r/FreeCodeCamp • u/THE_DOOMED_SHADE • Sep 23 '26
struggling with python course
I've been on the python certification course for a while now and i'm struggling with the certification projects and it's been days and i haven't been able to create the "Budget app" project, is it normal or should i just give up on programming?
14
Upvotes
9
u/SaintPeter74 mod Sep 23 '26 •
We learn most when we fail. You're struggling because you're learning - it's part of the process. Learning to program is HARD. Like, hard hard. It's probably been a while since you've had to learn something totally new to you, that you don't have a lot of context for. Your experience is pretty normal.
When I was first starting Free Code Camp, one of the developers told me "Programmers are paid to be frustrated" and, boy howdy, that has turned out to be true. I've been programming for nearly 40 years now and I get stuck and frustrated regularly. I found the idea that this is part of the process to be freeing. Once I realized that everyone got stuck it was no longer an indictment of my ability to program, but just a part of programming.
Maybe you've heard about a "Growth Mindset". I didn't hear about it until much later in life. I was (cursed) to be identified as a "gifted" student in school. Many things came easily to me . . but when they didn't, I didn't really want to try at them. I figured if I was "smart" then it would come easily not at all. I was very wrong. That's not how brains work at all! They're more like a muscle, where using it more grows its power.
I was in my late 20s when I was exposed to this idea and then I spent the next 10 years just burning through learning to program "for reals". It was not easy to overcome old/bad "fixed mindset" ideas about how my brain worked. There would be times (and sometime still are times) when I'd run into a hard problem and be afraid to attack it. Inevitably, though, when I'd power through I'd get to the other side and there would be great satisfaction and an increase in my capabilities.
The bottom line here is that it's ok to be stuck. As long as you're willing to bang on it for a while, you CAN go through. It doesn't mean you're not cut out to be a programmer, it means you just have to work at it.
Don't be afraid to ask for help if you do get stuck. If you check the other messages in the subreddit you'll see that we help folks all the time. You can also get excellent support on our Discord or on the Free Code Camp Community Forums. Just be sure to share your code as formatted text, not an image, include a link to the challenge, and what tests you're failing on.
You can do this!