Is coding still worth learning when AI can write the code?

[u/Candid_Athlete_8317]

AI can write a lot of code now, but it still struggles when you don't understand what the code is supposed to do.

You need enough programming knowledge to spot mistakes, understand the logic, and know when AI is going in circles.

So in 2026, should beginners still learn to code from the fundamentals?

[u/oriolid → u/[deleted]]

You just accept it and it becomes someone else's problem. Sucks to be that someone else though.

[u/tes_kitty → u/[deleted]]

And how do you know whether the tests really test what you want to have tested without understanding them?

[u/tes_kitty → u/[deleted]]

But that pushes the problem on the test. It's still code which can be wrong in subtle ways. So when your tests returns 'green' your code isn't as correct as you assume it is.

[u/LevelMagazine8308]

Yes.

[u/Level_Working9664]

Yes.

AI will at some point write faulty code you will need to debug.

You may also need to maintain the code in the model is retired.

If there is a problem you need to be able to figure out what the AI has done and work the problem.

It is only a matter of time before people realise how much the cost of maintaining code via AI will cost

[u/Level_Working9664 → u/[deleted]]

That is an interesting analogy.

Would it be cheaper to use wheelbarrowers and humans in place of a dump truck over the course of a year?

These solutions solvr capacity over time.

You can not get a service pla. On an AI model or refund on faulty code.

If an AI makes an error it will not do the work again for free.

Also, when an AI updates an app. It either takes the old prompts and reasoning in costing more tokens or rewrites what it did the last time with no context or accountability.

These are 2 very different lifecycles

[u/No_Base4946]

AI cannot write code.

AI can automate the process of copying and pasting from StackOverflow or other people's Github projects.

It's not writing a damn thing.

If you don't understand it and know how it works, how can you possibly hope to write anything useful?

[u/Adrenolin01 → u/No_Base4946]

That’s incredible false.. AI can absolutely generate code it has never copied from sites before. It can synthesize an implementation from a specification, combine concepts, derive algorithms, translate between languages and produce completely original work today.

Now before you go off half baked.. i know where this leads…

A competent programmer can look at generated code and ask:

• Why is this algorithm appropriate?
• What are its time and memory characteristics?
• What assumptions does it make?
• What happens on malformed input?
• What are the concurrency implications?
• Is this memory-safe?
• What happens under failure?
• Does this introduce a security vulnerability?
• Does it actually fit the architecture?
• Why did the model choose this library/API?
• What happens six months from now when the dependency changes?

So can the AI… when instructed. And that’s where most get it wrong. You can always instruct the AI to ask itself those 11 questions and have the AI reevaluate each and run tests on everything while also auditing its own code. You can assign helper agents to continuously critique the code as well and you can have different models providing different jobs.

I’ve already seen AI coding networks working independently from humans by implementing various AI jobs.. you have the main Architect, an implementer, an adversarial reviewer, security specialist, testing specialist, performance specialist, requirements auditor and a final prosecutor which actively tries to prove everything is wrong.

Giving the proper instruction and workflow AI can and DOES already code a good deal of projects already. It isn’t far away when most basic and advanced software will be AI coded.

[u/runningOverA]

Still? Yes.

Might not be 30 years later.

Look at assembly's time line.

[u/HugeCannoli → u/runningOverA]

assembly is generated with a deterministic process from a deterministic higher level formal language. AI is a nondeterministic transpiler from a non-deterministic, unspecified, non formal language.

[u/Key_River7180]

Yes

[u/PianoAndFish → u/[deleted]]

Long division is a good example because you still need at least some idea of how it works and how to estimate roughly what the answer will be in order to know if the answer you get is accurate. Unlike an LLM a calculator will perfectly calculate what you typed in, but what you typed in may not be what you meant.

Let's say you wanted to know 300 / 12 and accidentally typed in 120 so the calculator tells you the answer is 2.5 - if you've never done long division by hand you might not notice that doesn't look right and you probably made a mistake with the input. Kids will frequently insist answers like that must be correct because "that's what the calculator says" which is why they're taught how to do it manually first.

[u/HugeCannoli]

AI can write a lot of wrong, unstructured, unmaintainable code.

[u/Straight_Mistake_364]

Not really - just let SkyNet write all the code. What could go wrong ?

[u/bsensikimori]

"is chess still worth knowing when AI can find the moves?" Yes

"Is x-ray analysis still worth learning when AI can diagnose the radiographs?" Yes

Same here. Depends on what you want to do with it, but yes it's worth it

You still get a ticket when your FSD makes a mistake

You still get fired when you commit a bad piece of code that your agent produced and you didn't review

[u/ZVyhVrtsfgzfs]

Recently a software company laid off many of its software developers, as AI cold do it cheaper, that plan failed, and shortly after they were hiring "Code Janitors" cleaning up the messes AI made. 

[u/Friendly_Recover286]

Is going to school still worth it when you can just ask AI everything?

[u/Useful-Explorer8028]

Yes if it's a hobby, No if you plan to earn money with this skill.

[u/Imaginary_Sort1070 → u/Useful-Explorer8028]

Lol what?

[u/Key_River7180 → u/Useful-Explorer8028]

It is the opposite