Engineering is that phase of life where you come across lot of things that you wouldn’t have experienced yet.Time becomes your biggest enemy and classes become your timepass sessions.If Engineering had some prerequisites it would be knowing to take right decissions and having a skill to utilize time properly.A proper strategy can make things simpler for you to achieve.
How to get started?
As an Engineering student first thing that stuck my mind was ‘where to start,how to start?’. It took me a semester and a pandemic to get a proper answer to this question.
I am a computer science student who has recently completed my 1st year of under graduation.I was in a class which had students who already knew about basic understanding of programming , and also students who had no idea about what it is.There is nothing to be worried about,even if you didn’t come across this word called “programming”.Having a proper plan and working a hour more can help you to easily copeup with others.
Which programming language should i learn first?
This is the biggest doubt that every beginner comes across.According to wikipedia there are more than 700 programming languages and picking one among them is a difficult task and students get into this trap and end up with a big question mark.I personally would sugget every beginner to learn C programming first.
Why C?
Even though C is very old and has tough syntax,it is one of the popularily used programming language beacause of its speed.Almost all the operating systems like windows, Mac and linux etc are build using C,even some programming languages like python are written in C programming.C programming gives a very deep understanding about programming and helps in building a proper foundation.Many engineering colleges teach C programming to all the students irrespective of their branch because programming is a skill that every engineer should have.
What should I learn ?
- Learn all the basic concepts like,Input and output,Datatypes,Operators,control statements,Functions,Pointers,Structures and Unions(specific to c programming but it remains somewhat similar in other languages also).
- After learning all the Basics concepts in programming learn different Algorithms like,Searching and sorting,Divide and Conquer algorithms,Greedy Algorithms,Dynamic Programming etc.
- Learn Data Structures like Arrays, Linked lists,stacks,Queques,trees etc.
Knowing Data structures and Algorithms thoroughly is very important because it is the most tested skill in most of the competitive contests and job selections.
Should i learn other programming languages?
It is not mandatory!,but it is always good to know other programming languages because every language has its popularity in different fields.If you know a programming language perfectly,you can easily pickup other languages in very short period of time as most of the things remains same except the syntax.
If you are intersted in Data science and Machine learning learn any one among Python,R or Matlab because these are the widely used programming languages in that field.If you are interested in Web development learn Javascript,Ruby,PhP etc likewise Java and swift are most popular languages used in Android development and c++,c# are used in Game development.For more details check this link.Pick a programming language based on your interests and master it.
Is Programming very difficult?
— — — — — “How you look at it is pretty much how you’ll see it” — — — — -
No!,Programming is not difficult as you think,with proper plan and work you can easily learn it.It is all about making a machine understand your logic and math to solve a problem.You may get some errors at the beginning,no need to worry about it,there is no coder who can write a program without errors,but learning through these mistakes will help you easily gain the confidence to solve them.
There are many resources available on internet which will help you to learn things fast with neat explanation.So dont worry about things,without even giving it a try.
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