Hi All,
I have been working on the FCC course for a little while now, and I started stumbling on the intermediate algorithm courses. This isn’t anything new since every section always throws me for a loop at first, but eventually I figure it out. 
That being said, I tend to lurk the forums during my day job and stumbled across p1xt’s guides in terms of being a web developer, and I copied the Trello board to my account. Once I finished Roman Numeral Converter challenge and did it in the most horrible way, format wise (since I’m still a n00b). I decided it might be a good idea to actually take a step back and learn the different courses in the Web Dev structure so I could finish the FCC challenges better, faster, and cleaner.
I’m almost done with the third YDKJS book and I have to say they are a great read! Definitely has helped me understand what’s going on behind the scenes with JS, and I’m looking forward to starting the CS50 course. ( I don’t need as much work on HTML/CSS since I’ve been building websites for a few years now and am proficient with those skills).
However, this all being said, I’m not really sure if going on the path of the Trello board Web Dev route is best or if I should just keep at FCC and plow through. I feel like the web dev course will give me a much thorough understanding on how to code, but then at the same time it’s more learning theory and not a lot of practice(until I get to the projects).
At the end of the day I just want to get good with coding JS, and I think the web dev route is in my best interest, but at the same time I feel like I’m getting a lot out of FCC with actually coding the whole time. What do you guys think?
I think either way that this is going to take me months of work, and it was pretty discouraging reading Beua’s article since he has two kids on top of a day job and finished all his stuff within 6 months. I feel like at my rate it’ll take me a year, and I have been putting in 3-4 hours a day easily. Am I doing something wrong?
Thanks for the advice!
I personally think you should follow P1xt’s guide (I’m referring to the Web Development with Computer Science Foundations one, since I understood that’s the one you’re using). I’m following it myself, currently reading the 4th YDKJS book, and it’s going to teach you a lot. According to P1xt, once you finish the guide, you will be prepared for a senior developer position. Yes, it is probably going to take time. I’ve been working on it for over a month and still haven’t finished the first section. But, who cares? As long as you’re learning from it and enjoying it, that’s what matters. It’s not a matter of how fast you do it as much as a matter of what you learn from it. Of course try to put in as much time as you can, but don’t push it.
Not a lot of practice? I’ve counted the projects on the guide. There are over 30 of them, and that’s counting the back end certificate as one project because that’s how it’s listed in the guide. Of course you’re going to have to learn the theory before you can do the projects, so that’s only natural.
So, bottom line, my advice would be to follow the guide. It also has the entirety of the FCC back end projects in it and some of the front end ones, and if you’ve noticed, P1xt has mentioned doing one of the FCC front end projects not listed in the guide if you need a break. So essentially you’ll be doing FCC anyway, or at least a large portion of it.
Finally, I don’t think you’re doing something wrong. It’s probably going to take me a year or more as well to finish the entire guide (hopefully less, but we’ll see), but I know and trust that by then I’d be prepared for a great career in something I really love, so it’s very much worth it.
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Follow whichever path is going to best keep you engaged and working. The most important thing is that you keep programming and keep learning. @P1xt 's guides are much more comprehensive but also put a higher burden on self-motivation and self-discipline. That works better for some than others. (I will confess to being terrible at autodidacticism when there isn’t some sort of immediacy.) Even if your course of study means taking a break from FCC challenges, you will always still be welcome to participate in our community. 
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Thanks everyone for the responses!
@P1xt That something could be FCC, it could be one of my guides, it could be the Odin Project, it could be one of the curricula from OSSU, it could be anything. But stick to that one thing you picked.
I think this is my problem right here because I was also look at the Odin project at one point lol. I think I’ll just stay the course with P1xt’s plan for now. My problem is that I’m too impatient! I want to get in to a development job now not have to go through a years worth of course, but obviously in the long run it’ll be worth it.
I feel overwhelmed at times too. Like this week for example is a bad week. I have a short attention span to begin with so I tend to be all over the place. By being all over the place I mean that I switch between FCC, my Pluralsight paths, books, articles, YouTube dev vids, etc…There is SO MUCH to learn. It’s hard to focus sometimes. I want to know everything now.
One thing I have learned observed over the years is that it’s very easy to pick up something new. Learning something from having zero knowledge of it is exciting. Your focus is at a maximum and you see improvements right away. Then, as you keep learning, every step forward is more difficult. That’s my experience anyway.
There’s some great advice from other members above! Take your time and focus on one thing at a time. Patience helps. Anyway I don’t offer much advice here but I wanted to share with you the fact that you’re not alone. Many of us lose focus and need guidance from time to time.
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