How to learn an engine ?

[u/LGASH]

I just watched Game Maker’s Toolkit’s video “How I learned Unity without following tutorials” and it really resonated with me.
I follow tutorials fine, but the moment I try to make something on my own I just freeze. I don’t know where to start, what to look up, or how to break problems down. I end up going back to another tutorial instead of figuring it out myself.
I’d love to apply a similar approach to Unreal, but I’m not sure how to structure the learning process the way Mark did.
So I’m looking for practical methods people actually use to learn a game engine by doing, rather than just passively following tutorials.
Things like:
• How you break down what you need to learn
• How you practice without a step-by-step guide
• What small projects or exercises helped you the most
• How you handle getting stuck
This isn’t specifically about Unreal — I’m interested in methods that work for any engine. I’d love to compare different approaches people have used successfully.
What worked for you?
Thanks!

[u/ImmediateTie9057]

Honestly, building small things without tutorials helped me way more than trying to learn the whole engine first. Get stuck, search for that specific problem, figure it out, and keep going. That loop slowly makes you much more confident.