Common Mistakes New Developers Make (and How to Avoid Them)

[abhishek62010]

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Hey everyone 👋,

I’ve noticed that many beginners (my past self included 😅) run into the same set of problems when starting out in programming. Here are a few I’ve seen often:

Not reading error messages carefully – Jumping straight to Google without fully understanding what the error says.

Skipping documentation – Relying only on tutorials or Stack Overflow instead of official docs.

Writing code without planning – Diving into coding without understanding the problem first.

Not using version control early – Delaying Git usage until the project is already messy.

Overcomplicating solutions – Using advanced tools when a simple approach works.

💡 My question to you all:

Which mistakes did you make when you first started coding?

What advice would you give to someone who wants to avoid them?
💫😊👌

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[anb2473]

When I first started I used to try and jump into a problem and code it all in one unreadable block of code. That made programming just about anything complex impossible, and also made it incredibly difficult to read over code in the future. Eventually I realized that with programming you have to break down your problems. Now, instead of just going straight into programming a solution, I take a while to think about how to structure a project, what are the requirements for the project, how can I make sure that me from a year in the future will still be able to understand what I was trying to do.

Also, another thing I notice a lot of people doing is that they take a problem and they over complicate the solution. They program like they work at Google, and 90% of the time that just wastes time and crushes productivity.