Tips for Beginner Programmers

Whether you are pursuing some degree related to computer science, you are learning to program and you are from a non-computer science background, or you are learning programming as a self-taught developer. Anyways, it is very important to get started, and you have done that. But, you should watch your progress as you move forward and advance in programming.

Here, we have come up with some tips following which, you can get started and get going with learning programming. These tips can definitely help you in getting better at programming.

Before even moving to the tips, you should have the realization about why did you start programming, because that can give you some motivation to get going.

Tips for Beginner Programmers

1. Focus on the fundamentals

When you are learning to code, you are going to learn many different things, you are going to go through many different and critical concepts. Going faster while learning the concepts is good, but you should focus on the fundamentals. This would really help you construct the base or the foundation, which would be stronger because when you are getting to the fundamentals, you are understanding the basic stuff, and that is going to make a big difference as you move forward.

It is important that you get your basics clear, so it is important for us to focus on the fundamentals. You can imagine that you are constructing a building, so the foundation of the building has to be the strongest. It would help a lot later.

Remember that once you are good at the fundamentals, you can easily move to the critical concepts. The ones who rush right from the beginning of the course, to learn the advanced material, are the ones who usually get stuck. So, focusing on the fundamentals is one of the most important steps while learning programming.

2. Learn by doing

When you are learning some concept, you should just not learn it because you have to. You should try to look for some practical applications where you can implement this concept. So, you should not just go through some topic, or some concept, in a pretty straightforward way, and not try your hands on the concept, through some examples. Instead, when you are learning some concept, you should stress yourself, do some examples, and look for some practical examples where you can apply those concepts. Look around you, and try to think about how these things work.

For example, if you visit an ATM, what you would do is just insert the card, respond to some options from the screen, withdraw the money, and get the card, and it’s done. But what happened behind the scenes? How can I also program some ATMs? You have to think about it.

The bottom – line is that if you learn by doing, it is going to benefit you a lot, as you advance.

3. Get perfect with practice

Practice is a very crucial step when you are learning something. Like even if you are learning to sing, or you are learning to draw, you are learning to drive or you are learning to code, it applies everywhere. If you are not practicing what you are learning, it is not just going to work a lot. You might have heard that – Practice makes a man perfect, and that is so true! With practice, you get used to the concept, and you get better at it. Learning is not only enough, but you have to practice as well.

4. Learning theory is important, but be practical

Learning theory is very important, but the thing is that often people make the mistake, that they dive into too much theory, and they do not practice a lot, and because of lack of practice, it creates some problems later. I do not say that learning theory is not important, it is necessary to know the theory, but it is important to be practical as well.

So, you should not be just spending all the time, on the theoretical aspects of some concepts, but get going with some examples that get you to the practical side of the concept.

5. Learn to ask for help (also try to help back at times)

When you are learning to program, there would be many different problems, that you would face while learning to program. This would be the moment of testing. It often happens with many people, that they get stuck somewhere, and they get stuck so badly, that they just give up on what they are doing. Instead, you should ask for help, from your colleagues to other people, on the internet, anywhere. There are hundreds and thousands of people that can help you with this. If you have got into some problem, it can be a probability that someone in this world has also gone through that problem.

So, don’t cry and give up on that problem, and try to strive for the solution. Also, do the reverse as well. Once you come to such a stage, that you are now familiar with most of the concept, at that point, you should be helping the other beginners, who are stuck somewhere.

6. Take your own time in learning things

When you are learning something new, that is going to impact your life and your career, you should seriously take your time learning that thing. It is not like that if your other friends are wrapping up a whole programming language in half a month, so you also have to.

You need to understand one thing, that it is going to take time and effort. You will have to practice a lot, so as to get better at the concepts so that later on, it would be good for you.

7. Seek more resources related to some concept or the course.

While learning to program, if you ever get stuck on some concept, many people tend to watch the same tutorial or read the same concept again and again, but again if it does not make sense, they tend to give up on the concept, which is a wrong thing.

If you are stuck on some concept, you can search for other resources, so that you can understand the concept in a better way. You need to understand that avoiding a problem does not solve it. You should face it, and go through it.

There are many different resources that can help you, in the form of videos, articles, or books as well. You can just go through every other resource possible, to get the basics of that concept that you are stuck in.

8. If you get stuck, do not give up

When you are in a learning process, related to anything, you should not give up on it. For example, if you are learning to drive a motorcycle, and you fell down, and now you are not even trying to drive the motorcycle again, because of the fear of falling again. But you should not be afraid of that. While learning to program as well, you would get some errors, and you would get stuck at times, but you should get to the solution of the problem, instead of just giving up on it, and not even trying it. So, you should be confident while learning things, and if you ever get stuck, you should try to solve the problem, by accessing other resources, taking help from others, or anyhow.

9. Try to dry-run the programs

If you have got some ready-made program from the internet, or book, or anywhere, don’t just use it, but go through it. Try to run it in your mind. Try to explore that program, and you would understand how things are happening. Only reading some code is not enough to understand it properly. You need to go through it and try to get the most out of it. The thing is that reading the code is not as same as understanding and writing the code on your own.

10. Find what is easy for you, because it can be different for different people

Many times, when you are just starting your programming journey, there are so many choices, and it becomes difficult for us, to get started with programming. In such times, many of us end up doing what many other people are doing. But this cannot be right all the time. Different people can have different interests. For example, some people might want to get into web development, while some would want to get into Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence, while some would want to go into android application development.

So, different people are going to have different interests, according to which, they would be learning different things. Not everyone would have the same beginning. So, you need to ask yourself, where you wish to go, and you have to learn things accordingly then.

Conclusion

Above, we have discussed some of the things that should be taken into consideration by beginners while they are learning to program, or about to start learning to program. You can use these tips, and many others, to shape yourself as a good and professional developer. Using the above tips, and more, you can prevent yourself from getting into unexpected problems, and errors. Remember that without practice, confidence, exploration, thinking, etc. becoming a good professional developer would not be easy.

FAQ About programming for Beginner