How To Start Your Coding Journey | infoStud blogs

It’s probably not new for you that the computer science industry has gotten a lot of attention recently. Job demand for developers and other people with technical knowledge will continuously increase in the future. In the computer science industry if you want to make a career then the first thing you need to know is how to write code. No doubt there are so many articles which tell you about how to make a career in computer science without coding, they are correct but what I think technology change very fast. Recent articles related to Artificial intelligence say that " In the upcoming years, website development will be done by the AI". 

Here I am not talking about anything fictional, This is the reality. The main reason behind writing this article is to clear your doubts if you are going to start your coding journey. Coding is not easy, it required mental ability to solve problems. It doesn't matter if you have a commerce or arts background if you have the zeal to learn how to code yes you can learn how to code. One thing that you have to do parallel is to develop the ability to continue learning new things.

Why I am saying this? Computer science is a field where technology will be change or update every second, this field required innovative minds who can solve real-life problems with the principle of mathematics and advance programming skills. You can stick to one technology in your whole career, especially if you're making a career in the private sector. 

Now, let's little bit discuss about coding as per computer science (or any similar stream) student perspective. Many students in their first semester don't put their efforts into coding and it is pretty normal. But you have other subjects also, so what happens during interviews many students don't know how to tackle programming questions or some students already put good efforts into coding from start but their CGPA or marks doesn't good enough to clear the selection criteria for the interview round but they have good knowledge about coding. 

Firstly, Marks matter but you if don't have mastery in one of your career domains, it becomes difficult for you in the future. So what does it mean? Let's understand Marks are just like a token for your entry into any reputed company. Once you select or hired you will automatically know how to make decisions for your career growth. At least secure more than 60% in your UG.  Don't take this from a negative point of view. Imagine yourself as a technical company president, you really don't want to hire a student who doesn't know how to code. Always focus on what you want and do your best. 

Most of the college-going students also having so many doubts, and a little bit confused about how they start codding, which language they study first, which computer language is more beneficial for them in the future, etc.

So now we will discuss all these things step by step, by following these steps I hope your all doubts will be clear.

Steps that we are going to discuss:

Step 1: How to choose a programing language

Step 2: Make a proper plan

Step 3: Algorithm and data structures

Step 4: From where to learn

Step 1. How to choose a programing language

Today, Python and Java are some of the most trending programming languages we all know, if you want to start with any one of these languages go for it without hesitation if you feel that you understand the basic things of programming. 

Everyone has their own interest and learning capabilities. But remember in python, there are inbuilt libraries for various functions and both python and java are object-oriented programming languages, which means you may face problems in understanding that how to function, methods, class, etc really work.

Now let's take a situation, I am considering you are practicing really hard to become a good coder. But you can't able to solve the questions related to competitive programming. Here the problem is not with you but actually what happens as we previously discuss that Java and python are Object Oriented languages, here you aren't able to learn basic concepts of pointers deeply and it is not only about pointers there so many important things structural programming which helps you in building concepts. So what to do? You can choose any language as your first language for writing code and always choose C programming as a second language so that you can't face problems in the future.

Step 2. Make a proper plan

When you start programming everything will be going good till a tricky question has not come. What I feel when I had started learning java and got stuck in some question I spend a big portion of my time to solve it. Obviously, it is not wrong but your continuation will be a break. 

Let's take an example When you are solving basic questions like finding the area of a rectangle, using Java. Here your mind already knows how to find out the area of the rectangle in mathematics that's why it's easy for you but if the questions come from competitive programming then it will little bit hard for you.

Our minds will come in a calm state when we are doing something regularly, like reading theoretical knowledge of any programming language. When code is in front of you, your minds come out from their comfort zone and want to learn new things. 

Due to this psychological behavior, you may sometimes not focus on theory regularly, so try as much much as possible on the theoretical part on a daily basis. Make your own timetable for completing tasks.

Step 3. Algorithm and data structures

After choosing the language you need to spend your time understanding more about algorithms and Data structures. Now the question is why it is important? when you know and understand algorithms and data structure it is very easy for you to decode any code, understanding the flow of code, and you can also easily develop new codes. That's why it is important for you to know more about the concepts of data structures and algorithms.

Step 4. From where to learn

case 1. If you want to take coaching classes and start learning it's a good idea, but one thing you always keep in mind that almost 8 coaching classes out of 10 just do business. one benefit you will get that you will create a network with other students. If you are a university student then maybe you are spending almost 8 Hours on your campus. It's up to you how to manage both things.

case 2. Learning from youtube, paid courses, and free tutorials available on the websites beneficial for you. Here you don't have any time barrier, you can choose what you want to learn.

Step 5. Practice

By practice more and more coding, you will become a master of it very soon. I know there are so many situations that come in your path and many of us stop doing programming on a regular basis. Try to maintain your continuity you will master soon of your skills.

You can prefer these sites for practice

1. Hacker rank
2. Hacker earth
3. Code stuff
4. geeks for geek

For Competative Programming: Codecheff and Codesheff

If you know any other best coding practice platform, mention it in the comment box.

Thank you.