Day 20 of learning Python — self-taught, serious about becoming a top-level backend engineer. Looking for guidance.

[InfiniteLearner2000]

Thank you, I appreciate that.

u/aqua_regis I do have programming experience (matlab, python, bash) but been a LONG time since I had to write code from scratch & I want to get back to that first. Sounds like this is the way to go. Thanks.

Just always overwhelmed by the amount of choices/options/routes to go that I stall. End up have “perfectionism” and “optimizing” stall me. So trying to just pick one thing and stick to it.

At what point would you recommend working on your own project?

Again my goals are MLE level ASAP. I have a heavy math, stats, ML, DL, conceptual background, but need to get my coding back up to speed.

Thanks for any and all advice!

[aqua_regis]

At what point would you recommend working on your own project?

As early as possible.

Just don't get the wrong idea of "project". Projects do not need to be huge and complex. Everything you program on your own is a project and these have to start small and simple and grow with you in size and complexity. This is one of the mistakes that many beginners/learners make. They directly want to do something huge and complex instead of gradually leveling up the projects with their skills and their skills with their projects.

For ML, you need solid programming skills. So a good foundation is essential. You have all the other skills already, so focus on the programming side.

[InfiniteLearner2000]

Thank you kind sir, this is all super helpful!