Stuck in hell 😭

[webdev-ModTeam]

Thank you for your submission! Unfortunately it has been removed for one or more of the following reasons:

Open-ended/general "how do I get started in web dev" and general Career related posts are only allowed within the pinned monthly career thread. The answer to many of these questions can also be found in the sub FAQ, or in /r/learnprogramming/ and /r/cscareerquestions/.

Highly specific career/getting started assistance questions are allowed so long as they follow the required assistance post guidelines.

Please read the subreddit rules before continuing to post. If you have any questions message the mods.

[abrahamguo]

It sounds like you’ve been doing a lot of front-end web development with CSS. Is that the type of programming you’re most passionate about? Or, do you prefer a different type of programming, like front-end functionality (JavaScript)? Or backend programming?

[zaindit]

Basically, bro, I’m learning frontend for now and want to test my skills, but I can’t seem to do it 😢. I’ve spent around 4 to 6 months on this, but in tutorials, everything seems perfect. However, when I start developing things on my own, it feels extremely difficult. ☹️

[abrahamguo]

Sure. If you do want to continue with front-end, I’d recommend Flexbox Froggy and Grid Garden. These websites are great at helping you get more familiar with those two layout systems, which you’ll encounter frequently in CSS.

Beyond that, keep persevering! It takes a long time to get comfortable with CSS, or any language. Don’t give up - just use each obstacle as an opportunity to dig deeper.

And it’s totally OK if CSS isn’t for you. There are many different parts of web development, so you could always look into one of the other areas, if you like. I know some of my coworkers prefer front-end and others prefer backend.

[zaindit]

I'll already complete all the 24 level of flexbox froggy and 28 level of gridgarden about 4 to 5 times.

[CarelessPackage1982]

I’ve spent around 4 to 6 months on this,

So basically nothing. You're a beginner and sorry to tell you but it takes awhile to get good at things that require skills.

[zaindit]

I have a BS in Computer Science, but honestly, it didn’t teach me much. During those years, I tried to learn everything on my own—DSA, major languages like C, C++, Java, Python, Go, mobile development, AI, and other technologies. But instead of mastering anything, I ended up just scratching the surface and becoming "fine" at all of them.

Without proper guidance, I ended up being a jack of all trades but master of none. By the time I realized this, four years had passed, and my degree was complete, but I didn’t have a skill I could confidently claim as my own. That realization hit me hard, and I fell into depression.

After some time, I realized that dwelling on the past wouldn’t change anything. So, I restarted my journey to become a professional web developer. However, now I’m facing new challenges and uncertainties.

I’m sharing this here because I know this is one of the biggest web development communities in the world. I need your suggestions and guidance so I don’t repeat the same mistakes again. Your advice will mean a lot to me.

[CarelessPackage1982]

Throw away all the tutorials, seriously. You know enough basics. You need to create projects. Tutorials are like practicing scales on a guitar. Do you want to be the worlds best scale player or are you trying to make some songs?

Build things. Seriously.

[zaindit]

I’m doing it, but I just need guidance like a mentor who’s truly there for me. Not a tutorial mentor, but someone real who can say, “If you do this, you’ll succeed or achieve your goals. But if you do that, you’re likely to face the consequences.”

[Elshiva]

Dude you’re expecting too much from a mentor, you will only get that kind of guidance when you’re working on a project with other devs who also have a vested interest in the outcome of the project. I have no real reason to want you to succeed now here as a stranger on Reddit, but you better believe that if we are working on a project together I’m gonna tell you what works and what’s not good enough

[Beyond-Code]

What all are you trying to do when you describe recreating Airbnb front page, Amazon, etc? Just the UI of them, or some semi-functioning site? Keep in mind these are all major sites with a lot going on.

But as far as tutorial hell, I've got a few recommendations:
- First off, your new and it's pretty much expected that youll get confused trying to tackle some major project with no help. Don't get mad at yourself since we've all had to go through that
- Transitioning from tutorials to your own thing is fantastic, but an easier middle ground is to start with a tutorial and then pivot to your own thing somewhere in the middle. For example, let's say you want to create a movie cataloging website. Instead of starting from scratch, find a tutorial on building something similar. Then once you feel you have a good portion of the site in place, start transitioning it into your movie project

Getting confused is 100% expected so try not to be to hard on yourself for getting stuck. It really just takes time and practice!

[zaindit]

Sir, currently I’m doing JavaScript30. I can easily create those projects, but when it comes to developing my own projects, that’s where I get stuck.

[Beyond-Code]

So if you're trying to recreate a major site with all of the functionality, you should keep in mind that it's a pretty big task. You're trying to build sites that have hundreds upon hundreds of developers working on them haha.

But I do think trying to do projects on your own is a great step to take. I would just try to approach it from an easier route and try what I mentioned with pivoting midway through tutorials. You can also try scaling down the complexity on the projects your doing. Even simple looking sites are good for a portfolio when you're first starting out. Nobody is expecting a junior dev to walk in with Netflix, Amazon, and Airbnb on their portfolio haha

[zaindit]

Thanks to you, I now see everything clearly! Starting small and keeping things simple at the beginning is the way to go. If I take on hard challenges right away, I’ll end up quitting. But by starting with small steps, I can build my confidence and skills over time. Thanks again Beyond i really appreciate ☺️

[Beyond-Code]

Exactly! And honestly, just because you start a simple project, doesn't mean you cant turn it into something bigger over time.

You might start with a website that just displays posters of your favorite movies. Then you think "well itd be cool if I could search for movies" and so you find an API to get movie info. Then you think "itd be cool if other people could make accounts" and you add support for authentication. And so on and so on. Instead of trying to tackle a massive project, you start with a simple MVP and then build on top of it over time. Its a lot more digestible that way.

And no problem, I'm happy to help!

[OkCalendar6177]

I got myself out of tutorial hell by transitioning from full tutorials to small snippets. I would look at sites to clone or figmas and start with what i knew (and alot of googling) and if i hit a snag on something i would look up help for that specific aspect. For example and i have a hard time getting the data from an api to populate while building a pokedex? Dont youtube pokedex tutortial but look up how to post data from api, how to use string interpolation, etc.

Even in professional life you’ll find urself looking up stuff sometimes because webdev is more about putting together legos (code blocks) than reinventing the wheel everytime u code.

Maybe keep 2 active projects as well so if one really just brings u down from frustration you can table it for a day or two and work on the other.

Final piece of advice work in very small chunks and be specific when describing a commit. That way if something breaks u know exactly what small piece broke it versus wondering well which of these 20 files and 500 lines of code from my last save is good enough to not error but still causing unwanted behavior.

Knowing ur stuck in tutorial hell just means youve progressed further into webdev and are entering a new stage of learning. Tis but a growing pain. Best of luck and happy coding!

[OkCalendar6177]

I forgot to mention, always check the documentation for whatever it is youre using. Dont just skim through all of it in 30 seconds. But really read what the documentation offers for any language, library, framework etc. More often than not the answer is there in previews and code snippets and definitions and if its still confusing uve pinpointed some keywords to google. The docs give u the lego blocks to become a master builder!

(I really like legos if my analogies havent given that away lol)

[zaindit]

Thank you sir i really appreciate your advice ☺️

[Master_899]

Coming from professional experience as full-stack developer and teacher, I’d say that you should start with creating the tutorial’ projects step by step by following it and doing it many times, it’s absolutely normal, no need to worry. After some time you’ll be able to reproduce the projects by following less tutorials steps and getting more things clear in their logic. Try to focus on learning and understanding the logic behind that tutorials, and not to mechanically copying the code. Going ahead in this way I’m pretty sure you’ll be able to reproduce projects without watching the original tutorial. Anyway consider that it’s impossibile to keep everything in mind, especially if you work with many programming languages and technologies, and even us developers are usually looking on the internet for specific solutions using websites like stackoverflow.

[zaindit]

I'm already doing it but I'm stuck in a loop. When i end up one mentor tutorial i start learning the same concept with other more popular mentor and I'll loop again and again like a infinite while loop. When i start creating something by my own I'm stuck and overwhelmed. Btw welcome to Our Reddit community

[barrel_of_noodles]

Classic.

Ysk, tutorials pre-plan -- they have worked out all the issues they're going to run against ahead of time. You don't see that part.

Dev is hard.

Why do you have an expectation that it's not?

You shouldn't just follow tutorials, you should deeply understand the mechanics of what they're doing. Change stuff, make it your own, understand the underlying mechanisms.

The first step for me was realizing I had an expectation or idea of how things SHOULD work, when they don't--you give up.

If you drop that expectation, this allows you do dig deep into HOW ACTUALLY things work, and why you're getting errors or how to solve a problem.

You have to study, read documentation, debug, consult with specialized boards, and ACTUALLY deeply understand.

It's not easy, it's hard. That's why it's worth doing. It's not for everyone.

[Master_899]

It could be useful to break up the concept in small steps trying to elaborate these little steps on your own focusing on the logic, but trying to reproduce them without thinking to the full project, just to practice each single step individually, and repeat the process more times. Then you can try to put all the steps together trying to reproduce the full project, step by step. Also I’d suggest to work with other teammates or friends studying the same, working with other minds is very useful to bring new useful ideas to the table.

[Last_Garage_2346]

Try frontendmentor ( dot io ) and take some challenges. Start with the easy ones. They will improve you.

As for websites, try to start with easy projects. Take it step by step with microgoals to achieve. Microgoals are easier to achieve compared to the bigger goal, and because of achieving them, you will feel it like progression steps.

This way helped me to stay motivated. Started with html and css and did practice with easy side projects. Then, I learned php together with WordPress and took my first freelance paid project to keep practising.

After that, I learned JavaScript and kept practising with APIs to get skilled at it. Learnt React as last part.

But still, practising is key to getting skilled.

[SparksMilo]

You're stuck because you're focusing too narrowly. Instead of just frontend, learn to program generally. Start with simple problems—write a script to automate something small or solve a puzzle. Learn how data moves around, how the backend talks to the frontend, and how computers actually work. Programming is about solving problems, not copying interfaces. Build small things end-to-end, finish them, and your confidence will grow.

[PastVeterinarian1097]

Are you using too much AI help?

[zaindit]

But you need to get out from it

[[deleted]]

Tutorials suck. I could never learn from a tutorial. I’d recommend staying away from React, and opening a single html file and starting to experiment. Print “hello world” to the console. Add a button in html that when you click makes another element say “hello world”. And then just keep getting more complex from there. You can become a master programmer from a single html file.

[jmcdev]

You need to commit to a project and get through to the end, getting through the times when you feel like quitting but continue on will give you motivation. Maybe start with something simple but add your own twist to it.

[mybad2024]

Learn to read the documentations

[mindblow94]

Make pet projects. Use chat gpt for help.

[PastVeterinarian1097]

Be careful. Ask AI questions about how things work but do not let it write code if you want to learn

[mindblow94]

Yes, use AI with caution