How to: Ways to practice programming
Tags: practice, beginners, programming, career
Published: 2022-12-24 01:13:01

Programming is a skill that I believe anyone can learn and get better at. But the only way that you will get better is by doing. Reading about new tips and techniques will definitely prime you, but they will not become second nature unless they are used many time. 
what to do in order to practice

Practicing comes in a few forms, mainly writing code and reading code. For me, writing code has been my main focus. I usually do this in the form a small easy to complete projects that tackle some aspect of programming that I want to learn. Currently I am working on a mobile app, where I can learn about user interfaces and how to make an app look good. Making something look good is not necessarily a programming practice, but what Im actually learning is how to nest and structure styles using the Dart programming language.
Projects

Projects are the best form of practice, they force you to think holistically about what is needed to complete the project. Getting project ideas can sometimes be a struggle so here are a few to get you jump started:

1. Calculator


Write a small program that takes two numbers as input in the command console and then add them together. This will teach you about IO (or inputs and outputs) and give some base for variables. Once you have something working, add to it. Add subtraction, division, and multiplication.


2. Clock


Clocks a rather simplistic and therefore makes it a wonderful thing to code. Start with printing the current time. This will teach you about printing two the console, and also about getting system information. Once you have that down, move to adding more features. Maybe change to a timer, take a start time or number and every second count down to 0. 

Projects like these make excellent tools for providing a base of knowledge, but as you progress and become more advanced as a programmer you will want more advanced topics to practice.

3. Compiler


A compiler is a rather advanced project to start. There are multiple concepts involved, from thinking about the phases of a compiler to understanding what goes into the syntactic structure of a programming language. 

coding competitions

Some other great things to do are enter into coding competitions. Now this might be to difficult for a beginner programmer, but it definitely would be worth trying

tutorials

Tutorials offer a great spring board to get your practice project moving. Sometimes when you just don't know what to do or what ways are there to tackle a problem, its worth looking for a tutorial. Honestly, try to find several that tackle a problem, because they will usually show you different solution. This is a great learning tool for beginners and experts, because it allows you to expand how you think about the problem.
when to move on from a project

Now that you have a project either done, or close to done. How do you know when to move on? When the project has become stale for a few weeks or months, its safe to say that the problem you were tackling has either been completed or you no longer have interest. Thats okay to lose interest. Just move on to something else, an unfinished project is still worth more than something you never completed.