“I’ve been learning coding for the past six months, but I’m still facing challenges when it comes to solving coding problems, particularly with more basic ones. Initially, I underestimated the complexity of coding, and while I believed it would be easy, I find myself frequently getting stuck when coding independently. This is my third attempt at learning JavaScript, and despite my efforts, I still feel uncertain about my skills. With only four months remaining before I need to secure a job, I’m feeling the pressure to accelerate my learning. I struggle to think like a coder, and this is sometimes disheartening. To pursue my coding journey, I borrowed money from a friend to purchase a laptop. While I am determined to learn coding and land a job, I am uncertain about the best strategies to overcome these challenges. Is there anyone here who can provide guidance on navigating this situation and becoming a proficient developer?”
Hello @justimagine1016 !
You are not alone in feeling overwhelmed by trying to remember everything. It is not possible, even for the experts, to remember everything. This is why there are so many resources available, here in freeCodeCamp (Forum with subforum categories, News guides for almost everything, Radio, You Tube Channel, Podcasts), and online various resources to complement or enhance learning.
Never feel looking up something for help in the lessons is wrong. It is called learning. (Kind of like in school where we had text books, peers and especially teachers [forum here] to help us through our studies.)
If you ask any of the experts, I believe they would say, “Yes, I still look things up that I learned in training. There is too much to remember it all.”
Disclaimer: I am neither and expert, nor an instructor. I am a learner, just like you, who has found the value in many of the above mentioned resources. And, like you, I have my fair share of feeling overwhelmed when I think I should remember something, but don’t remember all of it right away.
My trick is to reset the complete course, after completing what I feel comfortable with in my progress. I start again so I can retain more on the repeated lessons (plus it feels good to be able to complete the ones I do remember easier).
You could do like many, and the best practice, and make your own projects. This helps you build confidence, along with retaining the knowledge.
Keep your chin up and know you can always ask for help in the forum, as well as use any of the other available resources @justimagine1016 !
HI @justimagine1016 !
This is completely normal.
6 months is still early in the learning process and a lot people can identify with taking a while to feel comfortable with programming.
The best way to get better with programming is to practice a lot and build projects.
That will help solidify the concepts better and help you learn how to problem solve better.
With more time and practice, you will start to feel more comfortable with programming.
One thing, I noticed is that you are not posting a lot to the forum.
My suggestion would be to post more often when you get stuck so you can work more with other people to help you solve the problem.
That will help with your learning and you will learn the critical skill of asking questions and communicating in a technical manner which is important when you are on the job.
Currently the market is still recovering from layoffs and the disaster that was 2023.
Jobs are slowly starting to get back to a healthier state and hopefully there will be more jobs in the new year.
But it is really important, to know that getting that first junior job usually takes longer then you would expect.
I would suggest starting now to learn good ways to prepare your job materials and best ways to approach the job hunt.
There is tons of great advice in the Career Advice section about this.
Also, tons of great articles on freeCodeCamp news when it comes to jobs and resumes.
You will also need some good projects to show to potential employers since you won’t have prior developer experience to show them.
Sites like Exercism and Codewars are good for coding challenges.
For job interviews, that ask for DSA style questions, Leetcode is a popular choice for preparing for that
For practice building projects, you can look to building projects from Frontend mentor
Also, building your own projects will help with your problem solving
Hope that helps
Hi, you are not alone. Please don’t get discouraged it’s all part of the process. First i would like to tell you something about my own personal experience. I have a Bachelor’s Degree in Mathemetics, Electronics and Computer Sciences. You know my last semester was full of HTML, CSS and JS. I spent 6 months and scored the highest GPA in my department especially in CS where no one got O grade in 3 years I did it. So, I chose to continue my learning in Full Stack Development. But in reality, I am facing a lot of challenges. Can’t solve basic problems or implement the concepts i learn without Google or FCC. I took 6 months to learn HTML, CSS and JS and i am still not confident, Because no one is. See this field is like ocean and if you are trying to remember everything its not going to work. Just learn the syntax and the working its enough. If you try to remember everything it will become a problem. First it feels like you know everything but at the end it will still be same. I talked to a lot of my seniors who are working in this field for more than 1+ years and they told me they all use Google, ChatGPT and StackOverflow to solve some of thier issues. It’s common in the real world. So i would suggest you to learn and pratice, IMO if you are learning / watching tutorials and keep them in practice you will learn a lot. That’s the reason man of the WebDEvs use FCC.
PS: I know its too long to read, In my opinion this might help someone who is struggling like us.
However, if I’m not performing well, how can I pass the interview? Can I use ChatGPT or any other sources for help during the interview?
However, if I’m not performing well, how can I pass the interview? Can I use ChatGPT or any other sources for help during the interview?
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