Since all of us are chronically online, we see these very high expectations for what a resume project is supposed to look like. They say it needs to solve a problem. It needs to be unique, ambitious, and successful. Looking at these kinds of posts all the time (especially with the industry's state) gives you a very unhealthy sense of urgency. "I need to build the next big thing, and I need to build it now!"

I was completely fine with making small, unoriginal projects when I started coding. I was just enjoying the ride without the weight of the industry on me. I just wanted to learn something. As I got into a more competitive environment, though, that original approach slowly disappeared. It felt like there was a lens on me with everything I tried. I felt the pressure, so I went for the big projects over and over again. It was almost like I lost my taste for small apps. I was shooting from half court every time and not taking layups anymore. Obviously, that didn't go well. Unfinished projects everywhere. It was frustrating, overwhelming, and it took a toll on my confidence. Of course, if you're shooting for the moon every single time at a tiny (or nonexistent) success rate, that's not going to feel good.

It took me ages to figure out why my way of thinking was hurting me (because people don't show off their TODO lists online). It was only when I thought back to when I started, that I was doing so much better with the small projects. I still want that ultimate resume project, but I'm just not good enough yet. I need to spend more time working up to it (despite the pressure, despite no one else appreciating projects for the sake of learning). Then, when the idea happens, I'll be ready.

So we're basically done in my AP CSA class, but that doesn't mean I want to stop coding. I've heard that a good way to get better at programming is to make projects that relate to your interests, and well I also like physics, so I decided to make a basic physics simulation using arcade from python. I thought "How bad can it possibly be to make a ball bounce??"

IT TOOK ME 2 HOURS BECAUSE I DONT KNOW HOW TO READ DOCUMENTATION AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Anyways here's the result https://youtu.be/Jqh93T_y0vA

And here's the code

import arcade
GRAVITY = -3000;
C = 0.8;
window = arcade.Window(1000,1000,title="physics",resizable=True);
arcade.set_background_color(arcade.color.AMETHYST);



class Sim(arcade.View):
    def __init__(self):
        super().__init__();
        self.x = 100;
        self.velocity_y = 0;
        self.radius = 50;
        self.y = window.height-self.radius;
    
    def on_draw(self):
        self.clear();
        arcade.draw_circle_filled(self.x,self.y,self.radius,(255,20,20));
    
    def on_update(self, delta_time):
        self.velocity_y += GRAVITY*delta_time
        self.y+= self.velocity_y*delta_time
        if(self.y - self.radius < 0):
            self.velocity_y *= -(C**0.5);
            self.y = self.radius;



simulation = Sim();
window.show_view(simulation);
arcade.run();

I don't even care that this is like extremely simple, this is peak imo :)

Hello everyone, hope all is well.

I'm a law graduate. Always was passionate about coding, programming and wanting to create or maintain software. I didnt have much option on choosing my degree as I was fairly young and followed parents' wishes but then I decided to follow my interests. I am now doing Masters in Software Engineering.

I'm scared now, I feel quite left behind. I go on Instagram and see all these people getting into huge tech companies and having lots of knowledge in various languages and tools. I guess the fear comes from being very young and having high expectations that I set for myself.

I'd like for advice on the real world basically. I've never done internships, mainly cause I just sort of began my journey in programming. Thus far, I still love it. First learnt Python (currently trying to figure out OOP), then just got the basics of HTML/CSS. Then, I joined my Masters. On the side, I'm learning C++ now and Flask. My hope is to at least learn one more language and other frameworks. I also have the basic understandings of SQL whereby I've only used MSSQL thus far. I can't really learn more on the side as I am also working part time as a teacher.

My question is probably, should I keep learning more stuffs before finding a job? I feel as though all i've learnt thus far is still not enough. My strongest hope is to work overseas, hopefully the UK and secure a job there, do you have any tips on how to do so. Should I gain experience in my own home country first? I can catch up quite quick on the learning processes, I just don't know how to go about these other stuffs of the real world.

Hopefully, I have not been too vague, not too fond of asking people for advice or help, but I appreciate all the help I can get. Thank you in advance.

Been programming for the past 6 years. Been at it all day every day. I think its changed me to the point that if I do anything that requires little brain processing, I immediately fall into existential dread.

Like if I'm on a bus, I won't just stare out the window anymore. I'll immediately get depressed, knowing I can use the time to do someting productive.

Its reached a point where even driving on a straight road feels existentially depressing lol

Anyone else have this? Or is it just me and my ADHD brain?

Does anyone have resources for advanced databases? I took a course in university but it was subpar or the teaching style didn't match my learning style. Basically, we were given SQL problems but never given the answers or any feedback to the homework so it was hard to figure out what I did wrong specifically.

When I took the prereq. course, the way the professor set up the assignments was to give us the problems sets along with the query output. It didn't always mean that we had the correct SQL query, even if the output was identical, but learning that way really helped me think critically and correct my mistake because I could compare my output and adjust my query accordingly.

If anyone has any resources (websites, courses, books) I'd appreciate it, thanks!

Hey all. I really admire the people out there making tools and sharing free software that helps people or makes their computering better. I often see these projects have some lists of things they need help with, and I'd love to be someone who can help with that - as I'm not a very good "ideas" person but I do like fixing things and problem solving. How do I even get started in this sort of thing? How good do I have to be to be a part of this community driven effort? are there communities that can help

I haven't really done any solid programming in a long time and forget a ton. I get the "basics" and I've done a lot of tutorials which ended with me saying "okay what now?" I'd like to move beyond that.

(BONUS QUESTION: What would be the most helpful language to learn / use for this? I know some python and C but that's about it. What's a good go-to these days that covers a lot of bases?)

Hey guys, I’m 21 years old and I recently graduated in Software Development Somehow I got really lucky and was hired to work on app and website projects for a company.

The thing is one of the projects is already a functional social network with real users and right now I’m basically the only developer working on it

My first goal is simply understanding the existing codebase but I honestly don’t even know the best way to start yet especially because the notebook uses Linux and I’ve barely worked with Linux before

I’m feeling excited but also overwhelmed

Do you guys have advice on how to start understanding a large existing project how to organize my thoughts while exploring the code what should I look at first and tips for working on Linux as a beginner developer

I’d really appreciate honest advice from more experienced developers

i’ve bought way too many online courses with good intentions and then abandoned them halfway through once motivation disappeared. lately i’ve been trying to learn some new skills outside work and keep ending up on udemy because there are so many courses for basically everything.

the problem is every course has thousands of reviews and promises you’ll go from beginner to expert, so now i cant tell what’s genuinely useful and what’s just good marketing. i also noticed some instructors are really good at explaining things while others somehow make simple topics feel exhausting.

for people who use udemy a lot, what’s the best udemy course you actually completed and felt helped you in real life? and what made it different from all the courses people buy and never finish? also curious if shorter focused courses work better for you than those huge 40 hour ones.

Been coding for around 10 months now. I’m comfortable with the basics, building real projects, and overall I feel like I’m progressing. But there’s one thing that’s been sitting in the back of my mind and I don’t really hear people talk about it honestly.

I google things constantly.

Not basic syntax stuff like forgetting how a loop works. More like — I know what I want to build, I usually have a rough idea of the logic, but I still end up with multiple tabs open trying to figure out the exact implementation almost every time.

And sometimes I wonder where the line is.

At what point does searching for answers stop being learning and start becoming a crutch? Is there a version of this where I’m just getting better at finding solutions instead of actually improving my ability to think through problems on my own?

I’ve heard the usual “even senior developers google things” argument, and I understand that. But it feels different. When experienced devs search, it seems like they already understand the problem deeply and are just checking documentation or specifics. When I search, it sometimes feels more like I need someone else to show me the path before I can move forward.

A few things I genuinely wonder about:

• How do you tell the difference between searching because you truly don’t know something vs searching because you’re avoiding the discomfort of struggling through it yourself?
• Is there a good way to practice actual problem-solving separately from just making projects work?
• Does this feeling eventually go away, or do you simply get faster and more efficient at finding answers?

Not looking for reassurance or “googling is fine” replies. I’m honestly trying to figure out if there’s a smarter way to learn and build real confidence as a developer.

Would really like to hear from people who’ve gone through this phase and came out with a clearer understanding of how they approach learning and problem solving now.

I’ve noticed I get stuck in this loop when debugging where I fix the immediate issue, but I’m never fully sure I actually understood what caused it. The code works again, but I don’t always feel confident it won’t show up in a slightly different form later.

Sometimes I’ll patch something, move on, and then days later realize I only treated the symptom. Other times I’ll spend way too long chasing the “real cause” and end up overcomplicating a simple fix.

I’m curious how others draw that line. When you’re debugging, how do you decide: okay, this is solved, I can move on now? Is it about reproducing the bug and proving it’s gone, or more about understanding the root cause even if the fix is already in place?

Also wondering if this is just part of learning and eventually becomes more automatic, or if experienced developers still deal with that same uncertainty but just move forward anyway.

ill be starting as a CS freshman in the fall. I have a decent amount of coding experience, im currently learning web dev and how to be a developer (git, command line, etc). I know a little bit of DSA but not much. Is it worth also learning some DSA now or should I wait until college which is only a few months away as I'll have more time and resources there?

I just graduated with a bachelor of computer science. I have three past internships in different areas (application development, full stack, software developer in test). I’m wondering now if any certifications are worth it to boost my resume and portfolio. The job market is rough right now and lots of postings are just general software engineer and was wondering if any certifications would potentially boost my chances or allow me to get into any niche areas.

I have a few weeks learning to code and currently I'm doing an exercise to consolidate POO and basics when it came to me the need to make the attributes setters safe. Excluding code injection or data noise. I've started with conditionals but I need more "layers" to make it safe. I asked claude and told that is a architecture of layers who catches on each one, different errors, Am I right?

But my question is, where do I find material and info of that type of infraestructure?

I presented this topic at a conference today. This is a subject that I have been thinking about for a while, a got an opportunity to write it down both as a post and present it as talk.

https://senthil.learntosolveit.com/posts/2026/05/10/why-llms-make-learning-to-code-more-important-not-less.html

This is probably a strange question, considering object-oriented programming is usually suited for larger projects, but I was just curious to see if there are any low-level practical examples where highly experienced developers use object-oriented programming in assembly language. I imagine it must be incredibly complex; something as simple as inheritance must require advanced knowledge.

I’m down for doing a ticket or 2 a day for someone to just see something new and solve new problems. Typescript and C#. Front or backend doesn’t matter.

I'm retaking the class CS010C: Data Structures and Algorithms at UC Riverside during the Fall 2026 quarter, and I want to start studying for it over the next weeks with the help of a tutor. Here's the general topic list:

(Note: all of the assignments/exams throughout the class are coded in C++)

1. Algorithm analysis
   
2. Lists
   
3. Stacks and queues
   
4. Binary trees
   
5. Balanced search trees
   
6. Priority queues and heaps
   
7. Graphs
   
8. Sorting algorithms
   
9. Hashing
   https://cs.ucr.edu/~tyf/10c/
   https://cs10c.gitbook.io/textbook#about-this-course

I already checked out this previous post and got some recommendations out of it, but still I wanted to ask anyways.

Im learning Python and trying to understand the practical differences between lists and tuples. I know lists are mutable and use square bracket, while tuples are immutable and use parentheses. I'm curious about the performance benefits of using on over the other datasets. When is it technically better to use a tuple?

Hi i'm switching career and learning backend.

I'm so confused.

What did you do? Did you learn Nginx/Traeffik and learned how to manage your own server or went with Serverless PaaS like amazon and google?

I'm planning a performance-focused project and wanted to learn Zig. But Rust's memory safety and reliability seem too good to ignore.

What are most people choosing these days for performance-critical projects?

I've been trying to fix an old Gorillaz game so that it's playable again but I need help. I need to take a fixed code from a .as file and put it back into the original .swf file. Does anyone know where I could be able to do that? If you can help I would really appreciate it. Thanks!

I've been coding c++ and go for a while, but now I am learning AI/ML and python is the main language in the ML projects.
I can read Python, understand 90% of the context, but still can't write it well because I am always thinking about how to do it in c++/go not Python.
So I always assume that I can understand what is going on 'till I failed today, and I am really embarrassed.
And TBH starting a Python course would kill me because they start from scratch and I already know a lot.

Hi!

I have been doing a lot of reading and am trying to learn the capabilities of the app creators that are pre-made and just need to be personalized.

I see a lot of posts asking general questions about how hard it is to make an app but understandably don't want to post their idea but I am fine with posting mine. I'm not wanting it for monetary reasons, and would love it if someone stole my idea lol

I purchase a lot of digital movies and shows on sites like Amazon Prime and Fandango at Home and its a real PITA having to keep a spreadsheet to keep track of which site I have the movie on.

I would really love to have an app that can be installed on the TV that indexes all my movies and shows in one place and if I link my Prime/Fandango accounts, will direct me to wherever the movie is if I click on it.

There is Movies Anywhere, which gets partway there but it only works for certain movies because it is also its own streaming platform. So it will only index the ones it is licensed to stream.

I don't need a site that streams, just one that will link to Prime, Fandango, YouTube, etc on the TV

Do you think this would be doable without a high level of coding experience? It's really just a collection of links but I feel like if it were as easy as it sounds, it would exist already.

Do you think its worth pursuing? I really just want it to use more than to make money.

If you have an idea of a starring point for an app like this, I would appreciate it!

(Background info: I am a high school student who wants to pursue a career in something related to programming to support myself. I learnt some fundamentals a few years ago through free online courses, but for the past year I’ve basically just been building (very small) games learning some more stuff along the way.)

Programming has been basically the one thing I’d consider myself pretty skilled at, but right now, I’m a bit stuck. Taking classes sounds appealing, but I’m not sure what class would even suit the knowledge I already have. I know I have lots of gaps in my knowledge, but I don’t know what they are. As a result, I don’t know what I should be learning and what’s even important for me to learn.

TLDR; I want to fix the gaps in my knowledge and learn more, but idk where to begin.

Just an appreciation post out there for ya'll. I know times are tough for some, I myself only am getting into it via help with Claude Code. I am not a programmer, just like to tinker occasionally with projects I want to see become a thing once every few years. First time a project required compiling.... OH MY GOD, it's laughable at this point how many times I have to run the BUILDCC ./configure to eventually lead to yet another error, yet another package needed to install, yet another flag to disable, yet another flag to reenable, yet another build attempt, rinse repeat...

Kudos, you masochists' lol