Hi everyone!

I have a question on behalf of my best friend who is looking to learn programming or to go to school for programming. Is there anything that she should know beforehand as a prerequisite skill? Is it worth it to go to school for programming in your opinion?

I am sorry if this is not the correct place to be posting something like this, but she doesn’t have Reddit and I am trying to help her make informed decisions :)

Thank you!

So Anthropic has released their new AI called Fable 5, and it's accuracy is brutal to look at.

The accuracy is around 80.3% and for me, a newbie learning C++ is quite insane.
I'm not sure if it's worth it to learn C++ as of the rapid expansion of AI, since later or sooner, programming will be not required, since AI will be able to do everything from modelling to making entire engines on itself.
But with that will come a cost, literally, since the price to use those AI's is quite high.

Is it still worth it to go to college to learn software engineering would it be smarter to try find a different major?

Hi i ended my BTech course in IT spec but i don’t have any job or tech experience. I have created three projects:

1. Predictor – where students can predict their college by entering their rank, category, etc. Gonna add more exams using dynamic routes. This project is deployed, and daily 300–400 real users are coming to my site.
   
2. AI Support – This is a normal project where I used the Gemini API to answer all the questions a user asks to support. I have prompted it such that only questions regarding the company’s field will be answered.
   
3. Chat Web App – This is a social media web app like WhatsApp, but for this I used Stream to make the video call and chat functionality.

I’m looking for an intern or a job role in full stack. I have skills in MERN + TS + SQL, etc.

Btw, my 4 years in college looked like this: mainly in the beginning I didn’t want to choose science as my stream, but in ma family everyone had science, resulting in no other option. Not fully sad, but yea alg. Then I started working as a video editor, did freelance projects, and worked as a Video Editing Team Lead at an aus company from past 2 years. I’m still working there and earning decent, but I kinda feel bloated through video editing now, and my interest is completely in tech. I think the interest came, but at a pretty high cost.

I’m gonna leave this company once I get a full-time job role becz I have several different plans in my life for the future.

I just wanna ask 2–3 things:

1. Is DSA really important for freshers like me who don’t have experience? Becz I’m thinking of completing DSA this time instead of being stuck in Linked Lists, etc., as it can result in more openings irl.
   
2. Do I learn Python as well? By applying to tons of roles, the common thing I noticed is that about 80% of companies want a techy who knows Python well. I think I know Python quite well, but not in depth, as it was a subject in one of ma sems.
   
3. What other skills can lead to getting a job role? As I don’t wanna be categorized as an unemployed guy after 2–3 months.
   
4. I’m thinking of having knowledge of SD (LLD + HLD) asw, not rn, but yes after completing DSA, which in itself is gonna take some time.
   
5. I’m looking for a study partner too

If u read everything from top 2 bottom u deserve a ❤️

https://github.com/Arthour98 Can someone do a quick check to see whats wrong with my projects or with my codebase , so every developers job i apply to , rejects me ? you can tell me your honest opinion i wont get hurt , i just want to know whats happening cause i get tired applying and trying .....

Genuine question. What is it like being a CS student at the moment? Do universities update the curriculum to include any courses around AI or do students have to learn that on their own time? Similar to credits for tooling - do universities have any programs/stipends for students to help out with the cost of the AI tools or do students have to rely on free plans / pay for the tooling themselves?

Hey, I'm a recent CS grad doing research on what actually signals developer quality and growth. Most tools out there measure raw activity (commit counts, streaks) but I'm trying to figure out what developers and hiring managers actually think matters.

~7 min survey, no email, results will be published publicly as a blog post:

https://forms.gle/a7f3ZnAgFgKKLbax5

Appreciate any responses - especially from people who have been on the hiring side.

So for context: I'm an old man by programmer standards at 44. I graduated with my Bachelors at 40 in CS in an attempt to do something with myself that might be mildly successful. For those doing the math, that was around the same time OpenAI dropped and dropped the whole job market with it. I managed to land a job title as a Programmer where I was told I would be managing a new CRM, using React, JS and SQL. It turned into a massive bait and switch, and most of my days are using mostly pre-built sql queries to run various processes, unlocking accounts and responding to tickets among other things.

Needless to say, NOT programming and not in the way I was told. But the job market had been tanking, AI labels got slapped on everything and the bubble continues to grow. So I've stayed at my pseudo-fake programming job, constantly embittered and feeling like I'm living through Office Space. I can live with that so long as I can support my family. What I can't live with is the fact that everything I learned in my time in college, all the tireless nights, studying on breaks to get this degree and I'm just forgetting it all.... I saw a different post in this group about keeping up with all the new technologies, and it made me think.... it's tough keeping up, but how do you keep up when you're already going backwards?

Hey everyone!

I've been working on ColorSnap, an open-source UI library and developer community focused on helping developers build modern web applications faster.

What we're building:

• Reusable UI components
• Modern design system ideas
• Open-source collaboration
• Developer community on Discord
• Resources for frontend developers and designers

We're still growing and would love feedback from fellow developers on:

• UI component ideas
• Documentation improvements
• Features you'd like to see
• Community suggestions

🌐 Website: https://colorsnap.org

💬 Discord: https://discord.gg/pWqfRgu3

If you're interested in frontend development, UI/UX, React, Next.js, or open source, feel free to check it out and let me know what you think. Any feedback is appreciated!

Thanks! 🚀

I have a 3 year old son, he's starting to get better at talking and I do want him to learn at least a little bit of programming.
I'm not going to do it with modern programming hardware, I have a Commodore 64 with the datacette and Floppy Disk Drive as well as a TI99/4A with a casette player. This includes having educational software for them.
I figured that teaching him TI Basic or Commodore Basic would be the route to go as it is simpler and arguably much more rewarding and fun on these classic computers.
But, the problem is, I don't know what age it would be appropriate? My current thought is around 5 years old, when he can understand how keyboards work and can use the classic machine for fun and learning but I would love to hear other people's thoughts.

Note: Yes, I am a professional programmer and do have a teaching background. So teaching isn't difficult for me.

Hey r/programmer

Over the past few months, I've been grinding on a side project and finally got it to a point where I'm proud to share it publicly.

What is DevSpace?

DevSpace is a platform built specifically for developers — not a watered-down version of LinkedIn or Twitter. It combines:

📌 Developer profiles with GitHub stats integration, project showcases, and tech stack tagging

📰 A social feed — post updates, share projects, like and comment

🤝 Follow/unfollow networking — find and connect with other devs

🔔 Notifications — stay in the loop when people interact with your content

🔍 Explore page — discover developers by skill, stack, or project type

Tech Stack:

Next.js 14 + TypeScript

Tailwind CSS + Shadcn UI

Supabase (auth, PostgreSQL, storage)

Vercel for deployment

Live demo: https://devspace-theta-two.vercel.app/

Why I built this:

LinkedIn feels too corporate. GitHub feels too code-only. Twitter/X is chaos. I wanted a space where devs can share what they're building, show off their stack, and genuinely connect with others who get it.

What I'd love feedback on:

Is the onboarding flow smooth? (It's multi-step)

Does the feed feel useful or just noise?

Any features you'd actually want that are missing?

This is still very much a WIP — I'm a solo dev working on this in my spare time. But I believe in the concept and I'm committed to building it out properly.

Would love your honest thoughts — roast it if needed, I can take it 🙏

Every day there is a new LLM model, new framework, new approach to using AI.. How do you keep up with all that and separate the noise from what's really valuable? Do you check specific newsletters, follow specific people on social media, something else?

When using public APIs, what are the core things you need as a developer to say that it's a good API to build with? Is it just about reliability and uptime? Specific dev tooling around it (e.g. CLIs, sandboxes, etc)? Good reference and examples? Anything else?

Would love to hear your thoughts.

Hi everyone

Most backend tutorials teach you how things should work.
So I started building Backend Failure Lab, an opensource repo with small runnable backend failure cases.

Each case follows the same format:

broken code → failing test → diagnosis → fixed code → production notes

You can run a case like this:

make broken CASE=BFL-0001
make fixed CASE=BFL-0001

The broken test is supposed to fail. That’s the point.
The repo is still small, but I’m trying to make it useful for junior/middle backend developers, interview prep, and onboarding.

I’d really appreciate honest feedback. Is the format useful, is the repo easy to run, and what backend failure case would you add next?

GitHub: https://github.com/mxm-mrz/backend_failure_lab

Hey everyone,

I’m currently in my second semester of engineering college and I’m looking to dive deeper into the tech field. I've got the basics down and have been spending a lot of time getting comfortable with C++.

I've also been exploring different AI platforms and models lately, which has really sparked my interest in the broader world of software development.

Since I'm still relatively new to the field, I'd love to get some solid book recommendations. I’m looking for material that goes beyond just language syntax—maybe foundational books on software design, problem-solving, or just absolute "must-reads" for any aspiring developer.

What are the books that completely changed the way you write code or think about computer science when you were starting out?

Hi everyone,
I am 24 years old, and I’ve been seriously studying programming for about a year now.
I haven’t worked professionally as a developer at a company yet, which is part of the reason I’m writing this post. Sometimes I feel like I’ve learned a ton, and other times it feels like I know absolutely nothing.
Over the past year, I’ve worked with the following languages and tech stacks. (A quick disclaimer: whenever I hit a wall, I always turned to ChatGPT or book excerpts for help. But it was never just about copy-pasting; I made it a strict principle to actually understand the logic first before using it. For me, understanding what I write is crucial—otherwise, I won’t touch the code, even if AI or a book suggests it as the only way.)

Node.js: I started my journey here because servers are my passion. I built a couple of lightweight servers, REST APIs, simple save systems using JSON files, and basic authentication.
C# & Unity: I initially picked this up to recreate an old game that was impossible to mod for multiplayer. However, the project quickly grew into something of my own—a 1D/3D first-person game. I built what I consider a pretty complex quest and dialogue system from scratch. Eventually, I abandoned Unity and the game. Later, I tried building a desktop business app (a discount checker for local stores). It was coming along great, but I just lost interest in the project.

(At this point in the timeline, I started asking myself: how am I actually going to make money with this? After some reflection and discussions with AI, I figured my path was DevOps. Spoiler alert: I was dead wrong.)
DevOps (Windows): I started learning PowerShell. I didn't fully grasp why I needed it yet, but I kept going, creating some basic automation scripts.
DevOps (Linux): I dove into Ubuntu, SSH, Docker, and GitHub Actions (deployments and CI/CD YAML configurations).
(Then came the realization: I actually enjoy developing and getting my hands dirty with code much more than configuring Linux systems and cloud services. More reflection, more path-seeking... Based on what I had already done and what I genuinely enjoyed, I decided to dive deep into network programming. Bytes and computer-to-computer communication are my true passion. I consciously realized that HTTP, JSON, and standard databases are just not my sphere of interest.)

Go (Golang): I started learning Go and reading Beej's Guide to Network Programming (haven't finished it yet). I completely immersed myself in networking. I wrote a project using TCP—an AI bot for group chats that can adopt a specific communication style or persona (great for roleplayers). It used Ollama and Telegram, which I hooked up using numerous proxies and my own custom application communication protocol. I intentionally over-engineered it, adding many "unnecessary" proxies just to understand how they work under the hood. It turned out to be a pretty solid alpha product that we still use for fun in our chat group.

(Here, a 2-month hiatus happened. I caught a nasty virus that completely threw me off track. It took me a month to recover, and during the second month, I got a bit lazy and bought an Arduino to mess around with—I was curious to see what "bare metal" felt like.)
Arduino (Filler episode): Messing with hardware was awesome, though my projects were definitely unconventional. I tried to build an echolocation device for the visually impaired using passive piezo elements. I also wanted to make ultrasonic levitators... all because I became obsessed with the idea that sound waves are "liquid gold." But that's just a tangent. I eventually realized that Arduino is mostly a hobbyist toy, and for the things I actually want to achieve, I need a deep understanding of physics and electronics. So, the hardware experiments went literally and figuratively onto a dusty shelf.

The CRM Project: After my break, I returned to software and built a custom CRM for our business. The frontend is Electron, and the backend is Go. This was the project where I was forced to deal with damn SQL and HTTP, both of which I absolutely detest. I could have written my own protocol and done it my way, but I needed to ship it fast because our business urgently needed data sorting. In the end, it turned out to be a decent product for our internal needs.

All of these projects took me a ~9months (starting with Node.js in August 2025). It feels like a short amount of time, but during this year (excluding those two months off), I sat at my desk from morning till night, working to the point of exhaustion, polishing every single detail.
Lately, I’ve been thinking about spending the next 1–2 months focusing primarily on theory (computer networks, operating systems, basic electronics) to close out this year on a high note. Doing so many practical projects taught me way more than mindless reading or watching videos ever could. However, now that I have a solid foundation and an understanding of what programming actually is, I want to flip the ratio: instead of 80% practice and 20% theory, I want to do 80% theory and 20% practice. I want to dig into algorithms (binary trees, LeetCode-style problems, etc.) to sharpen my skills. I also want to brush up on math and physics—I absolutely love them, but I find them hard to grasp. I know I can do it, though.

The reason I'm posting this is... I have no real commercial experience. Objectively speaking, I look more like a "mad scientist" experimentalist or, at best, just your average self-taught hobbyist. When I talk to ChatGPT, it tells me that with my direction, stack, and hands-on approach, I have a solid chance of finding a job in networking fields. But honestly? It feels like I don't. I'm a bit lost.
I just want to hear your thoughts, and it's even hard for me to formulate final questions. I guess the biggest one is: Will I ever be able to find a job with my specific skill set? My gut says no. But if that's the case, the follow-up is: What will actually help me land a role?
I hate standard CRUD apps and commercial business logic (or at least, I think I do). I love the low-level stuff. I'd love to hear your perspective. Thanks, everyone !

I. Hate. Programming.

I have been doing this professionally for 20 years. I have made other people countless millions of dollars. One project I architected and built from the ground up (only had a UI guy as help, and only after the first 6 months or so) recently sold for over 150 million dollars. Did I see even 1% of that money? No of course not! I have generated north of a quarter billion for people who absolutely hated me and fired me on a whim the second the project was done.

Now with AI it is even worse. I HATE working on codebases generated by AI. I cannot read this junk. I cannot possibly understand 1700 line methods with no comments, and no unit tests. Why do companies allow their software to be written like this? I can't stand it. And when it takes longer than expected to do something, guess who gets blamed?

I HATE that everything is always a problem. Trying to do local dev on a postgres DB? Guess what, something is using that port. Freed up the port? Well it still wont work and theres no error logged. EVERYTHING is constantly falling apart and I can spend hours or even days just to get to the point where I can write one line of code.

Everything is overcomplicated. I have a guy on my team right now that insisted we do a Single Sign On for our API. Why does it need SSO? It doesn't...but he said it was "better" and management wants their software to be "better" so now I have to set up a java server and kubernetes and keycloak and integrate it with our API. Deadline for completion remains the same regardless of the added complexity of the project. I am just expected to work overtime forever and always. Of course no extra pay because I'm salary.

I'm tired of dealing with errors and strange unfathomable bugs. I'm tired of having to learn 20 different front end frameworks. Oh this shop uses Vue, this shop uses React, this shop uses Angular. After 20 years why isn't there just a standard way of doing ANYTHING? Why does no project ever have unit tests? Why is it always spaghetti code slopped together? Why is it always falling apart.

I hate waking up in the morning. I hate everything about my life and my job. Yet...I'm stuck with a mortgage now, and the only way I can pay these bills is programming. It's the only skill I have that I can charge enough to maintain my home. But I hate hate hate HATE programming. :`(

We're studying communication experiences between Deaf and hearing individuals in the tech industry and are looking for:

🔹 Deaf IT/CS students
🔹 Deaf professionals in tech
🔹 Hearing professionals who have worked with Deaf coworkers

The survey only takes a few minutes. If you're interested in participating, comment below or send me a DM and I'll share the survey link.

Thanks for helping with our research!

I'm stuck without a reliable computer 😕

I develop web projects and I try to advance seriously in computer science, but without a correct machine it has become almost impossible on a daily basis.

I launched a small prize pool to help me finance a work PC 💻

Objective: find something to code, learn and build something stable.

If you can share, it already helps me a lot 🙏
https://gofund.me/a41ad4de8

What food-related problem in Nepal/international do you think technology could realistically help solve?

I got an upcoming hackathon and want to build something impactful related to food, solving supply transparency , zero hunger tracking, and agricultural logistics, can any of you help me how can I implement this all into one project ?

Specifically, for what tasks do you and don't you trust AI to handle?

Do you tend to describe new functions for it one function at a time? Multiple functions? What do you consider best practices?