Programming

Learn the basics(WALK-RUN-SPRINT):
Before we can run, we have to learn to walk. You walk by learning how to program in a single programming language. You don’t learn to walk by trying to learn 50 million things all at once and spreading yourself way too thin.

Jack of all trades, master of none:
Too many beginning programmers try and jump into everything all at once and don’t have the patience to learn a single programming language before moving forward. They think that they have to know all the hot new technologies in order to get a programming job. While it is true that you need to know more than just the basics of a single programming language, you have to start here, so you might as well focus.
Pick a single programming language that you think you would be likely to base your career around. The programming language itself doesn’t matter all that much, since you should be thinking for the long term here. What I mean is you shouldn’t try and learn an “easy” programming language to start. Just learn whatever language you are interested in and could see yourself programming in for the next few years. You want to pick something that will have some lasting value.
Once you’ve picked the programming language you are going to try and learn, try and find some books or tutorials that isolate that programming language. What I mean by this is that you don’t want to find learning materials that will teach you too much all at once. You want to find beginner materials that focus on just the language, not a full technology stack.
As you read through the material or go through the tutorial you have picked out, make sure you actually write code. Do exercises if you can. Try out what you learned. Try to put things together and use every concept you learn about. Yes, this is a pain. Yes, it is easier to read a book cover-to-cover, but if you really want to learn you need to do.
When you are writing code, try to make sure you understand what every line of code you write does. The same goes for any code you read. If you are exposed to code, slow down and make sure you understand it. Whatever you don’t understand, look up. Take the time to do this and you will not feel lost and confused all the time.
Finally, expect to go through a book or tutorial three times before it clicks. You will not get “programming” on the first try–no one ever does. You need repeated exposure before you start to finally get it and can understand what is going on. Until then you will feel pretty lost, that is ok, it is part of the process. Just accept it and forge ahead.

Work-arounds don’t work for longer time:
Many times software programmers implement work around solutions (may be because of lack of time, lack of problem understanding or lack of technology experience).But over the period these work around solutions always resulted in corrupting the code, making it less extendible and maintainable and lot of wastage of time later on. Always prefer to implement when you know the in-out of the solution. I understand that it becomes unavoidable in some circumstances, but it’s like, one should speak truth always but you tell lie in some circumstances.

Read documentation(API):
One of the essential habits of good programmer is that they read lots of documentation. May it be specifications, JSR, API documents, tutorials etc. Reading documents helps you creating that essential foundation based on which you program in best of the way.

You can learn from others code as well:
I interacted with some excellent programmers who actually have java source project inside their IDE all the time and read/refer that in daily work. They do it not only to fulfill their appetite of knowing the basics but also to learn ways of writing good programs. Reading and referring reliable and known open source code or your senior’s code, can also help you making your programming better.

Be the first to analyze and review your code:
Although a bit difficult, but try to break your own code before others can and with the time you will learn to write close-to-bug-free code. Always do a close and unbiased review of your code. Also never hesitate to take others view on your code. Working with good programmers and taking their feedbacks will surely help you become a good programmer.

Spend more time in analyzing the problem, you’ll need less time to fix it
Spend more time in understanding and analyzing the problem and designing solutions for it. You will find the rest of the things quite easily doable. Designing not always mean using modeling languages and tools, it can be as simple as looking at sky and thinking solution in your mind. Those who have habits of pressing keyboard (for coding) the moment get the problem, usually ended us something different than the requirement.

If you cannot grok the overall structure of a program while taking a shower, you are not ready to code it. ~Richard Pattis

Write simple, understandable but logical code:
As in almost every aspect of life, the formula of KISS (Keep it simple and short) works in programming as well. Write more logical code and avoid complexity. Sometimes people do write complex code just to prove their capability to write such codes. My experience says that simple but logical codes always works well, resulted in fewer issues and are more extendable. I remember an excellent quote
Good code is its own best documentation. As you're about to add a comment, ask yourself,

"How can I improve the code so that this comment isn't needed?" ~Steve McConnell

Keep coding:
Things look simpler when talking about them theoretically. We can give a solution to a problem very easily in theory. But we can realize the depth of the problem when we start implementing our approach. You will come to know the language limitations, or design best practices while coding. So keep coding.

Read open source frameworks source code:
A good developer will learn how to use a framework. But if you want to be an outstanding developer you should study the source code of various successful, popular frameworks where you can see the internal working mechanism of the framework and lot of best practices. It will help a lot in using the frameworks in very effective way.

Keep repeatedly using code snippets/utilities handy:
Overtime you may need to write/copy-paste same piece of code/configuration again and again. Keeping those kind of configuration snippets like log4.properties, jdbc configuration etc and utilities like StringUtils, ReflectionUtils, DBUtils will be more helpful. I know it itself don't make you outstanding developer. But just imagine some co-developer came and ask you to help in fetching the list of values of a property from a collection of objects and then you just used your ReflectionUtil and gave the solution in few minutes. That will make you outstanding.

Know different development methodologies:
Be familiar with various kinds of methodologies like Agile, SCRUM, XP, Waterfall etc. Nowadays choosing the development methodology is depending on the client. Some clients are preferring Agile and some clients are happy with waterfall model. So having an idea on various methodologies would be great.

Learn a database technology:
No software is complete without database in now a days. Most software developers will need to know some database technology as most series applications have a back-end database. So, make sure you do not neglect investing in this area.
You will probably see the biggest benefit if you learn SQL–even if you plan on working with NoSQL database like MongoDB or Raven, learning SQL will give you a better base to work from. There are many more jobs out there that require knowledge of SQL than NoSQL.
Don’t worry so much about the flavor of SQL. The different SQL technologies are similar enough that you shouldn’t have a problem switching between them if you know the basics of one SQL technology. Just make sure you learn the basics about tables, queries, and other common database operations.
I’d recommend getting a good book on the SQL technology of your choice and creating a few small sample projects, so you can practice what you are learning–always practice what you are learning.
You have sufficient knowledge of SQL when you can:
    Create tables
    Perform basics queries
    Join tables together to get data
    Understand the basics of how indexes work
    Insert, update and delete data

In addition, you will want to learn some kind of object relational mapping technology (ORM). Which one you learn will depend on what technology stack you are working with. Look for ORM technologies that fit the framework you have learned. There might be a few options, so you best bet is to try to pick the most popular one.
Build something substantial:
Allright, now comes the true test to prove your software development abilities. Can you actually build something substantial on your own?
If you are going to move on and have the confidence to get a job building, and perhaps even designing something for an employer, you need to know you can do it. There is no better way to know it than to do it.
Pick a project that will use the full stack of your skills. Make sure you incorporate database, framework and everything else you need to build a complete application. This project should be something that will take you more than a week and require some serious thinking and design. Try to make it something you can charge money for so that you take it seriously and have some incentive to keep working on it.
Just make sure you don’t drag it out. You still don’t want to get too ambitious here. Pick a project that will challenge you, but not one that will never be completed. This is a major turning point in your career. If you have the follow-through to finish this project, you’ll go far, if you don’t… well, I can’t make any promises.


Learn design best practices:
Now it’s time to go from junior developer to senior developer. Junior developers maintain systems, senior developers build and design them. (This is a generalization, obviously. Some senior developers maintain systems.)

You should be ready to build systems by now, but now you need to learn how to design them.
You should focus your studies on design best practices and some advanced topics like:

    Design patterns
    Inversion of Control (IOC)
    Test Driven Development (TDD)
    Behavior Driven Development (BDD)
    Software development methodologies like: Agile, SCRUM, etc
    Message buses and integration patterns

This list could go on for quite some time–you’ll never be done learning and improving your skills in these areas. Just make sure you start with the most important things first–which will be highly dependent on what interests you and where you would like to take your career.

Your goal here is to be able to not just build a system that someone else has designed, but to form your own opinions about how software should be designed and what kinds of architectures make sense for what kinds of problems.

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