The Best Way to Learn Programming

As we all can agree following YouTube programming tutorials to learn can be useful, but it can be a trap.

A trap that many call tutorial hell and lots of starting developers can easily find themselves in.

If you are in that phase, keep reading, there is a way out, how do I know this? I was once in tutorial hell, let me help you.

Learn the Roots of Programming

First of all, you need to know the fundamentals of computer science, specially self-thought developers.

I say that because I’m a self-thought developer and I know that many skip this.

If you’re getting a computer science degree, don’t worry too much, just pay attention to class and you’ll learn them.

But if you’re like me and didn’t go to college or you didn’t pay attention in class then I recommend watching CS50 by Harvard Univerity, the link will take you to a playlist on YouTube.

You can also look for the CS50 course on edX if you want to get a certificate of completion.

Once you have the fundamentals you can move on and start learning by doing.

Learn Building Small Projects

The best way to really learn programming is to start building small projects, think of anything you’d like to build.

Make a list of what projects look fun to you, design them, and start programming.

Here is a list of project ideas so you can get started ASAP.

Projects List

• Make a countdown timer
• Create a single-page website
• Create a To-Do List App
• Build a Simple JavaScript Slideshow
• Make a Weight Conversion Tool
• Build a Simple Calculator
• Create a Weather App
• Create a YouTube clone

And if you are interested I highly recommend you read “10 Frontend Development Project Ideas” and use it as inspiration.

To build these projects don’t follow any tutorials, because that’s the only way you’re gonna learn extremely fast.

If you feel like a project is out of your skillset, you could watch a video tutorial and follow it.

Once you finish the project, do the same project over again but without following the tutorial.

As I said before tutorials can be helpful but if you abuse them, they become a detriment.

A tip that helped me a lot is to think about projects as a group of components so if you learn what you need to build enough components you’re gonna be able to build anything.

And I said you need to learn what you need to build a component but not how to build it, because there’re many ways to build the same thing.

The same applies to anything in programming, there’re many solutions to the same problem, so keep your mind open and try different approaches.

And don’t forget to upload your projects to GitHub, that way you’ll be building a portfolio with examples of your work.

Design the project before you start it

This might sound like a waste of time but, literally get a notebook out and start writing all the components that your project is going to need.

Then make a quick sketch of how the project is going to look which then you can transfer to Figma, not necessary but I recommend it.

Doing this will give you a good roadmap to follow then you can start coding your project.

If your project is backend only then you can forget about this step.

In real life projects can change at any time, so don’t be afraid to make changes to your projects if it needs to be done.

And one more thing, be consistent, consistency will always be better than raw talent. And if you got talent and you’re consistent then you’ll be unstoppable.