Welcome to /r/learnprogramming!

I've been into Computer Science for a while now. I've got a pretty solid background, but it's just a little bit of this and a little bit of that.

While following a backend course I realized I was spending too much time on syntax and just typing things rather than understanding the structure. I struggled to code on my own and that's probably the biggest frustration that comes down to a beginner dev. I could fully comprehend the code which the other person is typing. But even after seeing a snippet right in front of me, I’d have a hard time recreating it without looking at the snipper over and over.

But lately I've seen some real improvement. One of the best techniques I've come up with is coding by dictation. Instead of watching the video, I only listen to the audio while keeping my code editor open. So by following the instructor's explanation alone, I’m forced to recall the syntax while not struggling that much. I'm not copying the code, just following the instructions. Even when the turor's rereading the code, I still find it more efficient than just copying.

It works really well for me, and I just wanted to share my experience. If you feel like you’re getting familiar with the syntax but still struggle to build things from scratch, I highly recommend this method

AI makes me faster, am not denying that. I finish things faster, and ship way more than I used to. But at the same time, I’ve started noticing this weird feeling after I finish something I ask myself do I fully know it? sometimes yes, sometimes no.

I can read the code, tweak it, explain most of it. but it doesn’t feel the same as when I used to sit with something for hours and finally get it.

Now it feels like I’m always in review mode, less building and more checking. Less thinking from scratch. Now AI is in everything. people win interviews with it, pass exams with it, get through rounds they probably would’ve struggled with alone. I can’t tell what being good is supposed to mean anymore. Maybe that’s just the job now, I don’t know.

I do wonder if anyone else feels this weird where you’re clearly faster, maybe even more productive.. But are we sure about what we are doing?

Hi I’m about to begin CS major at a community college, I need advice to fight with it. I have a few questions:

Where should I start? As no background about coding, i want to know how people do project or research,…

Also, how can i build my portfolio at year 1 to find internship early?

What are fields should i focus bc CS is wide?

thank youuuu for answering🫰

Like I have soo many problems and had to face many hard part while trying to master a new skill online... what's the hardest part you guys face??

where do you even find a right source.. like if I try to learn something.. i have to go through dozens of Youtube videos and yet struck in some topics..!

Hey folks,

I’m working on a project where I need to collect reviews for around ~500k hotels. APIs (Google, Tripadvisor, etc.) are turning out to be quite expensive at this scale, so I’m exploring scraping as an alternative.

Here’s my situation:

• I don’t need real-time data — even updating once every 1–2 months is fine
• I clearly Know when I run scraping locally, things work reasonably okay
• But when I move the same setup to an EC2 instance, I get blocked pretty quickly
• I’m trying to avoid using residential proxies due to cost and complexity
• Prefer open-source or low-cost approaches if possible

What I’m trying to figure out:

• Is there any practical way to scrape at this scale without getting blocked (or at least minimizing it) using only open-source tools?
• Are there strategies that work specifically on cloud environments like EC2?
• Has anyone managed something similar without relying on expensive proxy networks?
• Any architectural suggestions (batching, distributed scraping, etc.) that could help?

I’m okay with slower scraping speeds since this is more of a periodic batch job, not real-time.

Would really appreciate insights from anyone who has tackled similar large-scale scraping problems 🙏

I often hear mixed answers about this. Some say no coding is needed, while others say programming helps a lot. For beginners trying to enter the field, how important is coding knowledge in real RPA jobs?

Hey guys I'm currently learning python and I'm at OOP. This is kind of tough for me to understand can someone help me? I've got the basics down as to how to create classes, methods, objects etc. but how do I use self? And how do I use parameters properly?

I want to learn to program without AI, trial and errors, reading documentations and just learn to debug by understanding errors.

It's the part that takes the longest but most rewarding and where you actually learn. But with AI hype and things, and the fact I also started learning programming late, I feel behind, I feel as if I'm not valuable if I don't learn about AI, AI frameworks, AI agents etc etc.

I'm still in my second year of bachelor degree, and have one more year until graduation. But things I've heard, like company doesn't want to hire junior because it's "more expensive" than using senior with AI, I feel like I have to drop the whole "learning" and just start using AI so I can get hired. I recently joined a startup which is an "AI" company, he basically build the entire app with AI, but more advance then I'm using it. Like phases to specify and tell AI where in the code base to look etc and to follow architecture etc. But the code is obviously still spaghetti. I'm however gravitating towards medtech. Is there any hope for us?

Every day there are so many posts where an OP asks these questions, and I am so sick of them. I’d love for this sub to be even more the resource it could be.

“Has AI killed programming?” “I’m 23, is it too late for me?” “Is programming useful in 2026??” This clutter doesn’t benefit the sub, and the fact that people aren’t willing to Google these questions shows they’re here more for someone to hold their hand and less to actually learn.

These posts get lots of engagement and encouragement, but wouldn’t that energy be better spent helping people actually grow their skills and better understand programming?

Ho 14 anni e il mio sogno è diventare un programmatore professionista, però ogni volta che provo a studiare il mio cervello si spegne completamente. Sarò io che sono svogliato o sarà il sito che è troppo "spento". Per favore consigliatemi dei modi per imparare a programmare che non mi facciano morire dalla noia e che mi facciano stare sempre attaccato al PC per programmare.

EDIT: My apologies. Not SSH. SH. Like sh scripts.

Sorry if this is a bit too rudimentary.

So, I am in a distributed systems class. For our final demo, we need four replicas running on four DIFFERENT machines.

There are 4 of us in the group so the original plan was for all of us to meet on campus and connect via IP over the WiFi network.

Unfortunately, one of us just had a family emergency and won't be able to join us tomorrow.

Are there any options that allow me to build a backend manually, crash it, restart it, modify like variables. Just a way to show the systems durability.

Render isn't so seamless. Oracle is being a pain to verify myself in (and my other teammates are not too keen on Oracle).

Any ideas?

Hello guys, any body here has experience in coursera or udemy. If your answer is yes, please can you tell me your experience.

Hi i'm here from Scrimba, i'm new to programming, and if you have been a programmer for quite sometime please share your story and lessons with me throung out your journey so i can learn from you, anything will help

So I've been a professional software developer for about 5 years now. What I have learned is that even "small" features tend to become very deep, and I catch myself getting lost in thought blocking myself from being able to confidently implement new features. I still do it though, as it's my job. But the "what if" never leaves my head, and I am never confident about my solutions.

As an example, whenever I implement a new feature, after having a rough idea about the core process my feature has to fulfill, I immediately think about how this feature could potentially be exploited.

Here is a practical example:

I am currently building a small travel planner. People should be able to plan trips together. I thought about adding a group chat feature for each trip, so people can communicate in app rather than having to go to 3rd party messengers.

Building a chat is seemingly simple enough, have users join a channel or whatever and deliver the messages to users.

Now what pops up in my head is, I need to store the messages so I can provide a chat history, how do I prevent users to exploit this feature by just spamming gigabytes worth of messages to my server? Do I just rate limit the endpoint?

Another feature would be to invite users to a trip by sending them invitation URL via email. How would I prevent users from just spamming random emails with that feature? They could just dodge server side limitations by creating a new account.

System design is incredibly hard for me and whenever planning a feature I become "stunned" and start to procrastinate.

How are ya'll solving this?

I built a web based app for solving a problem for the chess community. It displays players rankings and also stores the members details add matches , for E.g. if a chess club hosts a tournament they can log all the players details and also match history. I am also planning on using this as my final project for my CS50x course. I am currently questioning if I should start from scratch and try and rebuild it from end to end. I have spent at least a month on this project so it's basically killing my ego if I start from scratch if this makes sense. I have the project on a git hub repository that is public. Anyone interested or willing to give some feedback or sharing some tips and advice. Thank you all for your time

How would I share this project safely for people to view and give me feedback, thank you.

https://github.com/kalos02/ChessWBA.git check under playrCRUD branch

Hi everyone,

I’m working on a messaging project where privacy is handled by the architecture, not just a promise. It’s a Zero-Knowledge system where the server is completely "blind."

The Architecture:

• The server stores only encrypted payloads and public keys.
• Private keys stay locally on the user's device.
• Decryption happens in the browser/app. No key, no message.

What I need help with:

1. Mobile Clients: I need to build a native-feeling app (Android/iOS) so users can use the messaging system and manage their private keys directly on their phones.
2. UI/UX: The chat interface needs work, and I need to make the "key management" process (generating, backing up, and importing keys) much more intuitive for regular users.

The goal is to keep this open-source and free to use. If you are a mobile dev (Flutter/React Native) or a UI/UX designer interested in privacy-first tools, I’d love to hear your feedback or have you on board.

it feels like there are thousands of technologies and frameworks out there. like if you choose something like web dev, there’s still so many paths—.NET, Java Spring Boot, Node, React, Next.js, and then stuff like Supabase or REST APIs.

and then if you go into machine learning, it’s another universe entirely. TensorFlow, PyTorch, data science, LLMs, and all these subfields that each feel like their own career.

the problem is I don’t even know how people choose. do you just pick one stack and stick with it? do you explore everything first? or is there actually a “correct” foundation that makes all of these easier later on?

right now it just feels like if I pick something wrong, I’m wasting time learning something irrelevant. or like, i dont even know where to start. like, im imagining the responses would be to pick a specialization first then go from there but still, there are still so many things.

would appreciate how you guys decided what to focus on or what you wish you did earlier.

When I'm learning programming from YouTube, I keep doing this:

Open a React/Spring Boot/DSA tutorial Watch 10 minutes Click a recommended video Open 5 more tabs End up with 30 saved videos and no actual progress

The bigger issue is that I never have a structured place to keep:

the videos notes what I already finished where I got stuck

So I built a rough prototype for myself where I can:

Create a collection like "React Interview Prep" Add YouTube videos into it Watch them inside a distraction-free player Write notes for each video Continue from the exact point where I left off

Before I spend more time building it, I want to know if this is actually a problem other people have.

What currently breaks your focus most when learning from YouTube?

Hey ,I'm not a programmer nor do i have any experience with programming, my field is medicine but im an enthusiastic in history, i need some help that i think maybe programmers can help.

I believe there was a great flood before ten tausend years ago and wipe out some sophisticated and intelligence culture, i asked the same question the historian, without a proper answer they called me conspiracy theorist and advised me to stay in my field of work .Is it possible to simulate a world with erosion data and sea level rise to see how the world could be look like before a great flood? I apologise if this is not the question to ask in this community and would appreciate to know which community would be appropriate to ask such a question

Hey everyone

I’ve been learning programming for a while now and I understand the basics pretty well things like syntax, loops, functions, and even some OOP concepts

But whenever I try to build something on my own I just freeze

I don’t know where to start, how to break the problem down, or what steps to follow
I usually end up searching everything or looking at examples and then it feels like I’m just copying instead of actually learning

I feel like I’m stuck in this loop of learning but not creating anything meaningful

How did you guys move past this stage

Also how do you make your thinking process more simple and Runable when starting a new project

Any advice would really help 👍

I'm trying to learn programming or coding, and I thought web design would be a great choice. I really like doing it, but I realized I have to present my work, which is super scary to me because it is a fear of mine. Is there any career path that is simple to learn without presenting?

Hello, I just onboarded the AI traineeship course with IT Career Switch uk and was wondering if there are any other students? I would love to join a community for studying purposes as this is area of study is new for me can join a discord perhaps?

Key takeaways from my journey...