💡Thought Shares

c/coding-for-beginners

2

avery219•1d ago

Talked to a bootcamp grad who couldn't explain a for loop

We were pair programming on a basic React app and he kept copying code from Stack Overflow without knowing why. It made me realize that learning to read documentation is way more important than just finishing tutorials. Anyone else feel like they wasted time on courses that didn't teach real problem solving?

1

kelly638•2d ago

The trick that finally made Python classes click for me was drawing boxes on paper

I spent like 3 weeks stuck on how classes and objects work in Python. Watched videos, read tutorials, nothing stuck. Then my buddy who's a senior dev told me to literally draw a box on a sticky note, label it 'Class' and then put smaller sticky notes inside it for 'attributes' and 'methods'. That visual thing finally made sense. Has anyone else found some weird non-code method that helped them get a concept?

10

hollyl25•3d ago

My $60 online coding course was a total waste of money

I signed up for a "Python for beginners" bundle on a deal site last month. It was $60 and came with like 30 hours of videos, but the instructor just read slides the whole time. No real examples, no projects to follow along with. I spent 2 weeks watching videos and still couldn't write a simple loop on my own. Got way more from free YouTube tutorials honestly. Anyone else get burned by a cheap course that promised the world?

21

torres.thea•4d ago

I used to skip commenting on code because I thought it was a waste of time

For months I never added comments to my JavaScript files. I figured the code should speak for itself and anyone reading it would just have to figure it out. Then last week I went back to a project I wrote in January and spent almost 2 hours trying to understand my own logic. Now I leave at least a short comment on every function. Has anyone else had to reteach themselves their own code?

10

thomas_torres•5d ago

My first CRUD app crashed hard when I tested it with real data

I spent 3 weekends building a simple book tracking app in Python, where users could add titles and authors. When I tried entering a book with an apostrophe in the title like "Harry's Game", the whole thing just blew up with a SQL error. Anyone else run into basic input problems that totally wrecked their beginner project?

3

susanb34•6d ago

Had a week where every line of code I wrote broke something new

Last Tuesday I spent 4 hours debugging a single typo in a CSS class name on my first HTML page, and by Friday I had accidentally deleted my entire database three times trying to fix it. Has anyone else had a week where every beginner mistake just snowballed like that?

25

linda114•7d ago

My first real program broke after 6 months and I had no idea why

I made this little script to track my plant watering schedule back in January. It worked fine for months. Then last week it just stopped. Wouldn't run. I spent 3 hours staring at it before I realized I hardcoded a date in the logic and it expired. Totally forgot I did that. Now I'm going back through all my beginner projects to check for stuff like that. Has anyone else found old code doing something dumb like this?

21

milarodriguez•23d ago

Nobody talks about how boring Python is for the first 3 months

I started learning to code 3 years ago in a small community college class here in Austin. Everyone told me Python was the best beginner language. And maybe it is for the logic part... but man those first 12 weeks were brutal. I spent hours just printing strings and making tiny math problems. It felt like doing homework for a class I didn't sign up for. Then last month I tried building a simple guessing game and it finally clicked. But I still think there's way too much hype around Python being easy for true beginners. Has anyone else felt like the early grind with Python nearly made them quit?

3

ellis.faith•25d ago

PSA: That coding bootcamp I visited in Austin was not what I expected

I went to a free info session at a bootcamp near 6th street last Tuesday. They talked up job placement numbers but when I asked about the 3 people from the last cohort who didn't get hired, the recruiter just shrugged. Then I talked to a current student who said their project deadline got moved up by 2 weeks with no warning. Am I wrong for thinking these places oversell the whole thing?

13

the_harper•27d ago

Told me to stop using so many comments in my code

A senior dev looked at my Python project last month and said "your comments are louder than your code." Hurt at first. But he was right. I was explaining every single line instead of writing code that spoke for itself. Now I focus on meaningful variable names and only comment the tricky logic. Anyone else get told to change a core habit like that?

16

jade517•28d ago

Got yelled at by a senior dev at a hackathon last Saturday for not using version control on my first project

He watched me delete and rewrite the same file 5 times before walking over and showing me git in 10 minutes, and now I actually get why everyone says to commit early and often - has anyone else had a moment where someone just snapped at you and it actually helped you learn faster?

2

holly_reed55•29d ago

I finally picked between Python and JavaScript for my first language

I spent 2 weeks going back and forth, but I went with Python because a friend said it's easier to read. 6 weeks in and I'm glad I did, though I'm wondering if I'll regret it when I want to build websites later.

6

danielnelson•29d ago

The "just copy this code" tutorials are hurting beginners

I keep seeing tutorial videos where they skip explaining why the code works and just tell you to paste it in. Last week I watched a guy spend 15 minutes copying a login form from YouTube without understanding a single line. How are you supposed to debug something you never learned to write yourself? Has anyone else been burned by following along too fast and then not being able to fix it when things broke?

1

reed.skyler•29d ago

I finally changed my mind about learning Python first

For the longest time I was all in on JavaScript as a beginner language, thought Python was too slow and too limited for real projects. I spent like 6 months forcing myself through JS tutorials and kept hitting walls with weird syntax errors that made no sense. Then my buddy from a local coding meetup in Austin showed me how he built a data scraper in Python with like 20 lines of code, and it actually worked first try. Now I'm 3 weeks into Python and the logic just clicks way better for me. But I wonder if I'm missing out on job opportunities by not sticking with JavaScript. Which side do you guys land on for a total beginner Python vs JavaScript?

4

murray.jana•1mo ago

Spent 30 minutes debugging a typo in my CSS class name yesterday

Was working on a simple landing page and the button just wouldn't style right no matter what I tried. Finally realized I'd written 'btn-primary' instead of 'btn-primary' which is just a missing letter but Chrome didn't care. Has anyone else spent way too long hunting down something that dumb?

18

murphy.aaron•1mo ago

Just flushed $120 on a Python course that was all theory with zero real projects

The instructor just talked for 6 hours straight about variables and loops but never showed me how to build a single thing, so has anyone else found a beginner coding course that actually forces you to write code from day one?

1

jamie940•1mo ago

A Python meetup in Austin last month finally got me to stop overcomplicating my code

I always thought writing clean code meant using every fancy feature I could find, like lambda functions and list comprehensions everywhere. Then a guy named Dan at the Austin Python Users Group showed me his 50 line solution to a problem I had 200 lines for. He just used simple for loops and if statements, nothing clever at all. Has anyone else had to unlearn bad habits from trying to be too smart too early?

5

janah83•1mo ago

Realized I was nesting functions backwards for 3 months

I was working on a Python project last week where I had to process a list of numbers. I kept nesting functions like print(sorted(list)) but nothing was outputting right. My friend looked over my shoulder and said 'you're calling sorted on a list that's already empty because print runs first.' That's when it clicked I was ordering my operations wrong. Has anyone else had a moment where the order of your code messed everything up?

12

paige331•1mo ago

Am I the only one who found out HTML has 142 tags but most sites only use like 30 of them?

I read this on the Mozilla docs last Tuesday and it blew my mind that we're all ignoring 80% of the language for basic stuff, has anyone ever actually used a tag like or on a real project?

28

violar35•1mo ago

My friend's kid in Phoenix asked me why their Scratch game kept crashing, and I realized I couldn't explain 'infinite loops' without sounding like a robot lol.

I fumbled for like 10 minutes trying to explain why their character kept disappearing before I just drew it out on a napkin, so how do you guys explain tricky coding ideas to total newbies?

3

milarodriguez•1mo ago

Spent $60 on a Python course and it was a total waste

I bought this online Python course for beginners last month, thinking it would be a good way to learn. The site looked nice and the price was about $60, which seemed fair. The first few videos were okay, just showing how to print 'hello world' and stuff. But then it jumped right into making a web app with a database, and I got totally lost. The teacher talked super fast and didn't explain what the code was doing, just typed it out. I tried to follow along for a week, but I felt more confused after each lesson. It felt like they made the course for people who already knew a bit, not for true beginners. I ended up going back to free stuff on YouTube, which was way clearer. Has anyone else bought a course that moved way too fast for a newbie?

8

lilyp37•1mo ago

My cousin told me to just 'jump in and build something' when I asked where to start with coding.

This was at a family BBQ last summer, and I was stuck trying to pick the perfect first language. He said, 'Pick a tiny project, like a number guessing game, and Google every single step.' It worked. What's a good first tiny project for someone who's never written a line of code?

16

anderson.piper•1mo ago

Heard a guy at the library say you should start with C++ to 'build a strong foundation'

I was grabbing a book on Python basics when I heard a guy telling a new learner they had to start with C++ or they'd never really understand how computers work. That felt wrong to me. I started with JavaScript, and while I didn't learn about memory management right away, I built a simple website in my first month. That early win kept me going. If my first project had been fighting with pointers and compiler errors, I would have quit. The goal for a beginner is to stay interested and make something, not get a computer science degree from day one. What's a project that got you hooked when you were starting out?

30

the_lee•1mo ago

My friend told me to stop trying to learn everything at once

I was talking to my friend Sarah last night about how I felt stuck trying to learn Python. She said, 'You're trying to build a house before you know how to hammer a nail. Just make a simple text game first.' I realized I was reading about loops and functions for three weeks without actually writing a single complete program. So yesterday, I made a basic number guessing game in about an hour. It was messy, but it actually ran. How do you guys decide what small project to start with?

14

the_taylor•1mo ago

Everyone told me to start with Python but I'm glad I didn't

I spent a whole month trying to learn Python from a free online course and just felt lost. Last week, I switched to learning JavaScript by making a simple website for my friend's dog walking business in Portland. Seeing the code change things right in the browser made it click for me in a way Python never did. Has anyone else found that starting with web stuff just makes more sense?