6 Ideas to practice programming

Written by a programmer for programmers or anyone interested, this text offers ways and strategies to practice coding, from coding challenges to collaborative projects.

1. Start a Side Project

Begin a personal project that interests you. It can be anything, but be cautious about its complexity; the more complex it is, the easier it becomes to abandon it. The key here is learning by doing.

2. Solve Programming Challenges

Join online coding platforms like HackerRank, LeetCode, or CodeSignal. These platforms offer a variety of problems to solve, helping improve your problem-solving and algorithm skills.

An extra tip: If you get stuck on a challenge, look for the solution on YouTube, preferably a video that explains the solution. Try to understand how the reasoning behind the problem's solution was developed. This is my personal favorite way of learning.

3. Read Technical Books and Articles

Read books and articles to deepen your understanding of programming concepts, best practices, and new technologies.

Try to extract as much as possible from these materials, but know that it will be nearly impossible on the first read. So, try rereading some texts (especially books) from time to time.

4. Go Beyond Your Courses

I didn't mention taking courses because it seems obvious. We all know that to learn or practice something, we should take courses on that subject. The idea here is to go beyond the course.

If you finished a course on React (or any other topic), instead of just getting the certificate and posting it on LinkedIn or doing something similar, why not take what you learned and try to go further? Apply it in a personal project, bring the idea to your job, or anything else; the sky's the limit.

5. Participate in Events and Communities

Join programming events and communities; they often provide practical experience and expert guidance. Here are some options:

  • Talks
  • Workshops
  • Hackathons
  • Communities by:
    • Programming language: Java, PHP, Python, JS, etc.
    • Location: Country, state, city, etc.
    • Field of expertise: Web, Mobile, Gaming

6. Read Other People's Code

Browse open-source projects on GitHub. Read the code of projects that interest you, try to understand how they work, and consider contributing.

If you use a library during your development, look at its source code, understand the ideas applied there, and perhaps even improve it.

Bonus: Share Knowledge

If you learned something using one of the ideas above or in any other way, share that knowledge. It's a great way to solidify what you've learned, and this principle goes beyond programming; you might even help someone else.

Moral of the Story

The best way to practice programming is by practicing. This statement may seem obvious, and it is; there’s no secret: if you want to become good at programming, you need to practice.

Repeat and improve the six ideas above, and you’ll do well. Note: You don’t need to apply all six ideas; find what makes sense for you and repeat.

Acknowledgments

Finally, a special thanks to my friend Felipe Passig, who suggested this topic 🫶.

Go Deeper

I’ve selected some videos from @FilipeDeschamps on this topic.