I need advice as a Rookie in programming

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I am a Rookie in Programming, i actually studied Information and Communication Science from the university, but the way i was the courses were taken, so i decided to major in Digital marketing which is my current field, though i’m a Nigerian, cos my interest in Programming was watered down being my main aim of seeking admission to the higher institution.

But, what advice will you give me on how to start and not just relying on frameworks or open source codes. i want to really know all programming Paradigms such as OOP, Algorithms, Design Patterns and how to write pseudocodes for myself.

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If you’re worried about relying too much on frameworks and libraries, then you can always choose not to use them. For studying the more conceptual aspects of programming, my main advice is to resist the temptation to flit around like a butterfly. Find a book or video series or course that you like and then follow it all the way through.

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If you’re just starting, I do recommend you bounce around different technologies, but spend at least two weeks on one thing before moving on to another. When you find one you like, stick with it for a while and write a few projects in it. Since you’re posting here in FCC, I assume your interests are similar to the curriculum (that is, web technologies), so I suggest you study at least one of React, Angular, or Vue.js, which are all in high demand.

Functional Programming has also finally gone mainstream, so I really recommend you pick that up too. Elm and Purescript are both great gateways to that style, but you can learn it with plain Javascript too: Immutable.js is a good start there.

Hope these pointers help, but in the end, it’s all going to come down to what you enjoy programming with, and you’ll never know that until you’ve tried at least a few different things yourself.

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I want to provide some non-technical advice. I think is very valuable to anyone starting out, as it applies to how you approach problems that you will encounter along the way. I’m sure others will provide plenty of technical advice too :smiley:

Don’t be afraid of failure, embrace it.
If you want to be a software engineer, start trying to engineer software, when you get lost, start looking for solutions.
If you want to build a website, start learning what it takes and start trying to build your website, when you get stuck seek out answers.
If you want a job, start applying to jobs and when you get rejected find out why you weren’t picked.
If you need to code X and run into bug Y, look into the bug Y, and understand the problem and find the solution.

All of these scenarios has you try something, then fail, then get back up and continue to find the answer.
For each of them you get a choice of how you handle “failure”. It could be something like applying to jobs, or just trying to get some code to work. The struggle is the experience, being able to dig yourself out of bugs, to be able to find that job with a perfect resume and interview, after failing multiple before, being able to learn the hardest concepts because you bashed your head against it for weeks that is the best advice I can give.

So don’t expect to be great out the gate, don’t expect it to be “easy sailing” and don’t ever feel like “I can never do this”, because you can. It’s cheap to fail with programming and software development your only paying with time and effort, if you have “unlimited” effort you, it only takes a limited amount of time before you succeed.

Keep learning, keep failing, keep trying, put in your time and never give up, espeically when you start failing. Failure is a temporary state of mind, not an actual position

Good luck, jump in and enjoy :smiley:

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This is harder than it used to be. These days, they only reply “We decided to go with another candidate.” and will give you zero reasons about you or that other candidate, out of fear of being sued (rightly or wrongly). Plus the fact that the person answering probably has no idea either. Still, it gives you interview practice, and you can always get feedback from your peers with their best guesses as to why you weren’t hired. Tho best taken with a grain of salt and all that …