Easy Ways to Start Learning Programming Skills

Programming is accessible to everyone, and mistakes are essential for learning and growth.

### Easy and Painless Ways to Start Programming: Tips and Resources
* 📱 Join our Telegram channel for quizzes and to **showcase your knowledge in programming**!
* 💻 There are simple methods to begin coding that allow you to **complete over 150 tasks quickly**, work flexibly, and enjoy your favorite pizza.
* 🎯 The choice of programming language is less important than understanding that the **logic behind programming remains consistent across languages**.
* 🛠 Identify tasks you can automate in your daily life, such as **reminders** or **calculators**, and choose a programming language based on those tasks, like **Python for web development** or **Kotlin for mobile apps**.
* 🔄 "Repetition is the mother of learning," so don’t skip foundational topics, as **initial practice is crucial for mastering syntax and coding fluency**.
* 📖 Analyze and rewrite code examples from educational materials to enhance your understanding and reinforce your programming skills, while also exploring platforms like **GitHub** to learn from others' code.
* 🧩 Embrace mistakes as part of the learning process; they provide **valuable lessons** and help you **improve your coding abilities**.
* 📚 Consider enrolling in our Python programming course to gain **practical experience** and learn about advanced topics like **web development and databases**, with **flexible payment options** available.

By the way, we have a cool Telegram channel where we often launch quizzes, and you can show off your knowledge. The link is in the video description. Subscribe! 

What if we told you that there are ways to easily and painlessly start programming? And then get a hundred and fifty-plus tasks done in a nanosecond, work on a flexible schedule, and eat pizza anytime? 

Yes, such ways exist, and you won’t need to say Christmas tree eight times and then look under your pillow waiting for an offer. 

Alright, little frog, now we will tell you about great ways to easily and painlessly start coding. To learn programming, it doesn't matter which programming language you choose. The logic behind it is the same everywhere. 

Ask your family, friends, colleagues, or even yourself: What tasks can I automate to make life easier? For example, a bot that reminds you that Monday has already passed and it's time to go to the gym. Or a calculator,

which will calculate taxes. Or even a timer to take the chicken out of the oven on time. There can be a multitude of tasks. Next, depending on which task you choose, read about the tasks for which each programming language is used. For example, Python and JavaScript are often used in web development, and they are quite simple. So they are suitable if you want to create a website about your cat. For mobile application development, you need Kotlin, Swift, or Dart, and so on. This way, you can understand which one suits you best. Also, keep in mind that a programming language is just a tool that you need to learn to work with. However, the skill of programming is something that allows you to write code in a programming language without even thinking about it, as if you are writing text in natural languages. For example, in Russian and English, if you are from England.

Surely, in school during computer science lessons, you have already studied some programming language. Therefore, when you open a great course on the Merion Academy website, you tend to skim through the beginning. After all, you already know about variables, syntax, and so on. Why study that again? 

And this is where a fatal mistake occurs. 

Firstly, because all programming languages differ in terms of syntax, meaning how they are written. Additionally, the varieties of the same data types can be different. 

Secondly, initial practice will help you get used to how code is written, making it easier as you progress. And thirdly, as our ancestors said, “Repetition is the mother of learning.” 

So, here’s another piece of advice: it’s important not to skip any topics and to keep developing, so you can code without thinking about syntax. 

Overall, learning programming is not something you can do just on weekend evenings once a week. Like any activity, for example...

Sports or playing the guitar, both require practice. By the way, there are many myths surrounding programming that scare people and prevent them from starting to study this promising field. For example, it is said that programming is only for techies, meaning you need to have a good grasp of mathematics and possess algorithmic thinking. But that's not true. All of this can be developed during the learning process. At the initial stage, you may not even need mathematics unless you decide to become a data scientist and delve into the exact sciences. 

In general, it's believed that there are no strict divisions between techies and humanities people. In fact, it's incorrect to categorize people that way. Everyone has the ability to learn anything. To avoid making mistakes by taking myths at face value, check out our video on the top mistakes beginners make in IT. We also provided a lot of tips there. 

Okay, so you're reading or watching the theory, and the author shows examples of code. Do you think they want to show off their knowledge?

No way. This is the first thing that will help you improve your programming skills. The fact is that your hands remember how to type certain constructs in the code on the keyboard. And the more you write code, the more you start doing it on an intuitive level. 

So, just rewrite these examples yourself every time you see them. Just don't forget to run and check how it works. Yes, rewriting is not always bad, especially at the beginning. But copying is not allowed; it won't be useful and will just waste your time. 

But that's not all the advice. No apocalypse will happen if you try to change the code you rewrote. Yes, even if you make a mistake. If you think about it, a program is the easiest thing to change. You can modify the code and almost instantly see the results. This is necessary to understand the program's behavior and to change it if needed.

Thanks to this, you will further reinforce the material you are studying. This is probably one of the simplest ways to enhance your programming skills. 

In fact, rewriting and modifying code from educational materials is half the job. This is just one example. There can be many examples, and every programmer writes code in their own way. 

Therefore, once you have a decent understanding of the syntax of the language, start reading a lot of other people's code. For instance, on a platform where programmers often share the source code of their programs, called GitHub. 

In general, GitHub is both a service for storing source code, tracking all changes in the code, a portfolio collection, and a social network for programmers. You can register there; it will be useful in the future. 

So, go there, find other people's programs in the search, and read how they are written. Start with simple ones, such as calculators or games like rock-paper-scissors, or find collections of solutions.

to understand the principles behind writing efficient code. It's important to analyze the code you come across and learn from it, rather than just copying it blindly. 

When you're faced with algorithmic problems, focus on writing the most efficient piece of code possible. The more external code you review and attempt to reproduce, the better you'll become. 

You might wonder, Is all this code good? How do I know which code to read? Not all code is created equal. Therefore, pay attention to the presence of comments—these are non-executing texts that explain how certain parts of the code work. Also, consider the number of stars and the overall activity in the project.

Even bad examples can be useful. They prepare you for the reality that code in actual projects can be quite different from what you find in educational materials. This doesn't mean that the code in educational resources is poor; it's just that, as we mentioned earlier, everyone writes code differently.

For now, our advice may sound like we are advocating for copying and being inspired by others' solutions. However, that's not entirely the case. All of this is necessary to...

Чтобы перейти к следующему совету – начни писать свой код как можно раньше. Даже если понятно совсем немного и всё ещё тяжело представить, как там эти итераторы внутри работают, всё равно пиши. От того, что ты много раз ошибёшься, ничего не сломается, и компьютер не сгорит. Программирование – это та дисциплина, которая изучается преимущественно через ошибки. 

Ты можешь воскликнуть: “А как же просто и без боли? Любые ошибки – это больно”. Просто запомни, что ошибки – это хорошо. Именно они учат тебя и дают возможность изучить больше. 

Час писал код для вычисления того, как лучше всего поделить пиццу на кусочки, и он не заработал? Не переживай, загугли возникшие ошибки, посмотри, что их вызывает, и исправь. Мало того, что теперь ты вряд ли столкнёшься с такой ошибкой, так ещё и что-нибудь новое параллельно узнаешь. В целом, даже говорят, что джун от синьора...

It only differs in the number of mistakes they encountered. Another great piece of advice we can give is to look at as many sources of information as possible. For example, one course of ours, then another... just kidding. If you don’t understand one explanation, immediately look for another. There’s a ton of information out there on the internet. Yes, that happens. Everyone perceives information differently, and it’s not a fact that the explanation you found will work for you. Therefore, you can always check other sources. There are many different books and articles, for example, in our knowledge base. And if this method doesn’t work, it’s not a big deal. We have a community where you can ask for advice. Just keep in mind that questions like “I don’t understand how this works, explain it to me” don’t work. First of all, what exactly? Secondly, how did you try to solve the problem? Such a question only raises more questions.

Therefore, formulate the problem correctly. Describe how you tried to solve the problem. Be sure to provide examples of the solution. You can add sources of information that were studied. The more the question reveals the problem, the better. Yes, it may seem that this takes a long time. But think about how much time you will spend on clarifying questions, and it will become clear that it is better to disclose the essence of the problem as thoroughly as possible. By the way, how can you understand the essence of the problem? To start, learn to read error messages. In most modern programming languages, error outputs are very clear. For example, this is how errors appear in Python. First, the full path to the file and the line where the error occurred is indicated. Then the reason is displayed, and sometimes even how to fix it. In real programs, logging can also be used. This is when every action in the program is recorded, and during its execution, you can identify errors. Many languages have built-in tools for convenient logging.

Okay, let's go over a few more tips. 

Solve algorithmic problems! What are they? Well, algorithmic problems are similar to math problems. You just need to write a piece of code as efficiently as possible. Efficiency can refer to execution speed, memory consumption, or the number of operations, or as real coders say, iterations, the code needs to perform to arrive at a solution. 

Start with simple tasks, like finding the largest number in a list, and continue to increase the difficulty until you feel like the final boss of a gym. After solving a couple of these problems, your programming skill will sharpen by +5. Moreover, it’s likely that you’ll encounter such a challenge during an interview, and then you’ll thank us later.

Here's an example of such a task on one of the platforms. There are two most popular websites – LeetCode and CodeWars. On them, you will find training exercises with auto-checking and various levels of tasks that need to be solved.

Solve using any languages of your choice. By the way, you can also see the solutions of other people, which relates to the advice about reading other people's code. This is especially important with these tasks. 

In addition to online services for solving problems, there are code editors that can also be accessed through a browser. They are simple and can be used at the start to avoid getting overwhelmed and abandoning everything at the setup stage for writing code. For example, there are Replit and CodePen. 

The first one is a full-fledged replacement for large IDEs right in the browser, while the second can be used for writing simple website interfaces. 

What do you think of this advice? Like this video and share it with friends who also want to learn programming. Then there will be more programmers in your environment, making it twice as interesting. You can work on various projects together and discuss things you didn't understand. 

Lastly, it's normal to struggle. This advice also relates to the previous ones. Struggling while reading documentation and theory is not a bad thing.

Even experienced developers ask their colleagues about new technologies, even though they may seem simple and understandable. They are not shy about it. So, if you want to become a programmer from scratch, don't worry if something is unclear, and don't give up on your endeavors. Making mistakes, finding things difficult, and not understanding something is okay. Just brush it off, keep digging, and keep learning.

Pss... guy or girl, we can help you with that, by the way. We have a cool course on programming in Python. In the course, you will not only learn to code by completing many practical assignments, but you will also learn about object-oriented programming, web development using Flask and Django. You'll even get acquainted with automated testing, web technologies, asynchronous code, and databases. Think that's all? Nooo. You will also receive a career intensive and an English course for free.

For IT specialists. To ensure your career is truly great. By the way, you can pay for all this goodness in installments or in parts. In short, there is so much! Sign up for a free lesson and see for yourself how cool it is. The link is in the description. 

Well, that's all from us. If you are already studying or are a developer, write in the comments about the most challenging things you have encountered and how you dealt with them. 

And as always, give a like to this video, subscribe to this channel and our Telegram, and tell your friends about us. Bye!

Как просто и без боли начать программировать?

Merion Academy

Easy and Painless Ways to Start Programming

There are simple ways to begin programming, such as automating everyday tasks like reminders or calculators.

Choosing the right programming language depends on the tasks you want to automate, with Python and JavaScript being popular for web development.

It's important to not skip topics in your learning journey, as repetition and practice are key to mastering programming skills.

Overcoming Myths and Building Programming Skills

Programming requires practice, and common myths about needing a tech background or strong math skills are misleading.

Rewriting and modifying code from examples is a crucial way to develop programming skills, and GitHub is a valuable resource for reading and learning from other people's code.

Analyzing and learning from code is crucial for writing efficiently, rather than copying it blindly.

Pay attention to comments, project activity, and stars to identify quality code.

Embrace mistakes as a natural part of the learning process, and seek multiple sources of information for different perspectives.

Correctly formulating the problem and understanding error messages are crucial for effective problem-solving in programming.

Algorithmic problems, similar to math challenges, help sharpen coding skills and are often encountered in interviews.

Online platforms like LeetCode and CodeWars, along with browser-based code editors like Replit and CodePen, offer valuable resources for practicing and improving programming skills.

Even experienced developers seek help with new technologies, so don't be discouraged if you find things unclear.

A Python programming course is offered, covering practical assignments, object-oriented programming, web development, automated testing, and more.

The course also includes a free career intensive, English lessons, and flexible payment options.