BYTES OF GROWTH | How I learned programming in the first 3 months

Welcome to the inaugural edition of Bytes of Growth, where I'll be sharing my tech learning journey with you!

A little about me: I recently switched from Finance to Computer Science as a rising sophomore in college. The vast world of CS can be overwhelming, especially as a total beginner who started coding just three months ago. But here's the deal: we're in this together.

Through this newsletter, I want to provide motivation, inspiration, and a sense of camaraderie for both you and me. Each week, I'll transparently share my learning progress, insights from my experiences, and valuable resources I come across—no gatekeeping here!

But this isn't a one-way conversation. I value your feedback, suggestions, and questions. After all, I'm still new to this exciting world! Let's build a supportive community where we can learn and grow together.

Pic: Me & my supportive friends.

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MY PROGRESS UP UNTIL NOW 

Now, let me give you a glimpse of my 3-month progress so far:

1. Code In Place 2023 program, hosted by Standford University (6 - 7 weeks)

I kicked off my coding journey with this online course. 

I think it is a great start for anyone who wants to learn programming because: 

• It is a self-paced online course, but you also have tasks each week you have to complete. Seeing the check mark is really satisfying.

• Unique point: Each of the attendees belongs to a section with other learners and a section leader who you will meet once a week. This really holds us accountable. 

• The workload is not crazily heavy at all! I took this program while having my finals but it’s totally manageable. 

• The GREATEST thing is that the content is not too hard to make us feel like giving up, but challenging enough to keep us excited - a perfect recipe for steady growth!

In the program, I have learned almost all basic concepts in Python. My 2 proudest projects in the program are:

• The Snake game 

• The Breakout game 

2. CS106A Programming Methodologies by Stanford University (2 weeks):

After Code In Place, I discovered that Stanford University publicly shares its Computer Science courses online! CS106A is like the more comprehensive version of Code In Place. So I came to CS106A to learn more in-depth and complete the assignments in that course.

My 3 projects from that are: 

• Sand Falling simulation: Write functions so that the sands can fall down and move.

• Search Engine: You can enter a word in the search bar and it will find related documents.

• Bias Bars: Built bias bars in professor descriptions based on gender by processing student comments in Ratemyprofessor.com.

Because I already knew the basics, these 3 assignments only took me 2 weeks to complete. 

I highly recommend checking out CS106A from Standford University because: 

• It is presented in very easy-to-consume steps. 

• GREATEST THING: It has challenging assignments. But these are very exciting, and each is divided into smaller chunks and has a very DETAILED guide that will walk you through each step. 

3. “Scientific Computing with Python” in FreeCodeCamp 

Right now, I continue to learn Python through FreeCodeCamp and aim to get its certificate. 

I choose FreeCodeCamp because: 

• It’s free (of course!)

• It’s project-based learning (which is very important to any learning). You have to complete several projects at the end to get the certificate. 

• However, it is not as good as Code In Place because sometimes I find myself bored by the content or don’t know how actually to apply the knowledge. 

• The projects are quite hard for me, especially when there’s no guide.  

• But it’s still a very good resource! 

4. LeetCode

LeetCode is where you solve coding problems. I have started solving leet codes for 3 days and finished 9 problems.

I also choose to solve Leet Codes at this time because: 

• After knowing the basics of Python, I find the LeetCodes in the easy category challenging but not too difficult that I cannot complete. 

• Solving leet codes is the way I get dopamine in my learning, which is super important because a lot of online courses lack the dopamine I need to keep things exciting. 

• That’s the reason why I’m doing LeetCodes while studying FreeCodeCamp.

That’s basically what I have done these past 3 months!

OTHER RESOURCES YOU SHOULD CHECK 

1. “SWE Internship: a Focused-Track Approach” by Scarlet Nguyen: Scarlet shares her valuable insights on landing tech internships based on her experiences at top companies like Bolt, Google, LinkedIn, Slack, and Dropbox. 

2. “College Survival Guide” for Computer Science major: This comprehensive Reddit post, written by two talented CS students, offers practical advice for navigating your CS journey. Although it was written 3 years ago, I think it’s still very useful up to this day. 

3. Recommend Roadmap to Solve LeetCodes

I NEED YOUR HELP 

• What resources should I use next to learn after completing FreeCodeCamp? 

• What are some papers or newspapers about tech should I start reading? 

WHAT’S NEXT?

This is my first newsletter, so I want to give you an idea of what I will be writing about. My intended structure for the upcoming newsletter is as follows: 

• My progress that week 

• Challenges I encountered 

• A news or a paper that I think you should read (I definitely want to keep up with the news more!) 

• Other resources (online courses, events, internship opportunities…)

But I want to hear from you! What topics excite you the most? What would you like me to cover? Do you have any recommended resources or papers for my learning journey? Please share your feedback and suggestions.

Happy coding!

From Bytes of Growth.