How I Started to Actually Understand Programming

When I first started learning programming and web development, I honestly had no idea how anything worked.

I could follow tutorials and get some results, but as soon as I tried doing something on my own, I’d get stuck. I didn’t understand how the frontend communicated with the backend, how data moved around, or how to structure anything. It felt like I was just copying pieces without understanding the whole puzzle.

Projects Changed Everything

That started to change when I began building my own projects — no matter how broken or messy they were.

One project that really helped was a fullstack e-commerce app. It had everything: product listings, user auth, a cart system, payments — all the complex bits I had previously avoided. It was a long project, and I got stuck more times than I can count, but I kept going.

By the time I got it working and deployed it to Heroku, I wasn’t just proud — I realized I had actually understood what I was doing.

Repetition Makes It Stick

What surprised me the most was how much repetition helped. Doing the same things over and over — setting up routes, handling data, fixing bugs — made everything start to click.

It wasn’t about finishing the project perfectly. It was about the act of building, failing, fixing, and repeating. That’s where the real learning happened.

If You’re Starting Out

If you’re in that early phase where nothing makes sense — I’ve been there.

My advice? Don’t wait until you feel ready. Just start building something. Anything.

You’ll break stuff. You’ll get stuck. But that’s the good part. That’s when you start to really learn how things work.

You don’t need to understand everything to start — but starting is how you begin to understand everything.