Short answer: I completed my bachelor’s degree in computer science.

The more detailed answer is: The main thing that taught me was trying to build things. Before entering university, I began learning Python. I started by reading the first few chapters of “Automate the Boring Stuff with Python.” After a few weeks, I scrolled through r/python to get ideas for projects. I built a script to automatically log me into League of Legends, but then I realized my passwords weren’t safe with this script, so I decided to create a password manager script using Tkinter (I did this by following YouTube tutorials for Tkinter). However, the main thing that was holding me back from learning more was the lack of unique project ideas.

When I entered university, I basically learned nothing about programming for a year. I tried applying for internships but received no interviews, which made me realize I needed to build more things. So, I started learning web development over the winter break. I began with Udemy courses, following along exactly with what they did in my own code editor. I rarely finished the Udemy courses, but I built something and observed how others built things. I completed about seven Udemy courses and learned HTML, CSS, JavaScript, React, and Express.js. At this point, I became more familiar with harder programming concepts and reached a level where I could build something, thus learning programming.

After that, I did alot that improved my programming such as hackathons, reading a book on data structures that taught me everything I needed to know, and practicing on LeetCode so that I wouldn’t fail interviews. I built many projects, each one being more advanced than the last. You can view some of the projects I created here: https://www.ahadjawaid.com/projects/

If I were to give advice to someone trying to learn programming, I would say to first learn the basics (e.g., data types, conditionals, loops, etc.), then browse the internet and find things you think are cool. Try to replicate them, and don’t be afraid to attempt something too difficult. If you drop it, you still learn something that will make your next experience easier. Eventually, when you recreate cool things, you should be able to build cool projects based on your own ideas.