Hey everyone! I'm currently in high school and I've been trying to self-learn computer science. However, I've been getting distracted by all sorts of programming tutorials that aren't really helping my web development skills. Whenever I try to look into college syllabi for computer science courses, I just get overwhelmed by the choices—there's MIT, Stanford, and a ton of others! I know I should be following a structured learning path, like the roadmaps on roadmap.sh, but with so many topics like backend development, AI, math, networking, and hardware/OS, I end up confused and feel like I'm not making any real progress. I'd love to hear what topics you all learned during college or what you focused on while self-teaching in web development and machine/deep learning. Any insights would be super helpful!
2 Answers
If you're looking to get into programming, I'd recommend starting with resources like freeCodeCamp, CS50, or The Odin Project. There are plenty of online resources to kick off your journey. Follow your interests and take it slow—it's really about competing with yourself, anyway!
During my time at university in Germany, the first 3.5 semesters were mostly predefined, but after that, you could choose from a variety of courses. Self-learning computer science can be tough since it predominantly involves theoretical knowledge. My syllabus included math, basic programming, data structures, algorithms, and even some philosophy. It's not all about practical programming—if you genuinely want to become a computer scientist, attending university is beneficial. However, if you're leaning towards self-teaching, a specific focus on roadmaps like Backend development will simplify things! Look for good books to fill in the gaps if needed.
Thank you so much! This advice really helped clarify things for me!