6 answers
Kyle
Student
Whitmore Lake, Michigan
8
Questions
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Is being a computer programmer hard
i would like to know #tech
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6 answers
Rebecca Tang
Banking
1509
Answers
Hong Kong
Updated
Rebecca’s Answer
There are plenty of varieties of computer programming that ranges from Operating system (e.g. Windows, iOS, Android, UNIX), application software, web pages, phone apps, games, etc. It may requires to know different programming languages and skills.
As mentioned by other answers, there are plenty of resources online. You can explore which areas that you are most interested. On the other hand, you can consider to attend Information Technology lessons in your school. It can give you more insight how to do programming.
If you are really interested to be a programmer in the future, you can choose the Computer Science as your major of your tertiary education. You can learn more the knowledge (theory), skills, computer languages, etc.
Hope this helps! Good Luck!
As mentioned by other answers, there are plenty of resources online. You can explore which areas that you are most interested. On the other hand, you can consider to attend Information Technology lessons in your school. It can give you more insight how to do programming.
If you are really interested to be a programmer in the future, you can choose the Computer Science as your major of your tertiary education. You can learn more the knowledge (theory), skills, computer languages, etc.
Hope this helps! Good Luck!
Hong Jin
Engineering
2
Answers
San Jose, California
Updated
Hong’s Answer
In general, I would say it's got a pretty low entry barrier. Here are the few prerequisites I think are key to break into the field
1. Being an avid learner, as technology and programming languages evolve a lot faster than other fields and you should be ready to get on a continuous learning journey
2. The ability to make logical sense and decisions. Programming is simply translating how humans making logic decisions into machine languages (of course, this is oversimplified).
With the above two qualities, anyone can be a programmer regardless you've majored in Computer science in your undergraduates or been to a college or not.
As for how to be a good programmer and how to get started, I would totally agree with the other two. That's the way to go nowadays.
1. Being an avid learner, as technology and programming languages evolve a lot faster than other fields and you should be ready to get on a continuous learning journey
2. The ability to make logical sense and decisions. Programming is simply translating how humans making logic decisions into machine languages (of course, this is oversimplified).
With the above two qualities, anyone can be a programmer regardless you've majored in Computer science in your undergraduates or been to a college or not.
As for how to be a good programmer and how to get started, I would totally agree with the other two. That's the way to go nowadays.
Rakesh S
Engineer
2
Answers
San Jose, California
Updated
Rakesh’s Answer
Some additions on top of the earlier response. Might be worth exploring some meet ups in the local community to get a feel whats happening in the Tech world that gives you some level of understanding in the direction.
Complete a course from free online tools, exploring Github / Gitlabs / Open source projects to get you a feel of the programming language.
As you pick the right programming and make your way worth contributing to the Open source community that helps and improve your skills
Complete a course from free online tools, exploring Github / Gitlabs / Open source projects to get you a feel of the programming language.
As you pick the right programming and make your way worth contributing to the Open source community that helps and improve your skills
Sooksun Sayprasith
Automation Engineer
7
Answers
Atlanta, Georgia
Updated
Sooksun’s Answer
It depends on the kind of programming you are interested in doing and how creative your solutioning to problems are. The act of learning how to code however is generally not hard. Some aspects are challenging but it is pretty accessible as a skill.
Using myself as an example, I do develop automation solutions but the tools and language I use are highly interpreted and general use. But I find trying to learn low level system programming hard. While other people I've worked with find what I do difficult to deal with while they are perfectly content with developing application libraries. There is a whole industry developing video games and I just have no interest in that area even though it's my hobby to play them.
I recommend leveraging free learning tools to your advantage to try out writing some programs and joining local user groups. Create a fun project (like program a calculator, develop a tic-tac-toe game, build a website, or program a robot) to try.
Find free learning tools online
Find a local user group to interact with
Complete a development related project (program a calculator, develop a tic-tac-toe game, build a website, or program a robot)
Research what kind of programmer you want to be
Using myself as an example, I do develop automation solutions but the tools and language I use are highly interpreted and general use. But I find trying to learn low level system programming hard. While other people I've worked with find what I do difficult to deal with while they are perfectly content with developing application libraries. There is a whole industry developing video games and I just have no interest in that area even though it's my hobby to play them.
I recommend leveraging free learning tools to your advantage to try out writing some programs and joining local user groups. Create a fun project (like program a calculator, develop a tic-tac-toe game, build a website, or program a robot) to try.
Sooksun recommends the following next steps:
Brian Wilson
Technical Sales
2
Answers
St. Augustine, Florida
Updated
Brian’s Answer
While I agree with all of the previous answers, I wanted to share my perspective.
So I taught myself programming. I started with BASIC back in the "old days", but taught myself over a dozen other languages, including assembler. I found this came naturally to me. I did take one programming course in college too, and found it just as easy. So obviously I was kind of pre-disposed to that kind of logic and thinking. I'm not saying it has to be such as strong pre-existing capability as it was for me, but obviously it helps.
For example, my daughter decided she wanted to follow in my footsteps, and major in Computer Science in college. She could not get through her first programming course. She simply did not get it.
So as the others have said, having certain tendencies and abilities certainly helps you tackle understanding the process and task of programming. I certainly believe with todays tools, methods, and languages, there is more opportunity than ever for anyone and everyone to learn how to program at some level. But at the same time, it probably is not for everyone.
So I taught myself programming. I started with BASIC back in the "old days", but taught myself over a dozen other languages, including assembler. I found this came naturally to me. I did take one programming course in college too, and found it just as easy. So obviously I was kind of pre-disposed to that kind of logic and thinking. I'm not saying it has to be such as strong pre-existing capability as it was for me, but obviously it helps.
For example, my daughter decided she wanted to follow in my footsteps, and major in Computer Science in college. She could not get through her first programming course. She simply did not get it.
So as the others have said, having certain tendencies and abilities certainly helps you tackle understanding the process and task of programming. I certainly believe with todays tools, methods, and languages, there is more opportunity than ever for anyone and everyone to learn how to program at some level. But at the same time, it probably is not for everyone.
Ben Gof
Finance
29
Answers
Wayne, New Jersey
Updated
Ben’s Answer
I'll answer this question from the perspective of a professional who is in his mid 50's and just started learning programming a year ago or so. I started learning Python as I saw that it had some uses to automate some of the repetitive Excel reports that we do. I would say that computer programming is definitely not easy. But it is not that hard if your willing to put in the time. Its similar to everything else, practice makes perfect.
From what I see however, the programming languages are extremely powerful, so the more advanced projects your working on the more difficult it will become. However, there are a plethora of resources available now on the web and are free that can help. I learned everything I know from the last year and a half from some youtube videos and surfing the web. I just signed up for my first Udemy class and I got it on sales for only $15. Whenever I get stuck on finding a solution, ill do a search for it on the web. Sometimes I get a direct answer, but even when I don't, I'll find something similar and then use some variation of it.
So I would suggest learning the basics and foundation and then practicing alot. You will know fairly quickly if this is the career for you. Some people love programming, some find it tedious. I am kind of in between.
From what I see however, the programming languages are extremely powerful, so the more advanced projects your working on the more difficult it will become. However, there are a plethora of resources available now on the web and are free that can help. I learned everything I know from the last year and a half from some youtube videos and surfing the web. I just signed up for my first Udemy class and I got it on sales for only $15. Whenever I get stuck on finding a solution, ill do a search for it on the web. Sometimes I get a direct answer, but even when I don't, I'll find something similar and then use some variation of it.
So I would suggest learning the basics and foundation and then practicing alot. You will know fairly quickly if this is the career for you. Some people love programming, some find it tedious. I am kind of in between.