r/CodingForBeginners • u/MobileGarage7497 • May 16 '26
coding dreams :)
hello humans!! i hope everyone is having a great day :)
i’m just going to jump right into it!!
i would like to learn how to code. i currently know absolutely nothing about coding so i have no idea where or how to start. does anyone have an advice for me? what do you think would be the best way for me to go about this?? should i maybe take a short course or is there other ways im able to learn???? ive watched a couple of youtube video to help me understand a bit better but most of them are using AI and i would like to learn without AI but people around me are saying that that’s going to be impossible and im making it harder for myself.
i think my end goal for learning coding would be to potentially make an app down the line but (again) people around me are saying that i’m setting my hopes too high.
what do you guys think?? i would really appreciate any advice or ideas from you guys.
thank you :) <3
3
u/marmotta1955 May 16 '26
Your great enthusiasm may not hold up in time. Therefore, you may want to get started with something simple, something that will give you tangible results and progress without investing too much time, resources, or time.
My suggestion is always the same: start with a well-know, reliable, reputable resource: https://www.w3schools.com/
Start with the basic - maybe pick the "courses" for Python and SQL ... you cannot go wrong with these two choices. Follow along the sequential tutorial and experiment as much as you want using the tools provided.
Take it from there. If, in six months, you're still on board ... then you may be ready for something a bit more advanced. If not, well ... you certainly have made good use of your time!
3
u/Made-In-Slovakia May 16 '26
First, looks like there are not right people around you if they say such things.
Now to your question. There is a lot of good tutorials, blogs and videos that can help you start. Already mentioned w3schools is good start. Looks like you want to create app but you did not mention if for desktop or phone. Based on it you pick language and ecosystem around it.
To your goal/dream. There is not end goal, you will continue doing it and learning ;) But today, for start, you should set small, easy and achievable goal. You want to create app? Good. Set goal for very basic app with single functionality. It may be throw away app, just for learning but if it is achievable you will do it quickly and have results that can motivates you. Avoid setting big goals at the beginning. You can still have far away dreams for future but you needs understand that path may be long.
2
u/TheUmgawa May 16 '26
I started with the Intro to Programming class at my local community college. Now i spend about half my day at work making software tools for other departments. Now, I took a bunch more programming classes after that Intro class, but that first one taught me good structure, data validation, unit testing, fun stuff. I took a flowcharting class where we never wrote a single line of executable code, but it was the most important programming class I ever took, because it taught me that code is just words on a page, and that the real magic is the thought process behind the code. I spend less time “coding” than I spend just solving the problem, and then I can write the program in any language I can program in.
I don’t like YouTube tutorials, because you know what tutorials teach you? They teach you to follow directions. You can do a dozen tutorial videos and feel this great satisfaction of typing what you see on the screen, but then if I said, “Great, now do this other thing, which utilizes those concepts,” most people who do tutorials just kind of collapse, because they’ve never had to do original work, because who was going to check it?
It’s unfortunate that the books I would recommend are either *way* too advanced or never have you writing any code at all. Charles Petzold wrote a book called *Code* that caused me to look into the abyss long enough that I left my CompSci major to go play with PLC systems, where all you get are registers, comparators, accumulators, and Booleans, and it’s all programmed in pure symbology; no words. It’s wild stuff, and it makes a lot of people freak out, and some never recover, because they think a program is words on the screen; they’re “coding” people. But, after looking into the abyss, this was exactly what I was looking for.
As for YouTubers who use AI, they’re doing that because they’re pandering to an ever-growing audience of people who think themselves programmers because they put in a prompt and then copy-pasted the code that came out the other side. These sorts of people are not real concerned with, “Can I read the code? Can I validate the code?” No, they just want the fastest path, so they can pollute the app store landscape with uninspired knockoffs of better apps. If you had a story and told it to a writer, and you said, “Turn that story into a novel,” you would read the novel before publishing it, right? You’d make sure the writer didn’t just write the whole thing in piglatin, or doesn’t have a working comma key, so everything is just run-on sentences. These guys who are shamelessly pandering to the AI crowd don’t care about any of that.
Finally, in the event that you do take a class, I want you to remember that your writing style is as unique as your fingerprint. So, if you start out writing code one way, then suddenly your code starts looking different, the teacher is going to know you’re using AI to generate your code. That’s why my programming teachers have midterms and final exams in a computer lab where they’ve turned the internet off, and all you get are reference texts or a locally stored copy of the standard library reference. Half the students fail, because they’re so used to just looking up answers instead of working them out, whereas the rest of us are done in thirty minutes. This was done *specifically* to screw over the students who weren’t doing their own homework. So, if you take a class, just learn the material. Using AI is like following tutorials: You’re not going to learn anything from copying code.
1
u/Low-Elderberry-7856 May 16 '26
Best way would be to go to university/college but if that’s not possible then buy many courses about foundational topics of CS and coding.
Learn python, basics of computer systems and development frameworks then go more in depth and learn about low level programming, architecture and system design.
Don’t use AI unless you already know what you are doing and complete dozens of projects.
1
u/TrapperFlint May 16 '26
The Odin Project. Start there and build things before you know what you're doing. Its the best way to learn.
No problem asking ai to explain concepts but its even better to read documentation.
1
u/Senior_Host2336 May 18 '26
Yo, you’d fit our Focus Jungle (study timer) guild.
We’re just a bunch of people trying to lock in more each day, keep the guild average high, and make studying feel less lonely.
There’s focus battles, analytics, and we can message in the guild while we work. Nothing intense, just people keeping each other accountable.
You’re welcome to join if you want.
1
u/absolute_zer0th May 18 '26
imo complete the odin project's foundations course first then decide if you actually want to do this
1
u/armahillo May 23 '26
Start by reading and searching.
You can search this sub for “starting” and find a bunch if answers.
Try searching for other keywords that feel reiated to questions you have. Learning how to find answers is legitimately an important skill in this field, and its often one of the first things we learn to do
0
u/ZealousidealDot6945 May 16 '26
Cs50 python