If you are a new programmer, we suggest beginning your long journey by taking on a small project to better hone your skills. In the world of programming, there is literally too much to learn; therefore, you should focus on just a few things to keep your mind at ease.
Best projects for beginner programmers
The problem is, where do you start? This is not an easy answer for most new programmers, which is why we’ve decided to write an article about it. We are going to list five projects any amateur programmer should tackle before attempting to tackle more complex things.
Once you’re done, we believe you will have increased confidence, which in turn will transform you into a better programmer in no time.
- Create a calculator app
- Create a HTML5 website
- Build a tiny little chess or checkers game
- Build a good web scrapper
- Build a neat slideshow.
- Create a password generator using Python
- Design a mobile app
Let us discuss this in more detail.
1] Create a calculator app
One of the most popular beginners projects right now, and for decades in the past, is the creation of a calculator. You see, creating a calculator gives the programmer practice writing layouts, symbols, the logic that processes information, the logic that reads numbers, and more.
It doesn’t take much to start, but it is challenging because, the first time around, your calculator will likely not work properly.
If you want to build a calculator, you must know JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. Other languages can be used, but these three are the best combination.
2] Create a HTML5 website
Building a website is a great way to start because it teaches design principles. Not only that, but the programmer will need to learn about web hosting, file linking, and coding logic. Now, when building a basic HTML5 website, things might seem easy at first, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg, as they say.
The more you code, the faster you realize how complex it is to create a full-fledged website. Usually, several coding languages are required to get things moving in the right direction.
3] Build a tiny little chess or checkers game
Do you like to play chess or checkers, or maybe both? Then how about looking into creating a game. To begin, the programmer must map out the board along with the pieces, and from there, give specific movements to each piece.
Making a chess game from scratch won’t be an easy task, but it should prepare the programmer for dealing with bigger projects in the future.
4] Build a good web scrapper
For those who are studying how to program with Python, then creating a web scrapper is a good place to begin. The programmer can start by using Python and the library, known as Beautiful Soup to scrape data from XML and HTML documents.
When you’re done, the information will be exported to a CSV file, which means, users can open it with Microsoft Excel.
Python is pretty advanced and can be used to do more than just scrapping HTML and XML data.
5] Build a neat slideshow
You know what’s a good project to start with? Yes, that’s right: create a slideshow with images. We believe new programmers should learn how to do this because it teaches them how to interact with the Document Object Model (DOM) in various web browsers.
If you want to be a full-time web developer, this project is great for learning. To reduce the amount of work, create a single slideshow and use it over and over again. Depending on the job description, the programmer could slightly adjust the slideshow to fit each design.
6] Create a password generator using Python
One of the best personal projects to tackle if you’re a young programmer is the creation of a password generator. It doesn’t have to be anything filled with features, just a simple password generator. In our minds, a password generator should be able to decide how long a password should be, can a allow a set number of characters, should support both lower and upper case letters, along with special symbols and numbers.
Now, even if you do not make this password generator public, at least it can be used for your personal needs when creating passwords for the web.
7] Design a mobile app
Apps for mobile devices are quite popular these days. Therefore, if you’re an amateur programmer, we suggest creating a basic app for either Android or iOS. Before going down that route, you will need to learn Java for Android and Swift for iOS.
For those who might be unaware, Swift is a programming language created by Apple to develop iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, tvOS, and Linux apps.
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