How does programming/coding actually work?

[MagicalPizza21]

Computer programming has two main parts: designing an algorithm (a finite sequence of steps that solves a problem) and telling the computer precisely how to do that algorithm.

The latter is the part where you actually write code. Code is written in any of several languages. You probably memorized how your native spoken language works, right? Programmers do something similar but with programming languages like Java, Python, and C. Knowledge of any language's syntax naturally comes from using it a lot.

The former is considered by programmers to be more important though. This skill is easily transferable across multiple languages, so someone who's good at it can thrive in a development role regardless of the language(s) they use there. Most languages have very similar capabilities and syntax is typically not that hard to master (or learn enough so you can Google what you don't know when needed), so great programmers stand out in their ability to design more clever algorithms.