# Step by step guide on how you can learn programming in 6 months

Below is the step by step process of how you can start with zero knowledge and no
computer science background and master coding skills **for FREE** by following
online resources and self study

Week 1 & 2
==========

### 1. Understand principals of effective learning

Please watch this video to understand how you can learn effectively so that you can
get maximum output by investing minimum amount of time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZFrSDjRvjk

### 2. Computer Science Principals

Program or code runs on a computer and uses CPU,RAM, input/output devices. This
khan academy course goes over all these basic principals of computer science. Data
is stored as bits (1s and 0s) in RAM and disk. The course will also go over
fundamentals of binary numbers. **In this course only follow first 4 sections (1)
Digital Information (2) The Internet (3) Programming (4) Algorithms** Completing
remaining sections is optional and do it if you have time and interest.

https://www.khanacademy.org/computing/ap-computer-science-principles/computers-101

Week 3 & 4
==========

### 3. Choose Career Track

Being programmer is like being a doctor where there are many different
specializations. Doctor can be a heart specialist, a lung doctor
or a general physician. Similarly you can become a web programmer, mobile app
developer or backend developer. Here I have outlined
few popular career tracks along with programming languages required for that
particular career track,

1. Web Development
1. HTML/CSS/Javascript - Holy trinity of web programming
1. Frameworks: node js, react js, vue js etc
1. Mobile App Development
1. HTML/CSS/Javascript
1. Native Apps
1. IOS: Swift programming language
1. Android: JAVA
1. Hybrid Apps
1. React Native
1. Flutter
1. Data Science, Machine Learning, Backend Development
1. Python
1. JAVA

### 4. Level 1 Coding Tutorials

At this stage you are ready to write your first program and explore coding
tutorials. The idea is to get basic understanding
of programming such as variables, data types, file operation, writing static web
pages etc. Below is information on courses
based on career track,

##### 4.1. Web and mobile app development

Here are the links of html/css courses. For codecademy you can create free account
and get access of 180 hr
of content per month. All courses listed below are free.

https://www.khanacademy.org/computing/computer-programming/html-css
https://www.codecademy.com/learn/learn-html
https://www.codecademy.com/learn/learn-css

##### 4.2. Data Science, machine learning, backend development

For python, I've build a tutorial playlist for absolute beginners. Watch **first
14**
tutorails from this playlist. Remaining you can watch at step # 9

Python playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeo1K3hjS3uv5U-Lmlnucd7gqF-

3ehIh0

Also I've similar playlist in Hindi as well (just in case you are more comfortable
with hindi language)

Python hindi tutorials: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?

list=PLPbgcxheSpE1DJKfdko58_AIZRIT0TjpO

I've many interesting exercises and their solutions at this place:

https://github.com/codebasics/py/tree/master/Basics/Hindi
(The folder name is hindi but exercise is for both hindi and english tutorials)

Week 5 & 6
==========

### 5. Debugging skills

All right, at this stage now you have practiced some basic programming. It is time
now to develop debuggin skills.
You can not become a good programmer without sound debugging skills, period.
Especially in the early stage
you will run a program and it won't give expected output and you will be wondering
what's going on.
At this point, debugging skills will save you. You can step through the code and
find out the exact problem
with your program. I've 3 part tutorial series on debugging skills using pycharm
code editor but these
concepts are applicable in any code editor (or IDE: Integrated Development
Environment).

Debugging tips playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeo1K3hjS3uu-

0i4uha0_lZwh5PpIWB1T

Debugging in chrome: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0XScE08hy8

### 6. Data Structures

There is not a single programming interview where they don't ask about data
structures. Data structures are
fundamental building blocks of any program (doesn't matter which programming
language). Follow this playlist
to get your data structure concepts clear.

Data structures playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?

list=PLeo1K3hjS3uu_n_a__MI_KktGTLYopZ12

Week 7 & 8
==========

### 7. SQL Basics

Doesn't matter which career track you choose, you need to have good understanding
of relational databases
and SQL (structured query language). Here are some course links for SQL.

SQL basics on khan academy: https://www.khanacademy.org/computing/computer-

programming/sql
Kudavenkat SQL playlist (watch first 12 videos): https://www.youtube.com/playlist?
list=PL08903FB7ACA1C2FB

For kudavenkat playlist above, if you are interested in going little more deeper
into SQL then you can
watch tutorials beyond # 12.

Week 9 & 10
===========

### 8. Level 2 Coding Tutorials

At this stage, now you know some basic coding, data structures, SQL etc. You can
now go through intermediate
coding tutorials. Here are some online resources for the same,

##### 8.1 Python

Codebasics python tutorials (tutorial # 15 to # 27):

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeo1K3hjS3uv5U-Lmlnucd7gqF-3ehIh0

##### 8.2 Web and mobile app development

Interactive weg pages:

https://www.khanacademy.org/computing/computer-programming/html-css-js
JQuery: https://www.khanacademy.org/computing/computer-programming/html-js-jquery

Week 11 & 12
============

### 9. Algorithms

Algorithms are applicable to any programming language. Understanding algorithms

will help you evaluate
inner working of your program, performance measurement using Big O complexity etc.

https://www.khanacademy.org/computing/computer-science/algorithms

Codebasics algorithm videos (Video # 13 onwards) https://www.youtube.com/playlist?

list=PLeo1K3hjS3uu_n_a__MI_KktGTLYopZ12

Next 3 months
=============

### 10. Projects

Throughout your journey of step 1 to 11, you need to adhere to a principal of

**project based learning**
Which means have a project and then learn each of the skills required to finish
that project step by step.
Once you finished one project move onto another. As you work on more projects you
will learn new skills
and become better and better at programming

Codebasics Python Projects: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?

list=PLeo1K3hjS3usVcPj6osMx1tNkARllcRhZ

Here is the summary of this step by step process.


Useful Resources & Tips

=======================

### Group Study

Group study is always better than studying alone. If you know someone who wants to
learn coding as well then make a group and start studying together. Also hold each
other accountable and discuss learning milestones with each other. You can join
codebasics discord server to find partners for group study.

Discord link: https://discord.gg/r42Kbuk <-- On this you will find a partner

finder channel where you can find similar minded people with whom you can do a
group study

#### Following discipline and not giving up

Learning coding, especially when you are new, can get frustrating at times. Every
good programmer has gone through this pain so if you are facing issues, don't start
thinking you are not smart and coding is not your thing. You need to have lot of
patience. When you come from non coding background, thinking in terms of coding is
a big shift in the mind paradigm hence it can take some time before it starts
clicking you.