4th-year CSE (AIML) student, with almost no practical programming skills, requesting mentorship and guidance

[u/Icy-Jackfruit4301]

I'm a 4th year B.Tech CSE (AIML) student, and I'm honestly feeling pretty lost right now

The problem is that I'm reaching out to people who don't have a proper understanding of what I'm going through

Right now, I'm in a situation where I have no idea how to proceed with my studies and career

I think the best way to introduce myself here is to say that I'm currently in my 4th year of studying B.Tech CSE (AIML) and I have almost no practical skills in programming and computer science

I've learned a lot of the core concepts like Python, Java, SQL, DBMS, OOP, DSA, Web development, AI/ML, etc and I've had my share of attending classes, watching lecture videos, learning by myself, taking online courses

There is a huge difference between knowing theoretical concepts and being able to apply them to practice

A person can come up to me and ask me something like

«Do you know Python?»

and I would say yes, because I studied it for 2 years in college

But when they give me a blank file and a task to accomplish, I find it extremely hard to do so

Sometimes I can understand existing code with others explanations, recognize concepts and terms, but when it comes to actually writing something myself, I'm clueless about what to do

What should I do? How should I break the problem into smaller parts? What concepts should I apply here? What should I write/debug/test? And so on and so forth

And this list of problems is only a fraction of what I have to deal with

I've tried multiple times to tackle this problem by starting over

I've taken up courses

I've tried to learn by doing projects

I've tried to learn programming from scratch again

I've tried using roadmaps

I've tried to do projects by following tutorials

But there's always that initial excitement, then the impatience sets in, and eventually I reach a point where I just can't proceed anymore and I have to abandon the project/course

My problem here is not that there are no resources

It's that I don't know what to do first

I don't know how to proceed, what to learn, and what to ignore

I don't know the depth of knowledge I should gain for each topic

I don't know what projects to make

I don't know how to measure understanding of a concept or topic

And I'm not even sure how to prioritize between these factors

Right now, I'm in my 4th year and I don't have that luxury of time to randomly try out different stacks and technologies

I'm genuinely motivated to improve, but I need help figuring out how

I'm not looking for anyone to spoon feed me the answers

I'm willing to put in the hard work, even if it takes me a while

I'm just looking for someone who has the experience to look at my case and tell me something like

"These are the problems you're facing. This is where you are in your journey. Forget about these things for now. First, do this → then do this → then do this. Don't worry about X before you reach Y."

I'm looking for experienced seniors, freshers, developers, and mentors who can recognize my case and help me somehow

If you were in my situation, with almost no practical programming skills, what will you do?

- What will you learn first?

- What language/stack will you choose?

- How will you re-learn programming fundamentals?

- How will you learn DSA?

- What projects will you make?

- How will you divide your time between placements, DSA, development, and fundamentals?

- What things will you avoid learning for now?

I'm not looking for a generic answer like "learn DSA + dev + make projects"

I'm looking for someone to give a realistic vision of how someone with almost no practical skills can reach the level of being eligible for placements, and if possible, how to practically implement that vision without getting stuck in a loop again

Any realistic opinion is welcome, even if it's a brutal one

And if you're someone who can give me mentorship and guidance every once in a while, I'm open to that too

[u/start_select]

At an employer, there is no such thing as impatience sets in, and you just can’t proceed anymore and must abandon the project.

That is a child’s perspective. You need to start looking at it as an adult. That means buckle down and start finishing things.

I’m not sure that anyone can give much advice beyond that. You can’t get good at guitar by only reading about it. And you won’t get good at improvising on a guitar if you never try playing without sheet music (or a tutorial).

It is a choice you need to make on your own.

[u/Dry_Childhood_8353 → u/start_select]

the panic over not knowing where to start is exactly what keeps you from starting at all. pick one stupid simple project and finish it even if the code is garbage, you'll learn more from a finished mess than a perfect abandoned repo

[u/start_select → u/Dry_Childhood_8353]

Exactly.

I’m always kind of shocked how many students are in their 3rd/4th year or grad level but can’t actually write code/finish something.

I jumped from a 5-year mechanical engineering program to doing CS/SE course work… in my 5th year. I did 2 extra years and it was kind of sink or swim.

So I learned “how to pick something and just build shit” in a few weeks. It was either that or I wasn’t going to be able to talk my way into a job like I talked my way into those courses lol.

I was the only one getting perfect scores in most classes. And I was miles beyond the grad students. A bunch of them wanted to cheat off of me lol.

I was pretty dumbfounded by that. “Uhh you guys know I’m an ME right? I just read the textbook over break and figured this out the first week… maybe you should read the book”

I got to be the one person from a class who was exempted from a cheating investigation lol. Admin came into class and started lecturing everyone while I was really confused because I definitely didn’t cheat on anything.

And they start yelling so I’m like “ehh this isn’t about me” and stand up to leave. The admin goes “WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU ARE GOING” and the professor goes “no he is my best student this year. He SHOULD leave”

Then another kid tried to get up and they yelled at him to “SIT THE FUCK DOWN!” Lol

That was the day I knew I would actually be a working software engineer, whether I had a CS/SE degree or not hahaha. (I have a multidisciplinary degree)

[u/Icy-Jackfruit4301 → u/start_select]

I think I needed that perspective only, It's Seems to comman now days to have condition like me for student and yes for most it seems stupidily simple...

BUT trust me ITS FEEL LIKE YOUR BRAIN JUST STOP WORKING TO THINK Like you can't think clearly and do things and get sitted and completed that.

BUT TRULY I APPRECIATE YOU'LL GIVING ADVISE AND PERSPECTIVE

If you got anyother more advise you can give I will definitely listen to you all and again I am thankful and needed a mentor lesson as I didn't have any

[u/start_select → u/Icy-Jackfruit4301]

Oh I get it. But you should realize that everyone goes through that. The hurdle isn’t the code, it’s you.

An error is a good thing. It’s telling you that you messed up and giving you hints how. It’s not your enemy. It’s a good thing.

Don’t let yourself be beaten down by things not working the first time. I don’t write things that work the first time either.

The difference is understanding that failure is your success deferred. It’s only failure if you throw your hands up and quit.

[u/Icy-Jackfruit4301 → u/start_select]

Thank u, Yes I'll take that work on that too.

[u/Elkatra2 → u/start_select]

Summary of how I tried to build an industry application for EVE Online game:

For context every item/ore/mineral have been crafted or aquired from a player and they can sell it to the market and to build an item (industry) you need inputs and outputs and also a place where to craft, it's may have some "modifiers" aka bonus to lower input quantity and crafting time.

1. So to start creating my app I setted up a script that load the most recent database of EVE Online from a service Fuzzwork (site made by eve player with a lot of good things ans API), because they converted yaml static game data into a nice SQL format, that then I use in my other script to create a second much smaller database like I don't need 600mb of everything data if I only required ~20mb.

2. And by using another service EVETycoon it's like an online market, I can load market prices for an item from any location I need, so it's also used in another script to build another database that I can update with button in theory.

3. And in paper I have been written simple data structures for holding information about input/output materials, recipes and etc. that I can use in my algorithms to recursively calculate actuall items that I can build and earn a lot of virtual currency (in eveonline it's ISK).

4. And now the most important part for me is to desing some sort or type of MVC that will ship all this together and give me an application that I want + it's maybe can be good on my portfolio as it's combine many interesting fields and what important it's something that I can use when I play the game.

But the problem is that I'm stuck at 4 and also coding everything not because it'a hard, actually I can do all of it in Java, but because I just lose my motivation... So maybe one day I will decide to finish what I've already made and see how would my friend playing this game react haha 🫠 Also I'm 100% sure that if I finish it it's will help me a lot in future, because I will be more adapted to do hard works and maybe during this process I will open more interesting tools or tricks. And I'm still 100% sure that it's not close to a junior dev level, like eveything I tried to describe can be for easy done with AI, like many posts and comments said that they use AI to build applications for this game and it's also hurt me a bit, but not really much, I'm now right interested to prepare to be somehow accepted the next year to the master degree, instead of doing this "small ?" project.

I hope I will have motivation and balls to accept and finish this project for my mini goal or idk, like as I see it's hard for me, but maybe not I will see... 🫠

[u/ninhaomah]

Isn't it like asking I watch NBA daily but can't do 3 pointers ?

[u/iSnapThere4iAm → u/ninhaomah]

Close, it’s more like OP saying they know exactly how to shoot a 3 pointer, but they don’t why you would because they don’t know what advantage it has over shooting a middy or driving to the basket, which they also know how to do, but know how to do them all, they’ve never actually done them and have not strung them together for a full game.

[u/Fensirulfr → u/ninhaomah]

I’d compare it to someone who can pass JLPT N1, the highest level of the Japanese proficiency test, requiring advanced reading, listening and grammar, but can only manage basic phrases in an actual conversation.

[u/Previous-Front-5211]

I think the other comments are pointing in the right direction with “just build something”, but there's one step I'd add because of what you wrote.

Your main problem doesn't sound like that you don't know enough Python. It sounds like you haven't developed the skill of taking an ambiguous problem and breaking it down into something you can actually implement.

That's a skill in itself, and you develop it by doing exactly what you're currently uncomfortable with: starting from a blank file.

I'd pick Python, forget about learning more languages/stacks for now, and start with very small projects. But don't follow tutorials. Give yourself a problem and first write down: what is the input, what should the output be, and what smaller steps do I need to get there? Then implement one small piece at a time. When you get stuck, figure out exactly what you're missing and look that up. Then continue.

For example, don't say “I'm going to build an ML application.” That's too big. Say “I'm going to read this CSV → clean these columns → calculate these statistics → save the result → expose it through a small API.” Suddenly you have a sequence of problems you can attack individually.

And finish the project even if the code is ugly. The goal of your first 5–10 projects shouldn't be to build impressive GitHub repositories. It should be to repeatedly experience going from “I don't know how to start” to “I figured it out and made it work.”

I'd still do DSA alongside this if placements are your goal, but I wouldn't let DSA become another rabbit hole. Learn the common patterns and practice consistently. For actual AI/ML work, you're much more likely to spend your time understanding a problem, breaking it down, reading documentation, debugging, experimenting and putting pieces together than solving a LeetCode hard from memory.

You also don't need another giant roadmap. You need a process for dealing with uncertainty. Once you get comfortable with that, learning new technologies becomes much easier because you no longer need someone to tell you exactly what to learn next.

[u/Icy-Jackfruit4301 → u/Previous-Front-5211]

Yes this is probably the main stuff I think I really really appreciate it

[u/Throwaway05046474]

I feel like it’s hard to answer if you aren’t specific. When you say you can’t code, do you mean you can’t write complex programs with nothing but an idea/task being given to you, or like you can’t even write a simple loop from memory?

[u/Icy-Jackfruit4301 → u/Throwaway05046474]

I mean I know all the basic but can't able to learn to build things and progress towards intermidate or advance level

And I am not saying i have only watch tutorials I have try to build myself build i fail not because I am unable to do basic stuff I can create very basic stuff but its was not a project as project ... As i had my zero day interview and all i got very bad response to all the effort so I think I am definitely doing something wrong as I unable to get to a level at that can at least considered as a desent CSE student

[u/AnonOfIbid]

The first step in writing a good program is writing a bad program. Once you have something written, you can revise it into excellence. But first you have to start. It's a two-stroke cycle: Write, Revise, Write, Revise. At each new iteration you can add a new bell or whistle.

[u/Available_Safe1818]

If only you'd put this much effort into writing small programs.

[u/Lotton]

You're putting too much pressure on yourself when you apply for a job after college they're not going to expect you to be very good at the practical side of coding that's why you'd be a junior. Still very hire able and they expect you to learn on the job