Congratulations, you’ve decided to take on the challenge of learning how to code. At this time you may be feeling motivated to learn a new skill that could possibly change your life. I’m sure you’ve already done your research on the languages you want to learn, mapped out how you’re going to go about learning them, and already have a clear path on using those skills to better your life. In this blog post, I want to share what I think are the 5 best ways to learn code, and hopefully it will make your journey a little easier.
Tutorials
Following tutorials was probably the first thing that came to your mind when you decided to teach yourself code. A simple google search of “code tutorials” can bring you a plethora of results that can be overwhelming. Instead of going through the hundreds of tutorials out there, I hope this blog post can help you navigate through all those courses and find the ones you can benefit from the most. But first, let me explain some things to keep in mind while going through these tutorials.
- Take notes! It’s a proven fact that if you write things down, you’ll have a better chance at remembering what you’re trying to learn. If you can’t actually write with pen and paper, then open up a notes application on your computer and start taking notes that way. Taking notes will help you learn code faster, and you’ll have another resource to reference when you get stuck with something.
- Make sure to apply what you just learned. So you’ve gone through the tutorial and completed it, now what? You may realize that after you complete a tutorial, you may feel like you haven’t learned anything. A way to fix that is to apply what you learned. And the way you apply what you learned is by building something. If the tutorial you’re following is project-based, then try to deviate from it and create something slightly different from what the project is. For example, if you are building a To-Do list, maybe you can create a Recipe list off of the concepts you learned from the tutorial.
Keeping those couple things in your mind while going through tutorials will help you improve and learn code much quicker. A few places I recommend for beginners to go to get started is Treehouse, Udemy, Codeacademy, and FreeCodeCamp.
Having somebody with more experience teach you
Mentorship. This way may be difficult when you’re just starting out. Since you may not know people with years of experience, it will be a good idea to seek those that have been in the industry for some time. Having someone that can guide you in the right direction can save you lots of time in your journey of learning how to code. Instead of googling and aimlessly searching the internet when stuck on a problem, you can go straight to a mentor and possibly work through the issue together, which will allow you see how programmers/developers actually think. So where can you find those experienced developers? The internet. Go to LinkedIn or Facebook and connect with every developer/programmer you can and simply strike up a conversation! Tell them you are just starting out and you saw that they have a lot of years/experience in the industry and wanted to get their advice or something related to code. You may not get a lot of responses back, but I can guarantee you will get some responses. Most people in the tech industry are more than willing to help because they remember being a beginner themselves. You can also find mentors at your local meetup. It is probably a better idea to find mentors through meetups because of the face to face interaction you’ll share, which makes it easier to connect with someone. Nonetheless, there are many people online that can help you, so make sure to try and find them so that you can learn code the best way possible.
Books
Learning to code through books is almost the same as learning through a tutorial. Usually with books, the concepts are explained and then there is example code showing how those concepts are applied. Like the tutorials, it is best to take notes and follow along with the project while going through the book. Also to take it to the next level, you can create your own project using the concepts you learned in the book.
Be careful about learning how to code through books, you want to make sure the content and the technologies being used is up to date with the current state of the web industry. If your goal is to learn code, then it would probably be a good idea to learn the most in demand technology, which would then increase your chances of landing a job.
When choosing a code related book, its best to get one on a topic that has been around forever and probably won’t change anytime soon. Books like these are usually about best coding practices or design patterns. These kind of topics can usually be covered in any programming language, because it is more about the why instead of the how. Those books teach you a way of thinking, and also shows solutions to common problems you’ll face when writing code. This is why having these kind of books as a reference can help you as well.
Building your own projects
This approach may be the best of all ways to learn how to code, because you’re actually coding. While coding, I can 100% guarantee you will run into an issue that you have no idea how to solve. Having the ability to solve those kind of problems from searching the web is a vital skill to have for programmers/developers. You’ll soon realize that Google and StackOverflow will become your best friend and being able to search effectively will increase your chances of solving that issue.
There is a huge difference from following a tutorial versus just building something. When you’re following a tutorial, you are being guided through the project. Most of answers and rock blocks are already done for you. All you just have to do is follow the tutorial and you’ll have a completed project by the end of it. With building your own project, you’re on your own. There isn’t a narrator there to guide you through each step of creating something. Instead you’re the one in charge making all the tough decisions. And trust me, by doing this, you’re going to see massive improvements in your coding capabilities and confidence.
Wondering what kind of projects to build? The best kind are the ones you can see yourself using. Think of a problem you currently have. Now try to think of way you can solve it by creating a website or app. It doesn’t have to be anything extravagant. It can be something as simple as a Food Tracker App that allows you track the foods you’re eating. The idea behind this is, if you run into roadblocks you can figure out a way to get around them. A vital skill programmers/developers can have is the ability to solve problems, and if you can practice that skill, you’ll not only learn code quickly but you’ll also be an effective web developer.
Reading other developers code
When you get in the habit of reading other developers code, you’ll be exposed to many different coding styles, patterns, and solutions to solve a problem. One true fact about coding is there are a million and one ways to solve a problem, it’s more about doing it the right way and solving it in a way that’s efficient, maintainable, and scalable. That is what makes you stand out amongst other developers.
There are many ways you can go about reading other developers code. It can be as easy as going to any website and opening up the inspector (dev tools) and just going through all the DOM elements and seeing how they are styled. Within the inspector you can find out a lot about a website, so be curious and try to find out as much as you can. If you have an Instagram account, you can follow code related pages and see code snippets or other code related topics on your feed. Same goes for Twitter, search for code related hashtags, and follow developers that produce content you’re interested in.
The idea behind this is to get in the habit of reading and seeing code. Like i mentioned before, there are a million and one ways to solve a problem, so seeing all those different approaches and solutions can only improve your coding skills. Think of it this way, the more code you’re exposed to, the more tools you have in your arsenal. Then with knowing all those ways to solve something, take it to the next level and solve it in a way that’s efficient, maintainable, and scalable. Doing this on the regular basis, overtime you’ll start to realize you are reading code like it’s plain English. And after you learn a couple programming languages you’ll realize the patterns that apply across all languages, and at that point you’ll be able to understand code from any programming language. So be curious, find code from good developers, understand their code, then try to apply it to a problem you are trying to solve. Rinse and repeat.
Conclusion
So while you’re coming up with your plan on how you’re going to learn code, try a couple of these ways and let me know if it helped you at all (click here to tweet me). I can guarantee that if you stick with it, you are going to learn how to code, and remember to be patient while learning, because this stuff is hard, it will take time to really understand and become proficient with it. So don’t have the expectation that you are going to learn how to code overnight. The right approach to have is knowing coding is a very broad subject and its is nearly impossible to know everything about it. With that in mind, learning how to code is more of a lifelong journey, each day you are going to learn something new. That’s what makes coding what it is. Knowing you don’t know nothing but always willing to learn in order to grow into the best programmer/developer you can be.