I'm a university student studying Software Engineering, and I'm really struggling with coding in Java. I understand the concepts when I learn them, but when I try to code from scratch, I often forget details and have to keep referring back to my notes. I've practiced coding around 10-20 times but still have difficulty doing it independently. Does anyone have tips on how to get better at this, especially with data structures?
3 Answers
Practice makes perfect! Just keep coding as much as you can. The more you practice, the more familiar you'll become with the concepts and the better you'll get at coding them from scratch.
Repetition is key, my friend! Don’t think of it as just duplicating what you’ve seen before. Try to visualize what you want the code to do in your own words, and then translate that into code. Drawing simple diagrams can really help too, especially for things like binary search trees. It makes it easier to see what classes and methods you'll need to write.
You're definitely not alone in feeling this way! It’s totally normal to struggle when you're starting out. Keep referencing your notes and documentation as much as you need; that's part of the learning process. Eventually, what seems tough now will become second nature, and you'll find yourself tackling even more complex stuff next. Just keep at it and enjoy the journey! 🙂
That makes sense! I've been struggling to visualize the code. I'll give drawing diagrams a try!