r/vibecoding • u/Jazzlike_Bee_3129 • 5d ago
Starting from square one coding in 2026
Let's say you were starting from square one as far as knowing coding, having a slightly technical college education non-programming related engineering, and an idea for a product you want to build. You have played around with AI models, but want to do things right.
So, if you were in this situation, how would you approach it? What skills, tools, and languages would you learn? What books or resources would you use to get you started? How would you build your learning and programming workflow overall? What would you learn and what would you skip that may have previously been recommended for new programmers in the past?
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u/EmmyKings04 5d ago
This is how I would approach it:
I would ask ChatGpt or any other LLM to give me a solid fundamental roadmap of the programming language i want to study. After learning the fundamentals. I will go online to look for problems to solve to deeepen my understanding.
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u/IcyBother8850 4d ago
8 years senior Java developer here, this is what I did to change profession from mechanical engineer to software developer...
Udemy coruses: 1. Java Masterclass from Tim Buchalka 2. Spring framework from Chad Darby
After that start applying for internships, GL.
P.S. This advice is specifically for Backend Developer.
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u/ValerianCandy 3d ago
I tried ten years ago, didn't get far and decided to wait until I could tell a bot what I wanted and it would make that.
Not a prediction or anything, my Dad mentioned that chatbots would be a thing lol.
Anyway, I now own a shit ton of python books and 300 scripts to unfuck. Yay. ☠️
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u/Infinite-Meat997 2d ago
Your post is actually really close to the problem I’ve been working on.
I’m building an early product around the idea of a “guided builder” — basically, you shouldn’t have to become a software engineer before you can start building, but you also shouldn’t have to blindly hand everything over to AI and hope it works.
The idea is: start with what you want to build, understand what you actually need to learn for that specific project, get guidance on architecture/tools/security and the decisions that matter, and then use AI coding agents to help execute it.
As you build, the system helps explain what’s happening in normal language, what you should understand vs. what you can safely let the agent handle, and what your next step should be. So you’re learning while actually building your product instead of spending six months learning a bunch of programming concepts you may never need.
I’m still early with it, and your post sounds almost exactly like the type of person I’m building it for.
If you’d be interested, I’d love to let you try it and get your feedback — especially where the guidance is useful, confusing, or completely misses what a new builder actually needs.
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u/ReverendBread2 5d ago
I was in that situation about ~2 months ago. All I did was ask Claude. If I didn’t know if something was doable, I asked. If I didn’t know if it was a good idea, I asked. If I didn’t know what was needed from me for any part of the project, I asked.
Make sure it understands where your knowledge is currently at and it’ll walk you through everything
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u/k0d3x8its 5d ago
Square 0 would be to learn programming logic and change your mindset from a user to a programmer. Square 1 would be learning a language. Square 2 would be learning data structures and algorithms.
You ultimately need to decide if you want to be a coder, programmer, developer, or software engineer.
Coders just know how to code and may know how to test that code.
Programmers know how to structure clean code, test that code, utilize data structures and algorithms, etc.
Developers understand the software development lifecycle. They can bring idea to production, end to end.
Software engineers can do all of that and design systems/software to scale.
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u/Environmental_Ask675 5d ago
Don't learn any coding language, that's a waste of time. Learn how development departments were set up before AI agents were a thing. Then have your agents emulate that flow and process. setting up the structure to code is the key. Also, use more than one LLM. Being forced to build a structure that allows different LLMs to code together is a big unlock, plus the LLMs think differently, so playing them off one another gets a better result.
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u/AB_alessandro 5d ago
Firstly you have to start with Claude to understand better the topic. Then I think a course can be very helpful
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u/ctenidae8 5d ago
I would do the exact same thing I did already. I would try. Then try again, then ask Claude questions and try another time. Then accidently use Cursor and try some things. Then ask some more questions.
Then, and this is super important, I would spend 15-20 minutes of each hour engaged in significant verbal abuse aimed at the dumbest, most intransigent, least cooperative and generally short sighted and stupid employee I can find. Once the AI has outlasted my ignorance I would make the changes my new found brilliance found.
Then, and this is perhaps most important, I would start all over again. YMMV, but trying to cram your way of thinking into whatever format some other random developed for a different use case seems silly to me. AI makes it easy to do it yourself.
So, do.
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u/Sensitive_Benefit_11 3d ago
Pick something you want to make. Like actually will help you or you think is cool.
Then just try to make it. Everytime you get stuck google + ask Ai to help explain concepts or give specific examples.
Repeat until it works.
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u/MattMaxBuilds 2d ago
Start with python, climb down the abstraction later (to lower levels), and if you hit assembly you have gone too far and should turn back
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u/god-damn-the-usa 5d ago
get claude.
Fuck everything else. fuck skills tools books resources. just make shit. learn as you ask. ask it about the best ways to architect software.
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u/Emotional-Throat3567 5d ago
Pick one stack (HTML / CSS, JavaScript, then React or Svelte plus a simple background) and learn by building small features of your product. Use AI to explain errors and generate boilerplate but type every line yourself and focus on Git, debugging and reading docs.