Learning to code

That all changed when I found myself consistently approaching tasks thinking, “There must be an easier way to do this.” Sometimes I wished that I could to code more and more. Other times I wished that I could build apps that were exactly suited to my needs and wants rather than fruitlessly scouring the Google Play store for hours. A lot of the time, I was just interested to see if I could actually do it: write programs to instantly solve problems that would otherwise take a long time to complete.And so hard to start build web application to development in real word.

I just learned the basics – and now I want to share how to do it with you. You’ll find below the answers to a couple of common questions, including a straight-forward, specific plan of what to do.

• How much time should I put in per week?

• How much can I realistically learn in three months?

• Which programming language should I choose?

• So, what's the plan?

• Do I really have to do all the Think Java exercises?

• What do I do next?

• Footnotes

How much time should I put in per week?

It depends. I put in a lot of hours, but not nearly as many as some people recommend. YouTuber and self-taught programmer Andy Sterkowitz recommends a minimum of 2 hours per day, especially if you want to land a job in software development as soon as possible.

In my experience, weekends are good. A few evenings a week of 4 or 5 hours each are good. So are a few minutes here and there, whenever you can steal them. I wanted this to be a fun (although time-consuming) learning experiment and hobby, not a chore.

I’m sure that productivity gurus will tell you to space out your learning, to limit the length of time you spend on a session, and to do it consistently. If you have a lot of commitments, squeeze in 1 – 3 hours per day, Monday through Friday, and then at least 2 hours per day on the weekend. There’s probably some wisdom to that. With my schedule, it didn’t work for me. Do what works for you.

Some people with endless amounts of free time or unparalleled time management skills are able to blitz through several books and courses in three months and become marketable. For most of us though, the answer is: in three months, you will realistically learn the basics. By the end of three months, you will still be writing messy code, as I am. You will still be unaware of 99% of all there is to know. But you will have a firm foundation to continue to build, learn, and grow from. You will know how to think like a programmer and how to figure out solutions to problems you will encounter.