How to develop a keen interest in coding.

When it comes to learning coding as a beginner, a lot of people find it intimidating and boring in their initial phase of learning. There’s no such thing as an ‘instant coder’. It takes a lot of time and practice to get good at coding.A lot of people lose interest in something because they aren’t good at it right away. A lot of coders aren’t very good when they start, and that’s okay! You might not be the greatest coder right away, or you might mess up. Be patient with yourself and give yourself a chance to get good. Struggling to learn code is completely normal and expected. Most beginners go through at least one rough patch (and often several) while they're learning to code. Interest in coding will be created only when you are so habitual of it that it comes naturally to you, which will only come through practice and by knowing the essence of coding in your life and knowing contributing to society will provide you the purpose of life and the reason to code. Thinking of coding as an outlet for creativity, a way to dig deeper into your current interests, or a way to achieve a specific goal can help you get interested. Developing an interest is a journey, it takes time and effort, moreover willingness to learn.

Focusing on the right things while you’re on your journey to learn how to code speeds up the entire learning process. It helps to learn the skill of coding as efficiently as possible. As per my experience, I’m sharing some bits of advice, by following them you may be able to gain your interest in coding and you can become a good programmer.

1. Know what coding is and its applications in real life:

Programming is basically telling the computer what to do, how to do it, when to do it, etc. By learning to write code, you can tell computers what to do or how to behave in a much faster way. Knowing the applications of coding may help you know, how you can change the world and make it a better place. From the code-breaking machine that helped end World War II to complex programs that allow airplanes to fly, modern-day life wouldn’t be possible without the extraordinary programmers behind the scenes. From programming, the machines we use in our everyday lives to writing code that changes the world for the better, coding is an instrumental process that helps innovate and advance our lives.

2. Know why to code:

If you set out to learn coding just for the sake of learning how to code and just doing it in order to earn money, you might not stay interested in it. You need to know learning to code will teach you to understand this world, to solve the problems we encounter every day in our lives and that is the best thing you can do to change this world.

3. Focus on basics first:

Remember “Greatness comes from humble beginnings”. Learn the basics of the language you are interested in first. Thoroughly understanding the basics of programming is key to becoming a great developer. You can compare this with a house, without the foundation you’ll never be able to build a decent house. To get a great foundation you can build on, you should start with the very basic concepts of programming. Make sure you really understand how things like if- statements, loops, and switches work. You should also know how to apply them. Learn about variable scope, arrays, and become one with the syntax of the programming language.

4. Find the right source of learning (Courses, books and websites):

Having the right resources like teachers, books and courses will definitely help you in developing your interest in coding. Many people lose hope in coding just because their college professors don’t teach well, or they are not guided enough to follow the right path. Nowadays you can learn everything online and that too for free via courses, youtube channels, books and websites mentioned below.

Courses:- geeksforgeeks, udemy, coding ninjas, coding blocks, etc.

Youtube channels: Jenny Lectures, Abdul Bari, Kunal Kushwaha, take u forward, etc.

Books:- Let us C(Yashwant Kanetkar), OOPS with C++(E Ballaguswamy), Programming with Java(E Ballaguswamy), Programming Python: Powerful Object-Oriented Programming(Mark Lutz).

Note: Books I have mentioned here are beginner friendly.

Websites: geeksforgeeks,hackerrank,leetcode,codechef,codeforces etc.

Note:- On these websites, you can practice questions related to coding. I recommend starting with hackerrank first and then moving on to geeksforgeeks or any other platform.

5. Don’t do it alone (find the peer group):

It can be hard to maintain an interest in something that you’re doing all by yourself, so it’s probably easier to stay interested if you’re doing it along with other people. Ask your friends if they want to learn to code with you – it can make it seem more like a social activity and way more fun. It also gives you a few resources if you run into trouble. Challenge each other and have a question-answer session, this will help you in remembering and learning new things. I recommend you have not more than three people in your group (including you).

6. Practice and Practice:

Programming is a skill best acquired by practice and example rather than from books” — Alan Turing

As I said in the beginning, interest in coding will be created only when you are so habitual of it that it comes naturally to you. This habit can only be built through practice only. Practice a lot of questions, first solve simple problems like on hackerrank or if you are beginning with C do all problems from the book, Let Us C.

Wrapping it Up:

Struggling to learn code as a beginner is completely normal and expected. It is part of the process. And you need to pass this phase with patience and perseverance. Just endure this phase and keep going by just focusing on what is supposed to be done every day. Habit and the reason to code will contribute to building your interest in coding. Knowing applications and seeing coding as the source to help society will provide you the reason and will keep you motivated in the journey of learning coding. Pick a programming language to learn and stick with it. Learning basics first and solving simple problems first is part of the process and will help you to move forward. Once you know the basics you could move on to phase two: object-oriented programming. Make peer groups and challenge each other. Through this, you will able to revise things easily and get to know different approaches to the same problem.

Last, but not least, keep practicing. When practicing you’ll run into problems that are going to make you a better programmer in the end.