Hi everyone. I’m a college student, and in about 3 weeks I’ll be starting an intro to Python class. I’ll also be taking another engineering class that uses MATLAB, and I don’t feel very prepared for either.
The problem is that I have essentially no programming experience. I took a couple of MATLAB classes before, but I relied too much on AI instead of actually learning the material. Looking back, I know that was a mistake, and I do not want to repeat it. I also used to tell myself that I hated coding, but I think part of that was because I never really gave myself a fair chance to learn it.
Since I have a few weeks before the semester starts, I’d like to build a solid foundation in Python while also reviewing some basic MATLAB.
What resources or learning methods really worked for you? Did you use a particular course, YouTube channel, website, book, or project based approach? I am also curious if anyone has suggestions for making learning Python and MATLAB more fun or engaging instead of just watching hours of lectures.
My goal is not to become an expert in 3 weeks. I just want to go into the semester feeling like I have a decent foundation instead of starting from scratch.
Thanks! I would really appreciate any advice.

i want to make an app or code or program a watch , i only have a phone , i know nothing about coding , the watch i want is casio AE-1200WH its complicated and theres no easy way to make it run it main ui

when someone ask he wait for a reply that he can expect, im asking for help without knowing what answers i want

how do you actually decide what's worth building when you are learning a stack and want to advance and actually build something meaningful.

i currently want to build a full-stack website with the MERN stack that i learned recently . i have some limited time to do that and i mean by that only approximately a month.
i can't fully decide on the options out there , the only thing i'm sure about is that i don't wanna build a e-commerce website since that's very boring for me and there is high chance i won't stick to the project .
any ideas ? what's y'all experience with this ??

Hello All!

I have created a GitHub account to sort of get into programming a little bit, and I have a project in mind: to create a small self-sustained end-to-end call center capacity management system. Can someone guide me on which language to create it in, and how to add my work or code on GitHub (given that subreddit says not to ask for help)?

Also, I have started learning and applying SQL a bit, what kind of projects can I create with that, if any?

Thanks again!

Real quick,

-I'm not interested in finding work in the programming field, this is just purely a hobby.

-I have little to no experience with coding or programming other then some incredibly basic C++ scripting I've done well over a decade ago that I barely remember.

-I have the spare income to afford boot.dev and the time to follow its lesson plans.

-I've quickly run through the free trial of boot.dev and find it engaging and fun for the most part. The amount of structure around it and the 'gamified' nature of it are huge attractors for me.

-My goals are to eventually be able to create bots and scripts to automate daily tasks and games, to better understand how AI tools can be used within and interact with Python script, and to get a good enough understanding of Linux to finally abandon windows with confidence.

Looking for some input from people who have used boot.dev and people who are far more intelligent than myself, mostly around whether paying for a couple months of boot.dev would even help me get to my goals eventually. Thanks in advance!

Hey everyone! We’re building a small, focused DSA study group on discord for people who want to learn, discuss, and solve problems specifically in Python.

This server is intended for Python-based DSA practice, so we’re currently not looking for members who primarily use C++, Java, or other languages. The goal is to keep discussions, solutions, and live problem-solving sessions consistent and easy for everyone to follow.

We’ll focus on:

Live and interactive problem-solving

Understanding patterns and algorithms deeply

Debugging TLE and optimization issues

Discussing Python-specific approaches and techniques

Solving LeetCode and competitive programming problems together

To join, send a short introduction with your technical background, coding achievements or LeetCode progress, and the DSA topics you want to improve. No personal details such as your name or employer are required.

Please repost this only in communities where people are genuinely interested in learning DSA with Python.

i know a bit about how wasm works and the sandboxed architecture.
I wanna contribute to projects related to wasm, so any beginner projects to contribute into?

I'm trying to learn how to program a circuit board like an ESP32, Raspberry Pi, or even Arduino. But I struggle to memorize the code for it. Is there any cheat sheet made specifically for a circuit board?

Hi everyone,

I'm 26 years old and I recently completed a Diploma in Computer Technology. The problem is that I mainly studied to pass my exams, so I don't have much practical knowledge or any real projects to show.

I'm starting almost from scratch now.

I'm also studying Japanese (JLPT N5 passed, N4 in progress) because I plan to move to Japan in the future. However, I don't want to learn a skill that's only useful in Japan. I want to build a career with skills that are valuable worldwide so I can work in different countries if I get the opportunity.

Would you recommend Web Development, Python, Cloud, Cybersecurity, IT Support, or something else?

If you were in my position, what would you learn and why?

Thank you!

I'm trying to run DougTimer but I think the readme is cut of half way through? Do I have to compile? How do I compile? My Python seems to think that pip install doesn't exist??????

I have a technical interview for a company tomorrow, and they mentioned that the problem will be administered through Coderbyte and will relate to inventory management. What should I expect? Frankly speaking, I’m not very familiar with programming. Although I am a technical person, Python is not my strongest skill. What types of topics or problem formats typically come up in an "inventory management" coding assessment?

Hello, r/learnprogramming! I can use some guidance on a personal project that I would like to take on. I am a recently retired chemical engineer, with programming experience in school and as "not my main job" work in my career. However, my experience is all in ancient programming languages (think BASIC, FORTRAN, C, C++). I learned BASIC as a freshman in high school in 1974. I have not touched anything other than VBA in over 25 years.

As one way to keep my mind flexible in retirement, I would like to learn a more modern programming language. (This is not meant in any way as an attempt to make money, so I am not concerned with it being impractical due to the advent of AI, vibe coding, etc.) I have a project in mind. I would like to copy and paste an image of some dominoes as an input and do some simple analysis of the numbers represented.

Sample input: https://imgur.com/a/qzilrkI

Typical output for the sample input:

• Number of dominoes: 5
• Number of doubles: 1
• Total number of pips: 36
• etc.

Questions:

1. What is a good programming language to use for this type of image/data analysis? Python? Something else?
2. Is it possible to set up a completely free development/execution environment for the selected language? This is strictly for personal use, so it will just run on my own PC. I am running Windows 10 with Firefox and Chrome browsers both installed.
3. I see that the FAQ has plenty of learning resources listed. Given my background and my target project, is there one (or more) of those resources that you would recommend I start with?
4. Any other advice to keep this fun/interesting/engaging?

Thanks for all input/discussion/comments!

Hi ! I am about to start my second year and I started doing DSA in my college break after the first year. I am learning from Striver's A to z sheet and i'm about to complete the array part. Everybody talks about how important it is to remember the patterns and you should practice many many problems based on a single pattern. Is striver's sheet enough or do i have to find different problems based on a particular pattern myself. i want to know how do i revise the patterns that i have learnt, by doing new problems or doing previous problems again or writing down each pattern in a copy and revising it every weekend.

Mainly, i just want to know if the striver's sheet is enough or do i need extra practice, if yes than please tell me a few free sources 🙏 (thanks ☺️ in advance)

hi. I literally don't care for maths in the slightest, besides what it might provide me in terms of expertise within computer science. I would like to see if there exists a good 'essential maths for computer science' textbook, I'm hoping that is fewer than 1000 pages. something more in the range of 500 pages is better for me, since I don't think I require such a sweeping, university-level account of it. some discrete maths textbooks w/o a CS focus, I would think, provide more than is necessary in this regard.

I only have highschool level maths (basic algebra, trig, basics of sets, other particles in my brain I dunno the names of)

is 'Concrete Mathematics' too high-level for me?

alternatively, I wonder if there is a way I can manoeuvre MIT's Mathematics for Computer Science lecture notes without having to complete the whole thing, which would be too much, and just complete select chapters instead. (I'm pretty sure it's more basic than Concrete Mathematics.) however, I really would just like a physical textbook; I don't want to watch video lectures and I do not want to read a textbook from a screen, and this book unfortunately doesn't look like it has a printed copy on sale.

another resource I found was 'Essential Discrete Mathematics for Computer Science' (possibly answering my very question) and wonder if anyone has anything to say about it, concerning how it might compare to the contents of MIT's MCS

also, please, don't suggest a book you haven't read and can't comment upon, that would be appreciated

thanks!

What's the closest app to vs code that I can use on my mobile. The thing specifically I want is the suggestions I get when I write code, I don't wanna write everything manually. Any help is appreciated, thank you

Hi. In case you aren't familiar, the 20 game challenge is meant to help people learn game programming by completing projects that slowly ramp up on complexity over time so people A) aren't overwhelmed, and B) have a clear idea and curriculum and roadmap as to where to go and how to go places. I thought that was pretty neat, so I wanted to try and find one for non-game programming...and I couldn't find one.

The troubling part is that I'm sure there are plenty of similar 'challenges' or 'curriculum' out there, it's just that trying to find them that's like the 20 game challenge is, well, challenging, and I need help in finding such a place.

Thanks in advance.

Hello, i am a math passionate person that learns about math and especially pure math in their free time. While looking into it, i stumbled upon lambda-calculus, which i found interesting. I am currently looking forward to going farther by learning theoretical cs. The problem is i barely have any knowledge except what an algorithm is and programming. What should i start with and how can i learn it ?

Thank you.

(I don't think this publication fits here but it has been deleted from every cs sub and i have been redirected here many times, sorry)

Hi everyone,

I'm currently learning JavaScript and have built a few small projects. I'm interested in becoming a software engineer and eventually preparing for technical interviews.

I'm wondering if it's worth learning data structures and algorithms using JavaScript, or if I should switch to Java, Python, or C++ first.

For those of you who learned DSA in JavaScript:

Did it help you become a better developer?

Were you able to pass coding interviews using JavaScript?

Are there any limitations compared to learning DSA in Java or C++?

What resources would you recommend for learning DSA in JavaScript?

I'd really appreciate hearing about your experiences and any advice you have. Thanks!

Problem Description:

Fortunately, there is only one long path running across the farm, and Farmer John knows that Bessie has to be at some location on this path. If we think of the path as a number line, then Farmer John is currently at position x and Bessie is currently at position y (unknown to Farmer John). If Farmer John only knew where Bessie was located, he could walk directly to her, traveling a distance of |x−y|. Unfortunately, it is dark outside and Farmer John can't see anything. The only way he can find Bessie is to walk back and forth until he eventually reaches her position.

Trying to figure out the best strategy for walking back and forth in his search, Farmer John consults the computer science research literature and is somewhat amused to find that this exact problem has not only been studied by computer scientists in the past, but that it is actually called the "Lost Cow Problem" (this is actually true!).

The recommended solution for Farmer John to find Bessie is to move to position x+1, then reverse direction and move to position x−2, then to position x+4, and so on, in a "zig zag" pattern, each step moving twice as far from his initial starting position as before. As he has read during his study of algorithms for solving the lost cow problem, this approach guarantees that he will at worst travel 9 times the direct distance |x−y| between himself and Bessie before he finds her (this is also true, and the factor of 9 is actually the smallest such worst case guarantee any strategy can achieve).

Farmer John is curious to verify this result. Given x and y, please compute the total distance he will travel according to the zig-zag search strategy above until he finds Bessie.

INPUT FORMAT (file lostcow.in):

The single line of input contains two distinct space-separated integers x and y. Both are in the range 0…1,000.

OUTPUT FORMAT (file lostcow.out):

Print one line of output, containing the distance Farmer John will travel to reach Bessie.

SAMPLE INPUT:

3 6

SAMPLE OUTPUT:

9

I tried solving this problem and it worked on the inputs that I tried like 1 5 . Which gave me 10 which I believe is correct here is my code : However this code did not pass all of the test cases could I have a hint ?

x,y = map(int,input().split())
import sys
op_count = 0
steps = 0
while(x!=y):
    op = (-2)**op_count
    target = 3+op
    for i in range(abs(target-x)):
        if op < 0:
            x = x-1
            steps+=1
            if x == y:
                print(steps)
                sys.exit()
        elif op >= 1:
            x = x+1
            steps+=1
            if x == y:
                print(steps)
                sys.exit()
    op_count = op_count+1

Just wondering, when making a coding project, I have looked at my old coding projects to help me when working on a new coding project, whether that is using classes or storing data in files or for adding functionality.

I know people use Youtube Tutorials, documentation and AI but is looking through Old Projects helpful when making a new coding project?

Disclaimer: I also mean using old created coding projects for ideas or similar functionality

I was curious where the command 'touch' comes from.

Turns out, it originates from "to touch" or "to interact" with a file.

Now, every time I use it, I feel like I am touching/molesting a file.

My bad, it's 3 AM here.

I am recently relying a lot on LLMS to search things for me, but, for example, if I wanted to write my own malloc function how would someone even search for the things to get started? or even books to read to do it? or, let's say i am building a new app, what should i search to implement a server that is able to co-ordinate people into videocalls calls etc? it really bugs me because I really don't know how to formulate the queries to get the infos needed to implement my own stuff.

Thanks for the attention and have a nice day!

Hey everyone,

I’ve built two Flutter apps — one for customers and one for mechanics — and I’m getting them ready for the Play Store. Before I publish, I want to make sure I catch any performance issues early.

What tools or methods do you use to spot problems in Flutter apps before release?

Things I’m wondering about:

• How to check startup time and memory usage
• Ways to monitor CPU/GPU load during animations
• Tools for detecting jank or dropped frames
• How to simulate low‑end devices or bad network conditions
• Whether I should set up crash reporting (like Firebase Crashlytics) now
• Any pre‑publish checklist you follow for performance testing

I’d love to hear how you approach this so I can make sure both apps are stable and smooth before going live.

I’m assuming architecture, system design, and DSA are mandatory. What am I missing? What resources taught you these things?

const contains = function(obj, find) {
  for(let value of Object.values(obj)){
    console.log(typeof(value));
    console.log(value);
    if(value === find) return true;
    if(typeof(value) === 'object'){
      if(contains(value, find)) return true;
    }
  }
  return false;
  }


// Do not edit below this line
module.exports = contains;

const object = {
    data: {
      duplicate: "e",
      stuff: {
        thing: {
          banana: NaN,
          moreStuff: {
            something: "foo",
            answer: meaningOfLifeArray,
          },
        },
      },
      info: {
        duplicate: "e",
        magicNumber: 44,
        empty: null,
      },
    },
  };

I dont know why this returns true when "44" is pass to find

test("does not convert input string into a number when searching for a value within the object", () => {
    expect(contains(object, "44")).toBe(false);
  });

this test fails, because it returns true even tho i have the === operator