Welcome to /r/learnprogramming!

Hey everyone, as the title says, can I actually learn development by following end to end projects online?
I’m a computer engineering graduate who just landed my first job ever. I have some basic knowledge of Python and C. I understand loops, functions, and have a very basic understanding of data structures, but that’s pretty much where I’m at.

I’ve been looking for a job for about a year and a half and I honestly don’t know why it took me this long to actually start developing my skills. Now that I finally got a job, I really don’t want to disappoint them or get fired.

They told me they aren’t expecting me to know much programming and that they’ll teach me, but I still want to be prepared. I just don’t want to be the person who slows everyone down because I don’t know anything.
My biggest problem is that I know the basics of programming, but I have absolutely no idea how to actually build something.

I’ve watched so many programming tutorials, but they always seem to go over the same things like variables, integers, loops, functions, etc. I already understand that stuff. What I don’t understand is how you go from knowing those things to actually building a website, an application, or any kind of real project.

I’ve tried following along with projects online, but then I start wondering if I’m actually learning or if I’m just copying what the person in the video is doing. If someone told me to build something from scratch, I honestly wouldn’t even know where to start.
One of my coworkers told me I should use AI to help me, but I really don’t want to become dependent on it. I want to actually learn how to solve problems and build things myself.

I feel pretty lost right now and I’m getting frustrated. I know I’m probably starting later than I should have, but I really want to improve and become good at this.
So what would you guys recommend for someone in my position? Is following end to end projects a good way to learn? If so, how do I follow them in a way where I’m actually learning instead of just copying?
I’d really appreciate any advice on what I should focus on or how I should go about learning from here.

I kept telling myself I needed to learn one more thing before starting a project because I didn't feel ready. So I'd watch another tutorial, feel like I understood everything, and then have no idea what to do when I tried something on my own.

Starting small projects and actually getting stuck has taught me way more. When I don't know how to do something, I have a reason to figure it out instead of just watching someone else do it.

I'm still pretty new to programming, but I wish I'd started building stuff sooner instead of waiting until I felt “ready

I have been self teaching programming languages for a few months. And I learned the basics of C, Python, HTML & CSS, and some parts of NodeJS, and a little bit of Java. None of these are feeling good to me.

Has anyone else gone through this feeling where no language feels satisfying early on?

If you have gone through this, can you give me any suggestions to get out of this loop and stick to one language? As you know I need to stick to one language in the future.

And for no reason I am feeling like I need to continue Python and start to learn C++. What do you think about this too? i am so frustrated.

I love coding. I truly am.

When I started, I enjoyed most programming languages . I love learning their different core concepts, execution models and things like that.

I still love that.

But now in my new job, the only thing I am supposed to do is prompt and think about business requirements.

Even though I love architecture and system design system , I don't even have a chance to have grasp on them.

Any other tech jobs where I can enjoy coding and low level things?

Pretty much what the top says. I have in my watch later playlist two long masterclass tutorials for Java. I see people saying that they start projects immediately and I’m just like… how? How if I don’t know anything. Should I wait til I get a decent grasp of the basics or is that something that comes a byproduct of going out and making shit on my own. Is it really a good idea to go make even a small project with little to no understanding of the language.

Hi everyone I am a starting to learn C programming but can't do it because I get stuck in logic.

I know the fundamentals or the theory but can't implement them when I start to code something.

I recently stumble upon full stack like the odin project which has a roadmap and I kinda love it the way it has projects to learn well I want something like that for C programming too to learn low level language please can somebody recommend me a free resources (YouTube or a website) to learn.

I used to think I was getting better at programming because I could follow along with tutorials pretty easily.

Then I tried building something without the tutorial open.

Completely different experience.

I’d know roughly what I wanted to do, but suddenly I didn’t know what to Google, what the error actually meant, or even what the first step should be.

I’ve started spending more time building small things from scratch, even when they turn out ugly. It’s frustrating, but I think I’m learning more from being stuck than I was from watching another 2-hour tutorial.

For people who’ve been learning for a while, what helped you make that jump from “I can follow this” to “I can figure this out myself”?

Near complete beginner programmer here, challenging myself to make a roguelike game;

a 2-D top-down game in Unity similar to the binding of isaac, but based around customizable bullet firing patterns. I would like each item to affect at least 1 out of every 8 bullets fired on pattern, giving it a unique ability (i.e homing, explosive, elemental dmg, spreadshot etc.) with potential to layer affects atop eachother (i.e Noita) creating unique bullets. I've designed an inventory system with 8 slots (each one pertaining to a shot on a 1-8 firing round) with 8 additional slots above for layering.

...hopefully that made sense lol

Keeping in mind that I'm a beginner, what would be the best way to structure this with my scripting? I've heard some say its rule of thumb to give each item (bullet modifier) its own separate .cs script, others say it's easier to make a scriptableobject + ItemData + modular projectile effects.

If you're a c#/Unity veteran, walk me through how you would go about making this type of item/inventory system from scratch?

It would be super helpful to have an ongoing consultant figure, I would be happy to show more of my project if anyone would like to add me on discord :)

Hey everyone! I’d really appreciate some advice from experienced devs on how to kick off self-learning and which resources are actually worth following.

I’m a 3rd-year college student majoring in Software Engineering. College has been a huge letdown: I feel pretty demoralized because I still can't really code, struggle to focus, and don't know where to find good learning materials (clear courses, sites, or YouTube channels).

Right now, I’m leaning towards Frontend. My college teachers suggested this roadmap: HTML → C# → JavaScript → SQL.

Does this stack even make sense for starting in frontend? What proven resources would you recommend for a complete beginner? Thanks a lot!

As a first-year computer engineering student, I decided to tackle building chess in C. I've just wrapped up the first module with local multiplayer support. Next up is module two, where attempt to build a custom chess engine so users can play against a bot. I'd love to get your feedback on whether this is a solid learning exercise and what you think of the program overall!

Source: https://github.com/Ectarus/ChessTerminalC

~Ectarus

So i am a game developer and studied game development in university and all that but I have been thinking about expanding my skills into software development but unlike game development where we have a programs dedicated to making games (unreal, unity, godot, etc.) I dont really know how to do the same for software and non game apps.

Learning a new programming language isn't hard for me but when I look at job applications for software devlopment I mostly see them asking for things like Rust, Node Js, Python, java script or C++ (i did one semester of c++ so I guess i am fine with that) but considering the multiple programming lanaguages out there I dont really know which would be the best to learn to get my foot in the door.

So the project that I want to do and work on to achieve this is basically making an app for character creation for DnD similar to DnD Beyond. I play alot of DnD and I really hate DnD Beyond and any other app just has limits to how much stuff I can do with it or how many charactes I can create with it. So I want to just make a basic character sheet maker that displays stats, race features, abilities, classes, standard RPG stuff etc. And I dont know see where it grows from there and possibly add mobile support later down the line.

Where would I begin to start with something like this? Even if its just the basic stuff framework of it.

I’m learning programming and keep getting stuck in the same cycle: tutorials make sense, but when I try to build something on my own, I don’t know where to start. I know looking things up is normal, but I want to actually improve at solving problems myself.

For people who went through this stage, what helped you the most? Projects, coding exercises, or just struggling through problems on your own?

I have a serious question. I can pick only one of these two. What will be more beneficial if I want to become a software engineer. I already know C++ and I’m learning python rn and will start ML in December. But I have to chose today what I want from these two. The translation theory is about compilers and how they work.

I am a student,

I build this on python for claiming the free games weakly on epic game store using patchright library.

I known there are some issues and its open to contribute ,can someone review and tell suggestions and feature recommendation.

repo -https://github.com/pinacus/Gamico-Claim

I saw a comment under a video where a user ranted about their coworker or employee(?), saying something along the line of "seeing his code made my eyes bleed". I have seen similar comments about bad code, shitty code, etc...

So, what exactly makes someone bleed through their eyes? what make code bad even if the output is fine? And what type of advice would you give to a newbie, for them to prevent receiving such remarks in the future?

I keep noticing how easy it is to build a techncally 'elegant' system for a problem that probably only needed 50 lines of code. It seems especially common when you’re trying to make everything reusable or future-proof before you actually know what the project needs. For developers who have shipped a few projects, what’s the stupidiest thing you remember over-engineering? I’d also be interested in what rules you use now to decide whether something genuinely needs abstraction versus just solving the immediate problem.

I am aware of AutoHotKey, however, I want to build this program myself (probably in C++, maybe Python). Like a auto key, I want to be able to run a program from a macro, that will paste and enter hard-coded text in any selectable text entry anywhere I select on windows. I've never made a program that works outside the IDE and files/directories, so I am unsure how one achieves this.

Hi everyone.. I'm an Egyptian student accepted for a master's at Sapienza University of Rome, starting September 21

My documents and university procedures are ready, but I'm unable to secure an Italian student visa appointment through AlmavivA Egypt.

Appointments are released daily around 9 AM, but they disappear extremely quickly. There are also brokers/scalpers who use automated tools to secure appointments much faster than normal users, then resell them to students.

I'm not looking to buy an appointment or build a tool to resell them. I just need help from someone experienced with Python / Playwright / Selenium / browser automation to understand if there's a legitimate technical solution that could give me a fair chance of securing one appointment for myself.

If you have experience with this kind of automation and can help or point me in the right direction, I'd really appreciate it.. I'm genuinely worried about missing my Master's start date because of this.

Thank you 🙏

Hey everyone, for quite a while I have been working on a simple physics engine in c++ with SFML library, I have implemented some basic translation and currently I am refining the collision system.
The thing is I have been making it for really long time and I am not any kind of comp sci student I am just a mechE student who likes coding so I also have been spending quite a lot of time studying things.
My question is how long should it actually take to make a physics engine especially for my case? I have spent over 20-22 hours trying to do things and I been feeling like a loser for spending too much time on this

One of the most underrated yet powerful features in modern JavaScript is structuredClone(). Many developers still rely on JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(obj)) for deep copying, but that approach has serious limitations that often lead to subtle bugs. structuredClone() is a native browser and Node.js API that performs true deep copies without those pitfalls.

Below is example:

const original = {
  name: 'JavaScript',
  date: new Date(),
  skills: new Set(['JS', 'TS']),
  nested: { arr: [1, 2, 3] }
};
// Create a circular reference
original.self = original;
const clone = structuredClone(original);
console.log(clone !== original);                // true
console.log(clone.date instanceof Date);        // true
console.log(clone.skills instanceof Set);       // true
console.log(clone.self === clone);              // true (circular reference preserved)

I hope this was helpful for your JavaScript learning.

I don't want to build another Todo app, Blog, E-commerce clone, or basic Chat app. I want to work on something that solves an actual problem faced by people, businesses, developers, or organizations.

I'd like to build something substantial with a proper backend, APIs, database, authentication, AI/agents, etc. If AI is involved, I want it to have an actual purpose rather than just adding a chatbot.

If you've personally faced an annoying, repetitive, inefficient, or unsolved problem that could be improved with software, I'd love to hear about it.

My preferred tech stack is:

• ReactJS
• TypeScript
• Spring Boot / Java
• Spring AI

I'm also open to using other technologies if the problem requires them.

What real-world problem would you recommend I try to solve?

I asked my lecturer a while back how, and he basically said to read up on the books and practice. I understand his advice, but I wish to look for a meaningful project to better facilitate my learning. Any advice on how I should proceed? I get that I can redo my coding assignments to make them better, but I really am looking to write programs that would help me instead.

Thanks in advance for the advice

Not the ideal answer what do you actually do?

Google? Read documentation? Ask AI? Rewrite the code? Take a break? Ask someone?

I’m interested in the real debugging/problem-solving process people use.