Do you want to learn to code?
Then you’re in the right place.
Because today am going to show you the best ways to learn to programme from scratch that I used to teach myself to code.
The best part?
All of these ways have proven to work great for all beginners learning to code in 2020.
Let’s do this!
Contents
1. learn by practicing
While many beginners prefer diving into a whole series of programming books and read chapter to chapter during learning to code. This is a bad habit that will get you to know where close to learning to programme faster.
Why?
With every language, the sooner you start doing stuff, the faster you understand the given concepts in the given programming language. Programming isn’t a theoretical subject, thus one needs to get his hands dirty on PC and explore the language by doing projects. In other words, a project is the easiest way to learn a programming language for beginners from scratch.
2. Use free online resources like YouTube.
You’ve probably used YouTube,
YouTube is perhaps the home of free tutorials all over the web. If you want to learn to code easily, I recommend you teach yourself to code following the free video resources available on this platform.
With YouTube now it’s easier to learn anything online easily without spending a lot of money on paid resources.
Besides YouTube, their other free online resource sites like codecademy , Hour of code , khanAcademy and many others that can help you get started with your first computer program.
3. Code by hand
This is time-consuming!
Yes. However, coding-by-hand is by far the most efficient engineering practice that will help you learn the syntax of a programming language faster and more easily.
Because unlike programming on a computer, you can’t run hand-written code midway through the sheet to check if the work is correct. Coding-by-hand is the commonest practice used in colleges to teach students how to learn to code faster from scratch.
If you ever apply for a job, interviews for programmers are commonly carried out using this tactic since it has proven to be efficient to determine programmers with good coding practice.
4. Get a mentor
It’s easier to learn to programme from scratch once you have someone who is guiding you through. Learning to code can prove to be tricky or hard more especially if you are starting as a beginner with no previous knowledge of programming.
Having a mentor saves you from challenges like giving up which many beginners face during the earlier days of the learning curve.
However, it’s recommended that you always try out problems before seeking help from your mentor because some of the problems we face will programming can have solutions just in front of us.
5. Learn the fundamentals for long-term benefits.
This perhaps one of those important aspects many people learning to code will always ignore.
However, if you are that type of learner who skips some important chapters because you what to finish a book faster then you are probably missing out on some of the best programming fundamentals.
Learning the fundamentals of programming can always help you when you are advancing to different concepts in a language.
So whenever you skip an introduction part or chapter keep in mind that you are overlooking the most important step in your learning.
6. Learn syntax
This is perhaps the best way to learn any given programming language from scratch.
In programming, syntax refers to the rules that specify the correct combined sequence of symbols that can be used to form a correctly structured program using a given programming language. Programmers communicate with computers through the correctly structured syntax, semantics, and grammar of a programming language.
However, don’t get caught in the common trap of continuously learning and relearning program syntax. Once you’ve read two decent beginner books on your language of choice, call it good and move on to solving problems.
7. Solve problems
As we mentioned, It’s easier to read programming books than coding.
This is perhaps the most serious reason that many beginners learning to code neglect and as such few of them pass the learning syntax level since they are not motivated to solve a problem.
Learning to solve a problem can quickly expose you to many challenges that will expand your understanding of a given programming language. In fact, many programmers don’t learn to code by reading books but rather solving problems.
Solving problems gives you a sense of direction and a practical application of the programming syntax during learning.
8. Play around with sample codes.
One of my favorite ways of learning to code was through getting source codes from websites like GitHub and modify them to suit my desires. This not only helped me learn to code but also taught me about open source.
Question: So what’s GitHub?
GitHub is a web-based hosting service for version control using git. It is mostly used for computer code. It offers all of the distributed version control and source code management functionality of Git as well as adding its own features.
What is Open source?
Open-source software is computer software with its source code made available with a license in which the copyright holder provides the rights to study, change, and distribute the software to anyone and for any purpose.
9. Play coding games.
Often around learning to code is fun when you are working in creating and playing your games.
Github has over a million sample games that you can clone or download and modify to suit your needs as you learn to program.
While plenty of coding tutorials have you building simple or complex games yourself, a couple of teaching sites are literally games: Code Combat and CodinGame are two you might have fun with.
10. Relax when debugging
The daily life of a programmer is filled with thousands of bugs.
This means, don’t be harsh on yourself when things fail to work out during coding. It’s recommended to take breaks as you solve errors in your program.
You can also post your problem on online communities and forums like stackoverflow , quora where fellow programmers can help you.
11. Figure out why you want to learn to code
Choosing a direction why you want to learn to code in the first place and how much time you have devoted to learning is important .
Some people learn how to program to build websites or games depending on what they like most .
Knowing what you want from learning to code can help guide you on suitable resources you will need .
12. Make stuff
Pretty much every developer I know went straight from learning syntax to making stuff . It’s very frustrating because not only are you learning to think like a programmer, you’re also learning about frameworks, all the jargon that goes along with frameworks, how to use an IDE and a bunch of other things I won’t get into.
Once you understand syntax and can actually solve basic coding problems on your own, it’s time to either contribute to open source projects or work on some hair brained idea you’ve got. Build stuff that makes you excited to get out of bed in the morning and prevents you from falling asleep at night. Passion will get you past the remaining hard parts.
13. Choose the right language
As beginner , you’ll always come across a lot of arguments about which programming language is easier to learn .
However no programming language is difficult to learn , it depends on your motives (if you are planning to design android applications you will need too learn kotlin or java, ios developers use swift )
14. Be confident ( Be patient )
Keep calm and be patient with your progress;
because becoming an expert at anything requires hard work and time. And if a procrastination ever clouds your mind, remember that every programmer has walked this path before – none of them more destined to become a developer than you. Whichever path you are currently on, be it college or coding boot camp, the only barrier to success is your work ethic and confidence to persevere.
15. Take a coding Course
Online coding courses can prove to be rewarding .
If you want to learn programming in much easier way, i would recommend you take up online courses at some of these sites like edx , edureka, and others.
Remember these sites may not be free but they can have you become a better programmer in just a period of month .
16 . Practice Reverse Engineering .
When you reverse engineer someone else’s source code, testing each line to see how it works, you get a better understanding of the big picture. Thanks to tons of open source code, you can learn just about anything—and keep learning through the incremental-hacking cycle. Just remember to share your code back with the community if you improve on a program.
17 . Use free programming books .
Programming books come in handy as personal mentors just in case you get stuck . There are several collections of programming books on GitHub that will help you learn to code .
Conclusion
Don’t just read the books. The best way to learn how to program is by doing it. It’s easy to spend hours reading about syntax, but computer languages like human languages require you to use them in order to understand them.
Try starting with simple projects and make stuff .