So maybe you've just completed a course on Udemy, or you've watched a YouTube video on python. Yay!

Ok, It's time to code from scratch. So, we pick a project to do. But wait, you don't understand anything, and you're stuck on the project. So, you keep going back to your old tutorials and watching more tutorials, and the process goes on until you realize you've entered into a rabbit hole of tutorials.

The self-doubt sets in "I'll never be a good programmer" or " I can't do this?".These are the thoughts that run through your head. Ok, take a deep breath and calm down.

No developer remembers everything they've learned. Even senior software engineers tend to Google essential functions. like how to "print all the values in a list with a for loop."

So everybody experiences this, so how do we get out of the never-ending rabbit hole of tutorials.

What is Tutorial Hell?

It is a state in which a new programmer is in a continuous loop of learning from tutorials and courses and can't seem to build anything independently without help from tutorials.

It is easy for people to fall into this trap because:

It gives you a sense of accomplishment. When you've gotten a certificate from Coursera or finished an 8-hour video, you feel you've learned all there is to coding.

It serves as a crutch since watching a tutorial is a form of hand-holding. And since it is very safe because when the person makes a mistake while coding, they can correct their error by watching the tutorial again.

But this is a very passive form of learning, and it doesn't require engagement. That is why it is easy to forget what you learned in a tutorial.

So everybody experiences this, so how do we get out of the never-ending hole of tutorials:

•Deconstruct a Project

•Building Projects

•Reviewing Someone else's Code

•Teaching Programming to Others

Deconstructing a Project

To break out of tutorial hell, you can break down a project and play around with it.

The project may be an app you've always wanted to build but already exists, we can break it down and add extra features to it, or you could break down the project from a tutorial and make some changes to it.

Breaking down projects helps us understand the project better when we want to add extra features to the project. We will need to research how to add these features by asking questions on StackOverflow or by Googling the features. At this stage, we begin to solve problems on our own

Building Your Project

You can escape tutorial hell by building our projects. How? By applying the syntax and concepts, you've learned from tutorials on your project.

Building projects is an active form of learning because it teaches you how to solve problems on your own. So if you encounter an issue in your project, you'll learn how to find answers to solve this issue. Also, building your unique projects helps you to stand out as a developer.

Since no one else has probably done that project or created that app, personal projects will boost your portfolio and might even impress hiring managers, especially when you can explain how you made the app or project.

Reviewing Someone else's Code

Another effective way of learning is by reviewing someone's code and using it to do a personal project.

Examining someone else's code also forces you to move back to try and understand the person's code from an endpoint. You can discover a new method of solving a programming problem by reading through someone else's code.

Teaching Programming to Others

So how can this help you escape the beginner's stage? Well, science has stated that you retain 90% of what you teach. So this already solves the problem of not remembering everything you learn.

Teaching others also forces you to have a deeper understanding of concepts you've previously learned since you're not just learning for yourself now. But to also teach others.

So you may think "Oh! I'm just a beginner, What could I possibly teach others?". But people are likely to have a positive reaction from learning from a new programmer because they feel the newbie would understand their struggles more.

Also, you can leverage your experience as a newbie by talking about the challenges you've overcome as a new programmer.

In Conclusion

An effective way of learning coding is by applying the principles above and by consistent practicing.