Success Tips When You are Learning To Code

The journey to becoming a successful programmer or coder is full of hiccups and undulations. There will be times when you will want to quit entirely and times when you wouldn’t want to leave your system for hours. Thus, having a determined attitude is the key when learning computer coding.

The first step to becoming a successful computer programmer is having sound knowledge of the fundamentals. A firm grasp of elementary concepts like variables, operators, arithmetic operations, etc., along with data structures and algorithms, is very much recommended to get started as a programmer.
1. Use ALL of your resources:
  1. Attend class
  2. Read chapters
  3. Practice with examples
  4. Utilize ALL the class resources!
  5. Create a personal notebook of new items you are learning
When learning to code, mistakes are bound to be committed. If you start feeling bad about each of your mistakes, you will soon get frustrated. Instead, learn from them and use them to mark your progress.
1. You learn from making coding mistakes - even professionals make mistakes.
2. Code small sections at at time - don't try to write the whole program at once
3. Review your code once you are done to make improvements
4. Write clean code - use good coding practices.
As the popular saying goes, “Rome wasn’t built in a day”; you shouldn’t expect great things from the very first day. We understand that you have lofty goals that you want to accomplish, but, learning to code is a gradual process, and you shouldn’t hurry with things. When learning to code, assimilate the knowledge at a steady pace and make sure it sticks with you for a long time.
1. Becoming an expert programmer takes time - remember the rule of 10,000 hours.
2. If you get stuck - take a break
3. Once you learn the tools - learning another language is pretty easy.
Don’t hesitate to ask for help from peers and professors.
1. Homework Huddle
2. Make an appointment with the Professor
3. Use the Slack Channel
4. Google is your friend