There’s a reason why coding projects are becoming more common in school curriculums and in the workplace. They are an effective way to improve your coding skills, no matter where you are in your career path. But how do you do it?
Find a project you REALLY like
- Find a project you REALLY like.
- When choosing a project, make sure that it’s something you really enjoy doing. The best way to do this is by trying out different projects and seeing what perks your interest the most. If none of them seem appealing, go back through the list and find something else that piques your curiosity!
- Find a project that will be useful in the future (and relevant to your field). While some people may want to learn coding just for fun, others might want to use their skills professionally or on their resumes when applying for jobs or internships. When selecting a project, keep this in mind—it will help guide what kind of software development environment you choose as well as whether certain tools are important for building the app itself (e.g., GitHub).
Pick a language that is used in your field
- Pick a language that is used in your field.
- Choose a language that you are interested in learning.
- Pick a language that is popular with developers, and well supported by other developers.
Start small
The first step to learning to code is picking a project that you can actually complete. It’s important to remember that coding skills take time and practice, so don’t expect yourself to create a full-blown website overnight. Instead, pick a small project—something you can finish in an afternoon or evening (or even less!)—and build from there. For example:
- If the only thing you’ve done before is send emails through Gmail and Outlook, start by building a simple web app with just one button on it. The button should open up an email form with pre-filled fields like “To” and “Subject,” which will allow users to quickly send emails straight from their browser instead of having to log into their email account every time they want to get something off their chest (or spam someone).
- If you’re already familiar with HTML but haven’t learned JavaScript yet, try creating your own form validation checker that tells users when their input is wrong by coloring text red or green based on whether it matches what’s expected by the web page’s logic rules (e.g., entering numbers only).
- If you have not built a lot of user-interfaces yet, a REST API (like fxapi.com) may be a good idea, as the focus of an API is the backend and not the front-end.
Pick an idea and run with it
When you have an idea for a project, the first thing to do is think about the scope of it. Is it too big? Too small? After all, if your coding project will take several months to complete, there’s no point in thinking about how you’ll learn as you go along. Instead, it’s better to pick something small enough to finish within a reasonable amount of time and focus on that instead.
However, while choosing ideas based on size may seem obvious at first glance, there are other factors that come into play when picking projects:
- Are there clear start and end points? Projects with these points will help you stay motivated throughout because they give direction and structure to what otherwise might be a disorganized process of learning.
- Does this fit my skillset? If not then maybe try looking for another idea! If so then great!
Ask for help when you need it
If you find yourself stuck on a problem, don’t be afraid to ask for help. There are many great resources available online that can help you figure out what’s wrong, and there’s no shame in asking your teacher or classmates for assistance. The more people who know about the project, the better chance you have of finding someone who can answer your questions!
In addition to these resources, many coding communities have forums where users post their code and get feedback from other coders. It’s a great way to learn from others’ experience without having to re-invent the wheel yourself (and possibly making mistakes that would teach valuable lessons).
Start with something easy
You should always start with something easy. You’re setting yourself up for success, and your confidence will skyrocket as a result.
Start with something you know well: if you have a personal passion for cooking, try making an app that connects people who like to cook together and offers suggestions for recipes based on individual dietary requirements or preferences.
If you feel like getting in the weeds of coding, then try building an app that uses machine learning algorithms to help users determine which foods are good for them based on their dietary needs or food allergies.
But if these ideas seem too difficult or far-fetched—or if you’re just getting started—you can also start small by building simple apps that help people keep track of appointments, grocery lists and other daily tasks.
self-teaching is the best way to improve your skills
Self-teaching is the best way to improve your skills. The more you practice, the better you get. You can find a variety of resources online that are designed to help beginners learn coding languages like Python and R. Coding projects are another great way to learn because they give you an opportunity to practice what you’ve learned in a real-world environment and see how it works out for yourself!
Conclusion
All in all, self-teaching is the best way to improve your skills. It takes time and dedication, but it’s worth it when you see yourself growing as a coder with every project you complete. I know that the first few projects will be difficult just because they’re so new and unknown to us, but with practice comes skill! And once we get through those first few hurdles—like figuring out how web development works or where exactly this line of code goes—we’ll be unstoppable! So don’t be afraid if everything doesn’t go right at first; just keep learning until eventually something clicks.”
