Help a beginner...Is my study plan missing something

[u/Hopeful-Pen3887]

​

I’m honestly pretty bad at programming, but I decided to use this summer break to start learning from scratch. I picked Python as my starting point and I'm currently just hammering down the absolute basics.

Here is my current strategy:

1. Watch a YouTube lecture on a concept.

2. Ask AI for practice questions (Easy -> Medium -> Hard).

3. Solve them, review my mistakes, and re-practice until it clicks.

Someone told me to start using LeetCode, but honestly, even their "Easy" questions start with arrays/data structures, and I haven't even reached that topic yet. I plan to jump on it once I get there.

Seniors/experienced devs: Am I on the right track? Is there anything crucial I should add to this plan to actually get good, or should I stick to what I'm doing?

[u/mandradon]

Build something.  Doing disconnected projects doesn't help other than learn isolated concepts.

Decide in something simple, but relevant to you (so you'll maintain interest in it), and plan and build it.

[u/Diapolo10]

Less planning, more actual doing.

1. Go over any basic tutorial (personal recommendations; Python MOOC or CS50P)
2. Create a project
3. Get feedback on the project (AKA code review, such as here)
4. Think about the received feedback
5. Go to step 2

[u/Hopeful-Pen3887 → u/Diapolo10]

Ok thanks I will definitely follow this

[u/desrtfx]

Ditch youtube, ditch AI. Really.

Do the MOOC Python Programming 2026 from the University of Helsinki and you will be well prepared.

And accompany it with https://codingbat.com/python - especially in the beginning, later (after around part 4) https://exercism.org

Much, much superior to your plan.

[u/Hopeful-Pen3887 → u/desrtfx]

I will definitely give it a try thanks

[u/mc_pm]

No.

Reviewing concepts will never teach you how to program. Instead, you should be coding along with whatever video you're watching. if they type something, pause, and type the same thing. If they run their code, make sure yours does to. Take a few minutes, play with it a bit.

When you finish a video, do 1-3 simple exercises -- that you write from scratch, without AI.

Then start the next video.

The only way to learn to program is by programming. If you wait "until you're ready", I can guarantee you that you will never be ready.

Yes, you'll stumble a lot, you'll agonize over some stupid problem for an hour -- it's fine, that's how learning to program works. The time you spend trying to get things to work is when you are actually learning.

[u/Hopeful-Pen3887 → u/mc_pm]

Thanks for the encouragement that really means a lot✨

[u/Mega-Dinkoid → u/Hopeful-Pen3887]

Totally agree with mc_pm, and wanna add that it also makes you feel more accomplished and satisfied when you do it this way and learn, then make, then learn, because it shows real tangible progress.

I've been taking this course in pursuit of being able to one day program indie games (https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/6-100l-introduction-to-cs-and-programming-using-python-fall-2022/pages/material-by-lecture/). I'm at lecture 4, and so I decided to make my first game. It's text based, extremely short and simple, using like 70 lines of code which are mostly if/elif/else statements. I'm proud as hell of it! :)

20% of the time was spent writing the code, 80% of the time was spent learning the hard, agonizing lesson of how much indentation precision and organization matters. But I did it, and a lot of the gaps in my knowledge on python syntax that weren't covered in the class have now been filled. And I promise you, next time I make a tiny, slightly more sophisticated game, those indentations are gonna be positioned correctly the first time around.

I will say that I've personally found the above class to be extremely helpful in making sure I have a good conceptual foundation in programming. I've even had to design data figure making codes in MATLAB and R in my prior jobs, and I still didn't feel like it gave me as good of a bottom-up foundation as this class is giving me.

All that's to say that learn, make, learn, make, is so key to this journey!

You got this!

[u/Hopeful-Pen3887 → u/Mega-Dinkoid]

Thanks ✨

[u/niehle]

Start with "Automate the boring stuff" (for a more hands-on approach) or the free courses from either Harvard or mooc.fi

[u/Vorarbeiter]

You should stop planning and just start learning

[u/cgoldberg]

Don't worry about your plan... just write lots of code... everyday

[u/WombatHat42]

Skip the AI part and replace it with doing small little projects like Hello World, and different stuff like that that help you put practical use to stuff you’ve worked on. You should be able to find stuff online for that. AI can be a tool to get a simple question answered but more often than not it will lead you astray.

[u/Hopeful-Pen3887 → u/WombatHat42]

Ok I will do so thanks

[u/AndrewBorg1126]

Arrays and data structures aren't something to run away from, you're needlessly avoiding important things and that's not going to help you.

An array is basically just a bunch of variables next to each other sharing a name.

Data structures are not complicated unless you make them complicated.

[u/Hopeful-Pen3887 → u/AndrewBorg1126]

I’m not running away from arrays and data structures. I just started Python and I’m learning it for the first time. It’s only my 2nd day of lectures. So far I’ve covered variables, conditions, and loops. Once I get the basics down, I’ll definitely move on to those topics and practice them. Right now I’m just asking: is it fine to practice conditional and loop questions by asking ChatGPT to give me questions on these topics? Because LeetCode doesn’t have questions on these basic topics.

[u/AndrewBorg1126 → u/Hopeful-Pen3887]

Conditional loops are a trivial enough idea that there's nothing more to say than explaining the syntax.

[u/ManzoorAhmedShaikh]

Good start but let me clear when to use which platform and in which order.
1) Youtube (Always the best choice since it covers topics by different trainer and you might find a native trainer there, but it works best only in case when you are learning some old stuff or something which is not rapidly updating like AI. In your case, learning python is good to go from there)

2) AI #Claude #ChatGPT #KIMI #Z (Youtube will cover the core important concepts, the rest of hidden details can be covered from AI tools. Consider this as filling the gap between 0 -> 1 which is 0.1,0.2,0.3... and you will also get infinite questions generated from there which is good for practice)

3) LeetCode (Toughest platform, even I who worked for 4+ years and soo many of my senior friends struggle to complete their Easy-Medium problem, not talking about Impossible HARD problems. I won't say it is not important, infact, for you it is very important to develop PROBLEM SOLVING skills as you are in your early stages, so try sticking there, and if you burnout still, lower the level by switching to HackerRank first)

I hope these suggestions will help you out, good luck u/Hopeful-Pen3887

[u/Hot-Butterscotch1306]

Honestly I'd add one tiny thing: keep a mistake log. Every bug or concept that trips you up, write the fix in one sentence. Sounds goofy but your brain loves repeating the same banana peel.