Am I really slow at Javascript?

In the map section of FCC, it says the Basic JavaScript section is only 10 hours? I’ve been working on it for a lot longer than that.

Is it just me or has anyone else been slow on it? If it’s taking me this long just on Basic JavaScript, how long will it take me to get through the 50 hour Basic Algorithm scripting?

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no, you’re not really slow at JavaScript. There is quite literally no abnormal amount of time to work on this stuff - programming is hard, everyone is different, and the only standard you really have for yourself is you. Some people can get through it faster, sure, but if you stick to it and really get an understanding of what you’re learning, it doesn’t matter if it takes you 10 hours or 100 hours - the point is that you get there.

A question worth asking might be what is holding you back, like, are you having trouble understanding the basics? That’s a normal issue to have on freeCodeCamp, and this post has links that’ll point you to some great resources that will make the learning curve easier / possibly faster.

But yeah, at the end of the day, people vary a lot in how long they take to learn and it makes no difference - the big difference will be that you stuck around long enough to reach your end goal

also, just because you’re having a hard time with Basic JavaScript doesn’t necessarily mean the algorithms will be exponentially harder, when you’re solving the algorithms it’s more about how you think / use the things you’ve learned in the Basic JavaScript section

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Everybody comes to coding with different levels of previous experience.

If you have never really done any programming before it can take a while to understand even really basic concepts. For example, when I started tinkering with code years ago it was in Python and I got stuck for ages on the simple idea of an array. It was such a road block to me that I actually quit and only came back to it again 6 months later! It was just such an alien set of ideas to me that my brain wouldn’t accept it. I had a similar issue with loops and classes…

Here on the forum we see people really struggling with JSON because that seems to be another of those paradigm shifting concepts that can just take ages to click.

If you feel like you are really struggling to understand a concept or pass a challenge, feel free to ask for help on the forum and there will be plenty of people who have been in your situation before ready to help you over the hurdles.

And don’t believe the label ‘Basic’…it means ‘Basic’ only to people that have moved on to a better understanding of Javascript. To beginners, ‘basic’ is still pretty complicated!

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Hi, I’m in the same boat. I suck at those challenges. I take ages and my solutions are a mile long. The basic algorithms are the same.

Once you start the second lot of projects though, it all kind of falls together because your using it in context. I now understand alot of the things I didn’t really get so easily whilst doing the challenges.

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i wouldnt worry about the timing … important thing is did you learn and understand everything, because youll need it for the algorithm section. I had some javascript before i started fcc and still picked up so much from this section especially about accessing objects and arrays … which has really helped with the algorithms … so it really pays to get these understood … so dont rush just to try and match the suggested times. practice practice and go through as many of the array object string methods and get a understanding of them … as for regular expressions i dont think 10hrs study is enough even for that one thing as it is a very powerful and useful tool.
what i do now is do a algorithm now and again (have 3 more intermediate ones left to do) while i work on my projects … as they can be very intense trying to come up with a solution … some have taken hours others days … so i persume i have gone over the 50 hrs (didnt even notice they had a suggested time as its not important)
all i focus on is a solution and learning something from solving the problem.

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No you just want to understand everything correct without skipping any parts and that’s good :smile:
and if this your first time programming that’s normal

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