Welcome to /r/learnprogramming!

I'm here asking for advice! My boyfriend is studying programming and computer coding. He will be looking for an internship next semester. He started out strong - reading, creating projects, working through assignments, eager to learn and excited about the information. The last 2 semesters he has completely relied on ChatGPT. He hasn't read anything out of his books in months. He has ChatGPT open at every minute. He doesn't even read questions on assignments - he copies the entire question, pastes it into ChatGPT, plays his phone game while he waits for an answer, then repeats. When he first started using it, I gave him a little grief, encouraged him to not rely on it (looking back, that was nothing compared to now). He didn't take well to my advice and was adamant on ChatGPT being a good tool and encouraged by his professors. However that was when he was actually using it to help him. Now it does every bit of the work for him. I've stopped saying anything because it's his choice. He says he's too behind and will read up later (he never does). He puts off studying all week then crams with ChatGPT all on Sunday (online classes). I can't comprehend paying to study and cheating my way through. I'm here to ask if this is a big deal or not in this field? Do you really only need a basic understanding? Do you rely on ChatGPT/AI at work?

For example google.com doesnt require a login to do searches. Many other website allow you to use them without any user auth, so how do those site keep their back end secure from any random person hitting their back end api's endlessly

Hey fellow programmers,

So my college group just wrapped up a Java project, and when it came time for our professor to evaluate our contributions, he didn't bother checking the actual content of the code. Instead, he just counted how many lines each of us added to the repo. That's it.

Now, I have no clue what tool or website he used to get those numbers, but next time, I'm seriously considering padding my stats with some good ol' fashioned nonsense—comments, empty lines, maybe a few useless helper functions—just to look like the MVP.

Does anyone know what tool he might’ve used to check the line count per contributor? GitHub? Git? Some kind of plugin? I want to be prepared for next time 😅

🧠 As an IT teacher with 25+ years of experience, I’ve created a printable activity book for kids aged 4–6 to learn coding — without a computer!

📘 Captain Codie leads children through fun logic puzzles using arrows and maps.

Great for classrooms, homeschooling, and screen-free learning.

📥 Available here: https://www.etsy.com/pl/listing/1884985216/captain-codie-printable-coding-workbook

I’d love feedback or ideas for new tasks! 🙌

I have like this huge crush on one of my friends and his birthday is coming up. I thought of trying to code something little for him but Ive literally never done that before. He has really gotten into coding a few months ago and i thought it might be a cute gift if i did something special for him, or something that shows that i care. Im just scared its more weird than cute so i thought there is no one better to ask than programmers!! (Im like talking about something small like something „happy birthday“ or something that isnt too hard for a complete beginner!! Any tips and suggestions are greatly appreciated tho)

Does this even happen in real life? Every company I’ve worked for uses a single database instance for the whole company. (Of course they have separate DBs for different environments, but you get the point)

Assuming the whole company only uses relational databases for everything, why would it be a good idea to have one instance per microservice? What benefits does that actually bring? From my perspective, it justs adds more complexity, and for what? organization?

That’s just my perspective based on my past experiences. I’ve never seen a real-life use case where people actually do that...

Hello, I have 16 yo and my dream is working as a professional with something about technology, but there is a problem... I'm lost in this area.

Idk what is html, python, lua, cybersecurity, IT, css, c#...

Cybersecurity I would need to know IT?

Creating sites really worth it in 2025?

How can I know which area I can pursue professionally?

Would AI going to replace some areas?

And where do I start? Youtube videos? Some course?
I have so many questions!

I'm from Brazil, so, if there is anyone who can also give me tips about youtubers or something like that I would be grateful
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Treat me like a really really beginner, I know basically nothing about.

I'm looking for an alternative to Google Colab (or similar tools) that lets you run Python notebooks or code without requiring a login, account, or any package installation.

Ideally, it should support basic Python packages (NumPy, pandas, etc.). GPU access is not necessary but would be a plus.
The key requirement is: no sign-in or account needed.

Any suggestions?

Hi! im a student who's looking to learn python to build a portfolio for university, currently im in junior college + I have not much experience in coding.

Which website would you guys recommend to learn python that has more recognized certificates + no paywall + interactive learning?

(basically something like codecademy but without the paywall part since it's very interactive and u can code alongside etc, would NOT like something that requires me to watch yt vids but prefer hands on and faster learning perhaps? I don't have a lot of time but still would like to learn out of interest too)

for context, im planning to go into computer engineering and data related courses!

thanks in advance for your suggestions!

Hey guys is this use case diagram correct ? ( this is a detailled use case for browse products not the whole system )

Im a freshman in college taking the basic introductory course in java and dont really use Ai unless I got questions I cant find answers to on stack or just general questions about certain things like objects and such. I've recently been asking Google or my friend how they did a certain part of there code. I know our class doesn't allow copying but I tend to learn better as he explains his code while I look at how he did it. I try to make sure im not copying his work but does this make me a bad programmer if im starting out with this? Given I used to use Ai heavily and ill admit its horrible but sometimes I feel like asking him for help is cheating. Would this be bad for me later on when I get into higher courses?

When I try to run my program, it pops a notification: ./file" is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.

(program exited with code: 9009)

Press any key to continue

Because you could just break it up into more components instead...

When making a new application / project, one problem I encounter quite often is when I'm getting to the system design stage and I need to make documentation, most specifically UML class diagrams. I know how to make UML class diagrams, it's what I have to put in them is the problem.

The problem is, I have ideas for the classes, I have ideas for the attributes and methods, I just struggle to link them up together, sometimes I feel like I'm missing something or maybe my approach is wrong. I don't know which attributes/methods I might need or not.

So I end up skipping the class diagram and end up straight into coding, figuring out what works and experimenting, then once I find something that works, I remake the class diagram again, essentially making a final variation of it. Sometimes this leads to success or leads to a mess or disaster.

This problem caused me to fail a project back in school, i got a bit better at one point but I still feel not so confident. Even after completing a university degree in software engineering I'm still having this problem sort of. For my end of year university project I did the same thing, I made a sketch class diagram with not many classes but I ended up getting lucky, experimented around with classes and methods in the IDE, found something that worked, remade the class diagram and got a good mark.

I worry that when I'm in a full time job, I don't want to experience this problem so I started to make my own personal projects now to practice.. and I'm looking to improve how I approach class diagrams.

I think ideally, the class diagram has to be complete and understandable before going into the actual coding, right?

Thanks

ik ppl say you don’t need to know a bit of programming to enter but like I don’t think that makes much sense, I wanna know and understand what I’m trying to do, what should I have learnt before entering one fr? Also are there any that are online bc living in a third world country is not helping me find them

Yes, I read some of the documents, including wikis.

My plan is to make an open-source library for converting those lossless or lossy to PCM data,
then convert to AudioClip of Unity.

I coded WAV file converter, and it works!
But when I tried to do with MP3 file, I struggled.

Problems :
1. MP3 file have frame sync
It usually have 12 set bits (FFF) (Or FFE for MPEG 2.5, I want to support it too)
But it could be a false sync, so we have a protected bit. Come to problem #2.
2. Protected bit
It is the 16th bit of the header, 0 = protected, 1 = not protected
if the bit is 1 and it's not a real header OR false header, how to detect it?
if the bit is 0, come to problem #3.
3. CRC-16
I don't know how to calculate it, even if I read docs or found GitHub's code.
I just don't know what to process and how to process it.
4. Side..... Information???
I read the docs and am very confused, what are scfsi, gr.1, gr.2???
Why expressed as 4 + 4???
5. The decoding section
Yeah, too much Math and variables I don't know.
Can say that, all of them that I don't know.

Note: This is a project for my self-learning, tho sometimes I need some help, like posting here.
If you're saying that, "just use library". No, I won't use, not too much people are into this kind of stuffs.
I want my open-source project also be a place for the next/future generations or programmers to know that something like this also exists in the past.

Sources/Docs I used: (Thanks to them)
https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:830195/FULLTEXT01.pdf
https://piconomix.com/old/mp3_player/docs/STA013.pdf
http://www.mp3-tech.org/programmer/docs/mp3_theory.pdf
http://mpgedit.org/mpgedit/mpeg_format/MP3Format.html

GitHub for the project:
https://github.com/FujiForm2023/Exteread

I have a very weak understanding of OO, and I want to restudy it regularly. So I was looking for books and found this (Object-Oriented Thought Process) any thoughts about this book? will it match my requirements?

So i am an absolute beginner at web development with near 0 experience and was confused about who i should follow.

I have a complete pathway to brad traversy's courses/videos which i found on reddit which i will be following, on the other side TOP has a curriculum.

Which one would be more productive? I have heard that people have to pair TOP with other courses.

Every plugin i've tried that intends to integrate Perforce into Visual Studio 2022 has either crashed the IDE or simply does nothing.

The official Helix plugin just freezes the IDE when i try to use it. All the reviews mention the same issue, but seemingly its never been fixed.

For now i'm using batch files to open all my source and binaries for edit, but this is not ideal.

Is there any decent solution for using Perforce with Visual Studio? Or do i really have to make my own system for editing files.

I started learning c++ because it's the language I'm learning in school. I got interested in programming so i started learning more from home. In the beginning i thought that the language you use doesn't really matter. But now I realized that a language is good at doing something and bad at doing something else. For example c++ is best for game development (something that im not interested in even doe i used to spend my days playing games) and bad at machine learning. I really want to try machine learning and switch to python. But is it worth it to switch and what if machine learning is too hard for me and i lose all my will to do programing. I heard that one of the common beginners mistake is to switch programing languages. I made few c++ projects but the project I put all my effort in was the payroll system.

Link for payrollsystem: github.com/kosmaroauh/PayrollSystem

Judging from this project am I too deep in c++ or switching to python will be the better option in the future?

I am able to play the speech synthesis audio .. mediarecorderAPI i am talking about.

I am also able to record using the system audio on. but i need to directly downloads the recording without pressing anything as such tell me any program which i am not utilizing. ?

appreciate any help

Hello guys, As a working professional in IT/software industry. How do you keep yourself updated with latest tech? Are there some good places to keep in touch with latest trends and learn sth new?

Do share something you are currently working on/ worked recently.

Hi everyone,

I’ve spent a lot of time studying Python and software design through books like:

• Mastering Python Design Patterns by Kamon Ayeva & Sakis Kasampalis (2024, PACKT)
• Mastering Python by Rick van Hattem (2nd ed., 2022)
• Software Architecture with Python by Anand Balachandran Pillai (2017)

These have helped me understand best practices, architecture, and how to write clean, maintainable code. But I still feel there's a missing piece — a clear approach to software development methodology itself.

I'm currently leading an open-source project focused on scientific computing. I want to build a solid foundation — not just good code, but a well-thought-out process for developing the library from the ground up.

I’m looking for a book that focuses on how to approach building software: how to think through the problem, structure the development process, and lay the groundwork before diving into code or designing architecture.

Not tutorials or language-specific guides — more about the mindset and method behind planning and building complex, maintainable software systems.

Any recommendations would be much appreciated!

In which industries does a programmer earn the most money?

I am asking about a good book/learning course of algorithms wnd data structure or similar courseware using Cpp 17 with a heavy emphasis on using the cpp 17 features.

I am not new to data structure and algorithms but I struggle with using cpp 17 features instinctively while programming and having an algorithms course using it predominantly will help a long way.

Thanks