Programming is becoming one of the most highly regarded, highly rewarded skills to have in the job market. Where in the past learning to code has been reserved for computer specialists, people whose daily work involved working on software, the industry has shifted noticeably. Nowadays, knowing how to code is just an excellent complimentary skill for a massive list of different industries. Its usefulness also makes it incredibly valuable to anyone looking to up the amount that they earn. A lot of companies are hunting for professionals with coding experience and skill. If you’re looking at programming and thinking that it just seems too complex and like you’ll never get a hang of it, just remember, everyone starts somewhere. For a lot of would-be programmers, the place they start is Python, one of the most popular coding languages available and extremely well regarded.
There’s a certain amount you just have to learn with Python to get up and running, particularly if you don’t have previous coding experience. But, that said, you can get going on some actual projects pretty early. In fact, it’s recommended that one of the best ways to develop your skills in Python is to work on practical programming projects. Of course you don’t want to be too hasty and jump in with something too complex, but there are a great number of opportunities to explore. Here’s a few that you can check out and try and begin.
Building A Simple Website
A lot of people just getting into programming will be getting into it with the intention of being able to create a custom website, one of the most valuable skills an individual can have in this internet. As a beginner, making a practice website is one of the most satisfying and useful tests of your skills. It’s rewarding since you can pretty quickly feel like you’ve achieved a lot, even when you’re only just starting out.
Coding a simple HTML/CSS website is also very valuable in how much it teaches you, from as broad a range of areas that you have to draw on. It’s a very complete process, requiring several different skill areas and exposing you to lots of different aspects to the process, from design choices to website hosting.
Don’t expect to create a masterpiece of website design first time around. A few pages that connect to one another is enough of an indication that you are making progress. If you can try and make it a website that you actually want to have, maybe a personal blog or website for a friend, that will motivate you to actually get the job done, an important part of your first experiments with programming.
Make A Game
If a lot of people are getting into programming to be able to build websites, even more people are tempted in at the chance of making a game. Game design is an industry where, at all levels, there is pressure on you to have coding skills. But it actually takes surprisingly little effort to get to a point where you can start making your own games. Again, lower your expectations, this isn’t going to be nominated for Game of the Year. But, that said, it’s pretty simple to make something quite neat. Options include a text based story game, or some sort of a digitalized version of a playground game like tic-tac-toe or rock, paper, scissors. Anything to get the juices flowing.
Create A Password Generator
This is a fun one, despite being ostensibly less interesting than the first two suggestions. The reason it is fun is because it’s an application we see existing in real life, which is always satisfying. It’s also genuinely quite useful to have, in a world where cyber security has become so important and you need more and more passwords. From a programming perspective it also helps introduce you to random libraries, an important concept.
Conclusion
Learning the very basics of programming instantly opens you up to a whole new world. The possibilities of what you can create are broad, even at the start. These are three small scale projects that could really whet your appetite for programming.
Katherine Rundell is a website developer and freelance tutor at Buy Essay Online service.