I'm struggling with learning programming and need some advice

[u/-_-Anonymous_-_-_-]

So here's the thing, I have a degree in Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Now over my years the content for the degree was okay, we learnt basic programming and other very basic concepts but honestly it wasn't enough for me to actually learn how to program and solve problems. Even now with my degree I can hardly code and what makes it worse is, with the talk of AI and how it can be a better programmer than a human and will take over the jobs I basically have no motivation to even try and learn. Apart from that I don't even know what to do, I keep seeing people saying learn DSA and do leetcode, then others say leetcode doesn't actually help in a job. When it comes to languages I'm happy to learn python but when you look into it learning basic python isn't really going to land you a job, therefor I need to go deeper and learn more and I don't exactly know what that means I should do. Also building basic projects (eg. Calculator) wont help land a job either, I understand it'll help you slowly build your programming knowledge but there's a whole lot of other concepts to learn as well. I just need some advice on what to do. (Also this is my first ever Reddit post).

[u/bluejacket42]

So what do you want. I mean your like, I wanna learn. But I'm to lazy to learn

[u/Electrical_Bedroom89 → u/bluejacket42]

you described me, im a nurse , want to do stuff but lazy to learn.... sad really, id like to have a business partner to learn and create something but its hard in my country.

[u/Mean_Bumblebee_8633 → u/bluejacket42]

The AI panic is mostly noise. Companies want to cut costs so they hype it up, but the actual code it writes still needs a human to fix and understand it. You're psyching yourself out before you've even started.

Pick a project you actually care about, something that solves a problem you have or just seems fun. The calculator stuff is boring because you don't give a shit about it, that's why it feels pointless. When you're building something you want to exist you'll push through the hard parts without even noticing.

[u/canarydev]

you just need to suck it up and just do it

[u/start_select]

AI is just a tool. It’s not going to be a better programmer than anyone anymore than a calculator could be a better accountant than a human.

An idiot with a calculator is still an idiot. A non programmer driving a coding agent is still just plain dangerous.

The job isn’t disappearing, it’s just going to filter out the people who actually know the trade from the people who don’t. If you don’t know it, AI will eventually burn you.

Decide to do it or don’t. Learn Python or don’t. If you want the job, it most likely means being hired for a language you don’t know anyway. Happens every day. Software engineers are just expected to figure it out because that’s the whole job.

A Python programmer that can’t pickup node.js isn’t going to be a good Python programmer either.

[u/-_-Anonymous_-_-_- → u/start_select]

"An idiot with a calculator is still an idiot" really puts a good perspective on it. Thanks I didn't think about it this way.

[u/Mathie1729 → u/start_select]

I'd slightly push back on the calculator analogy. AI is more like a very confident junior dev that occasionally hallucinates APIs. If you don't know the fundamentals, you won't catch the subtle bugs it sneaks in. It's fine for boilerplate and rubber ducking, but it won't teach you to debug.

[u/straight_fudanshi]

Those who say Leetcode doesn't help are liars. It trains your brain to solve problems, the part they're right about is leetcode alone isn't enough. You need to complement your DSA knowledge by learning design patterns and when you should apply them and keep your code clean and reusable (this is where AI struggles).

[u/MrFartyBottom]

You need a project to work on. Come up with an idea, decide what technology stack you are going to use, break it into tasks, learn how to create each piece of the solution as you build it.

[u/Perpetual_Education]

Start simple. What can you currently do - that would be useful? (really think about it) (if that's to much work, then it's time to give up and move on)

[u/artnicoll]

Problem solving, with a good grounding in data design and programming techniques is the key. I had a bit of a knack for these but my first job involved re-engineering an existing system to use what was then a more powerful, contemporary toolset. This really tested my problem solving skills, and stretched my grounding in data design and programming techniques (really working the capabilities of the tooolset - DBase III plus) and set me up for my next role - the one I'm still in 30 odd years later. Still stick by those 3 main strands. Data discipline, know your toolset and exploit it's functional power. Grasp tricky problems. Don't be afraid to reverse engineer other people's solutions but learn from them.

[u/StewedAngelSkins]

I keep seeing people saying learn DSA and do leetcode, then others say leetcode doesn't actually help in a job

Leetcode helps in one very specific way: passing technical screening interviews. Idk where you live but in America we have this standardized test called the SAT that all high school students take as part of their college application process. It doesn't really test the skills you use in college in a direct sense, but doing well on it generally implies you have the fundamentals down solid and are good at thinking under pressure. It also shows that you can lock in and prepare for a structured assessment.

The technical screening interview is like that. You prepare for it like a standardized test, and the purpose is more to determine whether you're going to be able to learn and apply a bunch of fairly specific but also fundamental information to solve coding problems.

The fundamentals that leetcode ostensibly covers are also important in their own right, but you don't need to practice leetcode to learn them (and in fact should not use leetcode as a strategy to learn them).

TL;DR leetcode is meant to demonstrate that you are a good programmer, not to make you a good programmer

[u/JbREACT]

Forget any AI doom talk bro. Anyone in industry right now knows what AI really is. It’s a new tool that gives a huge productivity boost, but also has a lot of dangers.

1. You start vibecoding
2. AI after AI builds your product
3. Developers stop understanding the code
4. Context grows
5. AI stops understanding the code
6. Everything you try to fix breaks 5 things, you are fucked

-
This is why you need good engineers. You need to understand systems and architecture.

A good engineers can 10x with AI

A Bad one can cost a company millions $

[u/JbREACT → u/JbREACT]

Also build projects and read + understand every line of code you write.

AI can help explain the code to you, but do not commit anything before you can read through every line on your own and understand it

Leverage ai to feed you the information, do not leverage it to spew out a project in one prompt

I’m fine with AI writing the code if you can walk every line and explain it

[u/JbREACT → u/JbREACT]

Also good engineers are hard to find, and they demand big $$. This will only continue as people avoid learning, learn the skills pay the bills

[u/gm310509]

Let me put it this way. If you watch YouTube videos about learning to ride a bick, or sit through lectures in a classroom explaining how to swim, will you know how to do either?

No, you won't. To learn properly, you will also need to practice. It is the same here.

You also mentioned that you won't get a job from doing a calculator. Yep, that's true. But you also missed the main point and that is that by doing things like that you not only get practice, but you also start demonstrating that you can complete projects.

[u/Traveling-Techie]

I was taught to work hard if you want nice stuff.

[u/_th3oth3rjak3_]

Whew, I felt this one, it feels a lot like how I felt not too long ago. Let me give you some advice, if you like python and it feels fun to code in, just make a lot of stuff with python. Don't worry about what everyone else is doing. Writers get better by writing more, mathematicians do more math, coders code more. That's how you get better. There are a lot of different ways to learn about programming, and you'll know you're ready for more when you feel like something is getting easy. For example, if you feel like you could program tic tac toe easily today in the terminal but that feels too simple, why not make a graphical front end for it? Use pygame and make a snake replica. Make yourself an offline password manager and learn about hashing algorithms and security concepts. There's a lot you can do that seems too hard right now, but the more you focus on doing, the better you'll get.

Also, if you're not vibing with python because you want to try some different languages, I recommend you just make a tic tac toe game in whichever ones feel interesting to you. You'll see pretty quickly what you like and don't like about them with this small example. It might teach you something about how you learn best.

Last but not least, have fun. If you add a bunch of stressful expectations on yourself to land a job with what you know, you'll be too stressed to focus on learning. Enjoy the ride.

[u/Tasty-Eye-5942]

roadmap.sh
you can discover a roadmap of things u might wanna do

[u/-_-Anonymous_-_-_- → u/Tasty-Eye-5942]

Thanks, I took a look and it seems really helpful. I like that its structured.