I feel like front-end is soooo difficult

Hey so I’ve been learning HTML and CSS for about 6 months now albeit not consistently. I have the basic understanding of how HTML and CSS works and all but when it comes to creating a page I feel so so blank. Is it possible that back-end is better suited to me or do I absolutely have to go through front-end?

I have completed some of the course projects and they look all so heinous. Might I be lacking in terms of consistency with the in off I’ve been on or do I try out javascript in order to go back-end?

Hello @ntandoyenkosi welcome to the freeCodeCamp forums!

Your welcome to “skip” and not focus much on the front-end. However, the back-end is actually very different than the front-end’s HTML, CSS. The front-end is taught first, as it provides a clear visual learning environment to get you used to how websites are built. With the main goal getting you to learn the “core component” which is JavaScript. JavaScript is what makes the web “work”. HTML and CSS are what the user sees, but JS is what makes stuff happen. JS is a full on programming language, which is also what powers the back-end taught by fCC (node.js).

So without getting into the JS portion of the front-end, your missing out on leveraging the visual environment of the front-end to learn, and thus will throw yourself into node.js and the back-end, which requires almost entirely JS skills.

Its very possible you might not have an eye for design. This is OK. There are lots of people who work on the front-end that aren’t some artistic genius making beautiful sites. Rather you can pick some front-end CSS framework, like bootstrap, to help you get passable UI, and focus more on the requirements rather than trying to engineer a full UI from scratch.

However I do suggest you continue marching along the curriculm and start getting down and dirty with learning JavaScript. Learning JavaScript requires a different set of skills than HTML/CSS, which are more just verbose syntax standards. As I mentioned earlier JS is a programming language. So you have to learn its syntax and know how to wield it to solve problems. I like to compare it to learning how to use a complex tool (learning the syntax), but to get good at using that tool to build things requires you to know that tool, and know how to wield it.

Good luck, keep learning keep building!

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I am in the same boat as you.
HTML and CSS are really not interesting for me and I am not a good page designer. I think those languages are better suited to more “visual creative” people (I am not).

But I like algorithms and cryptography.

Front-end is easiest to get into, but don’t force it on yourself.
Learn a bit (a little little bit) about networks, protocols, data structures, cryptography, back-end, databases etc etc…
You will definitely find something that suit you, something that you will do without forcing yourself.

But finish those projects, get basic knowledge, so you’ll have at least some understanding about “what goes where”.
Remember that programs need interface. Someone needs to create some buttons, colorful boxes with texts and whatnot. People need it to use those programs.

Then go to javascript and dont look back.
If you don’t like front-end don’t look for job in that role if you are not forced to! You will hate it.

Good luck to you.

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Hey there. I feel you on not “getting it”. I think the answer lies within your first statement that I quoted. You’re not progressing, but you’re not being consistent. It’s not a coincidence :slight_smile:

I’ve had the same thing, and it’s only since I’ve started doing more regular practice and recalling of the information, that I’ve become better.

Can you learn to drive a car having a lesson once a month? Sure, but you won’t pass in 6 months like others do. It’s a complex topic we learn, and we have to prepare our brains physically to take on this information.

Javascript is not just backend, to develop for the web, Javascript is used front-end too. It’s a little irrelevant what you learn, but more important the way you learn it.

We are no better prepared mentally to learn programming than we are playing the guitar, if you put in the consistent regualr practice, you will get better.

I always recommend reading books like A Mind for Numbers - Learning how to learn by Barbara Oakley. It doesn’t matter what you’re learning, it teaches more on how to learn. It’s easy to think “I just follow a course” or “I don’t need to learn how to learn”, but you’d be surprised.

Keep going, but increase your consistency… rather than do 5 hours once a week, try out 30 mins each day, just open a code sandbox somewhere, and recall what you learned the day before.

Have books lying around the house that you can easily pick up, but I have some technical books in most rooms that I pick up and read a concept for 10 mins a few times a day which helps.

Good luck, keep going!

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Hi there,

nice to meet you! :wave:

I think giving up or skipping steps because you feel “blank” is not a good idea.

Because once you started this habit, it’s very hard to stop it.

Yes, you can skip stuff, but this just makes sense if you are like “I understand the stuff, I can solve it and the stuff is redundant.”

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I feel the same way. LOl.

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