10 Ways To Improve Your Coding Abilities

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5 min readApr 23, 2022

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Illustration by Icons 8 from Ouch!

Coding is an essential skill for anyone in the modern workforce. Whether you’re a software developer, web developer, or data analyst, learning to code can make your job easier and more efficient. Here are 10 ways to improve your coding skills:

Table of Contents

1. Practice makes perfect: find a coding project to work on

The first way to improve your coding is of course to find a coding project to work on. Coming up with a project doesn’t have to be hard and for this reason, I highly recommend doing some of the most basic coding projects like creating a calculator with the selected language or a tik-tack-toe. These might seem simple projects, but they can help you get started and help familiarize yourself with the most basic functions.

2. Don’t reinvent the wheel: use online resources to learn from others

There’s no need to reinvent the wheel when it comes to learning. With the wealth of online resources available, you can learn from others who have already blazed the trail. Whether you’re looking for tips on how to start a blog, how to create a plugin for WordPress, or how to create your first WordPress plugin, there’s a website or blog out there that can help. By taking advantage of online resources, you can save time and money while still learning what you need to know.

3. Get involved in the coding community: join forums and social media, groups

Coding communities are a great way to improve your coding skills, learn about new programming languages and technologies, and meet other developers. Coding communities can also help you with tough coding problems you wouldn’t otherwise know how to solve. By getting involved in a coding community, you can:

  1. Communicate with other developers and get help with coding problems.
  2. Learn new programming techniques and approaches from other developers.
  3. Get feedback on your code from other developers.
  4. Improve your coding skills by reading and commenting on others’ code.

4. Take courses and tutorials: there are many available online

When you want to learn something new, the internet is a great resource. There are many courses and tutorials available online, for free. You can find courses on everything from cooking to programming. Tutorials are also widely available, on topics like how to use Photoshop or how to build a website.

Choosing the right course or tutorial can be tricky, though. There’s a lot of information out there, and not all of it is good quality. It’s important to do your research before you start learning so that you can find resources that will help you achieve your goals.

One great way to find quality courses and tutorials is to check out websites like Coursera and Udemy. These sites offer thousands of courses, from beginner level to advanced. They also have ratings and reviews from other students, so you can be sure that you’re getting good information.

5. Attend hackathons and code camps

Hackathons and code camps are a great way to meet other coders, learn new techniques, and have fun. Coding can be a difficult skill to improve upon, but there are many ways to do so and hackathons are just one way to make the whole process so much easier, fun, and enjoyable. Who knows you might even find your next job, come up with a world-changing idea or find a new friend from your next hackathon.

6. Use coding tools: these can make your life easier as a coder

As a coder, you know that coding can be a difficult and time-consuming process. However, there are a number of tools that can make your life easier. Some of the most basic tools you can use to make your life easier are Notepad++ and Sublimetext text editors. Or if you need something more robust try the Microsofts Visual Studio Code which supports multiple languages and not just .NET or C++.

7. Debugging: it’s not just for programmers!

Mistakes happen more than people would like to admit and they happen even when doing something as simple as writing or reading text so you can bet mistakes happen when you write code. This is where debugging steps in. Debugging your own or someone else’s code will teach you how to find mistakes and how to solve them. Some coders even say that most of their time is spent debugging code. Not because they are bad coders, but because mistakes happen and when the size of the project increases so does the number of mistakes and bugs.

8. Stay up to date with technology trends

Stay up to date with the latest changes to the language you’re using by reading blogs, news articles, and searching online forums and official websites. You may find that a new language feature or change to an existing one impacts your code.

9. Use comments in your code

Commenting on your own code will help you learn and understand your code over time, as well as help others understand how it works. This is important especially if you need to help others understand your code and let’s be honest, you won’t be remembering what that specific piece of code did after a few weeks of coding and jumping between projects.

10. Improve your logical thinking

Do brain puzzles, crosswords, sudokus, or even coding challenges to improve your logical thinking. This is the most important skill you can have as a coder and something you will need every single day.

Conclusion

Now you know 10 ways to improve your coding abilities. Might you be a beginner or even a professional who feels stuck and wants to grow more, there is always a way to find a new way to learn more. If you liked our tips, consider subscribing to our newsletter to stay up to date on our latest guides and articles.

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