Whatever programming language you want to learn, there’s one simple set of steps you can follow to make this process clear and optimized.
It will work regardless of whether you already have some prior experience in programming or this is just your first attempt to learn to code.
Step #1. Watch a YouTube video that briefly talks about the programming language
YouTube is the best place to start from. It contains a lot of information about any topic you could imagine, and, of course, programming is not an exception.
You will find plenty of YouTube channels created specifically to cover various programming topics, including introduction to all the popular programming languages.
This is exactly what you need: a fairly short video (10-60 minutes) explaining what some programming language is in a nutshell.
Skip long videos that are trying to teach you the language rather than briefly talk about the basic things. This is not the purpose you’re on YouTube right now for. The only thing you’re really interested in at this point is to figure out whether you like what you see in general or not.
If this is your first programming language, always add keywords like “for beginners” when you use YouTube search engine.
Here’s an example of videos I’m talking about.
Step #2. Watch a full-fledged video tutorial about this programming language
If what you saw on YouTube sparkled your interest (or, at least, didn’t extinguish the one you’d already had), then it’s time to move to the next step.
Find a video tutorial that you could use to start your learning process. Sometimes you can stumble upon a great tutorial on YouTube, but usually it’s better to go to other websites, like Pluralsight, Udemy, or Lynda.com, offering a huge variety of curated high-quality video tutorials for just a few dollars.
In order to explain how to learn programming with video tutorials if you want to get the best result out of this process, I wrote the article How to Learn Programming with Video Tutorials.
Step #3. Read the best book about this programming language or its official documentation
After learning with video tutorials you can usually say two things:
1. “I definitely know something about this programming language and can use it to create simple projects”.
2. “I definitely don’t know enough to start using this programming language to create complex real-world projects”.
This means that you’re ready to continue your learning process on the next level of complexity — with books or the official documentation.
Books are more comprehensive and time-consuming than video tutorials. That’s why I wouldn’t recommend using them right away, until you are quite sure that this language is the right choice for you.
At the beginning of the learning process it is very helpful that video tutorials are relatively short and focused mainly on practice rather on dry theory. This is the best format to understand what some programming language can offer you.
But once you completed some video tutorial and gained basic knowledge and skills, there’s nothing better than a good book, or the official documentation, if it is written similarly to how books are usually written (TypeScript’s handbook can be a good example).
It’s important that the book should be really good. There are a lot of mediocre (and even worse) programming books out there that can discourage even the most motivated learner, by explaining everything in a wordy, boring manner, with excessively convoluted examples and difficult exercises.
So, don’t simply pick a random book with a promising title. Spend 10-20 minutes reading reviews on Amazon first, paying special attention to the words of those who seem to be on the same level as you are in terms of experience in programming.
See also the articles How to Learn Programming with Books and How to Learn Programming with Official Documentation or Manuals.
The next step
Having finished reading the book, you still might (and, likely, will) feel like you’re not ready yet and your education is not completed.
Your education is not completed indeed — there’s something more to learn before you can start working on real-life projects.
But, as for learning the programming language itself, at this point there’s no need to dedicate special time to it anymore. You’ll extend, deepen, and polish your understanding of this language with practice.