How Long Does it Take to Learn Programming?

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I only know the basics of programming with simpler languages and I wondered, how long would it take me to learn programming to a level where I can make a lot of money with it?

5 years, 10 years? I'm generally savvy regarding internet and technologies in general, and I know what programs need to be made, so I feel like the only skill missing from my arsenal is programming to be really successful.

Is it worth it? What language would be the best start? I have some experience in basic, delfi, pascal.

What kind of programmers are the most demanded? What programmers make the most money?
#programming #learn #long #programming
  • dude programming is not a single thing there comes many things under programming thats why its called programming languages coz same as our languages programming codes languages also differ and htere are many programming languages in the market e.g c,c++,C#,html,php,sql,oracle etc if you want to learn each and every program it may take a long time coz every year we get to learn a new thing in IT industry
  • It actually depends on the person's learning capability. There people who are fast and some also are slow learner.
  • Learning a programming language is one thing, and learning the things you need to know in order to use it well is another - algorithms, data structures, design patterns etc. It takes a short time to learn a language - how to write if-statements, loops, functions - but a long time to use these things to create an effective and efficient program that solves a problem. It's that move from being a mechanic to being an engineer that is really hard.

    I've been working with software development since early 80s with COBOL, since the mid 1990s with C++, have a postgrad degree in computing, and still feel there are new things to learn, new ways to improve.

    And if you really want to earn serious money, then you'll probably want to learn high finance too (which involves serious math) etc
  • The concepts are the same. Learn the two major approaches : procedural and object-oriented. Most languages are either one or the other or both. Beyond that every language is more or less the same.
  • Do you have an analytical/logical or romantic/emotional personality?

    I knew nothing when I bought the Big Black Book of PERL in 99 and 2 years later I was employed maintaining/updating a high volume surf-exchange and downline builder and creating more custom online apps.

    I completed a Comp.Sci degree since then and nothing I learned in school would have gotten me that job and that took 3 years and many $$$.

    I did learn a lot about what I was already doing and how to do it better like more algorithms and an understanding of how you choose/design them, hashing and trees...

    Start with PHP and HTML/CSS if you want to work online with websites.

    Get some good beginner tutorials for these 2 topics with examples to try out. This is all available online.

    Concentrate on Object Oriented programming concepts since it is the future and get another GOOD book on general programming concepts to learn about multi-dimensional arrays and functions and classes and objects and inheritance and everything else...

    Get a cheap shared host ($5 month) because doing it on your PC while possible is not the same as online.

    Get the Web Developer add-on and the PHP add-on for Firefox.

    Get going and if you have questions you're in the right place already.

    Getting something small and simple running and messing with it is a great way to start.
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    • :confused: I know about 15 developers including myself and we all develop on a local host. Granted we all have hosting for production, but development is still done locally.

      Doing it online will just slow you down wasting your time uploading to see your work. Not to mention a pain to debug.
      • [ 1 ] Thanks
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    • Very good and detailed advice, Pomspot. You did sound like you really wanted to answer the question.

      Thanks
  • 4 years 8 months 15 days 16 hours 23 minutes and 42 seconds ... hope you don't get LOST on the way
  • I don't think there is real money in programming anymore. You would have to manage offshore resources to do well. Clients don't like to pay over $15/hr.

    As for learning programming, it truly depends on you - your patience level, your logical abilities, ability to learn new things...

    I would say at least two years of regular study (like 3-4 hrs a day) to become a master in a language. It also depends on what you want to accomplish.
    • [1] reply
    • Really?
      I'm paid ~$50/h, I'm contracted out at ~$150/h. I know guys that contract direct at ~$100/h.

      I worked with a guy who had a friend who specialised in mainframe optimisation. He got paid by the line, not the hour. $1000 per line added, $2000 per line removed. He worked seldom, but if you needed to do something like transform your batch processing job from 8 hours to 1 hour, he was pretty much the only person you'd call.
  • You never stop learning, you just advance to the next level I've been doing programming since I got a ZX Spectrum (18 years ago?) - I'm still not a guru but I make a living with it.
  • I have a really great designer... but I need a programmer

    Programming seems to be the one highly sought after skill these days. Any recommendations will help me very much.
    • [1] reply
    • It depends on what you mean by 'long' and it depends on what you mean by 'a lot of money'.

      The extent of my programming knowledge was a bit of old Sinclair BASIC from nearly 30 years ago, but when I got into Internet marketing I found there were things I needed to have a script to do for me.

      Fortunately they were simple things and a good book on PHP taught me how to do them.

      Armed with that small bit of knowledge - and the understanding that PHP is quite simple to learn - at least to do simple things - I set about writing more complicated scripts. And added to my knowledge in the process.

      Within a few months I was confident enough to write a script that has now sold many thousands of dollars worth.

      I think that to be a coder you have to have a love for all things analytical. Getting a script to work can sometimes be a real puzzle and a great challenge. But it is almost always solvable in the end, and each puzzle teaches you something new.

      The 'how long' is probably unanswerable. You could learn enough PHP to write a simple working script in under half an hour, but to really get to grips with all the complex nicities of the language could take years.

      The 'how much' question comes down to what you'll do with your knowledge. If you job yourself out writing scripts for other people you'll make money, for sure, but you will essentially be working for a wage. And any wage-based job has an upper limit on how much you can earn.

      Conversely, if you can put in the same effort writing something useful that you can sell yourself, there is no upper limit. You work once and earn over and over again.

      There are some excellent books you can buy on PHP, but before you do that, learn to love the online PHP Manual. It is free and extremely useful.

      Martin
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  • If you start learning programming now, it's unlikely that you will ever make a lot of money with it (assuming you are planning to do it as a freelancer), there are simply too much competition out there already. You should instead focus on coming up with an excellent and unique idea and have a website built around that. That is what can make you a lot of money.
  • Programming is changing rapidly. There are so many different kinds of programming and unless you are in the top of the heap your are not going to make a "great deal of money" I think the highest paid programs are in companies that have big government contracts.
  • 10,000 hours for a complete master of the programming... 3 Years maybe...
  • Yeah, to learn enough to do outsourcing would take a LONG time. But I learned enough to write a simple WP plugin that could earn me money quite quickly. However, I also had some ZX and C64 (assembler) experience from before. But I also had some very sloppy habits. Learning good programming practices (OO, MVC) take a while and now I am undoing a lot of my mistakes from my initial forays. So learn properly right from the start, you will be grateful later.
  • Who told you that you could make money with programming?
    • [1] reply
    • here are critical factors that I guess affects ones learning.
      1. user learning capability
      2. time
      3. resources

      if you have everything then it will be easy for you.
      • [1] reply
  • Teach Yourself Programming in 10 Years
    Why is everyone in such a rush?
  • you should learn asp.net because that is really up in the industry nowadays and its programmers are actually making lot of money, and how long it will take to become master of it..it depends upon your mind and consistency.
  • Hi, I am a 14 year old boy, and i started programming when i was 11 years old and now i can program in c++ Java, html, css, php and many more programming languages so its probably not going to take 10 years if you really want to learn to program.
    • [1] reply
  • It's like asking how long it takes to learn the piano - depends on your motivation and the level you want to reach.
  • Right now CSS,XML,php,AJAX,Jquery.
  • It takes a years if that you are focusing on what programming language you interest.
  • If you focus on one programming language it could take less than one year to be professional at it. after it will take lifetime learning solving programming problems you will face.
    I recommend you begin with something easy to learn concept like VB.Net or C#. good luck learning!
  • I think programming is something you learn through out your entire life, you can always get better
  • Well myself I have been programming for maybe 3-4 years, and I still feel there is much to learn. With a couple years experience you can generally accomplish most simple tasks you come across - it's the larger, more complex projects which will require a higher level of skill - and require years and years of experience.
  • I've been a programmer for 30 years, and I am still learning new stuff every day.

    I started with BASIC and C and COBOL and Fortran, then moved into PL/1. Worked on COBOL and Fortran stuff for years and earned a good income. But I wouldn't recommend them to someone starting out now.

    Then I absorbed HTML, Javascript and php - and that is what I now use to build 40+ shopping cart web sites a year. I am now earning a good income from them, but I am doing it from home rather than working "for the man".

    But who knows how long these are going to be in demand? So I also supplement my income writing in another language - English. I write articles for magazines (yes, real magazines printed on paper!), as well as online. I have written an eCourse on Selling Craft Online, which is free, and which also gets me a lot of web site clients.

    So no matter what programming language you choose, you should also have a backup plan, preferably one which will help you get more clients for your main programming business.

    Christine.
  • Are there any recommended books on programming for beginners?
    • [2] replies
    • Plenty. Just pick the programming language you're interested and get a "For Dummies" book or one of those "in 21 days" books.
    • Hi tonnele,

      You might want to try w3schools dot com
      I learn quite a bit from there on HTML, Javascript, XML, PHP, SQL, etc.

      I think you will love it too!

  • It doesn't get many time to learn the basic stuff.

    But when talking about learning to apply it, I have to say it will take years to go some far...because new concepts are introduced so frequently.
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  • Hello....

    It is depend on currently how much you know about programming and which kind of programing you want to learn....If you are very new to programing then it will take time..
  • According to me whole life is not enough to learn any programming language btu you can learn what you need within 6-12 months
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    • Hi, I think you should start your programming from C because this is the only language which works as a base of all the languages and you can learn how to implement a logic for any program in C.
  • Well it depends upon your passion to learn, I learnt php in almost 3 months by constant study and practice.
    • [1] reply
    • I don't think you can put a time limit on it. The more you learn, the more you discover......
  • An abstract question with a no definite answer. Its upto you to learn - you can learn php in a short period by following online tutorials / guides or you can read a book and learn it in 200 hours.

    one of the best resources i still use after years of php coding is

    Tizag Tutorials

    PHP Tutorial - Introduction >> PHP








    MySQL Tutorial - Introduction






    VertrigoServ

    If i was you and i was going to learn php from scratch and i wanted to do it right - maybe you should try looking into

    http://codeigniter.com/


    Personally i wish i had learned it from the beginning - nothing like trying to unlearn old habits and concepts

    Check the user guide here

    Welcome to CodeIgniter : CodeIgniter User Guide#

    there is a hidden menu at the top "marked - Table of contents"

    Its very cool stuff ...


    enjoy
    davewebsmith
  • My question for you is - how do you want to make money programming?

    If the answer is creating your own software to make money, I think you'd be better off learning how to manage people, let them do the grunt work, and learn enough so that you are in control and can't be taken for a ride.

    In that case, you could get a "PHP in 24 hours book" and get up to speed in a week or two, since you have the basics (data structures, functions, objects, etc) down.

    As far as programming language, each project has a right fit - if there was a one-size-fits-all answer, we wouldn't have 100

    For the web, I'd say PHP if you want to sell your software to the largest market (every cpanel server can run PHP, and most Windows servers, too). If you are looking to create a service, that opens up to some cooler technologies like Python (which I prefer to Ruby or Java, but are both options). Also, a good smattering of HTM5/CSS3/JavaScript, preferably in framework.

    For mobile apps, consider Java (Android), Objective-C (iPhone), or HTML/CSS and a framework like Titanium.

    For Windows Desktop, C# is the standard.

    Flash can be used on any desktop (Air) or on the Web, except for iPhone ... so it can be a good chouce if cross-platform is important. Titanium also has a desktop system.

    So, again, it boils down to ... where do you want to go today?

    NOTE: If you are looking to make money as a freelance programmer in the U.S. doing progamming, don't. While good engineers with formal training can still get $100 per hour or more, most smaller jobs are being taken by equally bright people overseas for $10-$25 per hour. You don't want to compete with that kind of labor - it's better to be an idea and marketing person, and hire the development out.
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  • Anywhere from days to years, or even decades, depending on your definition of "learning programming" and how you end up making money with your new skills.

    That being said, I have had success personally with online learning websites, like LinuxAcademy.com (not programming focused, but aimed at system administration etc) and teamtreehouse.com. Great video based training, with forums and helpful communities.
  • you already know programming you learn easily within 3months
  • Try to update daily.


  • Hi there,
    Learning a programming language is not a piece of cake.Your whole life is little to make hold on a skill.
    And according to Socarate: "I know one thing, I know nothing"

    However you can earn a handsome amount by learning these languages.
    The global middle class is smaller and poorer than we thought - Quartz
  • About 6 months
    • [1] reply
    • Ask yourself what language would be fun and intresting to learn.
  • There is no fixed time and it varies from person to person. Remember, learning a language is one thing and ACTUALLY working in it is another (Practical stuff). All that matters is your experience to ACTUALLY solve problems. Working in a programming language gets better and better with time. Any programming language serves as a "software development tool".
    • [1] reply
    • Exactly. How many hours per day? Have you already got a specific outcome in mind? That makes a huge difference. How many languages do you already know?

      How do you define "learn"? That might be 10 hours, 100 hours, 1,000 hours, or 10,000 hours.

      I'm at hmm, ~30,000 hours in my profession, about 18,000 hours of which I would consider programming time. I'm STILL learning, both new languages and new ways to use existing ones.
  • It totally depend on the learning capability of individuals. if you are learning php, css , html the at max it would take 2 month only. further you need practice. and learn java script and jquery also to make attractive designs of the website.
  • There are a lot of things to learn, mate. I considered to start with the basics but i still can't convince myself that i can learn something. Try, start with the most basic languages and work your way up Wish you luck
  • Hello, I am currently having 40+ high quality games source codes for android and iOS.
    LINK:https://www.fiverr.com/hadhemibz/giv...de-android-ios
  • It depends on you how much time to take to learn a single thing.
  • You really want to learn Programming??? are you Sure???
  • Every programmer here.I need your SUPPORT by joining my FB Page. Thanks in Advance

    https://www.facebook.com/The-Master-...?ref=bookmarks
  • You should master a language and then learn another language that depends on your ability.
    But rule 10000 hour
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    How Long Does it Take to Learn Programming?

    I only know the basics of programming with simpler languages and I wondered, how long would it take me to learn programming to a level where I can make a lot of money with it? 5 years, 10 years? I'm generally savvy regarding internet and technologies in general, and I know what programs need to be made, so I feel like the only skill missing from my arsenal is programming to be really successful.