What do you do to learn concepts and new coding languages?

I’m starting my second year studying computer science and my first job as a full stack web developer. It seems like all of my classes and my job are teaching things very fast and it seems like I’m the only one who’s struggling this hard. The lectures do nearly nothing for me because I learned better by doing, but it’s hard to learn by doing because there’s 1000 different concepts and every line is something I’ve never even heard of so it’s hard to remember anything.

Please help, I’m really struggling but I do enjoy what I do know how to do

I need some guidance on how to structure a python snippet to use only specific values in one list of numbers to create an indefinite number of new lists from the first list. Example: baseline = [16, 17, 19, 20, 22, 23, 24, 26, 28, 29, 31, 32] #sort out only numbers that = prime * 2^2, or are a power of two... that would leave 16, 20, 28, and 32. These would go into a list. I would like to make a special list per prime * 2^n. This could be a substantial number of new lists. For instance, 64 through 128 would have several tiers of 2^n to sort to separate lists.

My school taught us C++ syntax in our first year, but I still don't know how to actually use it to develop projects. Right now, the only development tool I have on my computer is VS Code. Our teachers told us to “put in a little more effort” and teach ourselves, use GitHub more, and ask AI questions. But even after learning the syntax, I still can't understand GitHub projects. I've also asked AI many questions, but I still haven't made much progress because I don't know how to ask questions beyond what I already understand. I feel like I'm still lacking a lot of developer knowledge and tools. What else should I learn? (The courses at my school still feel too theory-oriented. Now that I'm a sophomore, we've switched to Java syntax and web frontend development.) Are there any other developer tools I should learn and set up?

I sometimes solve a problem using a loop, then find out there was already a built-in method that could do the same thing.

When writing code, do you usually prioritize the simplest solution, performance, or readability?

Okay this isn't my complete project but a part of it and i am getting stuck on this. I am a beginner in this field probably just a couple more days than a month since i learned how to write print("hello world!").

it is written in python.

i want my code to give an output as if first hand is moving with an interval of 0.2 sec the second with 0.3 sec and so on till the 6th hand, all so simultaneously.

could you please guide me through it.

import time import emoji

frames1 = [ emoji.emojize(":backhand_index_pointing_down:"), emoji.emojize(":backhand_index_pointing_right:"), emoji.emojize(":backhand_index_pointing_up:"), emoji.emojize(":backhand_index_pointing_left:") ]

frames2 = [ emoji.emojize(":backhand_index_pointing_down_light_skin_tone:"), emoji.emojize(":backhand_index_pointing_right_light_skin_tone:"), emoji.emojize(":backhand_index_pointing_up_light_skin_tone:"), emoji.emojize(":backhand_index_pointing_left_light_skin_tone:") ]

frames3 = [ emoji.emojize(":backhand_index_pointing_down_medium-light_skin_tone:"), emoji.emojize(":backhand_index_pointing_right_medium-light_skin_tone:"), emoji.emojize(":backhand_index_pointing_up_medium-light_skin_tone:"), emoji.emojize(":backhand_index_pointing_left_medium-light_skin_tone:") ]

frames4 = [ emoji.emojize(":backhand_index_pointing_down_medium_skin_tone:"), emoji.emojize(":backhand_index_pointing_right_medium_skin_tone:"), emoji.emojize(":backhand_index_pointing_up_medium_skin_tone:"), emoji.emojize(":backhand_index_pointing_left_medium_skin_tone:") ]

frames5 = [ emoji.emojize(":backhand_index_pointing_down_medium-dark_skin_tone:"), emoji.emojize(":backhand_index_pointing_right_medium-dark_skin_tone:"), emoji.emojize(":backhand_index_pointing_up_medium-dark_skin_tone:"), emoji.emojize(":backhand_index_pointing_left_medium-dark_skin_tone:") ]

frames6 = [ emoji.emojize(":backhand_index_pointing_down_dark_skin_tone:"), emoji.emojize(":backhand_index_pointing_right_dark_skin_tone:"), emoji.emojize(":backhand_index_pointing_up_dark_skin_tone:"), emoji.emojize(":backhand_index_pointing_left_dark_skin_tone:") ]

all_frames = [frames1, frames2, frames3, frames4, frames5, frames6]

current_time = time.time() looping_time = 4 complete_time = current_time + looping_time

while time.time() < complete_time:

a = 0
b = 0
c = 0
d = 0
e = 0
f = 0

while True:

    t1 = [current_time + [0.2 * n for n in range(1, 20)]]
    if complete_time in t1:
        c1 = frames1[a % 4]
        a += 1


    t2 = [current_time + [0.3 * n for n in range(1, 13)]]
    if complete_time in t2:
        c2 = frames2[b % 4]
        b += 1

    t3 = [current_time + [0.4 * n for n in range(1, 10)]]
    if complete_time in t3:
        c3 = frames3[c % 4]
        c += 1

    t4 = [current_time + [0.5 * n for n in range(1, 8)]]
    if complete_time in t4:
        c4 = frames4[d % 4]
        d += 1

    t5 = [current_time + [0.6 * n for n in range(1, 6)]]
    if complete_time in t5:
        c5 = frames5[e % 4]
        e += 1

    t6 = [current_time + [0.7 * n for n in range(1, 5)]]
    if complete_time in t6:
        c6 = frames6[f % 4]
        f += 1


    print(f"{c1}  {c2}  {c3}  {c4}  {c5}  {c6}")

hope i get some help.

I've always been passionate about technollogy since i was a kid, and lately i choose to get inro an IT career (big mistake in the current market but I don't see myself doing anything else), yet my programming skills are very questionable becouse I don't understand the fundamentals of programming yet 100%, is there a language or program to understand programming from scratch without worrying about the syntax?, I want to get ready to start projects asap

So yesterday, i told a friend of mine that i was learning web dev stuff from TOP (the odin project), and well, he was just clowning on me about how i am wasting my time on learning it when AI can do all the work related to it anyway, tho i doubt it can do everything rn, it might just be capable enough in the future and he also suggested me to learn python.

Even though i have no qualms about leaving the web dev stuff, TOP is just too beginner friendly i suppose, they had me install a VM to run linux and code on it, so yeah. Just looking for answers and advice and maybe some free sources to learn python from.

I so basically just got offered a bunch of google certificate courses at my local government office for free after consulting them about a career change, I tried doing a few assignments assuming this would be pretty quick. But then realized each course is actually split into 8-10 parts, and what I assumed would be quick was only a quart of a single part. It would probably take over 1-3 months to do each certificate depending on how much time I have(and I don't have much time right now).

so I want to ask, are certificates worth it? should I spend the 3 months or so to get the certificates? I was told that apparently some of them you need to renew every year or something, because if thats true that would be a huge hassle even if its free on my end.

would employers even consider them? for example if I get a certification for 'it automation on python', or something like 'google AI', 'google it support' etc, especially if my major and minor has nothing to do with programming or it, would a work place look at this as something that would count as experience more than just a small line of text on my resume?

Hello I am pretty young and only have programming experience in my GCSEs and wanted to expand it
I really wanted to follow the textbook “the nature of code” as I find the stuff very interesting however it requires Java and j5 but I only know how to code in python

I thought I could just translate the Java code into python as I would prefer to not learn Java and get better with python first
However, I have struggled with installing j5 the command prompt p5qt works but then running j5 code, the interpreter tells me I need Java 17 virtual machine which I do not know how to install
I have seen something about using an older version of python but I can’t get it to be independent of my current version of python(having both installed at the same time)

I've been learning programming on and off and my biggest problem isn't really finding tutorials.

It's the opposite.

There are WAY too many.

I'll start learning Python, find a roadmap, then someone recommends another roadmap, then i find a 20+ hour course, then a YouTube playlist, then some documentation...

And suddenly i'm spending more time deciding what to learn than actually coding.

Then i hit the second problem:

consistency.

If i'm learning alone and don't code for a week, nobody cares.

I don't have anyone waiting for me to finish something.

For me personally, having someone actually expect me to show up would probably help a lot.

So i'm building something around this.

The idea is to take the free resources that already exist and turn them into a structured path based on:

• what you wanna learn
• your current level
• how much time you have

Then you can join a small group of people learning the same thing and have weekly goals + check-ins + shared progress.

No paid course.

No "buy my 40 hour Python masterclass."

The learning stays free.

The paid part would be the accountability group.

Would something like this actually help you?

And if you've tried study groups / Discord / accountability partners before:

why did you stop using them?

that's actually the part i'm most interested in.

Hey, I'm a CS student in France, and I'm going to start my second year in just a few days. To be honest, I feel like a complete fraud.

I've wanted to get into CS for a very long time, and I used to be pretty good at programming and problem solving, but last year depression and stress really hit me hard.

My university is quite far from where I live, so I have to wake up very early to catch the bus and try to sleep early despite having a ton of work to do. I never really feel like I can rest or spend time on my other hobbies because I'm always thinking about university. This puts a lot of pressure on me, on top of my struggles with depression in general.

I also really struggled with staying focused during lectures. I tried my best, and sometimes I even left my phone and other distractions at home, but my mind would still drift. So I'd get to the exercises with less knowledge than everyone else because I hadn't properly followed the lecture, and then I'd have to rush to understand what we were doing so I wouldn't have even more work to do at home.

The classes are also quite short, and a lot of people don't actually finish everything in class. Some people use AI to get through the exercises without necessarily understanding what they're doing.

I'm personally very against needless use of generative AI, at least when it comes to my own learning. I already knew I struggled with discipline, so I initially tried to use it as little as possible because I didn't want to become dependent on it. But our teachers actually encourage us to use it, and some of the lessons/exercises are structured in a way where it feels almost impossible to keep up without it.

And, well... I eventually became dependent on it.

My grades got much worse towards the end of the year because I eventually stopped being able to work without AI. I passed first year mostly thanks to the good grades I got during the first half of the year.

Now I feel like I have practically no actual knowledge when it comes to CS. The only thing I'm barely good at anymore is mindlessly coding. I feel like I don't know any of the abstract or technical stuff, which makes me feel like I missed a huge part of what CS actually is.

I know I could try to catch up. I could spend my weekends doing small programming exercises and reviewing the fundamentals, but I genuinely don't know where to start, and I'm not sure I have the time or energy to try to relearn an entire year of CS while also keeping up with my second year.

Part of me feels like the best thing would be to completely start over, but obviously it's too late for that, and I'm scared that even if I did, the same thing would happen again.

So I'm mostly wondering what would you do if you were in my position?

How would you go about rebuilding your programming/CS fundamentals when you feel like you've forgotten almost everything? What would you prioritize, and what would you not worry about yet? And how would you balance catching up with actually keeping up with your current university courses?

And, also, has anyone else gone through a bad period and still managed to success in this field?

Thank you for reading all this, I don't really want this to just be a vent post, I want to get better, and I appreciate all the help I can get.

Im starting to resent the way programming is taught. It is seemingly taught in isolation the way mathematics is. You learn the functionality of code but they do not present the bigger picture where everything works together. It's frustrating because I want to learn programming through and through, every single bit.

Is there anything on Github meant for beginners to learn how to debug and have an intuitive understanding on how piece of functionality (functions, loops, arrays, strings) work together?

It's like yeah. I know how arrays work, I know about loops, sure, but everything works together. And none of the guides are showing me how bugs can occur due to the symbiotic nature if everything working together. Nothing exists in isolation.

hi, guys i am a dotnet backend dev and want to learn other languages and become fullstack, but i mostly like to learn by doing projects on video, would you guys recommend me courses on

C++ (i am trying to learn opengl/vulkan after that)

Javascript(for frontend)

HTML

CSS

NodeJs

VUEJS

If I learn a language in three stages.

• Basic
• Intermediate
• Advanced
• Proficiency (optional)

Then how would you fit the topics of programming lingo into the above levels?

How do you guys learn Java?

There are just WAY too many syntaxes to remember.

Every time I think I’ve got it, Java hits me with another one.

I want to start Open Source Contribution but whenever I open the repositories I get amazed and don't understand anything at all it feels like so much files and folders inside one another and I get demotivated.

Searched many resources but everyone says just start contributing to open source but no one says how and where and what to do.

I'm a student and all I've learnt in C, Python,Git,GitHub, Networking,Linux so please tell me should I learn anything new to start contributing or a small guide type.

So I'm making a text based wordle clone thing in python and the way it shows the player details about the input letter (correct, wrong spot, incorrect) is with different kinds of brackets. The issue I'm having is that if a letter has appeared more times in the player's guess than is present in the word then it will only take the value of the first instance of that letter.

() = incorrect

{}= correct but wrong spot

[] = correct

This is the code that prints out the different letters:
while len(guess) != 5:

        while len(guess) != 5:
            guess = input(
                "Please input a five letter word: ")  # Input field for the user's guess
        buffer = answer
        for index in range(0, 5):
            if guess[index] == answer[index]:
                print(
                    "[" + guess[index] + "]"
                )  # adds square brackets to a letter indicate it is in the word and in the right spot
                answer = answer.replace(guess[index], "*", 1)
            elif guess[index] in answer:
                print(
                    "{" + guess[index] + "}"
                )  # adds a squigly bracket to indicate the letter is in the word but in the wrong spot
                answer = answer.replace(guess[index], "*", 1)
            elif guess[index] != answer[index]:
                print(
                    "(" + guess[index] + ")"
                )  # adds a curved bracket to indicate the letter is incorrect
                answer = answer.replace(guess[index], "*", 1)

and this is an example of the bug (the correct word is wally):

Please input a username: test
Please input a five letter word: lalal
{l}
{a}
{l}
(a)
(l)

Hey everyone, I'm building an AI voice interview app and I'm fairly new to RAG. I'm stuck on the architecture and having a bit of a mid-project crisis 😭.

My current flow is:

Before interview:
Step1 : 
Resume + JobDescription
   ↓
Chunk resume/JobDescription
   ↓
Generate embeddings
   ↓
Store chunks + embeddings in pgvector

Step2 : 
LLM call is done using complete Resume + JD (and not the chunks)
   ↓
Initial ranked topic plan is created by this LLM call 

Step3 : 
Before each question:
Current topic
   ↓
RAG query in our vector DB 
   ↓
Retrieve relevant resume/JD chunks
   ↓
LLM call to generate a question from these chunks

The part I'm confused about:

At the beginning, I'm already sending the complete resume + complete JD to the LLM.

Why can't I simply do:

Resume + JD
   ↓
ONE LLM CALL
   ↓
10 interview questions

and then use those during the interview this would reduce the latency too!

Why would I need RAG again to retrieve chunks before generating each question? But I'm struggling to understand how RAG can be used to add value to the project

I have to add this project to my reume and need to have confidence in my design, I would highly appreciate someone helping me figure out the architecture!

I am pretty much completely new to programming, coding, etc. I was trying to download an in-game map for The Isle so I found one on GitHub. Having used it one other time, I was thinking yes I got this. I got to the point where I have the zip file on my computer but I've been trying for over an hour to execute this command after using cmd.

python -m pip install -r requirements.txt

I keep getting the "no such file or directory" error. I've looked up every question I could think of, but nothing is answering my questions. If someone has downloaded this exact desktop map: https://github.com/hartwin-journey/The-Isle-Overlay/blob/main/README.md

PLEASE help me out, I'm at my wits end.

Hey everyone,

I’m running into a frustrating wall with how I learn versus how the industry interviews.

My natural learning style is 100% project-based. I treat coding like building with Lego—I jump into a project, figure out how the pieces snap together, and learn the concepts dynamically as I integrate them. I heavily prefer this over traditional, theory-heavy courses or university methods.

Here is my problem: This method makes me pretty good at actually building things, but it completely chokes when it comes to technical interviews.

Interviews always seem to ask language-specific trivia or breadth questions (e.g., deep nuances of memory, specific built-in methods, exact differences between operator behaviors under the hood). To learn those, it feels like I have to go back to the "course/textbook" way of studying—which honestly doesn't help me get any better at actually making software.

For those of you who are project-focused builders, how do you tackle this? Is there a way to prep for the "interview trivia" game without getting sucked into tutorial hell or wasting time on courses that don't make you a better developer?

Any advice is appreciated!

Hi. Sorry if it's off-topic but I don't know where to ask this.

I happen to be one of those rare individuals who likes Objective-C, and both Geany and Notepad++ (the IDEs I use on Linux and Windows respectively) by default assign all .m files (Obj-C implementation files) as MATLAB files.

I know it can be changed by hand but when opening a pile of old code it all gets MATLAB-ed and I just can't be bothered to save Geany project files, especially that Notepad++ doesn't have a clue how to open them (when I decide to boot to Windows).

Is there any way to make those IDEs (and especiallly Geany) assign Objective-C as the type of .m files by default?

I know I could just find that in the source code and recompile it, but I already have about half a dozen geany packages on various read-only media that I would have to remake. And an unlisted option in some config file would thus be much better.

And recompiling is probably not an option for Notepad++ since Windows sucks developmentwise.

Anyhow, thanks in advance.

I've been struggling to find a decent book/playlist to explain certain concepts in C, as I most likely fall in beginner<->beginner intermediate category. I have so far done OOP with C# and I eventually had to switch to C, since my college only uses it and it starts in a month. I took a lot of time reading on the internet about some resources and eventually settled with "Beej's C" book. I am 100-ish pages through and though I didn't understand some of it, I get the overall idea and gist it conveys. Since something always bugs me I read online that it's a terrible book to begin with and that one'd be better off with just some raylib examples.

I am completely clueless. I don't know which 'project' to take, what library to use, how 'competent' I am, i.e whether or not I'd be able to program something that I'd think of. I'm begging you, tell me what to do!

I'm just getting started with Git on Windows and I'm trying both Fork and SourceGit.

So far, I slightly prefer SourceGit, mainly because it's free and has a Chinese interface. But the Chinese UI isn't really a requirement for me — I know I need to learn English anyway if I want to get serious about programming/security.

What I'm really trying to figure out is whether Fork has any features or workflow advantages that SourceGit doesn't have.

If there's something genuinely useful in Fork that SourceGit is missing, I'm perfectly happy to pay for Fork. I'm just not sure what those differences are yet.

For people who have used both, which one do you prefer and why?

I'm still pretty new to Git, so I'm especially interested in everyday things like commits, branches, diffs, merge/rebase, and working with GitHub.

Thanks!

Hi everyone, I'm 19 years old and I want to become a web developer.
So far, I have learned HTML and CSS, but now I'm confused about what I should learn next. Some people tell me to learn JavaScript first, while others recommend learning Figma and other tools.
My goal is to eventually make money from web development and possibly work as a web developer.
What would you recommend I learn next? Should I focus on JavaScript, improve my HTML and CSS skills, or learn something else first?
I would really appreciate any advice or roadmap for a beginner. Thank you!

I am learning programming for a pretty long time now, I now how to build project and all the time I see ads for courses or certificates that I can do online and for free.
Are they a waste of time or actually worth it?