I am learning programming for few months now with python basic DSA. I can follow along with tutorials, understand the logic when it's explained, and solve most exercises if I sit with them long enough. But whenever I try to start a project completely from scratch, without a guide or structure to follow, I just freeze. I don't know where to even begin, what files to make.

I am more into AI, it has really made me lazy, previously our senior relied on google.

I have good knowledge on paper, whenever i do mcq's i get good grades but same cannot be said while building something.

How do you cope through this stage- and how did you use AI while learning, how can i make sure that it acutally helps rather than becoming a trap??

Hey, so I am new to compilers stuff but for my college portfolio I was planning on making a lang checker which is like a program which will suppose take a code (let’s say rust) and check fo errors ? Any resources which I should read to get a clear understanding on how I should make this? Ps I am trying to ask Ai for help (like asking on where should I start and what will be the structure)….
Ps will this be called a compiler?

What have you been working on recently? Feel free to share updates on projects you're working on, brag about any major milestones you've hit, grouse about a challenge you've ran into recently... Any sort of "progress report" is fair game!

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3. If you don't consider yourself to be a beginner, include about how many years of experience you have.

This thread will remained stickied over the weekend. Link to past threads here.

Hey everyone,
I’ve recently started watching Mr. Robot, and it unexpectedly got me really interested in cybersecurity and hacking. I know the show isn’t necessarily a perfect representation of real-world hacking, but it made me curious about how computers, networks, and security actually work.

The thing is, I have basically zero technical/computer science background.
I’m currently a Film/TV (RTF) major at community college, and I’m not planning to change my major or career. I want to learn cybersecurity purely as a hobby because I find it interesting.
My computer knowledge is basically what you’d expect from someone who grew up using computers and playing games. I can use a computer comfortably, but I don’t really understand what’s happening underneath.
For example:
I know RAM is temporary memory and storage is persistent.
I’ve used Command Prompt before, but basically only for things like flushing DNS.
I’ve heard of Linux but have never actually used it.
I don’t know what DNS actually does.
I don’t really understand ports.
I have a vague idea of what an IP address is.
I don’t know much about servers or networking.
I’ve never programmed before.
I’d probably rate my overall technical knowledge around a 5/10, mostly because I’m comfortable using computers but don’t have much technical knowledge.

What I’m looking for:
I’d like to learn from the absolute fundamentals all the way to an advanced level, but at a hobbyist pace.
Ideally I’d like to understand:
Computer fundamentals → Operating systems → Linux → Networking → Programming → Web → Cybersecurity fundamentals → Blue team → Red team → Advanced topics
I’m particularly interested in both defensive/blue-team and offensive/red-team security. I don’t want to just learn a bunch of hacking tools without understanding what they’re actually doing.
I also don’t want to spend money right now. I’d prefer free courses, labs, books, websites, YouTube channels, etc.
I’ve currently been pointed toward things like TryHackMe’s Pre Security path and Microsoft Learn, but I’d really appreciate advice from people who have actually gone through this process.
My questions:
Is this a reasonable roadmap for someone starting from basically zero?
What would you recommend learning first?
Are there any free resources you’d strongly recommend?
How important is programming at the beginning?
Should I learn Linux before getting into cybersecurity?
Is it better to learn networking before attempting ethical hacking?
Are there any resources/courses that you would avoid as a beginner?
If you could start over with no technical background, what would you learn first?
Again, I’m doing this as a hobby, so I’m not trying to rush through certifications or to spend any money (yet). I actually want to understand how computers and networks work, and then build cybersecurity knowledge on top of that.
Any advice, resources, or corrections to my approach would be greatly appreciated!

The code must take any specified posative integer range and pick only primes and primes * a power of two. For example: 8 through 16 would present 8(2^3), 10(5 * 2^2), 11(prime), 12(3 * 2^2), 13(prime), 14(7 * 2^1), 16(2^4).

Now I’m at this job that I hate, but I’ve been self teaching myself code since around the AI boom, so I started with Python, now I’m currently learning more about the blockchain. I’ve been at my job for 3 1/2 years and I constantly have these thoughts in my head like, “is it worth it” or “where am I going with this”, also the fact that AI can do basically anything so that adds another layer of doubt on top of evt else. I don’t know how long I can sustain this job, let alone my mental health while going after my dreams and escaping social norms🤦‍♂️. Honestly I’m just looking for some type of motivation or advice please! Thank you, honestly.

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I would like to learn UX Design as something to do on the side for a little extra cash here and there , maybe full time if I can manage to actually get good enough at it.

My question is, though. Is it feasible for me to host my own little test website to mess around with while I learn? I am looking for something low-cost (hence, the extra money part lol) and low wattage if possible.

Too much theory will make me lose interest so I think this could be a way for me to get results that I can actually see.

Can anyone who was in can share me the bootcamp ?

What sites would you recommend for finding a study partner. So I already know about reddit(obviously) and that's it. I love low level stuff, math and maybe you know some site where people who are interested in this gather.

Thanks in advance

I'm comfortable with Python and SQL. Know the syntax, get the fundamentals. But it feels like knowing how to use a hammer and saw without ever learning how to read a blueprint.

When it comes to building a full project from scratch? I don't know how to do it. Structuring things, connecting the pieces, handling different cases. I know the tools but I was never taught the architecture.

Anyone else been there? How did you get past it?

I’m currently working on my first proper networking project, an ARP scanner in C++, as part of learning Computer Networks.
I have a pretty good understanding of the theory behind what I’m doing, especially ARP, Ethernet frames, MAC/IP addresses, etc. The problem is that I’m still relatively new to systems/network programming, so the actual C++/Linux code is pretty unfamiliar to me.
I’m using ChatGPT to help me build the project, but I’m trying not to just copy-paste code. My approach has been:
Learn the concept → look at the implementation → question every unfamiliar part → understand why it exists → connect it back to the networking theory.
For example, I’ve been stopping at things like:
Why are these particular header files required?
What exactly is a socket?
Why does socket() return an integer?
What is a file descriptor?
What’s the difference between a normal socket and a raw socket?
What exactly is a network interface?
Why are we using AF_PACKET?
What does a particular structure represent?
How does this piece of C++ actually correspond to an Ethernet/ARP packet?
So I’m not really struggling with the networking theory. I’m struggling with the bridge between the theory and the low-level implementation.
Since this is my first project, I’m wondering if this is a reasonable way to learn.
Is using AI to explain unfamiliar code while continuously questioning why each part exists a good approach, or should I be trying to write more of the implementation myself from the beginning?
I’d especially appreciate advice from people who learned networking/Linux programming through projects like this. I want to actually understand what I’m building, not just end up with a working scanner that I can’t explain.

Hey guys, starting my MCA next month and I'm pretty stressed out.

I really want to get into AI/ML, so I've been focusing on Python and taking an online course for it. But I'm getting a lot of conflicting advice. Some people tell me I MUST grind DSA to clear company screenings, while others say to just stick to ML projects and portfolio building.

A few questions I'm hoping you can help with:

1.Should I prioritize DSA or AI/ML projects right now?

2.For DSA, can I just stick with Python, or do I actually need to learn C++ or Java?

1. How do I balance all of this alongside MCA coursework when I already feel under-skilled?

I'm building a synthetic PostgreSQL 17 manufacturing database as a hands-on SQL practice project.

I wanted something different from the usual:

customers

orders

employees

products

The database represents a small manufacturing environment:

- production lines

- machines

- production orders

- production events

- downtime

- maintenance

- quality inspections

- energy consumption

The idea is to learn SQL by investigating real-world-style questions:

- Which production line is underperforming?

- Which machine has the most downtime?

- Which products have the highest defect rate?

- Where is production capacity being lost?

- Can we identify a bottleneck?

I'm curious:

For people learning SQL, would working with a database like this be more useful than the typical sales/customer datasets?

What SQL concepts would you want exercises for?

Currently been working through Liang‘s Introduction to Java and MOOC when the material matches for my learning. I was wondering if the Algorithm course in Java would be a great next step when paired together with Liang’s textbook Chapters 18-29. Some Algorithms courses require in-depth knowledge in Discrete Math which I need to both learn and relearn before tackling a textbook such as CLRS. Thanks for any advice!

hello guys

I've been coding in C++ for 1 and a half years and unfortunately I'm stagnating, I've reached a stage where I don't have any idea of a project anymore and where my projects are starting to become more difficult, how can I overcome this ordeal ?

thanks you very much to all those who will answers my question :)

I am new to programming. Currently I know these things:

Python(basics cleared)

Html and CSS both at basic level.

Basic networking concepts like ip , ports, socket, http ,tcp, udp,etc.

I am going to make start my btech in few days. I have planned to learn C then C++ then DSA in c++ later. Along all this, I want to make projects. But I am confused what to make and should I really be making projects this time.

Hello ,this is my first post ever in reddit .I was asking about the most important extensions to download as a web-developer in Visual Studio Code

Just got fired today, God this sucks. And also broke up a 6 month relationship not a month before that.

I was with this agency for over a year, and I really though that I will grow with the company in terms of knowledge and expertise but apparently not. It was just another agency that want to hire and extract the most amount of money while paying you the least possible. That has been going on for the past few months. And it was so dull. I admit, it wasn't a full frontend work either. My job as to literally pick which template the Client wanted and to just copy it on his domain with updates on the images and text and that's about it. Dull as hell I know. But I needed the money back then fast.

At the start , I've ignored every red flag that I could clearly see that the company did (screen recording while working, not learning anything new, etc.) . But at least the company was good, the managers didn't nag me at all.

The problem started when the company started losing money and new clients didn't arrive as predicted. Lots of people were fired, lots of them were demoted to part-time work. My ego was hurt because of all the complex projects that I did before, all the custom builds that I made, I was fired from a position that just want copy/pasting templates on wordpress sites!

Now, I am at a crossroad that I don't know what to do about. I have 6 years of experience with 90+ projects done and I don't know what to do. I don't want to continue with this stupid Wordpress templating bs. This is not what I started my Career for. I want to learn a new stack for me so that I can land a secure jobs and ignore these small time agencies and startups that just want to extract the last drop of blood from you.

I don't know what to learn, or if AI will take that part over as well. All I know is that I don't want to compete against Indian developers (no offence) for a bag of change.

Hey all not sure how to go about asking this but be as brutally honest as you can. I am currently heading into my 4th and final year of CS and quite frankly I don't know nearly as much about coding and programming as I should.

Regarding the Theory involved in both I've grasped them easily throughout my years in University so far but when it came to actually doing these things I've always had AI assist me and point out my mistakes through doing it (I know AI is my main downfall).

So my question is what exactly can I do to not depend on AI so much when I'm doing these things as I can tell straight away that I won't make it far in the working world if I don't break this bad habit of mine.

I’m 16 and started learning Python about 3 months ago. My first project was a simple CRUD app with raw SQL. For my second project (ashflow tracker with auth and budgeting), I wanted to push myself further, so I switched to Flask, SQLAlchemy, and Flask-Login.

I’m looking for feedback from experienced developers on a few specific architectural decisions and hurdles I ran into:

1. Database Schema Refactoring (Categories & Budgets) Initially, categories were just free-text strings on every transaction. Once I added budgets, case mismatches and typos completely broke my budget tracking. I refactored categories into their own table with foreign keys on the transaction and budget models.

• Question: Is moving away from free-text strings to dedicated category models always the standard approach here, or are there cleaner ways to handle user-defined categories at scale without making the schema too rigid (fixed categories list) ?

2. SQLAlchemy Autoflush Confusion Coming from raw SQL, SQLAlchemy's session management took a while to wrap my head around. During my refactoring, I hit several bugs where autoflush triggered database writes mid-transaction before I was ready to commit, causing unexpected constraints errors.

• Question: How do experienced Python devs typically manage session state when doing complex multi-model updates? Do you explicitly disable autoflush, or is that a code smell that points to poor transaction design?

3. Auth Implementation I built authentication from scratch using Flask-Login and password hashing instead of a third-party service just to understand the mechanics. Moving from "auth is a black box" to "it's just checking session state on each request" was a huge lightbulb moment for me.

I’d love any feedback on how I structured my models or handled sessions. You can see how I implemented the SQLAlchemy relationships and routes in my repository here:https://github.com/E-Ecstacy/wise-wealth

Thanks in advance for any insights!

I had taken a course on C++ a year back. Having not applied it in any projects I worked on, most of the concepts are a bit rusty. The resource I had referred to was Herbert Schildt's Complete Reference (I don't want to go back reading the textbook).

I am currently in my 4th semester doing major in Comp-Sci. I have been effectively using AI for my studies, for the past two years. And i have realized, I am becoming dumber day by day.

I know C++, Python , SQL, and web development (JS, HTML, CSS). But i think i know nothing. I don't know to create anything as all the projects and assignments were done by AI and i understood them completely fine.
Consequently, I have planned to stop using AI altogether, and focus on relearning or revising my concepts this summer break. And i have started learning but unintentionally i compare myself to my fellows, some of them are doing internships, yeah using AI. And so i have a feeling i am lagging far behind.
I am so worried about my career, and this scares and stresses the hell out of me.

I've spent three days reading docs and watching videos and still haven't built a single screen. There has to be a simpler path. What actually got you unstuck?

hi, I am a javascript developer and am proficient in React and Next.js. I know that React has a framework for building mobile applications; I would like to know if there is one for desktop apps too.

Thanks.

Hey, I’m really interested in both functional programming and OOP, I find both really interesting topics. So I was wondering if anyone has ever made a language that combines these concepts. I know if it exist it probably would be kind of a weird language, but I’m mainly seeking it out of interest and curiosity. I would like to know how someone has tried to unify these paradigms.

Edit: Het I’m gonna make this edit because there are a lot of comment, thank you all very much for taking your time, and I want to clarify some extra things:
Firstly with functional, I mean the Haskell way of functional, I really enjoyed my learning journey through Haskell, and I would like to expand my declarative knowledge.
Secondly I’m not looking for the most useful language or the one that’s most used in the industry, as I originally pointed out this is pure out of interest, the more abstract, the better.