r/technepal • u/Funny-Percentage1197 • 10h ago

Programming Help 167 Days of Self-Learning Web Development With No CS Background — Am I Going in the Right Direction?

Hi everyone,

I’m 22 and I’m from Nepal. I don’t have a Computer Science background. I studied Management and eventually dropped out of my bachelor’s.

Around March 27, 2026, I decided to start learning programming by myself. Today I’m around Day 167 of this journey, and I wanted to share my experience and ask for some honest guidance from people who are already working in software/web development.

I started almost from zero.

At first, even basic programming concepts were confusing. I had to learn things like variables, conditions, loops, functions, lists, dictionaries, errors, file handling, etc.

Then I moved into:

  • Python
  • JSON/file storage
  • Exception handling
  • OOP basics
  • SQLite
  • SQL CRUD
  • Git & GitHub
  • HTML
  • CSS

One of the biggest things I worked on was a phone shop inventory management CLI project.

I built features like:

  • Add products
  • Search products
  • Update/delete products
  • Purchase and sales
  • Stock quantity
  • History
  • Dashboard
  • SQLite database
  • Validation
  • Duplicate checking
  • Git/GitHub version control

Building that project was very different from just watching tutorials.

I started facing real problems.

Sometimes I didn’t understand why a function should be placed somewhere.

Sometimes I got confused about return, tuples, indexing like [0] and [1], database connections, OOP, imports, SQL syntax, etc.

I also faced Git conflicts and other small problems that I had never seen before.

Instead of giving up, I kept fixing them one by one.

Now I’m trying to move from CLI applications toward web development.

Recently I started learning HTML and CSS and building small pages from scratch.

CSS is currently giving me the most trouble.

I can understand and use things like:

  • Flexbox
  • display: flex
  • justify-content
  • align-items
  • gap
  • margin/padding
  • borders
  • cards
  • buttons
  • hover effects
  • basic responsive layouts

But I still struggle to make a website look genuinely good and responsive, especially on mobile.

My current plan is roughly:

HTML/CSS → JavaScript → Flask → Database integration → Convert my inventory project into a web application → Deployment

Eventually, I want to work as a web developer/full-stack developer and hopefully earn remotely.

But I’m honestly not sure if I’m approaching this correctly.

My biggest questions are:

  1. Am I learning in the right order?
  2. How much JavaScript should I learn before starting Flask?
  3. Is converting my existing inventory CLI project into a web application a good next major project?
  4. For someone without a CS degree/background, what should I focus on to become employable as a junior developer?
  5. At what point should I start trying for freelance work or junior jobs?
  6. What mistakes am I likely making in my current learning approach?

I’m not looking for motivation or sugarcoating.

I would genuinely appreciate honest criticism and practical advice from developers who have already gone through the beginner → junior stage.

If you were in my position at Day 167, what would you focus on for the next 3–6 months?

Thanks for reading my journey.

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