How to Learn Programming? (STOP Learning Python!)

"&lt;p&gt;You want to learn programming and be the Mr. Robot of your own show. But that&amp;rsquo;s not as easy as it sounds, is it?&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Since you&amp;rsquo;re here I&amp;rsquo;m assuming you&amp;rsquo;re either an absolute coding beginner who needs to read this &lt;a href=&quot;https://devbrains.tn/blog/best-programming-language-you-should-learn-in-2021&quot;&gt;introduction to the world of bugs&lt;/a&gt; or a new member of the programming family (in that case welcome!).&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Either way, what you&amp;rsquo;re looking for is a roadmap, to guide you through your learning journey.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Well, not to brag, but you&amp;rsquo;re in The right place.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;hr /&gt; &lt;p&gt;Here&amp;#39;s our agenda:&lt;/p&gt; &lt;ol&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;#The Wrong Approach to Learn Programming&quot;&gt;The Wrong Approach to Learn Programming&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;#The 5-Step Process of Learning any Programming Language&quot;&gt;The 5-Step Process of Learning any Programming Language&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;#Learn Programming for Free at DevBrains&quot;&gt;Learn Programming for Free at DevBrains&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;#Let’s Sum Up&quot;&gt;Conclusion&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;/ol&gt; &lt;hr /&gt; &lt;p&gt;Before I give you the recipe you&amp;rsquo;re looking for, I would like to throw some light on the number one reason stopping most people from becoming great programmers (I see you want to skip this, obviously I can&amp;rsquo;t stop you, but I don&amp;rsquo;t think you should).&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;h1&gt;&lt;a id=&quot;The Wrong Approach to Learn Programming&quot; name=&quot;The Wrong Approach to Learn Programming&quot;&gt;The Wrong Approach to Learn Programming&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h1&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;T&lt;/strong&gt;here are thousands of coding courses on the Internet (most of which are GREAT), with millions of people studying them. It&amp;#39;s shocking that so few people finish a Coding 101 course on Udemy or Coursera compared with how many people enrolled.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;What if I told you that almost all of those who gave up in the middle of the road have one thing in common?&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s not laziness or unproductivity. But a &lt;strong&gt;common mistake&lt;/strong&gt; so many new programmers tend to fall in.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Most of these people are motivated, and full of energy to start their dream career.&amp;nbsp;They buy a book, a course, or watch a random Youtube tutorial. For the first days, they&amp;rsquo;re excited and eager to learn. After a 20min tutorial, they&amp;rsquo;d say &amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;This is so easy! I think I&amp;rsquo;m gonna skip it and go do real code&amp;rdquo;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;At first, it&amp;rsquo;s perfect, and they seem to be the coding master they think they are. But the moment they start their first project, they hit a bottom.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;They start questioning themselves &lt;em&gt;&amp;ldquo;Am I really meant to code?&amp;rdquo;&lt;/em&gt; &amp;ldquo;&lt;em&gt;Do I really have what it takes?&amp;rdquo;&lt;/em&gt;, and eventually give up.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Their mistake?&lt;/p&gt; &lt;div style=&quot;background:#eeeeee; border:1px solid #cccccc; padding:5px 10px&quot;&gt;Algorithms&lt;/div&gt; &lt;p&gt;In every program, algorithms determine how a problem will be resolved. These algorithms are essential because there is more than one way to solve the same problem. In fact, in a research done by professors Anna Eckerdal, Michael Thun&amp;eacute;, and Anders Berglund from Uppsala University (&amp;ldquo;What does it take to learn &amp;#39;programming thinking?&amp;rdquo;),&amp;nbsp; some students use the word &amp;rsquo;&lt;strong&gt;logic&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;rsquo; when they discuss how to think when they learn to program. This is how one student described it:&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&amp;quot;It is the understanding of how the programming language is built rather than the speciﬁc command,...., it&amp;rsquo;s more the thinking itself, the l&lt;strong&gt;ogical thinking&lt;/strong&gt;.&amp;quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;That being said, learning algorithms is going to be a major step in our roadmap.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;After knowing what you shouldn&amp;rsquo;t do, let&amp;rsquo;s get into what you should do to learn to program effectively and efficiently.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;h1&gt;&lt;a id=&quot;The 5-Step Process of Learning any Programming Language&quot; name=&quot;The 5-Step Process of Learning any Programming Language&quot;&gt;The 5-Step Process of Learning any Programming Language&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h1&gt; &lt;p&gt;I know. There is no &amp;ldquo;best way&amp;rdquo; to learn anything, not just coding. However, I&amp;rsquo;ve noticed, from my own experience and others around me, that we seem to naturally go through the same process. And after some research, I realized it&amp;rsquo;s not just me and my coder friends, it&amp;rsquo;s millions of programmers who choose to follow this process.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;And, I can promise you one thing, &lt;strong&gt;it works&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Note:&lt;/strong&gt; It is possible to perform these steps simultaneously. It is only for clarity that I have numbered them.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;h2&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/h2&gt; &lt;h2&gt;1. Choose a Programming Language&lt;/h2&gt; &lt;p&gt;Your first logical thinking exercise is choosing a programming language, to some extent, this choice will determine the efficiency of your learning journey.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Beginners, Don&amp;rsquo;t Start with Python!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;For a weird reason, many people (especially beginners) choose Python.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Here&amp;rsquo;s how some research back it up:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&amp;quot;The easiest thing in Python is to write &amp;ldquo;Hello World&amp;rdquo; program. Most programming languages require writing a lot of specific methods, or functions, class or program declarations, etc. But Python gives the ability to start programming without those requirements.&amp;quot;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Journal of Physics: Conference Series 423 (2013) 012027&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;They even back it up with visuals:&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://i.postimg.cc/qRXzCpvq/Python-is-Easy.png&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;Python as a first programming language&quot; src=&quot;https://i.postimg.cc/qRXzCpvq/Python-is-Easy.png&quot; style=&quot;height:348px; width:744px&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;br /&gt; Let me ask you a question: Are you looking for the easiest way around?&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;If you are, then these arguments will sound logical to you. But to someone who wants to thrive and shake the coding community one day, this is nonsense!&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Then what programming language should you start with if you&amp;rsquo;re an absolute beginner?&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;DevBrains says &lt;strong&gt;C&lt;/strong&gt;! Take it from someone who knows both languages: Once you learn C, every programming language will seem easy, not just Python.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;I&amp;rsquo;m not a Beginner&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;If you&amp;rsquo;ve already got a few programming languages under your belt, and happen to speak Arabic, there is a list of 100% Free tutorials waiting for you:&lt;/p&gt; &lt;ul&gt; &lt;li&gt; &lt;p&gt;Easy Admin 3&lt;/p&gt; &lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt; &lt;p&gt;Symfony 5&lt;/p&gt; &lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt; &lt;p&gt;Python&lt;/p&gt; &lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt; &lt;p&gt;Database creation&lt;/p&gt; &lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt; &lt;p&gt;And more&lt;/p&gt; &lt;/li&gt; &lt;/ul&gt; &lt;p&gt;You can simply access them and start learning now: &lt;a href=&quot;https://devbrains.tn/tutorials&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;GET STARTED&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;h3&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Mistakes to Avoid&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h3&gt; &lt;p&gt;There are basically two mistakes that you should avoid at this stage:&lt;/p&gt; &lt;ul&gt; &lt;li&gt; &lt;p&gt;Don&amp;rsquo;t skip any step: Some details may seem obvious to you, but if you skip them, you&amp;rsquo;ll end up messing up every project you work on. So take my advice, and work on understanding the fundamentals of the programming language you chose.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt; &lt;p&gt;Stick to one language: I know, you&amp;rsquo;ve just your coding journey, you&amp;rsquo;re excited and want to shake things up. However, if you learn more than one language at once, you might end up messing things up instead.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;/li&gt; &lt;/ul&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;h2&gt;2. Learn Data Structures &amp;amp; Algorithms&lt;/h2&gt; &lt;p&gt;Data structures, as well as algorithms, should be studied thoroughly. Programming is all about data structures and algorithms.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;You will be solving many problems to sharpen you&amp;rsquo;re &amp;ldquo;programmic thinking&amp;rdquo; skills. Here are 3 tips that&amp;rsquo;ll ease the process:&lt;/p&gt; &lt;ol&gt; &lt;li&gt; &lt;p&gt;Solve problems on your own (no cheating)&lt;/p&gt; &lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt; &lt;p&gt;Using existing algorithms, understand how problems are solved&lt;/p&gt; &lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt; &lt;p&gt;Come up with original ideas and implement them.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;/li&gt; &lt;/ol&gt; &lt;h2&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/h2&gt; &lt;h2&gt;3. Practice, Practice, Practice&lt;/h2&gt; &lt;p&gt;Practice makes perfect, even in coding.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;That&amp;rsquo;s why you should focus all of your efforts on it.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Try to solve as many problems as you can, and don&amp;rsquo;t be afraid of getting stuck, because you will. In fact, I don&amp;rsquo;t think there is a single programmer on earth who hasn&amp;rsquo;t spend their vacation trying to come up with a solution to some problem instead of chilling out.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How many hours a day should you spend coding?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Glad you asked.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;This number will absolutely depend on your level of progress, however, we&amp;rsquo;ve come to a formula for that at DevBrains:&lt;/p&gt; &lt;ul&gt; &lt;li&gt; &lt;p&gt;30min-1hr/day for absolute coding beginners&lt;/p&gt; &lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt; &lt;p&gt;1-3 hrs/day for intermediate coders&lt;/p&gt; &lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt; &lt;p&gt;3-4 hrs/day for advanced coders&lt;/p&gt; &lt;/li&gt; &lt;/ul&gt; &lt;p&gt;To have a more in-depth understanding of this formula, you can have a look at &lt;a href=&quot;https://devbrains.tn/blog/the-perfect-number-of-daily-hours-you-should-spend-learning-code&quot;&gt;The Perfect Number of Daily Hours You Should Spend Learning Code.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;h2&gt;4. Work on Personal Projects&lt;/h2&gt; &lt;p&gt;Once you&amp;rsquo;ve reached a level where you can solve quite complex and big problems, random exercises on the internet will seem boring to you.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;At that stage, you may want to start working on your own personal project.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;You get to work on what they want without anyone telling you what you should and should not do. A side project could be as simple as building a simple app, or it could be as complex as building a website. If you don&amp;#39;t have an idea, here are &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.codementor.io/@npostolovski/40-side-project-ideas-for-software-engineers-g8xckyxef&quot;&gt;40 Side Project Ideas for Software Engineers&lt;/a&gt; to take some inspiration from.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;It is important that your work be visible to others, one known platform to do this is &lt;a href=&quot;https://github.com/&quot;&gt;GitHub&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;h2&gt;5. Get Programming Experience&lt;/h2&gt; &lt;p&gt;Now that you successfully completed your own personal projects, you&amp;rsquo;re absolutely ready to take it to the next level and get some professional experience that you can stick to your CV as a bonus.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Here are &lt;a href=&quot;https://devbrains.tn/blog/8-precious-tips-to-help-you-get-programming-experience-in-2021&quot;&gt;8 Precious Tips To Help You Get Programming Experience&lt;/a&gt; and master the programming language you&amp;rsquo;ve chosen.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;h2&gt;&lt;a id=&quot;Learn Programming for Free at DevBrains&quot; name=&quot;Learn Programming for Free at DevBrains&quot;&gt;Learn Programming for Free at DevBrains&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h2&gt; &lt;p&gt;You&amp;rsquo;re ready to start a new journey and sail the sea of code. We&amp;rsquo;re gifting you a free ship at your disposal.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;At DevBrains, we offer free coding tutorials covering various technologies in Tunisian dialect. You can start learning today by simply registering here:&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;section class=&quot;section-wrapper bg-light&quot; style=&quot; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0,0,0,0); --blue: #007bff; --indigo: #6610f2; --purple: #6f42c1; --pink: #e83e8c; --red: #dc3545; --orange: #fd7e14; --yellow: #ffc107; --green: #28a745; --teal: #20c997; --cyan: #17a2b8; --white: #fff; --gray: #6c757d; --gray-dark: #343a40; --primary: #007bff; --secondary: #6c757d; --success: #28a745; --info: #17a2b8; --warning: #ffc107; --danger: #dc3545; --light: #f8f9fa; --dark: #343a40; --breakpoint-xs: 0; --breakpoint-sm: 576px; --breakpoint-md: 768px; --breakpoint-lg: 992px; --breakpoint-xl: 1200px; --font-family-sans-serif: -apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,&quot;Segoe UI&quot;,Roboto,&quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;,Arial,&quot;Noto Sans&quot;,&quot;Liberation Sans&quot;,sans-serif,&quot;Apple Color Emoji&quot;,&quot;Segoe UI Emoji&quot;,&quot;Segoe UI Symbol&quot;,&quot;Noto Color Emoji&quot;; --font-family-monospace: SFMono-Regular,Menlo,Monaco,Consolas,&quot;Liberation Mono&quot;,&quot;Courier New&quot;,monospace; font-size: 1rem; font-weight: 400; line-height: 1.5; color: #212529; text-align: left; font-family: Inter,serif; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; background-color: #f8f9fa!important;&quot;&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;col-md-11 row offset-md-1 col-sm-12&quot;&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;col-md-6 col-sm-12 m-auto&quot;&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;m-0 font-weight-bolder bt-3 text-primary&quot;&gt;Master&lt;div class=&quot;dark-blue d-inline&quot;&gt; coding&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;div class=&quot;bt-2&quot;&gt;Learn and improve your coding skills &lt;br&gt; thanks to our free tutorials in &lt;b class=&quot;font-weight-bolder text-primary&quot;&gt;Tunisian &lt;/b&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;dark-blue d-inline&quot;&gt;dialect.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;/register&quot; style=&quot;text-decoration: none;&quot;&gt;&lt;button type=&quot;button&quot; class=&quot;btn btn-primary btn-lg px-4 me-sm-3 mr-2&quot;&gt;Create an Account&lt;/button&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;/tutorials&quot; style=&quot;text-decoration: none;&quot;&gt;&lt;button type=&quot;button&quot; class=&quot;btn btn-outline-primary btn-lg px-4 mt-sm-460&quot;&gt;Get Started&lt;/button&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;div class=&quot;col-md-6 col-sm-12&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;/build/images/intro.gif&quot; alt=&quot;Start Coding Like a pro With DevBrains&quot; class=&quot;img-fluid&quot;&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/section&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Currently, DevBrains has the following technologies covered:&lt;/p&gt; &lt;ul&gt; &lt;li&gt; &lt;p&gt;Symfony 5&lt;/p&gt; &lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt; &lt;p&gt;API REST&lt;/p&gt; &lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt; &lt;p&gt;Python&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt; &lt;p&gt;Flutter&lt;/p&gt; &lt;/li&gt; &lt;/ul&gt; &lt;p&gt;Many more are to come, in the simplest way possible!&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;h1&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/h1&gt; &lt;h1&gt;&lt;a id=&quot;Let’s Sum Up&quot; name=&quot;Let’s Sum Up&quot;&gt;Let&amp;rsquo;s Sum Up&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h1&gt; &lt;p&gt;Now let&amp;rsquo;s sum up all of that in a few lines, sometimes my lazy self jumps to this section too.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Although there is no &amp;ldquo;universal way&amp;rdquo; to learn programming, we have a roadmap that we followed and found to be quite effective.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s made of 5 steps:&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;1. Choosing a programming language: we don&amp;rsquo;t hate Python ( we actually have a complete playlist of tutorials for it), we just believe that it&amp;rsquo;s not the perfect first language for a beginner.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;2. Learning data structures and algorithms&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;3. Practicing daily&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;4. Working on personal projects&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;5. Getting programming experience&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;If you happen to be an experienced programmer, how was your approach? Is it similar to ours? Let us know in the comment section.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;"

How to Learn Programming? (STOP Learning Python!)

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