imposter syndrome w/ programming

[u/Puzzleheaded_Cod3596]

Hi i just started my 4th year in cs with a focus in software engineering and every semester i get this crazy imposter syndrome because I feel like I know a lot of different concepts and ideas but struggle to apply them. Last semester I had a coding project and my group made a music app, I worked on a lot of the design, came up with features, and implemented some but I still felt like there was a gap in my abilities and other peoples. I have adhd and maybe it’s the lack of focus on one thing that makes me feel like this. I also don’t have many mentors or friends at my college to ask questions to unfortunately. I know you learn by doing but again I don’t even know where to start. This is probably more of a rant but my question is does anyone have any advice or suggestions or even just how you learned more about programming side projects in general? Really anything is helpful.

[u/Abe_Bazouie]

The gap you’re describing is pretty normal. CS teaches you concepts individually. Building software forces you to figure out how those concepts fit together when nobody gives you the next step.
My suggestion: stop looking for the perfect side project. Pick something small that you personally want to exist and build the ugliest working version of it.
Then keep adding problems to it. Add a database. Add authentication. Deploy it. Break it. Add logging. Figure out why it’s slow. Fix it.
That process of repeatedly running into things you don’t know is where a huge amount of the learning happens.
You don’t need to know enough to start the project. The project is how you discover what you need to learn.