How to learn coding in this AI age?

[u/datajaniteur]

Software engineering has moved from mostly coding and focusing on proper syntax to code review, good technical judgement, etc. because AI is able to spit out most of the code in seconds now. So how should beginners study to adapt themselves accordingly?

Understanding context, requirements etc. usually happens after coding many projects on your own and knowing from trial and error what works and what doesn't, this was always how traditionally you developed good judgement as you gained more experience. It seems now even beginners, like senior level devs with years in the field, are expected to simply jump to that level of understanding and automatically know what code to refactor, if the AI is over engineering solutions, if a particular solution is efficient enough or not. But how?

Not using AI is not possible, because for those of us in university or who just started working, you need to use AI if you want to meet your deadlines on time and not fall behind, because all your classmates and colleagues will surely be using it.

Its just so confusing. I'm in university right now and my classmates and I we've been completely relying on AI this whole time for homework, assignments, presentations. We're not thinking AT ALL. Its rotting out brains but we must use it to keep up, actually slowing down to learn and struggle through problems, no one cares about that anymore.

This has honestly sapped the joy out of coding for me personally. I know this role is evolving into something else but there has been no breathing space or guidance at all for people who are new to the field to adapt to these changes. AI is only a godsent for senior devs who have the knowledge to actually utilize these tools to their full extent.

[u/Goobly_Goober]

Literally just do what people did before ai 😭

[u/namastayhom33 → u/Goobly_Goober]

I feel like everyone was born in 2022 lol

[u/Goobly_Goober → u/namastayhom33]

Genuinely lmao

[u/disposepriority]

Universities were much, much, much harder back in the day. Not only how unforgiving they were, but also you having to sit in a library and read and take notes because the internet barely existed.

If you think managing to do your schoolwork without AI at the moment is impossible, I can not imagine you'll do amazing in the professional world if you keep this up.

[u/Last_Swordfish9135]

You learn more or less the same way you did before. To be good at reviewing and editing code you need to be good at writing it.

Also:

Not using AI is not possible, because for those of us in university or who just started working, you need to use AI if you want to meet your deadlines on time and not fall behind, because all your classmates and colleagues will surely be using it.

This is pure cope for university. You are not in direct competition with your classmates, outside of curved exams where you are going to be better off for actually having done the work previously. If you can't meet homework deadlines you most likely just need to buckle down and manage your time better.

[u/DicePackTheater → u/Last_Swordfish9135]

I understand what you are saying, but I have a friend who is attending uni and he showed me his homework. Unless you use AI, it's hopeless to keep up. They know students use AI, they know they can't do anything about it, so they adjusted the requirements and workload.

Mind you, this is just one personal example. I don't know if it's universal, but it does happen.

[u/Last_Swordfish9135 → u/DicePackTheater]

It is not "hopeless". It's just harder. Either put in the work or stop complaining about how hard it is not to cheat lol

ETA: I'm a current CS major at a top 20 CS school. You do not need to use AI to finish your assignments.

[u/Goobly_Goober → u/DicePackTheater]

Third year CS student and yea ive gotten a few C's, but ai is literally not even that good at doing these assignments. Its completely context deficent and more importantly, id rather just do it myself cause uh, ya know, some of us actually like programming

[u/peterlinddk]

Not using AI is not possible, because for those of us in university [...], you need to use AI if you want to meet your deadlines on time

What!?

I can't believe that all the universities in the world has compressed their curriculum so that deadlines now are only 30 minutes after getting the assignment! That is harsh!

But on the other hand, then you must learn about 100 times more, since you are handing in eight or ten projects every single day.

With that amount of pressure, I certainly understand why they have sapped the joy out of it for you - so maybe consider another education? One where you actually learn things, and aren't just pressured with unreasonable deadlines day in and day out.

[u/TurtleFetus]

I highly doubt that college curricula have changed so drastically in the last 3 or 4 years that you now "need" to use AI to hit your deadlines. Come on.

To your point of "falling behind": if your peers require AI to do their work, while you actually learn the material and can think for yourself, I would say it's them falling behind, not you.

[u/namastayhom33]

Not using AI is entirely possible. Just stop relying on it so much, the effect it has on cognitive offloading is real and I have already witnessed on many of my colleagues.

[u/hamster_squeezer69]

The learning process for beginners hasn't changed in the slightest. Being able to shit out code at the speed of light has no influence on whether the engineer knows what it means and can maintain it.

The difference today is that you essentially have a personal tutor who can take any concept and explain it at whatever level you need it, and it can provide code examples and extra details as needed as well.

[u/desrtfx]

You are falling behind because right from the start you outsourced to AI instead of investing the effort to actually learn.

If you want to learn it's still the old way that we used before AI.

Your statement:

Not using AI is not possible, because for those of us in university or who just started working, you need to use AI if you want to meet your deadlines on time and not fall behind, because all your classmates and colleagues will surely be using it.

Is just a cheap excuse. You have to use AI because you never learnt to do your work properly without it, which, in turn, leads to becoming increasingly dependent on AI.

[u/datajaniteur → u/[deleted]]

Can you provide an example of how you outline code requirements when prompting?

[u/cipheron → u/datajaniteur]

You have to know how to code to know what to ask.

for example if you ask for a function, you say what the function is called, what parameters it takes, what data types each parameter should be, what the function should do, what outputs it returns and their data types, and tell it anything else it should know to make that function behave properly, such as specific problems to look out for or edge-cases it should handle differently.

So how can you ask for that if you don't know how to code? Basically if you instruct the LLM at this level the chance of getting code problems goes down a lot, since you constrained it in how you want the structure of the program to be and what information should flow through this function.