How did I start?

About a couple of years ago, I was a university student (Still I am) who don't know what to do in life and what is purpose am I creating, nothing. Then I realised I wasn't making any progress in life. I wasn't even in the race while others were pushing themselves to the utmost to stand out and win. This is when I chose to focus on my studies and those sectors in which I was interested. I am a bachelor's degree undergraduate in computer science. I began learning to program when I was resolved to put effort into my education.

What did I learn?

At first, I followed several roadmaps provided by my academics and teaching staff that I couldn't see a market need for. So I asked my "GOOGLE" buddy what I should study. Then I discovered that I needed to learn a programming language, data structures and algorithms, development, and so on.

Data structures and methods are shared by all programming languages, thus this is not an issue. But I know that for a programming language, I should choose one that is extensively used and generally known. My university teaches data structures and algorithms using the C programming language. So picking that will also assist me academically. At this point, I started with C, Data structures and Algorithms, and Web Development.

Programming Language

I wasn't very concerned about data structures and development at first. I was committed to learning the basics of C. So mastering the foundations of C took me around 2 to 3 months. I wasn't a fast learner back then. As a result, I took my time and moved gently.

Later, I discovered that Object Oriented Programming is a critical topic to learn as a programmer. However, since C is not an object-oriented programming language, it lacks an object-oriented programming component in its system. So I'll have to switch to another language with object-oriented programming. So I began studying Python and its principles. But now that I've mastered the principles of programming, learning Python isn't a huge concern for me (It will not be a big deal for anyone).

Development

I'm at a loss on what to do next after finishing python. So I set out to discover the areas where Python is most popular. The language is focused on ML, DS, and Web Dev. I decided to pursue studies in web development since I had the inclination to do so beforehand. Have studied the markup languages HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

I've always had a soft spot for JavaScript, so I decided to dive headfirst into learning MERN stack web development. My first full-stack project was A WATCH-SELLING E-COMMERCE SITE took me around 8–9 months to grasp the basics.

Data Structures and Algorithms

After about a year and a half of coding, I decided to investigate data structures and algorithms. I came to this conclusion after reading a few articles, which basically said that web development does not need a deep understanding of data structures and algorithms. But I couldn't have been more incorrect. Because of what I learned about algorithms and data structures, I had to reevaluate my whole approach to programming. As seen by my demonstration, it is possible to improve performance across the board and produce more readable code.

I have a long way to go in terms of mastering data structures, algorithms, and problem-solving techniques.

Conclusion

In sum, if I were to offer a programmer one piece of advise that might save their life, it would be to dive headfirst into studying Data structures and Algorithms. You'll be exposed to additional programming languages and concepts. If you want to be successful as a programmer, learning data structures and algorithms and being able to apply them to any stack is essential.