A coder searching for his problem which he is unable to over come form past few months

[u/NefariousnessMuch857]

I have been coding in Java for the past 5–6 months, and now I am in a phase where I have good theoretical knowledge and can write code, but sometimes when I try to write a program, I get stuck or confused about what exactly I should write.

Even if I have written the same code before, after a few days, I sometimes get stuck when trying to write it again. I don't have any real programming experience or anyone to guide me.

I want to start applying for jobs, but I am afraid that when I sit in front of an interviewer and they ask me to write code, I might get stuck or go blank.

Can you suggest how I can improve my logical thinking and coding skills, especially my ability to write code from scratch during interviews?

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[u/desrtfx]

5-6 months is far from job ready. Sorry for the harsh truth and reality check. It may be that you could get an intern position or if the company is very generous (and desperate) a junior position with extremely heavy mentoring, but that's about it.

The market is extremely dire at the moment. You'll be competing against graduates with proper degrees that are competing against laid off, experienced programmers.

how I can improve my logical thinking and coding skills

By writing more code. By solving more problems. There are no tricks, no shortcuts. It's all practice.

[u/DiligentMission6851 → u/desrtfx]

It would not get an internship in this market.

[u/NefariousnessMuch857 → u/desrtfx]

yes practice i the only thing but after practicing also i am not improving so trying to change my techinque thaty why trying to ask people what they should have done in this scenarion or what should i do

[u/desrtfx → u/NefariousnessMuch857]

but after practicing also i am not improving

That means that you need to practice a lot more. It's not a technique. It is all only hard work.

The key here is to work on your own, not with tutorials. You need to do the thinking and work. Do not copy from tutorials. That's not learning.

[u/NefariousnessMuch857 → u/desrtfx]

ok then i will stick to my plan code daily practice and move forwad

[u/MagicalPizza21]

After just 5-6 months you probably don't have "good theoretical knowledge" yet. But you don't know what you don't know.

Try solving problems without code first.

How are you learning Java? Are you thinking of going to school for it?

[u/NefariousnessMuch857 → u/MagicalPizza21]

Good means i will rate it like 7 to 8 i have joined a institute for it like i am practicing but constantly thinking that my approach is wrong

[u/desrtfx → u/NefariousnessMuch857]

Good means i will rate it like 7 to 8

Sorry, but you're gravely, really gravely, overestimating your skills and knowledge, even more so for a language like Java with one of the largest ecosystems of programming languages.

Even if it were a very simple language, you wouldn't be a 7 or 8 after mere 5-6 months. You haven't even really started to learn.

Look up "Dunning-Kruger Syndrome". You are at a stage where you by far do not actually know enough to estimate your actual skills and because of that you are gravely overestimating.

Had you said 7-8 after 3-5 years it would become somewhat realistic.

Really good programmers never overestimate their skills. They know very precisely that no matter how much they already know they only know a minuscule fraction of what is out there to learn.

[u/apexchef → u/desrtfx]

So true, and for Java specifically, even after 3-5 yrs, rating yourself 7/8 is extremely generous unless you are a savant

[u/aqua_regis → u/NefariousnessMuch857]

i will rate it like 7 to 8

Yeah sure, I can agree to that sentiment, but only since you didn't state the upper end of the scale, which is around 100,000

You don't even know that you know nothing because you so far haven't really seen anything.

Let's say it with BTO (no, not another K-Pop band - I mean Bachmann-Turner-Overdrive): "You ain't seen nothing yet"

Also, theoretical skills don't pay bills. It's the practical side that counts.

[u/MagicalPizza21 → u/NefariousnessMuch857]

After just 5-6 months you don't have nearly enough knowledge to properly rate your own programming skills.

[u/JGhostThing]

You do not have any sort of good theoretical knowledge. Perhaps in a couple of years... Seriously. I was a professional computer programmer/analyst for all my career. It takes a lot longer than you think to build the experience needed to create programming projects.

Also, the fear of not being able to demonstrate your coding ability should never keep you from applying for a job. You need to build more projects. It's the only way to develop the critical thinking ability to build the projects. Computer programming isn't easy. The syntax of computer languages is simple, but the thinking process is difficult to learn.

The only reason to avoid interviews is because you believe that you are not qualified.

[u/NefariousnessMuch857 → u/JGhostThing]

yes exactly thats the fear i fell all the time

[u/chrisbvt]

Coding is not just learn and apply. Programming is really solving a problem with code, and how you approach that problem and find a solution using code is the skill you still need.

Intro courses usually cover this, teaching you to write some pseudo-code to hash out the solution logically and with what structures you will use before writing any actual Java code. Even with no knowledge of Java specifically, you should be able to write the pseudo-code to attack the problem if you know basic programming control structures, and you should have a good first-pass idea of how your solution can solve the problem before even coding it in Java.

Your real issue now is AI is probably way ahead of your skill level, and companies can just use AI instead for what they used to hire jr. programmers for. If you did get a job, you will be only addling minor features or fixing bugs in large code bases which are probably part of a larger framework that you will also need to learn, like Spring Boot.

[u/Same-Service48]

Don’t memorize and try to replicate think of the problem and how you would approach it then turn that idea into code there’s rarely a fix all approach otherwise you would just copy paste everything, if you happen to have code that solves a similar problem by all means reference it it’s not a bad thing to validate your thinking by googling common things you “think” you should just know

[u/denerose]

Programming isn’t about memorising solutions it is about thinking critically to solve problems and code just happens to be the tool we use to solve those problem (and sometimes create new problems for ourselves or our colleagues but that’s a separate issue).

You’re already doing the thing you need to do. Just keep trying to figure out solutions to problems with code. Try things, break things, fix them and try other things until it works. Then make sure you understand why it works not just how. We don’t write the same code every day at work, we write new code to solve today’s problem.

If you focus on understanding how and why things work and stop worrying about trying to memorise solutions you’ll see an improvement.

[u/NefariousnessMuch857 → u/denerose]

ok i will try this