How to code faster and more efficiently
Look, whether you’re grinding through a CS degree, just got out of the military and thinking, “Now what?”, or you taught yourself Python in your mom’s basement, the truth hits hard: this coding thing? It never really ends. Seriously, there’s always something new to bang your head against.
And let’s not kid ourselves—coding isn’t just hammering out random lines of text and praying it works (though, hey, sometimes it feels that way at 2am). It’s more like a mix of puzzle-solving, random moments of creativity, and the sweet satisfaction of watching your stuff actually not crash. But everyone hits that wall. You know the one: you ace a chapter, feel invincible, then stare blankly at your screen when it’s time to actually do the thing. Or maybe you’re stuck in bug purgatory, fighting the same error for hours while your coffee goes cold.
Here’s the kicker: you can actually get better at this. You don’t have to just suffer through it. There are ways—real, practical ones—to pick things up faster and not lose your mind. Pulled straight from the battle-hardened folks at Coding Dojo, here are seven tips to help you code smarter, not harder. Let’s dive in (but, you know, without the burnout).
1.Learn by Doing — Start Coding Immediately
Alright, let’s get real for a second: you’re not gonna level up as a coder just by binging YouTube tutorials or flipping through some fat programming manual. Sorry, not sorry.
The second you pick up something new—like, say, you finally wrap your head around loops or functions or whatever—don’t just sit there grinning. Actually use it. Like, type it out, mess around, break stuff. Reading about how to balance on a bike doesn’t mean squat if you never put your butt on the seat and wobble down the street.
You think you’ve got it down while you’re watching some dude code on your screen, but when you’re staring at a blank editor? That’s when your brain goes, “Uh… wait, what was that syntax again?” Yeah, welcome to the real world.
Pro tip : Make tiny projects as you go. Just figured out loops? Whip up a basic multiplication table generator or something goofy. Messed with arrays? Build a janky to-do list app. The point is, the more you actually use this stuff, the less likely it’ll leak out of your brain forever. Trust me, muscle memory beats theory every damn time.
2.Master the Fundamentals Before Moving On
Look, I get it—nobody wants to slog through “Hello World” for the fifteenth time. You wanna skip the boring basics and dive into some spicy new framework or mess around with AI that’ll probably just spit out weird cat pictures. But here’s the kicker: if your fundamentals are wobbly, the cool stuff’s gonna smack you in the face later.
You can’t wing it with variables, loops, or if-else statements and expect to magically understand databases or APIs. Trust me, I’ve seen folks try, and it’s like watching someone try to run before they can crawl—hilarious, but also kinda tragic.
People who rush the intro stuff? They almost always hit a brick wall and end up crawling back to rewatch the tutorials they thought were beneath them. Save yourself the headache. Take it slow at the start, and you’ll actually fly later on. Pinky swear.
Pro tip from someone who’s eaten their share of humble pie: nail the five must-knows—input/output, variables, conditionals, loops, and functions. Once those click, everything else is just… icing. Or sprinkles. Whatever makes you hungry enough to learn.
3.Try Coding by Hand
Honestly, yeah, it feels kinda ancient, right? Like, who’s out here scribbling code on paper when you’ve got VS Code, autocomplete, and instant feedback? Sounds like something your uncle would suggest—right after telling you about dial-up internet.
But here’s the thing: hand-writing code actually kicks your brain into high gear. No computer to save you, no red squiggly lines nagging at your typos. You’ve gotta catch your own mistakes. It’s basically mental gymnastics for programmers. You start seeing your logic (or lack of it) real quick.
Plus—let’s be real—most tech interviews still love making you sweat at a whiteboard. If you haven’t practiced this old-school ritual, you’ll probably freeze up when someone hands you a marker and says, “Okay, reverse this linked list.” It’s brutal.
So, pro tip: once a week, grab a pen and paper and tackle a coding problem. Don’t cheat with your laptop. Afterwards, type it up and see if you nailed it or totally biffed it. It hurts, but hey, it works.
4.Don’t Be Afraid to Ask for Help
Coding can feel like a one-person journey at times, but it doesn’t have to be. Every great coder has asked for help from someone, at some point.
If you are stuck on a bug or an idea for hours, sometimes a fresh perspective can alleviate a hurdle, and revive you in order to avoid wasting more time. Many times a friend, instructor, or a member of an online community can identify the issue in a few minutes.
At Coding Dojo, our top-instructors encourage students with the idea of a “20-minute rule.” Mathematically speaking, if you are stuck for more than 20 minutes on a solution, try a different path forward, or ask for help. Learning includes struggling, but struggling for hours without progress is counter productive element.
💡Pro tip: Stack Overflow, reddit r/learnprogramming, and Discord community programing I sell guidebooks as an instructor, with suggestions for coding resources, including this site. When seeking help from someone or another community, explain what you have done so far.
5.Use Multiple Learning Resources
Sometimes, topics just don’t click. Whether it’s the book you are reading gave a convoluted explanation of recursion, or your teacher’s explanation of an API wasn’t making sense. This doesn’t mean you can’t learn it – you only need to find an explanation from a different source.
People learn in different ways. There are people who learn well from text-based tutorials, some need a video explanation, some need to learn through projects. The internet is chock-full of free and paid resources; YouTube tutorials, blog posts, coding podcasts, freeCodeCamp, Codecademy, interactive sites, etc., so take advantage of this.
💡 Pro Tip: When something is unclear, search “topic + tutorial” in Google or YouTube. Chances are someone has explained it in a way that will click with you.
6.Don’t Just Read Code — Play With It
Look, scrolling through sample code is alright and all, but honestly? Just reading it won’t turn you into a coding wizard. It’s like watching someone else ride a bike and thinking you’ll magically know how to do it. Spoiler: you won’t.
Grab that code and mess with it. Rename stuff. Toss in a new function. Break it on purpose—seriously, see what blows up. That’s how you actually get it. You figure out why things tick (or explode), not just how.
Once you start poking around and getting your hands dirty, that’s when it clicks. Next time you gotta build something similar, it’ll be way less intimidating ’cause you’ve already wrestled with the guts of it.
Oh, and here’s a little nugget: don’t just slap that code into your editor with a lazy copy-paste. Type it out by hand. Yeah, it’s slower. But your fingers and brain will thank you later—promise.
7.Take Breaks When Debugging
We’ve all had to face the countless hours of looking at our screens, sure that your problem is the result of some unknown bug, only to realize after hours of debugging that was nothing more than a semi-colon or a typo.
The more frustrated you become, the less capable you are of seeing solutions. Searching for solutions is more difficult if you’re stressed out. This is why taking a break is so important while debugging. Stepping away from the computer for 10-15 minutes can reset everything and possibly even help you see the problem in a different light.
Some developers even swear to the Rubber Duck Debugging method – to verbalize the code you are working with (even if it is a rubber duck or another inanimate object), you will often discover the error right away.
💡 Pro tip: If you spend over an hour debugging a piece of code, get up and walk away from the computer, make a coffee, or work on something else. Creator the distance, and you might see the problem as soon as you return to the computer.
Final Thoughts
Look, learning to code quicker isn’t about being sneaky or skipping out on the tough stuff. Nah, it’s about being clever with your time, sticking with it, and putting in some focused hustle.
Let me give you the lowdown, minus the fluff:
- Jump into coding right after you pick up something new. Don’t just sit there—get your hands dirty.
- Actually nail the basics. Seriously, don’t rush off to all that fancy stuff until you’ve got your fundamentals locked in.
- Try writing code by hand sometimes (yeah, with an actual pen). It’s brutal, but your brain will thank you—plus, it’s killer for interviews.
- If you’re stuck, bang your head against the problem for like 20 minutes—then ask for help. Don’t just flail around forever.
- Can’t figure something out? Check out a bunch of resources. YouTube, blogs, whatever. Sometimes you need it explained five different ways before it clicks.
- Mess with sample code. Break stuff, fix it, break it again—until you get what’s going on under the hood.
- Debugging got you ready to throw your laptop? Walk away for a bit. Seriously, your code will still be there.
And hey, don’t forget: every legendary coder started out confused by for-loops and random error messages. The only real difference? They kept grinding. Mix all this with a stubborn refusal to quit, and boom—watch your coding speed and swagger go up.
So next time you’re staring at the screen feeling lost, try one of these moves. Who knows, you might just shock yourself and start coding like you’ve been doing it for years. Go get it. 🚀