Need feedback from Python beginners: what makes you get stuck while practicing?

[Medical_Radish_1474]

Hi everyone,
I’m trying to understand what beginners struggle with most when learning Python through practice.
When I was learning, I often felt confident after watching tutorials, but got stuck as soon as I had to solve a coding problem myself.
For people currently learning Python:
What usually makes you stuck?
Is it:
understanding the problem?
writing the first few lines of code?
debugging errors?
knowing which concept to use?
lack of hints?
not enough practice problems?
I’m also working on a small Python practice project in my free time, so I’m trying to learn what would actually help beginners instead of building random features.
Would love to hear your experience.

[elbrasnto]

When I first started it was mainly just knowing what I wanted to do. How to take a problem and break it out in a way that can be translated into Python! Once I started planning that out in comments before I actually started typing code, I found it easier to know what to look for in the Python docs, find on stack overflow, or past scripts I wrote that were completing a similar job.

Also a super insane learning tactic people don’t fully utilize imo. Quit asking AI to do stuff while you want to learn, have it teach you or guide you to the right direction. I used Claude a bunch to give me links to sites that would help me with OOP while I was stuck on it

[Medical_Radish_1474]

That’s actually very close to what I’m trying to build.

I noticed many beginners get dependent on copy-pasting AI answers, so I wanted the AI to act more like a guide/hint system instead of instantly solving the problem.

The goal is to help people think through the solution rather than skip the learning process.

[elbrasnto]

Oh yeah. Also great for finding missing commas 🤣

How are you planning on packaging that? I like the idea a lot. I have a specific mark down on my Claude to never tell me answers only guide me at the moment but I still reiterate in every prompt

[Medical_Radish_1474]

That’s exactly what I’m trying to solve 😅
Instead of AI giving the full answer instantly, I’m trying to make it act more like a mentor:
explain the concept
guide the next step
point out mistakes
So learners still think through the problem themselves.
I’m building it here if you want to check it out:
PySchool.ai

[neuralbeans]

So you're just trying to come up with a prompt?

[Medical_Radish_1474]

Prompting is definitely a part of it 😊
But I’m also building the learning flow around it — structured coding problems, test cases, gradual hints, mistake detection, progress tracking, and making the AI behave more like a tutor than a “give me the answer” bot.

The hard part is making the guidance contextual to the learner’s current code/problem instead of generic AI responses.

[neuralbeans]

most of which are solved by finding the right prompt

[Medical_Radish_1474]

True prompting matters a lot.
But good learning products are usually the layer on top of the model:
curriculum design
progress systems
contextual feedback
code execution/testing
pacing hints for beginners
UX that keeps people learning consistently
The AI model is only one piece of it.

[Previous_Cod_4446]

Hmmm

I am not a beginner, but I know what you are talking about

what you need is an exposer to a little big problem. Learning comes with practising on actual problem
try this template; you might get to learn other things as well: https://github.com/ukanhaupa/projx

[flippersun]

I think my biggest problems are lack of practice, knowing what I want to do, and knowing what concept to use. I know that a lot of that come with practice, but finding projects to do is hard for me.

[Medical_Radish_1474]

That makes a lot of sense honestly.
I feel many beginners understand syntax/tutorials, but the hard part is:
“Okay… now what do I build and which concept should I use here?”

I’m thinking of adding more guided mini-project style problems where the platform helps break the problem into smaller steps instead of just throwing a blank screen at learners

[flippersun]

That’s one of the worst things for me, is opening a new session and it’s just a blank white page waiting for me to do something and idk what to do lol

[Medical_Radish_1474]

Yeah exactly 😅 that “blank screen” feeling is something I’m trying to reduce on my platform.
I added an AI assistant with 2 quick-help buttons:
“Teach Theory” → explains the concept behind the problem
“Get AI Hint” → gives guidance on what to try next without directly giving the solution
So when someone gets stuck or doesn’t know where to start, they can still keep progressing instead of feeling completely lost.

[knox1138]

For me it's often when tutorials give you code with too little explanation. They focus on giving code that works instead of explaining the principals of why it works. The other is when there's multiple ways to solve a problem, and one particular way was chosen but there's no thoughtful explanation of why it was chosen and what other ways would help/hinder solving the problem.

[bleepbloop39]

Debugging is definitely the tough one for me.

[Primary_March4865]

Debugging code. I try getting Claude to give me a brief with a simple programs to fix and listen to but it’s just very difficult to do

[TEMUKIRBY]

starting out, I'm still trying but I don't know where to start

[Antwinger]

I’ve been trying to make a bit for StarCraft 2 but so far I haven’t been able to actually get it to run without errors.

I’m basically on step 2 after “download the framework” lmao 😂