I want to start coding but how?

[Wakka101]

Hi,

 

So this year I am going to graduate computer science college and tbh I haven't learned a single thing. I knew everything I've been told and the only reason I'm still going is because I don't know what to do yet. 

 

Today I did research in highly offered jobs (in the Netherlands) and found out Software engineering or Data Scientist pays very well and my interest is going towards it so I won't be bored making it my job. After some researching I found a video that told me to fully invest my time into learning one programming language and thought Python would be best.

 

My question is what should I actually try to learn and what'll be best for me to get the most knowledge from. I've seen people recommend free courses, schools or just google, but I can't seem to find what's best. Can anyone help me out with this? Thanks!

[G1venchy]

@HQEnjuu can help you 

[Wakka101]

@HQEnjuu can help you 

Aighttt thanks  I'll be waiting for a response 

[FaithHF]

Thing is, what's best is completely subjective to your background, goals, aspirations, etc.

 

I'm assuming you have at least SOME programming knowledge if you did at least some college, so you're probably not at a complete beginner level. That being said, you might not be particularly advanced in the theory part either, depending on what program you took (college in Canada is 2-3 years of just scripting mainly, paired with some sysadmin stuff, but university level compsci is theory-heavy, doing stuff like algorithms analysis, graphics and mathematics, and more abstract software-engineering patterns.) If you aren't versed on theory but you can write scripts and basic programs, then you'll want to brush up on your Algs+DS as well as maybe some linear algebra, depending on the field you want to go into. (Those high-paying jobs likely concern themselves with speed and architecture design, not just making a product that works at a bare minimum.) Most programming interviews are mainly just DS+Algs anyway, so you should have a solid theoretical foundation going into them.

 

It really shouldn't take you more than a weekend to learn a new language (unless it also involves learning a new paradigm or learning third-party libraries) so I'd tend to not worry about the language you're using or the languages you want to learn. Python is a good place to start, but Java is still used most frequently in enterprise environments.

 

You might need to drop a bit more information about what you actually want to do at your future job. I'm sure you have some sense of that if you're graduating soon.

[Wakka101]

Thing is, what's best is completely subjective to your background, goals, aspirations, etc.

 

I'm assuming you have at least SOME programming knowledge if you did at least some college, so you're probably not at a complete beginner level. That being said, you might not be particularly advanced in the theory part either, depending on what program you took (college in Canada is 2-3 years of just scripting mainly, paired with some sysadmin stuff, but university level compsci is theory-heavy, doing stuff like algorithms analysis, graphics and mathematics, and more abstract software-engineering patterns.) If you aren't versed on theory but you can write scripts and basic programs, then you'll want to brush up on your Algs+DS as well as maybe some linear algebra, depending on the field you want to go into. (Those high-paying jobs likely concern themselves with speed and architecture design, not just making a product that works at a bare minimum.) Most programming interviews are mainly just DS+Algs anyway, so you should have a solid theoretical foundation going into them.

 

It really shouldn't take you more than a weekend to learn a new language (unless it also involves learning a new paradigm or learning third-party libraries) so I'd tend to not worry about the language you're using or the languages you want to learn. Python is a good place to start, but Java is still used most frequently in enterprise environments.

 

You might need to drop a bit more information about what you actually want to do at your future job. I'm sure you have some sense of that if you're graduating soon.

 

I basically have to start at 0, idk why but school in the Netherlands are weird. I've worked with SQL, networking, a little bit of Powershell and mostly physical hardware but that's it. Just did some research and i guess you can compare it with a community college in America. The best job I could get right now is working at servicedesk and work my way up to system engineer or being a network administrator and I just don't wanna stop there.  

 

My goal atm is to just learn the basics, because I have litterally no programming knowledge whatsoever. Right now i'm thinking about going to higher degree college where they learn all kind of stuff like programming etc, even though I hear lots of people say to just skip college because jobs are looking for knowledge and not a degree. Right now I also wanna learn this so i can do stuff like most people do on these kind of forums like making programs where I can learn from.

 

After graduating I wanna get programming job and my end goal is to work for myself with a swe job. I talked to some guy that was experienced with all this and he told me to learn Grind75 

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You said "It really shouldn't take you more than a weekend to learn a new language" but that's going to take way more time for me. So would it be best to just invest my time in mastering python?

[Wakka101]

Update: I just read some threads about starting programming and found out LinkedIn learning helps with a really good start.

[FaithHF]

I'll let you in on a little secret:

 

Literally any place is a good place to start.

 

Beginner progamming is 100% fundamentally identical. No matter where you learn from, you will learn the same concepts, completely language independent. Java has iterators and for loops, just like Python. Same goes for Javascript. At more intermediate/advanced levels, you learn about design patterns and paradigms like OOP or FP, as well as DS+Algs. Still mostly language-independent, even though some languages might have you implement those things yourself since they won't be included in the standard library.

 

The less time you spend figuring out 'where' to learn, the more time you'll spend actually learning.

 

My thoughts on LinkedIn Learning personally is that it's not necessarily bad, but I haven't found any kind of 'forbidden knowledge' on there. I did one course on "Embedded C" but it really just covered bit fields and small optimizations, which are also taught in Prata's "C Primer Plus" (6th ed.) In other words, it teaches nothing that isn't covered somewhere else. All materials teach the same things, just using slightly different words. Really no different than buying a Udemy course on sale, or pirating a book from your favourite publisher.

[Wakka101]

I'll let you in on a little secret:

 

Literally any place is a good place to start.

 

Beginner progamming is 100% fundamentally identical. No matter where you learn from, you will learn the same concepts, completely language independent. Java has iterators and for loops, just like Python. Same goes for Javascript. At more intermediate/advanced levels, you learn about design patterns and paradigms like OOP or FP, as well as DS+Algs. Still mostly language-independent, even though some languages might have you implement those things yourself since they won't be included in the standard library.

 

The less time you spend figuring out 'where' to learn, the more time you'll spend actually learning.

 

My thoughts on LinkedIn Learning personally is that it's not necessarily bad, but I haven't found any kind of 'forbidden knowledge' on there. I did one course on "Embedded C" but it really just covered bit fields and small optimizations, which are also taught in Prata's "C Primer Plus" (6th ed.) In other words, it teaches nothing that isn't covered somewhere else. All materials teach the same things, just using slightly different words. Really no different than buying a Udemy course on sale, or pirating a book from your favourite publisher.

Cool, thanks for helping me out!

[imenload]

You can start with sololearn app in the google play store, it is an excellent place to start with.

[Anon9213]

I started with a project in mind and then started learning how to do things one by one. I wanted to create a website. So I learned how websites are made and how to get basic one up. Then wanted people to be able to create accounts, from there I learned about networking and databases and so on.