3 Great Projects to Jump-Start Your Coding Career
Written By Ethan Lem, Content Writer at World of Devs
People say that if you love what you do, you will never work a day in your life. Coding, very similarly applies to that statement as well. Coding is a versatile skill that can be applied to so many things; solving problems, creating websites, and even making games. Coding is used in so many projects, whether they’re personal or professional. Either way, the basics of coding can be taught to almost anyone. Whoever can learn these basics, will almost always find success.
When people think about programmers, they probably think of one of those cringe-worthy movie scenes from Mission Impossible, but coding goes way farther than that. It requires persistence, attention to detail, focus, and critical thinking. People are always working on projects to help improve these skills, and if you want to learn an increasingly popular skill, starting at the basics will help. These are 3 projects that will certainly help you jump-start your coding career.
Two languages that are essential to web development are CSS and HTML. HTML stands for Hyper Text Markup Language and is the language you use to set up the framework of your website. It determines where all the buttons are and where each element is positioned on the screen. CSS is the language that displays each element. It gives it a colour, font, and design which allows your website look professional. Think of HTML as the structure and framework of a building, and CSS as the wall colour or design of a building. Another language often associated with these two is JavaScript which is a little bit more powerful, but essential for making your website “move” and become more engaging. A good project to begin with is using these HTML and CSS to come up with a simple website. It may seem hard at first but once you get the hang of it, pair it with a backend language and show your friends your new website.
If you like math, this next project might just be your favourite. Coding is kind of like the language of computers, it allows us to communicate to computers without using binary, which is a complex base 2 system of 1’s and 0’s. Computers were invented to make human life easier. They allow for more complex calculations to be done faster. Python is a language known for easy readability and its machine learning potential. Therefore, try doing math problems with Python. Not only will you learn the basics of a coding language, but you will also develop the fundamental skills of problem solving and analytical thinking. Websites such as CodeAcademy or the CEMC Computing Competitions are a good source of these problems.
Apps such as Sololearn are also great for improving critical and analytical thinking.
Now that you’ve learned the basics of a language such as Python and the essential web design tools such as HTML and CSS, you can finally make a website usable to everyone. A calculator is something great to start with. It requires you to set up different elements in HTML and display them with CSS. It also requires you to do the backend calculations with Python. There is no better way to prove your skills than by doing something such as this that combines them all together. The image above is of a calculator created in HTML, similar to what you would see on most devices.
This last project is for anyone who is passionate about game design. If you have made a website or two and are feeling confident, you can go and learn JavaScript. This is a skill very useful to not only frontend web design, but also the backend. This can be applied to websites but is even more fun when applied to game design.
Unity is a powerful game engine that uses C# and JavaScript as its main languages. It is the game engine of many games such as Subnautica, Hollow Knight, and Among Us. If you want to go into game design, download Unity and start learning. Good sources to start would be the Brackeys YouTube Channel as they provide all kinds of tutorials there. Unity itself also provides great guides on how to start learning their software on their website.
As you can see, coding is one of the most versatile skills you can have and trying these projects will give you a good foundation to either have fun or use your skills in a professional way. Even if you try coding and don’t like it, the skills you will take away from it are applicable to almost anything.
