How to get better at programming?

I’ve been programming for a while, as a professional, and as a hobby too. Time to time I ask the question, how can I further develop my skills, to be a better programmer.

There is no silver bullet unfortunately, that would fit everyone, as you need to know your strength and weaknesses, but here are some suggestions, how to get some ideas on what to learn.

Practice, practice, practice

If you want to get better at playing an instrument, what do you do? Practice. The same applies for programming too. Here are some of my favourite websites that I use.

exercism.io - A gem that might not be too well know, but the exercises are very very nice
codewars.com - Who doesn’t like samurais? This site makes you fell one.
codingame.com - Started with this initially, but nowadays only use the two above.

If you register to any of the sites, you can find my by the username Tirpox.

Read the docs

If you come across something that you don’t know, open up the official docs and read about the feature.

One of my most visited site is MDN.

From here you can learn about the more niche features, that or find something that you didn’t know it even existed.

Talk with your fellow programmers

Get some inspiration from your programmer friends, ask them what they do, what technologies they are using. Even if it is a completely different language, the chances are that the theory is the same, is high.

Watch someone program

I list this as a sub item, as this can be an alternative to the one above.

This can be a friend, a streamer, a YouTube video, or anything really. You can learn about their workflow, see how they are programming, and get them to explain what they are doing. I frequently stop by the Twitch Programming category and see if anyone does something cool.

I may or may not bother my peers at work to see if they do something cool. People like to talk about things they do, especially if it’s cool!

Also here is an awesome list: Awesome developer streams

Read the news

Reading something like Hacker News, where you can find the latest/hottest/popular technology news. Could be a great source to find new information.

Listen to podcast

During traveling or in the gym, can be a good time to listen to a podcast you like. They do the research and come up with interesting topics, that you can learn a lot from.

Conclusion

This list is nowhere near complete, but only shows on what I do day to day. Start with one, and don’t try to overload yourself at once.

Hope this helped you, and if you have any more ideas, leave a comment below.