Is coding creating peer pressure on students?

 Is coding creating peer pressure on students?

Alice completed her 12th and passed with an excellent score. She got an admission in a good Engineering college. Nowadays, Software Engineers are highly paid, so she chose to commence her career in Computer/ IT field. She was in the first year and as a freshie she was curious to know about the various new technologies of software world. Within a span of time, she heard many computer science buzzwords that were very interesting but she was unable to understand those basics that were helpful to master those technologies. It happens with all the first year students who want to join the world of technologies. Let’s see what happened with Alice.

She went on attending lectures and collecting theoretical knowledge about the IT world, which made her bored. So she was nervous as she didn’t find it interesting. Thereafter, due to placement and recruitment activities in college campus, she came to know that computer coders get highly paid jobs and they were very famous. She started thinking about coding and gradually gained interest. She started exploring many new things about coding. As she was a computer/IT student, she was familiar with computer languages and programming. By the rumours all around, her concept about coders/programmers was like they are the talented peeps who always sit in front of computer screens solving tough problems having fistful knowledge of programming languages. And if she wanted to be a good programmer then she must have apt knowledge about different programming languages. But she didn't know what she meant and what reality is? It doesn't mean that what she believed was wrong.  Every student who is expecting a good career in computer/IT field, wants to be the best programmer. But due to the absence of proper knowledge at that time, they get distracted from their path. It happened with Alice too. 

Computer programming commonly called coding. Code is all around you and we can see glimpses of code everywhere whether you are chatting on messenger, watching YouTube videos, booking movie tickets online, swiping a debit card, etc. Whatever happens is because of lines of codes which run in the background. Or simply if we want to use mobile without charging, we can't use it. Similarly even without lines of code we can't use any application in our phone, desktop or on the internet. So what it exactly is “ the process of creating a set of instructions that tell a computer how to perform a task.” People can speak many languages for communicating with each other in the same way many programming languages are used to communicate with the computer. Eg. C, C++, JAVA, Python,etc. 

Now, you know what is coding. But the big question is how to code? If you think coding is taught in the classrooms, the answer is "no". In classroom we only learn languages syntax and basic concepts. If you are searching any online tutorial to learn coding then also you don't get the way to learn it, you only find the algorithms and different methods with available code. There is one quote “If you want to be a good shooter, you don't need to shoot 1000 shoots from the wrong technique.” Some of the points to learn coding from my side are:-

• Your concepts should be strong enough. It's fine if you don't know the syntax.
• Coding is nothing but a logic to solve a problem. Logic will be built if you practise it. 
• If you solve one problem then don't stop there find another way of solving this problem.
• Do practise programming daily, for that use many online websites like geeksforgeeks, hackerrank, codechef, hackerearth, etc.
• Don’t give up because on early stage you will find it difficult but as you keep going, your logic will be built up, so stick to it.

Now how programming will help you?

• Creativity - There are no limits to the things that you can create when you have the ability to think and create new things. It gives you the ability to create something that you can be proud of.
• Problem Solving - Programming sharpens your problem-solving skills. It improves your logic . The problem solving skills you learn by programming will transcend to every aspect of your life.
• It obviously helps to earn a high salary package.

Growth of questions on programming languages on stackoverflow

Some of the programming languages that beginners start to learn first are as follows:

• C / C++  :- C almost influenced every programming language. If you learn C first then it easier to learn other programming languages. Since C takes more complex code to perform simple tasks, beginners may find it tough to stay motivated if this is their first language. However, knowledge of C will definitely help you as a programmer in the long run. C++ is a powerful language based on C. It is designed for programming systems software, but has also been used to build games/game engines, desktop apps, mobile apps, and web apps. 
• Python :- Python is always recommended for an easy language to learn at early stages of your career rather than having to jump into strict syntax rules. Python reads like English and is simple to understand for someone who’s new to programming. Python is an interpreted language. It is used in many applications like robotics, web scraping, scripting, artificial intelligence, data analysis, machine learning, face detection, etc. 
• JavaScript :-   JavaScript is another language which is in high demand at the moment. JavaScript is an object oriented programming language designed to make web development easier and more attractive. In most cases, JavaScript is used to create responsive, interactive elements for web pages, enhancing the user experience.
• Java :-  Java is one of the most popular programming languages in the world. Java has been used for so long that there is lots of information about it on the web. This is ideal for beginners because it has a large community. Java is being used everywhere, whether it is a desktop application creation or mobile-based applications.

Lastly, I want to say that every person will not be a perfect coder but every person has his own ability. Alice was in the process of finding her interest on the basis of her knowledge. This would be depressing but for one crucial fact: Humans are distinguished from other species by our ability to work miracles. We call these miracles technology. To work on miracles means to train machines to do your work easier, faster and more feasible. One who trains the machine more efficiently and easily is the perfect coder in the simple way.

So now the question arises, Is it necessary to code? 

Your whole life is full of opportunities. There are many things in which you can explore to get succeed. So it is important to find your own interest out of all these things which you are observing daily. Have some patience and at this point of time just keep exploring more and more. One day you will get your interest and then start investing on that. Whether its coding, development, networking, data mining, business analysis, database management or may it be anything, “Just follow your passion.” Instead of getting into the rumors from the society, have your own choices and excel the job in which you are interested. Specifically, if your interest is coding, I recommend you to start one of those five languages.

If you want to have expertise in coding, start your day 1 with at least two lines of code and be consistent.

Happy Coding, All the Best for your Future.

                                -Ms. Diksha Yanpallewar