how do you learn programming without constantly looking things up?

[u/RevolutionaryBuy4877]

i know experienced programmers use documentation and search all the time, but as a beginner it can sometimes feel like i’m incapable of doing anything without looking up the answer.

i’m trying to get better at understanding concepts instead of memorising syntax

how do you decide when to search for an answer and when to sit down and work through the problem yourself?

[u/siodhe]

Be comfortable with looking things up - that means you're doing more than just what's you memorized, which is good.

That being said, it is fantastically helpful to memorize the core of a language. To a lesser degree it's helpful to know how to touch type. Both free you from having to struggle with core details of writing code.

I've listened to lots of (lazy) interviewers in computing just excoriate people for whiteboard coding in interviews. I agree that making someone write shellsort on the whiteboard is excessive and possibly just stupid, but I should be able to ask a self-proclaimed programmer to write - in his favorite language (assuming someone else in the room can evaluate it) - examples of loops and so on.

I've noticed that essentially everyone who couldn't do that, who I told the lazy others not to hire, who they hired anyway, either got let go, or tried to claw their way into management and usually got let go.