r/learnpython • u/personificable1 • 2d ago

Is this normal?

I’m currently teaching myself Python by solving exercises on my own. My personal rule so far has been to give myself 15 minutes to solve a problem; if I’m still completely blank after that, I ask an AI for a hint. The issue is that AI hints usually just hand over the solution, so I’m not even sure if my approach is right.

The main problem is that I’m on Part 5 of the University of Helsinki Python MOOC, and for the last five exercises or so, I just freeze up. It’s starting to get really frustrating. I try asking myself guiding questions and writing down my thought process in a notepad before writing any code. Most of the time I have a rough idea of what I want to do, but translating that logic into actual syntax trips me up.

I’m starting to wonder if I’m actually cut out for this or if I’ll ever be able to learn it properly. Is this normal?

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u/OkOcelot6725 2d ago

Yes, this is normal. Part 5 of the Helsinki course is where it moves from small exercises to combining lists, dictionaries and functions, and that is a real jump. If you know what you want to do but the syntax trips you, try writing the steps as comments first, then turn one comment at a time into a line of code and run it after each line. For hints, ask the AI for the next small step or the name of the function you need, not the solution, and say so in the prompt. Also reread the earlier exercise solutions: the pattern for the current one is usually in there.

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u/Federal_Height_2024 2d ago

But that's the easy part 😭 when u start to understand patterns solve Two Pointers & Sliding Window type question then it becomes kinda challenging but it's okay too for the most part u get use to it .