Is this question frequently strikes in your mind that “How to Learn Coding For Beginners“? While you are sleeping and enjoying your most beautiful dream ever, it’s not good if this small question will break your dream and make you awake.

You have reached to this article because this cosmos wants to let you find this question’s answer.

First of all welcome to my article!! I will help you to find this answer, just be with me keep reading this article till the end.

I know that you already know what is programming and coding. If you don’t know about it, just click here and you will be redirected to that page where you can find the answer to this basic question in detail and if you already know the answer, then keep reading this article.

Learning to code is like learning any other skill such as learning to cook or learn to swim or learn to dance or learn to sing. You do not need to have a computer science background or a computer science degree if you want to start learning programming.

Suppose you are from a Bachelor of Commerce or Bachelor of Arts with biomedical background and want to start learning to code. The main challenge that peoples face most of the time is that there are so many resources available online, so many programming tutorials are there and it is easy to get confused with all these.

In this article, I am going to show you a step by step approach on how you can approach programming so that you can dedicate a minimal amount of time and can get the most out of it.

I will also review many free online resources in this article that you can use to learn yourself. Coding is something you can do on your own by watching those tutorials and following those online courses and practicing the problems on your own.

Step number one for How to Learn Coding for Beginners is to understand the principles of active learning. what it means is basically when you learn something there are two aspects one is input and the other is output.

At input you are watching programming tutorials, you are reading coding books, and all that, and in the output part you are practicing how to code, you are also reflecting on what you have learned and then you also want to share with others that what you have learned because the best way to learn something is to start teaching the subject.

Most of the time that people spend a lot of time on input, which is watching so many coding tutorials online, but they don’t spend a lot of time practicing those coding problems and exercises and even reflecting on what they have learned.

So we need to make a balance, we need to spend more time on exit than entry, which is when you watch a programming tutorial, then spend more time reflecting on what you’ve learned, and then practice coding problems.

The most important thing which you can do is that share with your friends and try to help your friends with the problem they are facing. Once you have understood the principles of effective learning, step number two for How to Learn Coding for Beginners is to understand what the code is for.

Code is basically a language that you use to communicate with a computer. When you want to communicate with humans, you generally use languages like English, Hindi, etc.

Similar way to work with a computer, we use a programming language like Python, Java, C, C++, JavaScript etc. So now let’s say you understand what is the code then the next step comes.

The third step for How to Learn Coding for Beginners is to understand the principles of computing. The program you have learned uses CPU, RAM, input/output device, different components in the computer, and also the data which is stored in binary formats in bits as ones and zeros.

It is important that you understand all this basic computer science principle. You have some good online courses for this, you can refer to some good online platform like Coursera, Udemy and Khan Academy course where they will explain the principles of computer science to you.

If you want to learn courses offered by big universities in the world then you can make an account on Coursera. Many courses on Udemy are free and courses on Khan Academy are also free, you don’t have to pay anything, so go ahead and finish that course. You can visit here and check out the full list of free courses of different programming languages.

You can refer to these courses no matter what programming language you are trying to learn.

Now the fourth step for How to Learn Coding for Beginners after you have finished going through the third step is to choose a professional career.

Being a programmer is more like being a doctor where you have different specializations like nephrologist, dermatologist, lung doctor, cardiologist, anesthesiologist, etc. Similarly, in programming, you can become a web developer, mobile developer, front-end developer, java developer, game developer, back-end developer, data science, etc.,

So you should choose a particular track that interests you. You shouldn’t try to choose every field present in computer science. Or you shouldn’t choose any field randomly, but you should choose only that field which attracts you the most and in which you feel comfortable while learning.

Let’s say if you decide to pursue a web development career, you must learn HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, these are called the Holy Trinity of web development and you must have a good understanding of these three. Then you can learn any JavaScript framework such as Reactors or UJS or NodeJs. These are very popular frameworks that allow you to do web development very fast.

If you decide to become a mobile app developer then again you need to have a good understanding of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. But for mobile app development, you can now do a native mobile app development or a hybrid. When we talk about the native for iOS, there is a Swift programming language that you should learn.

And if you decide to go with Android then you need to learn Java. Yes, you are right the most popular programming language of all time. And for hybrid, you need to learn frameworks like react native, Xamarin, etc.

Nowadays, Data Science and Machine Learning are one of the trending fields in computer science with the highest salaries. If you want to go in the field of numerical computing, data science, etc then Python is the language to go for.

The great thing about Python is that It can be used as a full stack development language where if you want to put less effort in web development, you can use the Django framework which is written in Python.

Doing various things like Machine Learning (ML), AI, numerical computing, etc with Python is very easy because there are so many libraries available in Python which will make your task easy.

If you are doing something like big data computing then Python and Java are some of languages which you can learn.

Now comes Step number 5 where you have to start level 1 OR beginner-level coding.

This is the stage where you are getting your hands dirty and writing your first program, the idea here is that at this stage of your programming journey you want to gain a basic understanding of writing code, such as using variables, data types, how to execute your core, large file operations etc.

If you have chosen a career in web and mobile app development you can follow Udemy or Coursera or Khan Academy’s HTML CSS and JavaScript tutorials.

Some of the online platforms which can be referred for learning coding or any programming languages are:

A platform like Coursera offers high-quality courses from top-level universities of the world and you can choose free courses too there.

Udemy will also provide you high-quality courses and you can choose free courses there too.

However you can also choose courses for which you will have to pay some money on Coursera and Udemy but that’s totally your choice that which type of courses you want to choose.

In Khan Academy first of all, you will get free tutorials which are nicely explained in easy and simple language and there are exercises and quizzes too.

There is another great resource called Code Academy, in Code Academy, you can create a free account that allows you to see 180 hours of content per month. Of course, you will not have access to some of the premium features but you can go for premium features if you can afford the money and if you want.

The way that Code Academy works is different, they will be very interactive, they will ask you to write code from the first step, so you can check out those online courses on HTML, CSS and JavaScript if you want, some of them will be free and some will require Pro account.

You can refer to this article and can find out many courses which are totally free and this article can help you to choose courses according to the programming language which you want to learn.

You can learn various programming language but if you want to start from something easy then you can go for Python.

Python is a great language if you are just starting to code. If you are not sure what programming language you want to learn, I would say go for Python because Python is very very easy to learn, it is like English. It is so easy that even a high school student can easily learn it from Python tutorials.

So now when you have completed level one coding tutorials, you have some knowledge of how to write code and run it.

Now the sixth step is to learn debugging and enhance debugging skills.

At this stage, you should now learn debugging skills. Debugging skills are extremely important if you want to become a good programmer. If you already know how to write codes, you should now know about how to debug codes. Now you should practice debugging codes which will enhance your debugging skills.

You can take help from youtube video tutorials and you will easily learn how you can debug code in the Python code editor. You can use these learned concepts from these tutorials for pretty much any code editor that goes beyond Visual Studio code or even eclipse or any other editor.

IDE is basically an integrated development environment or your code editor where you are writing codes. Talking about code editor, Visual Studio code today as of 2020 is the most popular IDE, so if you don’t know which editor to choose, just go for it because here you can program in  JavaScript, Java, Go, Node. js and C++.

For Python, specifically, there is Pycharm Community Edition which is freely available to download from the JetBrains website so you can use PyCharm as well but that will be more for Python. You can use Spyder IDE or Jupyter Notebook too if you want to learn coding and debugging in Python programming language.

You can do debugging in chrome if you are doing web programming. For that, you can debug in chrome or any other browser. The good thing is that the browsers have built-in code debugger that you can use, you can set a breakpoint, you can run your code, etc.

Let me remind you to have Good debugging skills is extremely important, especially in the early phase because in the early phase, what will happen is that you will write code and it will give you the output that you do not expect and you will wonder why this is happening at that moment. Maybe you will feel upset and this is the moment when many learners leave coding.

So developing this debugging skill is extremely important because it’s the time when you can debug your course step by step and know what is going on inside your code.

One of the most important steps is Step number seven which is data structures.

We all know that data structure is extremely important, there is not a single programming interview out there seen in my life where the Interviewer doesn’t ask about data structures.

Data structures are basic building blocks of any program, no matter what programming language either Java, Python, C, C++ is using.

Every programming language uses the data structure, so learning data structure is very important if you want to learn coding in a proper way. If you don’t know data structures then also you can code but learning data structures is mandatory if you want to get something big in the programming field. Once you will develop a good understanding of Data Structures, you can become a really good programmer.

So for learning data structures, again you can watch tutorials on the above-mentioned platforms. You can also watch youtube video tutorials and some of the above-mentioned platform’s tutorials have cool exercises too where you can practice whatever you learn.

So remember the basics of effective learning, which is watching less tutorials and practicing more good. So even after watching those Data structure tutorials, be sure to practice everything.

Now we have the eighths step where we will learn basic SQL (Structured Query Language) for the database.

If you want to become a good programmer, you must have a solid understanding of SQL (Structured Query Language). Even for a data scientist or data analyst, SQL is a must-learn. Without SQL, all programming knowledge is incomplete. Because we all know that how important is data today. For storing, manipulating, and processing those data, we all need to learn Database Management System (DBMS). When we talk about DBMS, it is incomplete without SQL. Again Youtube is one of the best platforms to learn SQL.

Step nine is to learn level-2 or intermediate coding.

Step number nine is to learn level 2 of the programming. So at this stage, you have already done some basic programming, you know how to debug, you have a good understanding of SQL and data structures. Now you are ready for the level-2 or intermediate programming tutorial on Python programming or any other programming language that you are learning.

Step ten is to learn algorithms.

Learning algorithms is also mandatory. Algorithms are again a very important concept in addition to data structure and it applies to whatever programming language you are learning. If you want, you can learn algorithms before learning data structures which will make it easy for you to understand data structures properly.

You will have to go through basic algorithms like binary search and more different types and writing algorithms for operations in different data structures and all of that. This way you get a good understanding of the internals of your program, how your program performs and its complexity, and so on so that any good programmer has a solid understanding of the algorithm.

Step eleven is last but not least, start working on the project.

After you are done with step ten, the next step would be to start working on projects now regardless of the steps that have followed, or you can do project-based learning or you can call it a goal.

It means that whenever you are learning, let’s say level-1 for coding tutorials, you need to have a concrete project in mind that you are working on. Let’s say you are doing web development in that case you should aim to finish a simple website on the list and that is a goal.

Now to finish the goal, you are learning all these different concepts in web development. Right after you have followed all the steps, now your goal should be to work on more and more projects which is totally fine.

So if you want to become a web developer, initially you should build a static website then you can build a dynamic website, and then you can build an e-commerce website.

In the same way, for python programming, you can write a very basic program then a program that will do simple file manipulation, and then you can be started writing programs that can do data visualization.

Let’s say now if you want to do data visualization you need to learn Matplotlib or Seabourn library and now you can go and see Matplotlib tutorials or Seabourn tutorials. If you are doing numerical computing, you will see numerous tutorials. Let’s say you choose a project for machine learning, in that case, you can now watch the machine learning tutorial.

So see after following these first ten steps, you are now learning that the train is on the track and it has started to pick up speed. So now what you are doing is working on more and more projects and to finish particular projects, whatever new skill you require, you learn on-demand.

It means when there is a need, now you learn new skills like NumPy, Pandas, Seabourn, and so on and as you practice more and more projects, you will get better and better at programming. so by using this 11-step approach where you start as as zero and then become a hero.

I want to repeat some important points again that anyone can learn to code, you don’t need computer experience, you don’t need to be a genius. Nowadays, all these programming languages, Python, Java, Ruby, PHP, Perl, etc are high-level programming languages ​​and they are very easy to code. At many places in this world, these programming languages are taught ​​in middle school and high school and students write codes very well too in these programming languages.

You can become very good at coding and all you need to do is follow a disciplined approach. If you follow the approach it gives you Maximum ROI, which is the return on investment. So if you follow this 11-step approach, you will spend minimal time and get the most out of your effort and schedule is something that is required.

Today in any field, no matter what a profession is, that if you are a mechanical engineer, electrical engineer, or any professional if you have programming skills, that will separate you from the crowd.

By learning programming and coding, you can get a better job, you can get fast success in your career, and also if you want to switch your career suppose you want to go in data science or programming field, having these skills will really help you to make the transition in that field.

Being a programmer has many benefits, for example, when any pandemic spread in the world then in the pandemic era in which people stay locked in their home or due to any reason when people stay at their home, but if you are a programmer you will most likely not lose your job. You can work from home, all you need is a connection to the Internet.

Also, the programmer is paid very high, so the financial reward is also amazing and the future is also very bright for programmers.

Conclusion:

Learning to code is as easy as moving fingers on the keyboard but it will definitely be going to test your interest, passion, and dedication towards learning it. If you will follow the above-mentioned steps, it will become easy for you to master coding. Thanks for reading it!