c/coding-for-beginners

TIL Python's 'simple' for loop is actually one of the slowest ways to iterate in beginner tutorials

I was following along with a beginner course on Udemy and got curious about why my code was taking so long. Found a blog post from a former game developer that tested loop speeds, and Python's for loop with range() was about 40% slower than using enumerate() for the same task. Every tutorial I've seen pushes range() as the default, but it's apparently not great for big data sets. Has anyone else found other beginner 'best practices' that are actually inefficient?

Rant: Wasted $80 on a "Python for Data Science" Udemy course that was just basic syntax

I thought I was getting actual data science stuff like pandas and numpy, but they just spent 6 hours on loops and if statements I already knew. Has anyone else gotten tricked by misleading course descriptions?

Dropped $60 on a code bootcamp prep course and it was just youtube videos

I bought some "masterclass" on Udemy for learning Python and it was literally the same free stuff I could find on YouTube just reorganized. Anyone else get burned by paid courses that just repackage free content?

Switched from online tutorials to a real class. Night and day.

Spent 3 months grinding through YouTube vids. Kept getting stuck on basic stuff. Finally signed up for a local HTML/CSS course at the library for $40. Teacher caught my bad habits in the first 10 minutes. Way faster. Anyone else find in-person help better?

Pro tip: Stop trying to memorize code syntax, it's a waste of time

I spent 3 months in an online Python course trying to memorize every function and curly brace rule before ever writing a real script. When I finally sat down to build a simple calculator program, I froze and had to Google everything anyway. Am I wrong for thinking beginners should just jump into projects and look up syntax as they go?

Pro tip: Used to write code all in one go now I write it broken into small functions

Back when I started coding 3 years ago I would cram everything into one giant block of code like a maniac, but now I split it all into tiny functions one at a time and test each piece as I go - which camp are you in and when did you flip?

Warning about that coding bootcamp meetup at WeWork in downtown Austin

I went to a free 'intro to Python' session last night and the instructor spent 20 minutes selling us on a $2,000 course before we even opened a single code editor, so has anyone else run into these sales-heavy events disguised as beginner workshops?

Python vs JavaScript for my first project. Picked JS. Big mistake.

I spent 3 months learning Python basics and felt okay. Then I switched to JavaScript for a simple web app. Now I'm stuck debugging callback hell and can't even get basic form validation to work. Should have stuck with Python until I actually built something real. Has anyone else jumped languages too early and regretted it?

Appreciation post: That free coding bootcamp meetup in Denver

I went to this free coding bootcamp meetup last month in Denver. The guy running it showed us how to use the browser console to debug JavaScript. I always thought you needed some fancy tool for that. Turns out you can just type console.log and see everything. He also showed us how to check network requests right there in the browser. Saved me hours of guessing what went wrong. The whole thing was free and I learned more in 2 hours than I did in a week of tutorials. Anyone else have a simple tool that changed how you code?

My first pull request got rejected 14 times in one afternoon

Honestly, I thought I was being helpful by fixing a typo in some documentation. But the maintainer kept asking me to change the indentation from spaces to tabs, then tabs back to spaces, and I just sat there at my desk in Seattle refreshing the page for 3 hours. Has anyone else had a simple fix turn into a whole ordeal like that?

Decided between Python and JavaScript for my first language - picked Python

I went with Python because everyone said it was easier for beginners, but now I'm stuck not being able to make anything that actually shows on a website. Has anyone else dealt with switching to JavaScript after starting with Python?

The one keyboard shortcut that saved me hours of frustration last week

I was trying to fix a broken WordPress site for a friend's small business and kept having to open the same files over and over. After about 3 tries of manually clicking through folders, I finally remembered that Ctrl+Shift+N opens a new incognito window in Chrome. It sounds dumb but it let me test the site without caching issues messing everything up. That one thing probably saved me like 45 minutes across the whole afternoon. Has anyone else found a basic shortcut that made a huge difference for them?

PSA: Blew $80 on a premium HTML course that was basically free YouTube content

Bought this 'masterclass' on sale for $80 thinking it would be some secret sauce for building sites, but it was just the same flexbox tutorials I could've watched for free. Has anyone else gotten burned by overhyped coding courses that promise too much?

Hit 100 GitHub contributions in a single month - never thought I'd see that

I started learning Python in January and just crossed 100 commits on my little project tracker app last month. I was honestly just messing around with making a to-do list that saves to a file, and somehow it turned into 4 different mini projects. Did anyone else hit a random number that made you realize you were actually making progress?

TIL I was over-nesting my if statements for months

I spent 3 weeks on a project checking the same condition in 5 different places. Then my buddy looked at my code and showed me how to combine them into one line. How do you guys spot when you're overcomplicating simple stuff?

Dropped $300 on a bootcamp that taught me what YouTube could for free

Signed up for a 12 week JavaScript bootcamp last January. Paid $300 up front thinking it would be structured and professional. Turned out the instructor just read slides from a free online course and gave us basic exercises. I learned more in three days following a free YouTube playlist from a guy named Brad. Has anyone else gotten burned by one of these beginner coding programs?

Watched a python course 3 times before it finally clicked

I spent about 6 weeks going through this free YouTube course for beginners, and the first two times I couldn't even follow a simple loop. On the third pass something just snapped, and I wrote my first script that actually worked - a little program to rename files in a folder. Now I'm wondering if I should jump into JavaScript next or stick with Python for a few more months. Anyone else have a topic they had to revisit like 3 times before it made sense?

Pro tip: found a game-changing chrome extension for catching typos in code

I spent three hours last Tuesday debugging a stupid variable name typo in my JavaScript project. This free extension called Code Spell Checker caught it in like 2 seconds after I installed it. It highlights misspelled words right in your editor, even for camelCase stuff. Has anyone else used a linter or spell checker that saved them from a headache like that?

Stumbled on a stat about how many websites use outdated PHP versions

I was reading through some dev blog last week and saw that over 40% of websites still run PHP 5.x or older. That really surprised me since PHP 7 and 8 have been out for years now. I checked the source and it was from a W3Techs survey from a few months back. Makes me wonder how many beginner coders are learning on outdated stacks without realizing it. Has anyone else come across a stat like this that made you rethink what you're learning?

I finally admitted Git is actually worth the headache

Back in 2019 I was running a small freelance coding gig out of my apartment in Austin and kept thinking Git was just extra steps. I was saving files locally with filenames like "final_v3_actuallyfinal.js" all over my desktop. Then my laptop crashed and I lost 2 weeks of work because I had zero backup. That $400 recovery bill taught me real quick that version control isn't optional. Has anyone else fought learning Git for way too long?

Found out yesterday that ctrl+shift+enter does something different in Excel than I thought

Talked to a 12-year-old at the library and it changed how I learn coding

I was at the local library last Tuesday waiting for my daughter's reading club to finish. This kid next to me was building a little game in Python on a school laptop. I asked him how he learned it and he said he just watched YouTube and copied things until they worked. Made me realize I've been overthinking everything with tutorials and courses. Has anyone else found that just building random stuff teaches you faster than structured lessons?

That time a senior dev showed me my loops were killing the database

I was sitting in a code review at a startup in Portland and a guy 20 years older than me pointed out I was making 400 queries per page load instead of 4, so does anyone have a good rule of thumb for when to switch from loops to bulk queries?

Tried Python first then switched to JavaScript for a project. Night and day difference.

I was learning Python for a month. Doing small scripts and stuff. Then I needed to build a simple webpage tool. Python was a pain to get working in a browser. Switched to JavaScript and had a working prototype in 3 days. Way easier for front end stuff. Has anyone else hit that wall with one language and found a better fit?

I finally stopped following the 'learn Python first' advice for beginners

Last month at the public library in Austin, I met a guy who built his first website with just HTML and CSS in two weeks. Everyone online kept telling me to start with Python because it's 'easier', but I struggled for 3 years doing that and got nowhere. This approach actually made sense to me since I could see results right away in the browser. Has anyone else dumped the popular path and found something that clicked better for them?