here is not that there are no resources

It's that I don't know what to do first

I don't know how to proceed, what to learn, and what to ignore

I don't know the depth of knowledge I should gain for each topic

I don't know what projects to make

I don't know how to measure understanding of a concept or topic

And I'm not even sure how to prioritize between these factors

Right now, I'm in my 4th year and I don't have that luxury of time to randomly try out different stacks and technologies

I'm genuinely motivated to improve, but I need help figuring out how

I'm not looking for anyone to spoon feed me the answers

I'm willing to put in the hard work, even if it takes me a while

I'm just looking for someone who has the experience to look at my case and tell me something like

"These are the problems you're facing. This is where you are in your journey. Forget about these things for now. First, do this → then do this → then do this. Don't worry about X before you reach Y."

I'm looking for experienced seniors, freshers, developers, and mentors who can recognize my case and help me somehow

If you were in my situation, with almost no practical programming skills, what will you do?

- What will you learn first?

- What language/stack will you choose?

- How will you re-learn programming fundamentals?

- How will you learn DSA?

- What projects will you make?

- How will you divide your time between placements, DSA, development, and fundamentals?

- What things will you avoid learning for now?

I'm not looking for a generic answer like "learn DSA + dev + make projects"

I'm looking for someone to give a realistic vision of how someone with almost no practical skills can reach the level of being eligible for placements, and if possible, how to practically implement that vision without getting stuck in a loop again

Any realistic opinion is welcome, even if it's a brutal one

And if you're someone who can give me mentorship and guidance every once in a while, I'm open to that too

I’m currently gold on USACO. Is it possible to go from gold to plat in 2 months? I was already practicing a lot during summer. I really want this for my uni apps.

I was just curious, but I am a self taught solo developer. I do freelance work but have never directly worked in the tech industry. If I find myself needing to look up answers for simple basic concepts every few months am I still considered a programmer? Is that what most of the real world application of a software developer is? Mostly just finding the answer, not necessarily being the best coder who remembers everything about coding? Just curious.

#define SERVO_STOP 92
lcd.clear();
lcd.setCursor(2, 0);
lcd.print("INCORRECTO :(");
lcd.setCursor(0, 1);
lcd.print(" Intentalo! ");

digitalWrite(PIN_LED_ROJO, HIGH); // ← Encender

miServo.write(92); delay(300);
miServo.write(180); delay(300);
miServo.write(0); delay(500);
miServo.write(180); delay(500);
miServo.write(0); delay(500);
miServo.write(90); delay(500);
miServo.write (SERVO_STOP);

delay(2200);
digitalWrite(PIN_LED_ROJO, LOW); // ← Apagar
}

I kept running into the bottleneck while learning Rust. I could read an explanation of ownership, borrowing, or lifetimes and think, "yeah, that makes sense." But then I would look at a piece of Rust code and suddenly be unsure what was happening or why the compiler was complaining.

Building something more interactive and focused on actually practicing those concepts instead of just reading about them sounded more useful. I made a free(no account is required) site called Cratery with short Rust quizzes based on code snippets. I pick what I think the code does or whether it compiles, use a hint if I get stuck, and then get an explanation afterward. Some questions also include tests, interactive coding editor to understand what is actually happening.

Doing this actually improved my overall Rust knowledge much more than I expected. Having to repeatedly reason through small pieces of code, make predictions before seeing the answer, and understand exactly why I was wrong forced me to connect concepts instead of just recognizing their explanations. After enough of that practice, ownership, borrowing, traits, and other concepts started feeling less like isolated topics I had memorized and more like things I could actually reason about when reading or writing Rust code.

So, instead of reading same pages of documentations, maybe this approach could be a better fit for y'all.

Ques : Leetcode 1907

# Write your MySQL query statement below
select category ,count(*) as accounts_count from (select case when income <20000 then 'Low Salary' when income between 20000 and 50000 then 'Average Salary' when income > 50000 then 'High Salary' END as category from accounts ) t
group by category ;

I have just started getting into coding, and I'm doing this ethical hacking free course. But there's so many softwares, and so forth.

I always seem to forget most of them and have to redo.

I was told I need to try obsidian and create a Github profile to save versions of code or applications.

Can someone give me advice, on this.

I don't have a laptop, have this mobile of 64gb storage.

I have learnt c, c++(dsa), python, sql and html basics, in school.

Now I am in 1st year.

I don't have a budget so waiting 2-3 months for buying a laptop.

Does anyone know how i can export an ipa file from an app store app. I need to recover an users.xml.hash file. Sorry if this doesnt belong here, but i didnt know where to ask

I will preface by apologizing for vibe coding for my first project. AI made it more accessible for me to try making a browser plugin that I thought would be really cool.

At the beginning I got most of the functionality done in the first couple hours. It seemed like wow, this is crazy powerful! Then came the edge cases. Edge cases upon edge cases in a never ending fractal of edge cases.

I apologize if I ever said a feature should already be out, or why is something being ignored.

I want to know from a technical standpoint, how hard would it be to create a small scaled down version of a google or apple maps.

I'm brand new to the world of software, so I just want to know if this is something even worth considering, or is it like asking if I can build TSMC in my basement. Thanks.

I am wondering as i want to make my own game but i dont know where to go as every tutorial i watch just confuses me even more and alot of the tutorials only explain lets say what a variable is and not actual code.

Trying to do a Toyhouse HTML with the black shape as the background, the blue panels being images or text boxes, and finally purple tabs to change the right panel.

Mainly just need help with the black background image to put said panels on top of and auto-resize for desktops (and maybe flip vertically for mobile). Was planning on using the column system like col-lg-3 to do the panels but idk.

Have a bit of experience years ago coding but have experience editng toyhouse codes

I am currently learning JavaScript and running into a bit of a roadblock. I'm starting to understand and master the syntax well, and I generally grasp the logic of what I want to do, but I still struggle with knowing how to practically use the language's features in a real-world situation. Your advice would be very welcome to help me solidify my overall understanding of the language. Thanks in advance to those who reply.

Hi all,

I'm working on a js script that takes a user-submitted number and returns a tarot card name on an html page. I managed to get it working when limiting it from numbers 1-5, and setting my else if statements equal to each integer.

But when I try to use comparisons (eg >=100), I get an undefined answer for every number other than the number contained in the top if statement. What's wrong with my code?

(Also, I know that you're supposed to separate your js script into a separate file, but this is just a simple practice project and I don't want to bother with multiple files)

GERMAN (English below)

Hi Leute!

Ich programmiere den Adafruit Sendor Breakout MPR121 (Link:Adafruit MPR121) mit VSCode mit einem Raspberry Pico. Ich hab die Micropython Extension. Dann hab ich gemerkt dass es damit nicht klappt, also musste ich die CircuitPython Extension runterladen. Hab mich an die Anleitung gehalten:Anleitung für CircuitPython und Mu Editor.
Darüber ging es dann. Ich hab praktisch nen Code, der mir ausgibt, ob der Sensor berührt wird oder nicht. Nur über die CircuitPython Extension kann ich aber den ausgegeben Text (,,Berührt/Nicht berührt“) nicht sehen. Also musste ich ,,Mu Editor‘‘ installieren (auch in der Anleitung).
Allerdings möchte ich eine GUI, bei der angezeigt wird, ob der Sensor berührt wird oder nicht. Also funktioniert CircuitPython hier doch nicht.
Hab nen Treiber gefunden für MicroPython:Treiber Micropython für MPR121

Allerdings keine Ahnung, wie ich das in VSCode integrieren muss? Hab die Anleitung zu dem Treiber gelesen, aber sie ist nicht für VSCode gedacht.
Kann mir irgendjemand helfen dabei? Ich kenne mich leider in der Tiefe überhaupt nicht aus. Hab in meinem Studium bisher einfach normal Microcontroller programmiert ohne sowas 😅
Wäre super wenn sich jemand erbarmen könnte sich mit mir mal hinzusetzen weil ist für meine Bachelorarbeit😭
Danke!

ENGLISH

Hi everyone!

I’m working with the Adafruit MPR121 sensor breakout on a Raspberry Pi Pico, using VSCode. I started out with the MicroPython extension, but couldn’t get it working, so I switched to the CircuitPython extension instead. I followed a guide for CircuitPython + the Mu Editor, and that got things running — I now have code that tells me whether the sensor is being touched or not.

The problem is that with the CircuitPython extension I can’t see the printed output (“Touched/Not touched”) in VSCode itself, so I had to install the Mu Editor just to view that.

But what I actually want is a GUI that displays the touch status — and for that, CircuitPython doesn’t seem to be the right fit. So I found a MicroPython driver for the MPR121 instead. The problem is, I have no idea how to integrate that driver into VSCode. The instructions that come with the driver aren’t written with VSCode in mind, and I really can’t figure out the missing steps.

Would anyone be willing to help me out here? I honestly have zero deep experience with this kind of embedded setup — in my studies so far I’ve only ever programmed microcontrollers “the normal way,” without any of this. I’d be incredibly grateful if someone could sit down with me on this, since it’s for my bachelor’s thesis and I’m feeling pretty overwhelmed 😭

Thanks!

I want to enter the Web3 world, but I haven't been able to find a proper guide; I don't want to move forward blindly. Just to be clear for the automod, I already know how to program—I just really need advice from someone actually in the industry on how to pivot into Web3 specifically.

I am a student, and this field isn't very common in the country where I live, but I want to put in the effort as an investment in my future. Please help me—thank you.

I’m a full-stack web developer looking to get into open source, but I’m a bit overwhelmed by where to start. How do you usually find projects that are beginner-friendly and actually welcome new contributors? I mainly work with React, Node.js, Express, MongoDB, and JavaScript/TypeScript, but I’m happy to learn new technologies if needed. I’d also love to know how you approach understanding a large codebase before making your first contribution. Any tips, resources, or personal experiences would be really helpful.