As a beginner, your coding journey is probably a tough experience. Making mistakes is a normal part of the learning process, which you should always keep in mind – there’s a reason people say “Failure is a great teacher”. In this article, you will learn which are the top 5 mistakes a beginner usually makes. By reading it, you would hopefully be able to create a habit to avoid them in the future and improve your skills as a programmer.
Bad Variable Names
Beginners usually don’t really pay attention to details, such as how they use uppercase and lowercase characters in variable and function names. In most cases, they are doing it randomly. That’s not a good idea. To put it simply, it should be presented in a way that makes it clear and organized when someone else decides to read it. Depending on the language you use, there are specific convention styles. For instance, in C# for variable names we use ‘camelCase’ – the first word starts with a lower case and each additional word with an uppercase (ex. myVariableName). The level of complexity of a variable is also an important component. Level of complexity means that If a variable has a large scope and carries much more complexity, it should be given a long and more detailed name. A variable with a simple concept needs to carry a short and simple name.
Learning Everything At Once
When you start learning programming, you will quickly find out that there is literally a sea of information – tons of different programming languages, libraries, frameworks, API’s and so on. It’s a good idea to focus on a certain area of development and master the necessary skills for it, Instead of getting lost in the information flow.
Not Practicing Enough
If you think that watching tutorials or reading books is enough to absorb the information – you are wrong. You may understand it perfectly but in the end, what you get from it is only a false sense of confidence. For example, when you start practicing – you start facing more and more variable issues, which teaches you to find solutions quickly. In other words – ”less theory, more coding” is the best way to go!
Giving Up Before Even Trying
Do you hate it when someone says ‘I can’t do it’, especially even if they haven’t even tried? Beginners sometimes tend to give up after the first unsuccessfully resolved issue. Failure is what makes you better at what you do, take that saying as it is because it is that simple when it comes to programming.
Lack Of Motivation
‘I think I’m not good enough to be a programmer. Is programming for me? Should I even try, or do I look into something else for my future career?’- this is a situation that most people experience at the beginning of their programming journey. A way to get your passion back is to have a specific end goal in mind. This will be the goal that will motivate you to continue. It’s easy to get distracted and lose focus but with a specific goal in your mind – this is no longer a problem.
