Learning Programming - I'm lost

[Wictorian]

49 minutes ago, fpo said:

WHAT!

Syntax is minutely important relatively, but.... you need it... You can't write a book without knowing what nouns & adjectives are.

 

Get good at java.
Learn algorithms.

Learn data strucutres.

 

Learn some sort of database programming.

 

You should be qualified to start your own company or work for a company.

Yeah as far as I see I have to get good at Java because it seems like app development is based on that. Also do you think dart can be substitute for Java?

 

What do you mean by database programming? As far as I know it shouldn’t be hard.

[Guest]

31 minutes ago, Wictorian said:

Yeah as far as I see I have to get good at Java because it seems like app development is based on that. Also do you think dart can be substitute for Java?

Pick a language. 

Doesn't matter. I say Java because it was one from one of your original posts. 

I know it's used by a lot of companies and transfers well to other languages. 

31 minutes ago, Wictorian said:

What do you mean by database programming? As far as I know it shouldn’t be hard.

SQL. 

Getting Java to work with SQL databases

[Wictorian]

12 minutes ago, fpo said:

Pick a language. 

Doesn't matter. I say Java because it was one from one of your original posts. 

I know it's used by a lot of companies and transfers well to other languages. 

SQL. 

Getting Java to work with SQL databases

I have been working with python and actually recently I was trying to use it with sql however it is hard to get it working on school computers.

 

I will learn dart bc I wanna do Flutter development

[Guest]

6 hours ago, Wictorian said:

I have been working with python and actually recently I was trying to use it with sql however it is hard to get it working on school computers.

 

Probably because SQL runs on a server. (It can run on your computer, it would count as a server)

if you can get a computer (anything cheap with windows 10 is fine.) hopefully 4~8gb of ram, you should be able to do a lot more.

[riklaunim]

On 10/19/2022 at 3:17 PM, Wictorian said:

I have been working with python and actually recently I was trying to use it with sql however it is hard to get it working on school computers.

 

I will learn dart bc I wanna do Flutter development

SQLite should do the trick. As for learning things - as you already noticed the language itself is nothing without the software stack. Either you go with Python and then the software stack you selected, like web applications (Django, Flask and alike) or you go with Dart/Flutter. Doing some syntax and hello world won't cut it if you are thinking about career as there is many juniors and wannabies while limited amount of junior jobs.

[LapsedMemory]

I see the technical side of your questions are being answered pretty well, so I'll go with the career development perspective:

 

If you really want to work for a FAANG company, and you need a roadmap to do it, then the surface answer is pretty simple.  Go to their "Careers" page, find a few job openings you think you'd be interested, then write down all the requirements for that job posting.  Do this for each of the FAANG companies you want to work for.  Now you have a determinate list of exactly what they are looking for and exactly what you have to become an expert in.  

 

Update this list every 6-months, focusing first on the stuff that doesn't change much, and as you get closer to the job market, focusing on the new stuff they're asking for.  The market is constantly shifting, and if you don't keep up, all your work won't mean much.  

 

Most importantly, get yourself into a highly ranked college or university, and work to get high marks.

 

Follow all of this, become an expert, and you may have a shot at not having your resume immediately tossed by the automated sorting algorithm.  

[wasab]

3 hours ago, LapsedMemory said:

Most importantly, get yourself into a highly ranked college or university, and work to get high marks.

He mentioned in the past he won’t be going to college tho so I assume he plans to just self studies into a faang job. He will need to do a lot more and work a lot harder than those going through traditional college to pull it off that’s for sure.

[LapsedMemory]

21 minutes ago, wasab said:

He mentioned in the past he won’t be going to college tho so I assume he plans to just self studies into a faang job. He will need to do a lot more and work a lot harder than those going through traditional college to pull it off that’s for sure.

Yeah.  He mentioned it, but without it he's unlikely to have his resume even seen by human eyes at any of those companies. 

[wasab]

1 hour ago, LapsedMemory said:

Yeah.  He mentioned it, but without it he's unlikely to have his resume even seen by human eyes at any of those companies. 

It is still possible, just a lot harder and a lot more work. He will need to do things like winning dozens of hackathon championships or win a Nobel price or something similar to build a brand, reputation, and credibility.

 

of course that is assuming he can truly self teach himself to that level, which is a very big if. It is very hard to do without a formal education.

 

the most likely pathway is to get a job at a low tier company first that do accept self taught developers, gain like 5 years of professional experiences and proven track record, maybe also pick up some certifications along the way(google consider its own certification the same as a bachelor degree) and then try applying to faang

[shadow_ray]

19 hours ago, wasab said:

or win a Nobel price or something similar

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing_Award

[Akolyte]

On 10/17/2022 at 4:58 AM, Wictorian said:

My goal is to land a job at Fang. Obviously I wanna found a startup like everyone too but that's not my goal for now. I have been learning python and such but now I'm lost. I've been told to learn Java. I've been told not to spend energy learnning syntax.. What am  I supposed to do?

 

I know this is probably a little bit different than what others are telling you, but I'd suggest just picking one language and building some demo applications with it.  You can find good courses online that guide you through building real-world applications. 

 

Any framework, any language - just pick one.  Whether it be javascript/node, C#/.NET, or Python/Flask/Django.  You need to stick to one thing, build some demo applications. 

 

Being a developer these days, languages and frameworks change so much that you need to continuously learn on the go anyway, and you'll use multiple languages on the job anyhow.  Make sure to learn the fundamentals of object oriented programming, and actually build something.

 

If you're interested in becoming a developer, then you'll want to learn about event-driven architectures as well.  You'll be expected to learn many different databases and how to optimise them, you'll be expected to learn how to integrate different authentication providers, design and build REST APIs, and completely decouple your services, making use of intermediary queues. Not to mention, many services utilise different languages and each need their own datastore. 

 

I'm not saying this to intimidate you, but to emphasise the fact that you should just pick a language and build some stuff, persist - no matter how lost you feel, keep persisting and you'll make it.  Pick a language, because in the end you'll be expected to learn multiple languages, databases, frameworks, and once you learn one it will get easier and easier. 

 

Good luck and hope you achieve it.