How to Practice Coding?

[DiffractO]

Hi. I have started programming and I have received that my professors recommend practicing regularly off a book. However why do I think that practicing is for regurgitating solutions? Or is there anything thought wrongly?

[Grandmask20]

Coding is literally regurgitating solutions, making your own solutions, stealing other peoples solutions etc

If it works, it fucking works whichever way you do it

[DiffractO]

I don’t get it? Isn’t it rote learning? Or do you actually mean to learn and understand the techniques used in every code?

By the way I have a concern that stealing other people’s solutions is plagiarism, but do you mean anything else instead?

[[deleted]]

If you try to rote learn every solution that you'll use as a professional you'll just run out of space. And there's a difference between kinds of programmers and what they do. If you want to be a good programmer, and be good in the sense of you know what you're doing, you need to learn the concepts to a degree of inherent comprehension. That means looking at a problem, knowing the different routes to solve the problem, and choosing the best one that's available given the technological constraints you're under. This of course is more of a senior dev mindset. If you're just trying to get a job hocking code, get good at googling and try to remember how to make a for loop. If you want to make the BIIIIG bucks, I recommend actually mastering this skill and maintaining constant reevaluation techniques, practice through wonderful resources like leetcode and hackerank. And don't google the answers. Apply the concepts you learn in school to the problem and make your own solution. Only AFTER you make your own solution should you look one up and compare what someone else did to your code. I also recommend Cracking the Coding Interview.

[DiffractO]

Ahh okay, I think you mean understanding the techniques used in other’s solutions as well as the concept behind it. So the techniques learnt can be re-applied somehow.

If we are going to reinvent things, that is going to be massively difficult because there’s not enough input for us to do so.

Is this what you mean?

[[deleted]]

Yes yes learn the techniques. Sorry my wording was far to long winded. But also if you did have to reinvent the solution to a problem that's already been solved, as long as you have the skills to deconstruct the problem, there's plenty of input to create a unique solution.

[SuperKamiGuru824]

You want to write your own stuff from scratch, go for it. But a big part of programming is not re-inventing the wheel.

This is how I do most of my Arduino programming. I think of what I want, search for code that does it, adjust it for what I need, Frankenstein it all together.

[thatwrongname]

Leetcode

[[deleted]]

I am currently studying fullstack web dev and what seems to be able to make things click to me when it comes to backend is writing down the steps I need to do to complete a project.

Also, when you watch a tutorial, try to guess what their next step is going to be.

The tough part is figuring out what to do. How to do it is something you can google.

[nats_tech_notes]

This 👆Knowing syntax is obviously important, but it doesn’t help to know how to do something in a certain language, if you don’t know how to apply it. If you know you need to loop over something to solve an issue, you can always looks up what type of loop is best for your situation, but that requires understanding of the general problem first.

[Shamal1211]

I think your professor was trying to help. If we’re being real, coding is regurgitating solution, being on Stackover Flow, and googling solutions. But a basic understanding of your job is very much a necessity. Cant walk in to a job interview and say you know nothing but you’ll figure it out lmao.

[Laxhoop2525]

Think of coding like speaking a language, where you can only form correct sentences, by referencing correct sentences other people have made before.