I'm a complete beginner and want to learn programming online. Are discussion communities a good place to start, or should I use courses, videos, books, or another structured resource?
3 Answers
They can be useful for motivation and encouragement, but the real learning happens when you build things yourself. Start with very small projects, make mistakes, fix them, and gradually increase the difficulty.
Communities are better for advice, feedback, and getting unstuck than for learning everything from the beginning. Use a structured course or book as your main path, and ask specific questions after you’ve made a genuine attempt. The quality of responses can vary, so compare advice and keep practicing.
A good starting point is Python because the syntax is approachable. Try a beginner project course, then build small programs of your own instead of only watching tutorials. Once you understand the basics, picking up another language becomes much easier.
Python is approachable, but beginners should also learn important ideas like types and error handling rather than relying only on its convenient syntax.