6 answers
5
Questions
6 answers
Updated
Betty’s Answer
Hi Jason,
It depends on what type of coding you want to learn. My son has learned some Python and Scratch in coding camps and he seemed to understand it just fine. I started with C++ years ago and it took time to learn. I also picked up html and I found that very easy. Some people can pick up Javascript, java and object oriented programming instantly and become very good over time. It depends on if you have a strong interest, willingness to invest the time and what you eventually want to do with it. I would say that it takes about 3-6 months to learn the basic coding, tools and tips. On this point, I would suggest signing up for a coding camp since they'll teach all the fundamentals and industry standard tools. But to get to a level of mastery may require 1+ years. To see if it's something you would enjoy, go to Khan Academy or any other free online coding classes and take a course. There a lot of different languages and you might gravitate towards specific ones.
Here's a list of very popular and widely used scripting and coding languages.
C++, C, Java, Javascript, Python, SQL, Go, HTML/CSS, Swift, R
https://blog.devmountain.com/a-list-of-programming-languages-every-programmer-should-know-or-at-least-know-about/
It depends on what type of coding you want to learn. My son has learned some Python and Scratch in coding camps and he seemed to understand it just fine. I started with C++ years ago and it took time to learn. I also picked up html and I found that very easy. Some people can pick up Javascript, java and object oriented programming instantly and become very good over time. It depends on if you have a strong interest, willingness to invest the time and what you eventually want to do with it. I would say that it takes about 3-6 months to learn the basic coding, tools and tips. On this point, I would suggest signing up for a coding camp since they'll teach all the fundamentals and industry standard tools. But to get to a level of mastery may require 1+ years. To see if it's something you would enjoy, go to Khan Academy or any other free online coding classes and take a course. There a lot of different languages and you might gravitate towards specific ones.
Here's a list of very popular and widely used scripting and coding languages.
C++, C, Java, Javascript, Python, SQL, Go, HTML/CSS, Swift, R
https://blog.devmountain.com/a-list-of-programming-languages-every-programmer-should-know-or-at-least-know-about/
Updated
Sukhminder’s Answer
Here’s a list of reasons why something might be considered hard or difficult for kids:
It’s new
It’s different
It takes time
It takes persistence
It lacks resources
Does coding fall into any one of those buckets? Sure, you could potentially put coding in all of them depending on the circumstances.
But if you think about it, you can say the same for most anything.
For instance, for me personally, I’d say that learning how to play guitar is hard. Learning how to juggle is hard. See where I'm going with this?
Learning how to do anything new is typically going to be hard, and that’s what makes those who know how to do that something special.
Which brings us to…
Is coding hard to learn?
No, coding is not hard to learn. However, like anything new, it's not easy to start, and how difficult a time one has with learning to code will vary across a number of factors.
The point is, learning to code isn't impossible; or, it's not as impossible as it might seem when it comes to getting your kids involved.
While learning might require them to tap into areas with which they don’t have prior familiarity, those who have the time, persistence, and dedication can start gaining coding experience just as they can learn to do something else.
Meaning, plenty of people know how to code, leading many of those who are proficient in coding to launch the things we all enjoy using on a daily basis—from our apps, games, websites, robots, social media, and much more.
Then why the resistance?
So if coding isn’t impossibly difficult, why does that perception exist?
Well for starters, coding is a hot, relevant topic. No offense to anyone who juggles, but it’s just not an activity you hear about on a daily basis. So, it could be the constant reminder that “coding is important” but yet “we need more coders” that makes coding seem like a difficult task.
“Coding is hard because it’s new”
Coding is thought to be hard because it’s new to pretty much all of us. Adults went to school learning about all the things they thought they’d ever need to learn about, and coding wasn’t one of those things.
And for kids and teens still in school today, coding isn’t taught most places, so if they need to find alternative opportunities just to gain experience in this thing called coding, it must be pretty difficult, right?
Wrong. Learning to code isn’t available in many schools for a variety of reasons, ranging from school budget restrictions, curriculum inflexibility, lack of teaching resources, and more. Not to mention that if coding was too difficult to learn, you wouldn’t have kids attending coding camps, and if coding was too difficult to teach, you wouldn’t have online coding classes, etc.
“Coding is hard because it’s different”
Coding is thought to be hard because it’s a different type of skill; and “different” in the sense that it’s unlike anything most of us have ever experienced before.
Meaning, if you want to learn guitar, you know what’s required of you—you have this instrument and you need to master how your fingers interact with its strings. You want to learn to juggle? You know you need to simultaneously throw and catch objects.
But learning to code? It’s a little difficult to grasp what’s involved. You might know about the different kids coding languages, and what code looks like, etc., but the other 90% is very different.
Still, though—it doesn’t make it harder to learn...if anything it might make it harder to get started to learn, but once you’re in it, it’s like anything else...feels weird and different at first, but the deeper you dive, the more familiar you become, and the easier it gets to grasp the task at hand.
It’s new
It’s different
It takes time
It takes persistence
It lacks resources
Does coding fall into any one of those buckets? Sure, you could potentially put coding in all of them depending on the circumstances.
But if you think about it, you can say the same for most anything.
For instance, for me personally, I’d say that learning how to play guitar is hard. Learning how to juggle is hard. See where I'm going with this?
Learning how to do anything new is typically going to be hard, and that’s what makes those who know how to do that something special.
Which brings us to…
Is coding hard to learn?
No, coding is not hard to learn. However, like anything new, it's not easy to start, and how difficult a time one has with learning to code will vary across a number of factors.
The point is, learning to code isn't impossible; or, it's not as impossible as it might seem when it comes to getting your kids involved.
While learning might require them to tap into areas with which they don’t have prior familiarity, those who have the time, persistence, and dedication can start gaining coding experience just as they can learn to do something else.
Meaning, plenty of people know how to code, leading many of those who are proficient in coding to launch the things we all enjoy using on a daily basis—from our apps, games, websites, robots, social media, and much more.
Then why the resistance?
So if coding isn’t impossibly difficult, why does that perception exist?
Well for starters, coding is a hot, relevant topic. No offense to anyone who juggles, but it’s just not an activity you hear about on a daily basis. So, it could be the constant reminder that “coding is important” but yet “we need more coders” that makes coding seem like a difficult task.
“Coding is hard because it’s new”
Coding is thought to be hard because it’s new to pretty much all of us. Adults went to school learning about all the things they thought they’d ever need to learn about, and coding wasn’t one of those things.
And for kids and teens still in school today, coding isn’t taught most places, so if they need to find alternative opportunities just to gain experience in this thing called coding, it must be pretty difficult, right?
Wrong. Learning to code isn’t available in many schools for a variety of reasons, ranging from school budget restrictions, curriculum inflexibility, lack of teaching resources, and more. Not to mention that if coding was too difficult to learn, you wouldn’t have kids attending coding camps, and if coding was too difficult to teach, you wouldn’t have online coding classes, etc.
“Coding is hard because it’s different”
Coding is thought to be hard because it’s a different type of skill; and “different” in the sense that it’s unlike anything most of us have ever experienced before.
Meaning, if you want to learn guitar, you know what’s required of you—you have this instrument and you need to master how your fingers interact with its strings. You want to learn to juggle? You know you need to simultaneously throw and catch objects.
But learning to code? It’s a little difficult to grasp what’s involved. You might know about the different kids coding languages, and what code looks like, etc., but the other 90% is very different.
Still, though—it doesn’t make it harder to learn...if anything it might make it harder to get started to learn, but once you’re in it, it’s like anything else...feels weird and different at first, but the deeper you dive, the more familiar you become, and the easier it gets to grasp the task at hand.
Updated
Kumar’s Answer
If you mean coding as how quickly you can convert an algorithm into code then it would require the knowledge of data structures and any one programming language APIs to the minimum. When it comes to general coding in the industry, that would also require the ability to come up with an algorithm for the problem in addition to the programming language. Some developers may be good at algorithm part but might not be as good in converting it to code. A good coder knows both, i.e. coming up with an efficient solution ( algorithm ) and then using a programming language to code it.
Anyone can master coding provided they know the computer science fundamentals and any one programming language and it's APIs.
Anyone can master coding provided they know the computer science fundamentals and any one programming language and it's APIs.
Updated
Rodrigo’s Answer
Hi Jason P.
If you like it you will master it, coding requires a lot of practice and be involved in programming projects, apps, automation projects etc, try to chose one language and master it, from my point of view should be C++, visual basic, or python, I think those covers a lot, try to start learning from youtube and to have a deadline , and practice a lot with personal projects, maybe one app for your personal interest or programming a calculator is a good exercise.
If you like it you will master it, coding requires a lot of practice and be involved in programming projects, apps, automation projects etc, try to chose one language and master it, from my point of view should be C++, visual basic, or python, I think those covers a lot, try to start learning from youtube and to have a deadline , and practice a lot with personal projects, maybe one app for your personal interest or programming a calculator is a good exercise.
Updated
Amit’s Answer
Yes and no.
Coding is a very loose term. But basically, when we're talking about computer programming, there are various categories:
1. System programming - this requires an understanding of the computer systems (operating system elements, specific platforms, and so on)
2. Web/mobile apps/UI - these are complex and changing ecosystems that require a constantly upgrading/changing your understanding of various "frameworks" and the likes.
3. Traditional application programming - a lot of pre web/mobile "desktop" programs, tools and utilities, and so on come under this.
4. AI/ML programming - a growing field these days that involves understanding of data science and the languages and libraries used for it.
This isn't an exhaustive list, but may cover 90% of jobs that involve "coding". But whatever you do, there are some basics to programming :
* ability to solve a problem, break down a problem
* creating code that is: correct, efficient, robust, flexible, maintainable, easy to read/understand
* understanding other people's code (a lot of "coding" involves tinkering with other people's code)
* debugging coding errors
* analyzing/profiling code
* unit testing code
* documenting code
Some of it is discipline. Some of it is experience. Some of it is intuition. Some of it is persistence. Some of it is passion.
Depending on your ability, your persistence, your passion, your method, coding can be easy or difficult. But if you have the passion, and your are ready to put in a lot of efforts, a lot of it becomes easier as the time goes on. But mainly, you need the passion for solving problems. The rest are skills that you can learn, or habits you can develop, or experience you can earn.
Coding is a very loose term. But basically, when we're talking about computer programming, there are various categories:
1. System programming - this requires an understanding of the computer systems (operating system elements, specific platforms, and so on)
2. Web/mobile apps/UI - these are complex and changing ecosystems that require a constantly upgrading/changing your understanding of various "frameworks" and the likes.
3. Traditional application programming - a lot of pre web/mobile "desktop" programs, tools and utilities, and so on come under this.
4. AI/ML programming - a growing field these days that involves understanding of data science and the languages and libraries used for it.
This isn't an exhaustive list, but may cover 90% of jobs that involve "coding". But whatever you do, there are some basics to programming :
* ability to solve a problem, break down a problem
* creating code that is: correct, efficient, robust, flexible, maintainable, easy to read/understand
* understanding other people's code (a lot of "coding" involves tinkering with other people's code)
* debugging coding errors
* analyzing/profiling code
* unit testing code
* documenting code
Some of it is discipline. Some of it is experience. Some of it is intuition. Some of it is persistence. Some of it is passion.
Depending on your ability, your persistence, your passion, your method, coding can be easy or difficult. But if you have the passion, and your are ready to put in a lot of efforts, a lot of it becomes easier as the time goes on. But mainly, you need the passion for solving problems. The rest are skills that you can learn, or habits you can develop, or experience you can earn.
Updated
scott’s Answer
There are programs online to study various coding programs. Basic programs are free and others may have a paid experience. My son is currently studying CS in college and loves the program. He tells us the coding language is like learning a foreign language. Requires plenty of study time. The really cool part of learning CS is the hands on experience and collaboration with the other students.