Introduction We live in a world of technology; everywhere you look, you will find a device or tool that uses an algorithm or a program to work. Technology has become a vast, inseparable part of our lives from our phones, smart TVs, watches, and even ovens and washing machines. With technology interwoven with every aspect of our lives, many are curious about the field or understand how things work. Tech as a career path can be very satisfying, lucrative, and exciting. With a tech career, you get the chance to participate in building the future while maintaining the present. That was one of the core ideas that attracted me to this field. Many people every day are considering getting into the tech field, regardless of the exact branch. Whether you are considering being a web dev, an app dev, a data scientist, or even a researcher, the first step you will need to take is to learn to program. Mistakes are an inevitable part of everyone’s life. But, there is no reason to feel afraid or embarrassed by anything you might make. After all, they help us learn better and grow further. The same is applicable for computer programming courses. You will stumble, you will fall, but you will come back better and stronger for it. These are the coding mistakes to be avoided.

Memorising syntax

This is related to the above mistake, and it’s one I would say is the most mistake done by beginners. So often we try to learn new skills, say programming, we choose a specific language to start with, for example, Python, C++, or Java. Those three programming languages have some commonalities, but their syntax is definitely not identical. So, most of my students try to sit down and memorize the syntax for a specific programming language, memorize the functions, the different ways to do things, and the possible libraries. They think by doing this, and they can efficiently solve any given problem because they can recall all the tools they need. But that’s not true, and it just forces you to think within a box of one programming language. So never memorize syntax; you can definitely Google things if you need to.

Avoiding the basics

While learning to code, a lot forget that nothing starts big in a day. I have once trapped in this myself at a time. After learning and rushing through just the basics of HTML and CSS, I quickly picked up JavaScript with a course, only to get to know I need to dwell more on HTML/CSS and practice with it before moving to JavaScript itself. No matter which language you’re learning, you have to focus on the basics a lot, so It’d be easy for you to pick up advanced features when necessary. If you want to learn React, Vue, or Angular, strengthen your HTML/CSS, cross over to JavaScript, and know the advanced features, then pick up the framework of your choice. If you want to be a master in Django, then you need to be comfortable with python first.

Not Asking for help

A lot of beginners in coding and web development often feel ashamed to ask for help. Remember the popular saying that no one is infallible. Personally, I wised up and took my ability to ask for help to the next level when I got to know even senior developers still hop around on google and StackOverflow and won’t discover their programming bugs oftentimes until they tell a colleague to take a look. As a beginner, you need to make Google and StackOverflow your friends, read documentations, ask colleagues and more knowledgeable individuals for help and get a mentor too.

Learning Too Many Languages All at Once

This section will put a clear emphasis on the idiom — “Jack of all trades and master of none”. Learning different programming languages within various frameworks and attending multiple courses, seminars, and webinars dedicated to all these programming languages will not make you smarter or more knowledgeable. Instead, you will get more and more confused and waste a lot of time and maybe even money and end up learning all these languages in a half-hearted manner. It is a classic case of not having a proper goal or direction to focus your mind on.

Blindly copy/pasting code

At the beginning of the career, every programmer does that, but this blindly copy/pasting code has to stop eventually. Maybe your creativity is blocked, or you have some other reason for doing that. Nevertheless, you have to understand the code before you reuse it. So, take your time and read the code in detail.

Using an overly-complicated language in the beginning

Don’t feel pressured to code in a language that you’re intimidated by just because that’s what many others do, and especially don’t code a custom engine. There are multitudes of easy-to-understand languages that are very beginner-friendly. And, once you know one language, it’s very easy to learn any other language.

Not utilizing the debugger

When you run into a code error that you do not know how to solve, don’t make the mistake of just diving into the code and reading. Use the debugger. Most IDEs have them. With the debugger, it makes solving issues a breeze; you can watch your code run line-by-line, so you can see exactly what’s going wrong.ons.