Learn Coding – What’s The Best Path To Become Great?

With several options on the table to learn coding, which is the better option for you? You want to choose the one that gets you hired out the gate, takes the least amount of time, and prepares you for future advancements!

Learn Coding – The Questions!

One of the first questions prospective coders and programmers ask is, “What’s the best way to learn coding? In this brief tutorial, we’ll examine the most common paths individuals take.

The question of how and where to learn coding or programming is a highly reasonable question. The answer depends on how you answer the questions below.

What are you willing to sacrifice to obtain the best end result?
How serious are you about this career path?
What resources are available to you?
What do you hope to accomplish after the learning process?
How much time do you have to learn?
How driven are you?
Are you self-disciplined?
Do you need others to constantly push you to get things done?
After you learn the language(s) of your choice, will you be hirable and if so, at what level?
How will employers feel about (view) your educational path?
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As you ponder the answers to those questions, here are the most prominent pathways to learn coding and programming.

Learn Coding By Reading Books

The advantages of going the self-taught bookworm route is that you spend very little money and you learn at your own pace, hopefully in the comfort of your own home. The disadvantages are, you will likely not have mentors, coaches or sounding boards. That lack of input becomes prominent when you need to understand how the various languages meld together.

For example, if you are building interactive web properties that involve databases and payment systems, you will need to learn Python, JavaScript, SQL, and PHP to make such a project work. Depending on the books that you are reading, you may burn a lot of unnecessary time to figure this out; an issue you would have quickly learned in an instructional environment.

All in all, this pathway is only for the extremely studious bookworms who have a knack for not being distracted from the objective. This person would also need to take copious notes and be driven to find solutions on their own.

Learn Coding By Watching YouTube Videos

The Internet is ripe with videos teaching people how to code virtually any language you can think of. The only real issue with this pathway is you typically get videos that only provide bits and pieces of information in no particular order. Consequently, you end up toiling through an endless list of videos that may or may not factor into your language(s) of choice.

In summation, the video route could be a great route if you can piece together enough videos in the proper sequence so that you get the full breadth and length of the desired programming language.

Online Learning

This pathway has become one of the top standouts since we entered the pandemic phase of learning at home. The primary advantages of online learning is the ability to study at your own pace, in your home, the cost is less, and there is no travel. To succeed, you will need to be self-disciplined, be a great time manager, and have the ability to balance your life. With our courses on PythonTutors.com, you will become a Top Tier coder or Programmer.

College

Enrolling in a regular college is an option if you have the time to travel back and forth to school, are prepared to sit in a classroom, and can pay for the course or qualify for financial aid. That stated, attending a regular college does not afford any advantages over the other learning options. This option is for people who need the support of professors, teachers, peers and students.

Bootcamp

This option is for go-getters; the type of individuals who wholeheartedly believe in and invest in themselves. Of all the possibilities, this option provides you with everything you need to learn and then earn compressed into small time frame.

Additionally, you have the benefit of having a mentor and being able to network with your peers as well as with individuals in the coding community. The Bootcamps are the best of all worlds; check out out Python Bootcamp!

The individuals doing the hiring at startup and major tech companies, agree that Bootcamp graduates are proving to be their top performers. The Bootcamp graduates are better prepared to succeed than their college educated counterparts.

This has a lot to do with how the (better) bootcamps are geared towards present day technology, tools, and tactics. Also, most of the instructors are working in the field and are providing firsthand knowledge and experience concerning what the marketplace is doing and using.

On the other hand, many of the colleges have syllabuses, classes, professors, and teaching formats that today’s technology has left behind.

Look in the mirror and asses who you are, and then assess your options and go for it! There is no silver bullet; whichever pathway you decide hard work + smart work will be required to equal success.