How I learned to program myself in 8 weeks
For many who have never programmed, learning to program seems like an incredibly difficult task. Be that as it may, thanks to the huge amount of resources that have recently become available on the Internet and are free - self-training in programming has never been easier .
I started learning programming at the beginning of this year, and I can say from my own experience that studying enough material to create my own prototype is not such a difficult task as you think . In fact, if you want to have a working prototype for two months, without resorting to time off, this is an absolutely doable task.
Below, I described a simple path from knowing nothing about software development to owning a working prototype in eight weeks, which roughly repeats the steps I have completed.
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These two resources are a bit interchangeable. I recommend doing the first few lessons from both to see which one you like best. After you have finished one of them, look at the other concepts that are not fully understood, this is a good way to get additional theory and practice.
The first time I went through the tutorial from beginning to end just by following the instructions, step by step, without fully understanding what each step does, since everything was new.
The second time, I was not so focused on the novelty of the concept and was able to focus on understanding how all the parts are interconnected.
Again, I would recommend to try each one of them and see which one you like more. I do both, but this is probably a bust.
That's all. 8 weeks (or less) and you went from not knowing anything about software development to a working prototype. Not so difficult, right?
It goes without saying that there is a huge difference between the relatively fluent amount of knowledge necessary to create a simple prototype (in the context of this post) and the amount of knowledge and experience necessary to become a truly qualified software engineer.
PS Below are several other potentially useful resources - please leave links in the comments if you have suggestions for other resources that teach programming:
Original: How I Taught Myself to Code in 8 Weeks
I started learning programming at the beginning of this year, and I can say from my own experience that studying enough material to create my own prototype is not such a difficult task as you think . In fact, if you want to have a working prototype for two months, without resorting to time off, this is an absolutely doable task.
Below, I described a simple path from knowing nothing about software development to owning a working prototype in eight weeks, which roughly repeats the steps I have completed.
Getting an initial understanding of the Python programming language and common programming methods (2 days off):
- Learn Python the Hard Way . Despite the name, this is a fairly simple way, it makes learning basic concepts very easy, and most lessons take less than 10 minutes. However, I found that this method does not work for some more complicated topics, so I recommend stopping after lesson 42 and moving on.
- Google's python class . Read notes and / or watch videos and do all the exercises until you do them correctly - without looking at the answers . Struggling with the exercises that I constantly did wrong was very useful for me as a learning experience, and I would learn much less if I just looked at the answers and tried to convince myself that I understood the exercise.
')
These two resources are a bit interchangeable. I recommend doing the first few lessons from both to see which one you like best. After you have finished one of them, look at the other concepts that are not fully understood, this is a good way to get additional theory and practice.
Getting an initial understanding of the Django web framework (1 day off):
- Complete the Django tutorial .
- Delete all the code you created during the steps in the tutorial.
- Go through the tutorial again, again.
The first time I went through the tutorial from beginning to end just by following the instructions, step by step, without fully understanding what each step does, since everything was new.
The second time, I was not so focused on the novelty of the concept and was able to focus on understanding how all the parts are interconnected.
Gaining a deeper understanding of Python / common programming concepts (4-8 weekends):
- Udacity's intro CS class . Udacity courses are usually divided into 7 sessions (2-3 hours per session), which you can do at your own pace. (I am a big fan of Udacity pedagogy and recommend a mid-level programming class or a web development class , as follow-ups for this two-month course).
- Unit 1 of MIT's intro CS course . Really useful in learning and surprisingly easy to digest.
Again, I would recommend to try each one of them and see which one you like more. I do both, but this is probably a bust.
Practice building simple web applications (2 days off):
- Do exercises from Django in the examples . These exercises are not as strictly student-driven as the Django tutorial, but they offer a good way to start developing your own simple web applications.
Create your prototype (2 days off):
- Creating a prototype in just 2 days off? Yes, you will be confused by what it looks like ( I definitely was ), that's the whole point (translation of the quote: “If you are not embarrassed about the first version of your product, you started it too late.”
That's all. 8 weeks (or less) and you went from not knowing anything about software development to a working prototype. Not so difficult, right?
Next steps:
It goes without saying that there is a huge difference between the relatively fluent amount of knowledge necessary to create a simple prototype (in the context of this post) and the amount of knowledge and experience necessary to become a truly qualified software engineer.
PS Below are several other potentially useful resources - please leave links in the comments if you have suggestions for other resources that teach programming:
Original: How I Taught Myself to Code in 8 Weeks
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/150109/
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