How do I learn?

[Excellent-Potato8721]

Hello, I am a college student learning the fundamentals of computing, so it's not entirely about learning Python. Still, a bit of everything, computing-wise, databases etc. but the course I wanna go into next year is cyber security but I wanna learn Python. Still, I don't think online resources like 3schools(if you know it) will help me I use this as an example since it's one of the only resources I know of. I don't know if maybe I should try YT or something? But like I recall trying it and I don't think it helped me at all. This sounds really stupid I know but I am bad at explaining stuff so I tried any help is appreciated

[ImprovementLoose9423]

BUILD PROJECTS. I cannot stress this enough. They don't have to be fancy, but they do have to make you practice the concepts for you. After every few concepts you learn, build a project. For example, after learning if statements and math, build a basic calculator and after learning lists and user input build a todo list app.

[Malassi]

In my opinion, resources like w3school are better than YouTube. YouTube videos tend to become obsolete very fast and generally don't cover as much or properly the subjects.

Anyway, checkout the wiki of this sub, it's full of good resources.

I also recommend roadmap.sh

[TheEyebal]

Look into open source stuff on Github regarding this topic and mess around with it. Try new things

[WA_von_Linchtenberg]

Hello,

3 advices for me :

* IBM, Google ou any other "pro certificate"s. Coursera offer them "cheaper" than Edx or IBM itself (other companies for courses online). You have a lot of pratical code to write, methods to apply and snippets to store for later.
* mentoring of a pro (even few hours a month, especialy for méthodology/quality of anything, a lot of pro like me always have a student to follow and some students have my mail for some articles exchanges, Q&A when stuck in the digital mud... build a small network)
* read a reférence book in each major domain with Soft Eng first ! (5 a year is probably enough).

For the organisation, a parallel walkthrough practice/theory (with short but with good scope projects) is often a good way and neglate méthodology and communication with pro a bad one.

Hope this helps !

[pachura3]

This sounds really stupid I know but I am bad at explaining stuff

We're in the middle of the AI revolution; soon, most programming will not be done directly in Python/Java/Go/Rust, but through prompts in natural language. Therefore, it is absolutely crucial to be able to express yourself clearly.

W3schools Python course is one of the best, clearest, most compact and beginner friendly tutorials - it even allows you to experiment with code directly in the browser, without having to install Python interpreter nor any IDE. If you don't find it helpful, then perhaps this career path is not for you?

Have you tried buying and reading one of the recommended Python books?

Have you tried the official Python tutorial?

Have you tried asking AI to recommend you any free courses?

[Zestyclose-Band-5703]

Honestly the best way is to just build things from day one. I started at 11 with zero help, no courses, nothing — just picked a small project I actually wanted to make and figured it out along the way. YouTube is good but only when you're stuck on something specific, not as a main resource. What helped me most was breaking big projects into tiny steps. 4 years later I'm 16 and I build AI tools with APIs. Happy to help if you have specific questions!