DEV Community

Cover image for Top 5 Mistakes Beginners Make While Starting Programming
Mohit Sharma
Mohit Sharma

Posted on

Top 5 Mistakes Beginners Make While Starting Programming

Hey guys this is my second blog so every programmer goes through these stages while they are starting out on programming. I myself had also been through the same things during my frontend developer journey, I also made the same mistakes that every programmer does. So in this blog, I will be highlighting those mistakes with solutions to them. let's go straight to the blog hope you'll like it.

  1. Consistency:

Consistency is one of the most important thing while you are learning anything be it programming or learning any other skills. Consistency comes from being in discipline, you don't have to spend 8 hours or 6 hours for learning skills in the beginning. Even if you just spend 30 mins or 1 hour for learning skills it's enough.

So coming up with the solution to this problem is how you can be consistent.

Solution:- Before doing anything just try to build habit of learning for less amount of time.

Suppose you are learning a new language or new skill just try to give it 30 mins a day, then gradually increase the amount of time, as you started learning a skill continue doing it for 30 mins a day for at least 1 or 2 weeks and then gradually increase the time to 1 hour and in this way, you will be consistent and in discipline.

2.Stick to one language:

Many beginners miss this point as they try to learn or practice many languages one at a time and hence it's necessary to just stick to one language and master it rather than learning many languages one at a time and getting confused.

There is a quote that says:
"You must immerse yourself in your work. You have to fall in love with your work You must dedicate your life to mastering your skill. That’s the secret of success."

Starting with the fundamentals all the programming language has the same fundamentals the difference is that every language has its own syntax but the fundamentals are the same.

In beginning, you must always focus on polishing your fundamentals. If you are able to understand the fundamentals then after that, you can learn any language you want in no time.

So the solution to this problem:
Solution:- Pick a course in any programming language you want to learn. I'll suggest you start with C/C++ because it covers various topics as they are low-level languages. This means they do not have automatic memory management, So we have to do it manually which will inculcate the quality of a good programmer and logic building.

3.Projects:

Building projects throughout your learning process is the most crucial part of the journey of every programmer which he/she should practice on a regular basis. Because building projects will help you to understand the topics in depth. Whenever you are learning any language like web development, if you have learned HTML & CSS you should build some landing pages, clone famous websites, and single-page websites this will clear all your doubts and questions regarding the topic.

I also used to do the same while I was a beginner in my field. I was not building projects at all. I was just learning a particular topic and was moving towards the next topic which slowed my learning curve as my fundamentals were not clear. I had to go through the basics again and again where I wasted a lot of time but later I understood my mistakes and then I started working on them.

The solution to this problem:

Solution: If you are learning a language and you don't know where to get the problems to solve or projects to build go to google and type the questions for the particular topic. One must be very good at googling if you are stepping into the field of programming/development.

example: If you are learning about if-else conditions or loops just go and search if condition questions for practice.

This way you'll be able to clear your basics.

4.Tutorial:

The Tutorial loop I got stuck at this point when I was starting out. I was just watching the tutorial and not doing any problem at all I used to think that I understood this topic but when I came to solve the problems, I was totally blank because I've only learned them or I just watched the tutorials instead of practicing them. So don't get stuck in the tutorial loop, If you got stuck then you won't be able to learn at all.

The solution to this problem:-

Solution: When you learn about a particular topic make notes first and then when the tutorial ends just go and try to solve 2 or 3 problems not many problems one at a time in the beginning but just 2 or 3 will give you a clear understanding of the topic so you'll be able to understand it.

5.Burn-outs:

I used to get burn-outs a lot during the initial phase. You don't have to push your limits when you are starting out, just do it for a little amount of time and take some break. Because taking breaks in between and getting refreshed is very important. If you don't take any break in throughout your learning curve you will get burnout frequently and this eventually will lead us to leave a particular thing that we are doing. When I was a beginner, I used to sit and learn for many continuous hours which resulted in frequent burn-outs in a short span of time.

I left many things in between because of burnout. Time management is one of the the important thing in order to tackle the burn-out problem.

The solution to this problem:-

Solution: Suppose you get burn-outs frequently you can take a break for a day or 2 and can come back but with the proper time management strategy. Suppose you are aiming to study for 4 hours you can divide time into blocks or you can simply follow
Pomodoro technique in which you will be working for 1 hour and taking a 10 to 15 mins break and complete the 4 cycles and always reward yourself during the break. You can watch some videos as a reward or can eat something of your choice.

That's it for this blog I tried my best to help you to avoid these mistakes for beginners. I hope you like it and it helps you in avoiding these major mistakes as I did.

For any queries contact me on my Twitter.
Twitter

Top comments (0)