I recently converted my major to comp sci and am studying coding in python. I find the whole thing cool but is there any shortcuts or things I should know from someone who is knowledgeable about it?

ktt2.com/computer-science-thread-7506

get to reading.

yeah use volunteermatch.org for work experience and try to work on as many projects as you can and build up a nice portfolio

you won’t learn how to program from constantly reading books/completing tutorials

code in sections, and make sure to test your code frequently for errors
e.g. don't build a whole f***ing app and not test it once, you need to test it more often than you think

Coding is more valuable than research when you're starting out. The best thing you can do is use a new technique to solve a problem

Read documentation and completely understand how things work

think of something to create and try to create it. The basics of Python aren’t too difficult to grasp. Once you’ve gotten the hang of data types, control flow (if then statements, etc), arithmetic and expressions, functions, and basic error handling, you should be able to start creating things

TLDR: Don’t get caught in tutorial hell.

Work on s*** you find interesting. Start with small projects, and constantly google stuff. Compsci is a vast field so once you have the basics it’s more about your specific interests. For example a person could be an amazing web developer but struggle to numerically solve an ODE. So it’s more about building skills in what you find interesting vs becoming an all around master programmer. Also, math is very important for most of the cool s*** imo. Show case your work by putting it on GitHub. That builds you a portfolio and git is a useful tool in general. I do most of my coding using jupyter notebooks and I debug using print statements even though I do some advanced stuff. So it’s really all about personal taste past a certain point.

this the one right here

just start learning and working on random projects as you go. like think of something you want to improve in your life personally and see if it can be done in python

that worked for me at least

for example, my first project was a bulk file renamer

i learned a lot about logic and loops coding that

i need to get back into learning python again, or maybe c or something