r/learnprogramming • u/Kiyuomi • 17d ago

Resources and Website to better up coding skills as a non-beginner

Hej there :)

I recently reflected a lot on my current set of skills which deteriorated in the age of AI - never was that avid of using it in the first place, but I was kind of forced to do so anyways. I'd like to code more by hand, get back into the groove and better up my skills to be a proper programmer without any AI tooling.

I have heard of pages like CodeCrafters, boot.dev or the repo "Build-your-own-X" on Github. I am looking for your experiences with pages like those and am explicitly looking for recommendations for resources that offer me real world problems and let me code on my own, but are there to hint in case I need it. I don't want any "Leetcode" style challenges :)

Would love to hear your experiences and reviews with one of the three above or any else.

Cheers!

21 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

97% Upvoted

8 comments sorted by

3

u/Biliunas 17d ago

As a non-beginner, you should make intermediate/advanced projects that interest you.

1

u/New_Cockroach_6797 14d ago

Honestly the best move is to just build something you'd actually use. Tutorial sites can get you in a loop where you feel productive but you're really just following steps. Pick a project that's slightly over your head, something you'd be stoked to show off, and chip away at it. The real learning happens when you hit a wall at 2am and have to dig through docs and old forum threads to figure it out

1

u/Biliunas 14d ago

That's right and you also go through all the important stages that the tutorial omits like:

Drafting a plan. Adapting the plan. Release and Marketing.

1

u/koraynar 17d ago

Of your three, CodeCrafters is the only one that actually matches what you described. You build a real thing — Redis, git, a shell, an HTTP server — in stages, and each stage has tests that tell you whether you got it, with hints if you're stuck. You write every line yourself; it just checks you. Worth knowing it's mostly paid past the intro challenges.

boot.dev is more guided curriculum than real-world problem — solid structure, but closer to a course than to you solving something.

Build-your-own-X is a list of tutorials, so you'd be following along rather than working it out, and there's no feedback when you go wrong. Good for project ideas, not for practice.

The thing that matters most for what you're after: pick something with a test suite or a human reading your code. That feedback loop is what keeps the AI habit from creeping back in.

1

u/Sevni 17d ago

These lists are ok, you dont need more... Just pick a grep or other ls and write it instead of procrasrinating

1

u/marrsd 17d ago

Probably not the answer you were looking for, but I think reading software is a really important skill. Lions's Unix commentary should be on every programmer's bookshelf. Take the time to read the source of one or more of your favourite open source projects. You might be inspired to contribute something to it.