How I started programming

By Prakhar Rastogi

October 5, 2023

share it on 👇

It all started 1 year and 6 months ago, when I was at my aunt's house, and his son who is studying in an engineering college asked me a simple question, `if a = 5, and b = 3` how can we switch the values of `a` and `b` so that, a= 3 and b = 5. I can never forget this question. It was a game changer. He asked me to solve this, and I started using my brain. I do not exactly remember whether I solved it or not, but this question sparked a curiosity in me. I thought that I can solve this riddle, when he explained me how we can simulate this example with a cup of tea and a cup of coffee, and how can I switch the contents, of course by using a 3rd cup, to hold it. This analogy made an impression on me. And I thought let me try it. My college professor Mr. Kartikey sir, once told us that children who are younger than us, is making software’s, learning programming and earning huge amount of money. He even mentioned the name of platforms which offer quality courses, for very less amount of money. Among those enlisted names, he mentioned about `Udemy`, `Coursera` and else. I do not exactly remember it, but for me learning from Udemy was inspired by him, because he learned web development and python from there. They say that `A teacher can change your life`, and indeed it is true. I learned my first programming language, which is `python` from ` Dr. Angela Yu` on Udemy.

The way she teaches is incredible. She explains every complex topic in a fun and easy way. I made my first game, which was `Rock, paper, and scissors` using python. And those `console based` games, were a huge achievement for me. whenever I create a new game on `replit`, I made it sure to let my brother try his hands on it, and I liked his feedback. From her, I learned web development too. And sometimes along the way, there was this thing in me to do something. I mean to create something amazing. When I came here at `Varanasi`, I was not sure of how can I do something that will create a change in the world. I was not sure of doing anything after my graduation. In the 1st semester, I got 1st rank, in my class, because I was extremely focused on learning everything from scratch. But when I learned web development, I thought, that by making a website I can connect people. which is cheap, as everyone has got smartphones, and I can fix the problems of the society. Once I was doing a wireframing while learning, I got the idea of creating my own startup. And I became very interested in it. I was very clear what I am going to do. And I was very happy for myself, that now I know, what I must achieve.

When I finished web development, until then I was introduced with this big world of programming with rapid development. I think that why `Angela Yu` only finished there and stopped making any more courses, because I am only confused now, that what I must learn next. To make a big and scalable website, there needs a lot of knowledge and deeper knowledge of JavaScript and react and basically the `MERN stack`. My brother told me how `C++` is even advanced language, for writing faster programs. I was not into competitive programming, but seeing `Gennady` the faster programmer, I had a dream of participating in ` Google kickstart` but now it is closed. But new opportunities also came along the way. Now that I am learning `DSA` data structures and algorithms, to solve a simple problem is like a very big task for me. I am kind of like solving a simple problem in a complex way. And when I see other people, learning many different programming languages, I used to think, that `” “is it possible for me to learn a ton of languages, and being best at time at the same time “? Now a days there is this craze of making `open-source contribution`, and I do not understand how to accomplish a lot of tasks. How to be so versatile? I think that I must make this website source code public on GitHub. It will a be a good option for other people to come work on this and make it good for everyone. But I believe that all it takes is to be consistent and focused, we must choose what really, we want to achieve. There are various aspects in programming, it is a big ocean. But I am happy to know that I found what I love doing. I think that love happens unexpectedly in any condition, and that is true for me. I want to take my passion to a new level.