[BuyingSpade]

Hey guys.

As the title states did I recently start a degree in Computer Science which as a whole focus on Programming & Software development.
I don't have any prior experience with coding but have always caught my interest so I thought why not give it a go. I have a passion for it
and it seems great career way.


So I begun and it was clear to me that roughly 50% of my team have some experience from the past, which to be fair was expected.
We are running C# as it stands and looking are for help to get better in touch with the language.

How did you guys start out? What did you experience was a great help for a beginner?
Taking every advice! Impatient and keen to learn more and develop my own set of skills.

[Washi]

A lot of practice is really what it boils down to.

For me at least, when I started I just solved (small) problems that I found interesting at the time. This included all kinds of programs such as notepads, calculators, simple games etc. which eventually evolved into larger, more complex projects. If you don't have any inspiration yourself, you can maybe check out websites such as https://hackerrank.com or https://projecteuler.net . While I have never really used those myself a lot, I know a lot of people that did.

Also reading other people's source code really helps understanding the common conventions and structures that are being used a lot. After I got down the basics, this is what really helped me a lot to write clean, structured and efficient code. However, do not try to compare yourself with other coders too much. Writing beautiful code is almost like an art, and takes years of practice to be really good at. Read other's source code, and see how they solved the problems. Learn to appreciate good code, and see it as a valuable lesson on where you can maybe improve. This is something I see a lot of beginners fall into; they get too intimidated by all the complexity and abstraction and lose motivation because of it. Don't let that happen to you :)

It's really a healthy mindset that you need. You need to enjoy solving problems and be hungry for more knowledge. There are times that you will be overwhelmed with all the information and possibilities that the language provides, and sometimes you're going to be stuck on a simple thing for the entire day because of it. It's then time for a break, and the next day/week/whatever you'll kick that problem's ass with a fresh mind.

Welcome to world of programming :)

[Vyxn]

You just need some motivation boy. Programming is so lovely.
I remember that I started programming because I want to beat those cheaters on a game called Grand Chase.
Watch a couple youtube video tutorial, after I understand those jargon, I read the documentation (still don't get some meaning) but I know how they work. So yeah but don't push yourself right away.

You're in school to learn, they'll teach you that but if it doesn't, come here in the internet.

[notDiscoli]

Honestly. I started out by following an online tutorial to create a Skype tool back when it was popular, and from there I started researching to make my own features for it, and I pretty much copy and pasted code until I understood the syntax and the code well, and hey what do you know, that helped me be fluent in many other languages.

Now that might not be the best way to learn, but it is how I learnt initially.

For a beginner, take it slow follow their lessons and do some research at home I'd say; coding is awesome, and once you can, you can create virtually anything you might want within minutes, that's awesome.

[SIM-3425292]

I learned alot out of Lynda.com, it's a paid site but you can buy a cracked account from Nulled. This site is full of video tutorials and you can find almost any topic related to coding and other software like office or photoshop. The video tutorials come with exersice files, those make it very easy to follow along with the course. Good luck!

[ppaida]

Everyone has to start somewhere. By having no experience means you have an advantage--you don't have some of the bad habits that self taught programmers have such as spaghetti code and poor grasp of design, architecture and patterns. It's a good amount of re-learning.

[BuyingSpade]

Thanks for all of the advice lads.

We actually get access to Lynda.com free through our studies. Perhaps I should give it a go.

[Quiver]

C# was my first programming language as well! I'm pretty much self taught but I would highly recommend stack overflow for any questions you have. I've learned a lot about the language by just reading through answers to different problems and seeing different ways to do things. You'll never stop learning.

[SIM-3991524]

I dont think experience really matters. You goto school to get experience, no? The real question is do you like to sit down and solve a problem. If you do youll probabaly like CS

[BuyingSpade]

I just remembered this post.

I would like to thank you all for your advice. I've become better over the years and have really been enjoying everything so far. I really appreciate all the advice you gave at the time. If any of you are still active I would to give you a sincere Thank you.

A lot of practice is really what it boils down to.

For me at least, when I started I just solved (small) problems that I found interesting at the time. This included all kinds of programs such as notepads, calculators, simple games etc. which eventually evolved into larger, more complex projects. If you don't have any inspiration yourself, you can maybe check out websites such as https://hackerrank.com or https://projecteuler.net . While I have never really used those myself a lot, I know a lot of people that did.

Also reading other people's source code really helps understanding the common conventions and structures that are being used a lot. After I got down the basics, this is what really helped me a lot to write clean, structured and efficient code. However, do not try to compare yourself with other coders too much. Writing beautiful code is almost like an art, and takes years of practice to be really good at. Read other's source code, and see how they solved the problems. Learn to appreciate good code, and see it as a valuable lesson on where you can maybe improve. This is something I see a lot of beginners fall into; they get too intimidated by all the complexity and abstraction and lose motivation because of it. Don't let that happen to you :)

It's really a healthy mindset that you need. You need to enjoy solving problems and be hungry for more knowledge. There are times that you will be overwhelmed with all the information and possibilities that the language provides, and sometimes you're going to be stuck on a simple thing for the entire day because of it. It's then time for a break, and the next day/week/whatever you'll kick that problem's ass with a fresh mind.

Welcome to world of programming :)

You just need some motivation boy. Programming is so lovely.
I remember that I started programming because I want to beat those cheaters on a game called Grand Chase.
Watch a couple youtube video tutorial, after I understand those jargon, I read the documentation (still don't get some meaning) but I know how they work. So yeah but don't push yourself right away.

You're in school to learn, they'll teach you that but if it doesn't, come here in the internet.

Honestly. I started out by following an online tutorial to create a Skype tool back when it was popular, and from there I started researching to make my own features for it, and I pretty much copy and pasted code until I understood the syntax and the code well, and hey what do you know, that helped me be fluent in many other languages.

Now that might not be the best way to learn, but it is how I learnt initially.

For a beginner, take it slow follow their lessons and do some research at home I'd say; coding is awesome, and once you can, you can create virtually anything you might want within minutes, that's awesome.

I learned alot out of Lynda.com, it's a paid site but you can buy a cracked account from Nulled. This site is full of video tutorials and you can find almost any topic related to coding and other software like office or photoshop. The video tutorials come with exersice files, those make it very easy to follow along with the course. Good luck!

Everyone has to start somewhere. By having no experience means you have an advantage--you don't have some of the bad habits that self taught programmers have such as spaghetti code and poor grasp of design, architecture and patterns. It's a good amount of re-learning.

C# was my first programming language as well! I'm pretty much self taught but I would highly recommend stack overflow for any questions you have. I've learned a lot about the language by just reading through answers to different problems and seeing different ways to do things. You'll never stop learning.

[mangoherris]

Damn bro reading this thread and your reply is actually heartwarming. Proud of you for keeping that passion - glad to see it's helped you along the way.

Well done :)