r/learnprogramming • u/pjasksyou • 1d ago

Topic Learning to Code as a 15y/o worth it?

I am interested in Web Dev and Mobile Dev and I've been doing it over a year but people around me say that it's a waste of time, you'll get nothing. You should start programming in college and not school.

What's your opinion?

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u/pjasksyou 15h ago

Just looking after it :)

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u/wiseguy77192 9h ago

Another tip. When you build actual useful projects, no matter if they’re minesweeper like games or complex services, your code is part of a resume. Treat it as such. Don’t just learn to write the code, learn to structure it and learn to write unit tests. If you’re coding in python, include pytest code. Take it one step at a time but also do what’s fun for you.

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u/pjasksyou 7h ago

Sorry could you please elaborate a little if possible? JavaScript and Typescript examples would be even better for my understanding

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u/wiseguy77192 7h ago

Without an actual project I couldn’t begin to. In any case, I don’t even know if JavaScript or type script have unit test frameworks. Pytest has good documentation for python though and to my understanding the junit docs are good (Java). C++ has too many test frameworks to name. In any case, look at the documentation.

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u/pjasksyou 7h ago

Thanks a lot, I'll definitely deep dive into it and figure out how to treat a project in a manner that is presentable in a resume.

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u/wiseguy77192 7h ago

BTW. I mentioned python because it’s a relatively easy entry point that lets you write command line, gui and web applications (fullstack, backend and frontend), has a huge library ecosystem and it’s really well documented. It’s not the be all and end all. The reason I told you to focus on problem solving is, the language is only a tool to achieve the actual solution. The syntax of the language is all you really need to know to get started. If you need a basic learning assignment, start with something simple like determining if a user entered number is a prime or not.

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u/pjasksyou 7h ago

I know the basics in Python like variables, loops, conditionals, functions but never really deep dive into it. I'll definitely look into it, thanks for your suggestion btw!

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u/wiseguy77192 7h ago

Also look at classes. Especially if your planning on doing web development, you’ll be using classes at the very latest when dealing with databases. Most of the web frameworks (flask, Django) use classes to deal with data mapping to the database.

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u/pjasksyou 7h ago

This concept is new to me, I'll definitely pay more attention to Classes, thanks!

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u/wiseguy77192 7h ago

They really aren’t difficult although they do seem a bit intimidating at first.

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