Learning to program from scratch - a step-by-step guide for beginners. Ten steps from a teapot to a professional programmer. What a novice IT specialist needs to know

Computer technology has become the basis for the further production of most material goods for a normal existence. Therefore, everyone should have knowledge in the system management industry, know its basic features and algorithms. Learning computer science, programming in particular, will allow you to stand on your own two feet in the current world.

In which areas of human activity is computer technology actively present?

the science;
medicine;
education;
production.

It is not difficult to notice that in almost every area it is necessary to take advantage of the benefits of modernity. They will not be needed unless a person wants to live on a lonely island and eat bananas.

But not everyone can be educated in the computer world. Due to its wide popularity, it costs money to learn all the necessary points for comfortable work with a computer, especially abroad. Therefore, some individuals try to become IT programmers on their own. This is much more difficult than studying with a specific program, and no one will argue here.

The importance of programming in working with technology

A computer is a machine that allows you to perform a different range of actions. It is designed not only for leisure, as is most often presented. Long before the modern computer existed, designers faced the challenge of design control. Therefore, it was decided to create small teams that would influence his future profession. That is, the creators decided to make a method of controlling a computer by pressing buttons. The structure is close to the conveyor production system: one button is responsible for everything.

Computers developed, became more complex, more intricate, and much more functional. Over time, they have ceased to be just a means of data transmission. With each subsequent year, the computer executed more and more commands. This all became the main reason for the expansion of his root programming. That is, as its functionality expanded, the control grid also became more complex. This was the reason for the emergence of programming lessons. That is, the range of all commands and functional combinations has increased so much that it is difficult to master it without prior preparation.

At the moment, there are not only certain commands for computer operation, but also different systems have been created. The most famous are:

Android, Google;
Windows, Microsoft;
iOS, Apple;
Linux, Canonical;

Each system is built on an individual functionality modeling tree. That is, each operating system will work only on its own algorithms. Without knowledge in this industry, it will be problematic to use the computer to its full functionality, which will lead to disappointment.

Competence in the field of computer engineering allows you to better understand the operation of a computer, develop your own methods for its active use, and also effectively save time in your activities. But this is not easy to achieve. A detailed disassembly of all the basics of programming takes more than one day of diligent study. Because of their limited knowledge of computer engineering, most people assume that spending effort and money on learning how to operate a computer is useless. There is an idea here that managing computers means pressing the “Enter” button and loading primitive programs.

However, programming allows you to use not only superficial work management systems, but also change it at will.

Programming efficiency

It is clear that working with a computer is not for everyone. There are those who find it much easier to build houses, serve characters, or prepare culinary masterpieces. Due to the incomplete disclosure of the potential of a still young science, the value is slightly lowered. What can you actually do with all the knowledge about programming behind you? This question is not difficult when viewed from the perspective of an IT specialist.

Programming reveals such opportunities as:

Create your own programs.
Change modes.
Ability to control its performance.
Configuration with other accounts and equipment.

Most programming courses cost good money, which significantly reduces the number of people who want to master EBM to just a few. There are also people who have a great desire to learn programming, but they do not have the financial means. This motivates them to independently obtain important knowledge for further work.

How to become an IT specialist without education?

Now it is necessary to consider all truly high-quality methods of teaching computer science without global programs and schools of the corresponding direction.

The first way is to use content on video hosting sites. It is known that video materials are much better absorbed by humans. Therefore, video hosting sites are actively used by beginners in program modeling. Many people, in order to develop their own channels and gain subscribers, use the skills of initial utility modeling.

Online articles and practical exercises. There are a lot of different articles, instructions, and lessons on mastering programming skills written on the Internet. They describe every step and click that needs to be done. Where and what checkbox or letter sign must be placed for the entire program to work. The peculiarity of this type of training is direct practice on your computer. That is, everything written is done immediately after reading. This method is called step-by-step. The first paragraph is read, executed on the machines, the second paragraph is read, executed on the machines.

The third method is to get help from familiar and more experienced users. In other words, tutoring. It's unfortunate to admit this, but having a degree in computer engineering is not an indicator. This is confirmed by numerous cases of self-taught people who studied the basics and features of modeling with the help of individual lessons. Famous people have succeeded and achieved what they wanted using this method. The presence of an experienced teacher guarantees good mastery and instant correction of the acquired information by a more experienced person.

After the first stage to the title of “specialist” in the computer field, you need to find a job. It is known that practice plays as important a role as theory. Lack of a diploma adds problems in finding a job. You will have to prove yourself from the beginning. This all happens during an internship. This stage inclines a person to perform tasks in a specific direction. During the first few days, the employer takes a closer look at the person he hires; if he is smart and really understands the job offered, then the importance of education gradually decreases.

Therefore, it is important to always try to use the full range of your own capabilities to achieve your goal, in our case, getting a job as an IT specialist. Errors and omissions are possible. No one is immune from this. However, the desire to further study, prospects and strong character will always tip the scales in your favor.

Particular attention to modern technologies should be paid to those who have a genuine interest in developing programs, creating games, writing codes for utilities, and flashing device firmware. Such a hobby can easily develop into a highly paid job, you just need to season it all with a little knowledge in developing systems for technology. As you know, the most enjoyable job is an expensive hobby. In the modern world, people who are able to do this are valued, and quite highly.

), in which my colleagues and I answered the most frequently asked questions about where to start for those who want to build a career in IT. I am posting the full (not cut into parts) version.

Surely you have friends who work or are educated in a field very distant from IT, but from time to time they are interested in how you can retrain into a successful and decently earning IT specialist.

Today, questions about where to start a career in IT were answered by representatives of the EPAM training center: Evgeniy Peshkur, deputy director for personnel training, Svyatoslav Kulikov, manager of the functional testing department, Alexander Baranovsky, head of educational testing programs, and Svetlana Zakharenko , Java trainer.

1. I want to work in the fieldIT, but I don't know where to start. What do you advise?

Evgeniy Peshkur:

It is difficult to advise without knowing the starting conditions. I would recommend it for the average PC user who has confidently mastered Counter Strike, forums and social networks.

Learn English. No kidding. If you didn't take this seriously, don't read any further. Learning English to the minimum level applicable in companies working on foreign markets (level B1, if anyone is interested) takes a year and a half. Knowledge of another foreign language will be a plus, but not a substitute. You will be forgiven for ignorance of any technology, but not for lack of language training.

At the heart of everything lies what all universities teach - ability to independently search and study material. Many, without realizing it, view courses as a place where they will be “taken by the hand and lead to success.” In fact, you will be led to an intermediate finish, given a certificate (grade, diploma) and then marked “unsuitable” in a notebook. And this will not be related to the result of the final test, but to your way of thinking. And an experienced teacher will determine this very quickly by checking and discussing your assignment with you. An “unGoogled” and meaningful solution (even if it doesn’t work, even an attempt to create one), departing from what he himself taught the day before, will be obvious to him.

Start with the basics. It’s funny and absurd, but a good half of those who take the course don’t know what a bit and a byte are. Have you noticed outrages like “I paid for a 40 GB hard drive, but they gave me only 38”? Read what networks are and what the general principles of their operation are. Get to know the basic concepts like ascii, heap, process & thread, interrupt.

OOP. Here, despite the simplicity of the definitions, everything is complicated. Unfortunately, simply studying the definitions does not give anything. This is probably one of the few places where independent study is ineffective. Try to think of OOP as a way of thinking. Understanding OOP comes through repeatedly writing and rewriting code and communicating with those who understand it. There are no simple tips, but I can set a goal: most likely you really understood OOP if you understood the work and were able to write a program like Elastic Nodes.

Data structures and algorithms. Almost no course will provide this either; most often it is assumed that you studied this at school or university. A gentleman's set of terms to study: tree, stack, queue, hash. Algorithms... We won’t go into the bottle and advise you to study graph theory, but you need to understand various algorithms. How to sort an array (it is advisable to know and understand several algorithms). Your goal is to understand quick sort. What are the ways to get around a tree?

As you can see, there is almost no need to take courses here, except for English. Just don't ignore what you are being taught. Or be able to figure it out on your own if the desire to sleep often overcomes the need to attend boring couples. If my hints are too vague, then I’ll summarize: ENGLISH and immediately! And understand all the terms mentioned above.

In my personal opinion, you are NOT a programmer if you are not able to create a tank in a toy that defeats the standard set of primitive tanks.

Alexander Baranovsky:

IT is a fairly broad and voluminous field with dozens of professions and specializations. Therefore, the first step is to choose and realize what exactly you want to do. Because for each profession you need to have a certain set of skills, abilities and mindset. After you have made your choice, take an A4 sheet of paper and, on the one hand, write down what you need to know and be able to do to start a career in the chosen position (programmer, testing specialist, business analyst, etc.), and on the other - that knowledge and the skills you currently have. The points that are worth paying attention to and working with are the “missing” things from the list of skills. But here all means are good - trainings, books, forums.

Svetlana Zakharenko:

It seems to me that you need to start by understanding why you want to work in the IT field. Why exactly does this area attract you, and what is the main motivating factor? Understanding will allow you to correctly prioritize and choose the right direction.

It is very important to understand what exactly you want to do in IT. Speaking about the work of an IT specialist, I would risk drawing an analogy with medicine. Medicine is a large field of knowledge that includes many areas and professions, and when people decide to connect their professional activities with medicine, they rather proceed from the concept “I want to be a dentist” or “I want to be a general practitioner.”

2. I have a humanities education. Is it possible to retrain as a programmer?

Evgeniy Peshkur:

Yes. Who is a "builder"? Is it an architect, a foreman, a mason, a painter or a watchman? Who do you mean when you say “programmer”? Working in IT does not necessarily mean writing code. There are a lot of specializations where a humanities student will find himself: testing, business analysis.

Svyatoslav Kulikov:

Can. The complexity of retraining, its speed, efficiency and other indicators will be individual for each person. It is worth honestly recognizing two facts:

the older you are, the more difficult it is for you to retrain (not only to become a programmer, but to retrain in general);
For a long time, you will lose in terms of professionalism to those who have dedicated their entire lives to IT.

But these facts are not a verdict, and I personally know those who came to IT from “humanitarian professions”, but thanks to their determination, they achieved tangible success.

Alexander Baranovsky:

Each specific case must be examined under a microscope, since I cannot say “every humanist can become a programmer,” that would be wrong. There were precedents in our practice. But you need to understand that this is far from easy and requires enormous effort, patience and perseverance.

Svetlana Zakharenko:

Nothing is impossible, you can always relearn :), the question is the final goal and the resources spent. If you decide to become a programmer precisely because programming is interesting to you, retraining will not be very difficult, since most likely the interest did not arise spontaneously, you supported it, you already have an idea about programming, perhaps you read literature, forums, tried to solve problems.

If the decision to retrain arose when it became very “fashionable” and the level of wages increased, it will be difficult to retrain. First of all, in order to overcome difficulties in learning, “recharge” will be needed, which often comes precisely from interest in the profession, and not from the “fashionable and expensive” motivation.

Before deciding to change your profession, you should compare your desire with your existing skills and knowledge. It is very difficult to become an astronaut if you have a weak vestibular system.

3. How to choose “your” field of study?

Evgeniy Peshkur:

Consult with those who have worked in IT for quite a long time and have managed to try many different roles or have worked closely with representatives of various specializations. Those. This is a specialist at the Team Leader level or higher. And then try.

Svyatoslav Kulikov:

Recently, cases of “re-profiling into IT” with the sole purpose of receiving a high salary have become more frequent. The argument is clear, honest and has a right to exist. But if money is the only thing that interests you in IT, then you risk facing a series of difficulties and disappointments, since doing something you don’t like is always self-abuse (even with a good salary).

In addition, the “IT world” is very vast and multifaceted, and many newcomers have no idea what “IT professions and specialties” are. Here it would be a good idea to read sites with descriptions of IT vacancies, and ask your friends who work in this field about the ones you are interested in.

From a personal and painful point: if the original question sounds like “tell me what I want,” then the most honest answer would be “I don’t know.” To find out, you need to talk at least a little with the person asking, since here the question from the field of training falls into the field of career guidance.

Svetlana Zakharenko:

Try the direction “to taste”. For example, if you are choosing between programming and testing, you can take a problem and solve it from a programming point of view, then you can take another problem and solve it from a testing point of view, all that remains is to compare the results and feelings. Use the well-known trial and error method. Unfortunately, there is no such recipe that will do it right and without any “bumps.”

4. What technologies should a beginner learn first? (What basic knowledge in programming and using a PC does a beginner need?IT-world)?

Svyatoslav Kulikov:

First, just reach the level of a confident user. If someone, reading this answer, began to grin wryly and thought about “here, again about the humanities,” then I dare to disappoint you: a techie who does not know how to copy a file over the network, ping a host, or build a graph in Excel is an equally common occurrence.

Quick: Learn right away what you're going to work with in your first IT job. This is fast because it allows you to (temporarily!) skip a huge layer of “fundamental knowledge”, but the side effect is the ability to solve only a narrow range of very clearly described problems. A lot of missing knowledge will have to be accumulated as experience is gained.
Slow: start from the basics - from the basics of algorithmization to a couple of programming languages (now, as a rule, Java/C# + something from the JavaScript/Python/Ruby/PHP series) and studying specific technologies (I would find it difficult to name “universal examples”, too many options).
“The universal path for a spherical student in a vacuum”: JavaScript + HTML + CSS, Java or C# + databases.

Svetlana Zakharenko:

It seems to me that the most basic will be good PC user skills and a very good command of a foreign language. It is also good to understand operating systems, it is advisable to have experience using different operating systems and understand the command line.

If we talk about technologies, it would be nice to have knowledge of databases, the SQL language, understand XML, and have an understanding of UML.

5. What is better: to study the technologies of interest on your own (books, Internet) or sign up for training or a tutor?

Evgeniy Peshkur:

It is ideal to combine both methods. The essence of an IT specialist is constant SELF-development. At the beginning of your journey, visiting a training or tutor will save a lot of time, show you the right path and make the right accents. Well, in personal work it will correct your deviations from the course. But make no mistake – independent study is primary. “I would go to ... let them teach me” - this is a fundamentally wrong approach. “I’ll go study, let them help me” - that’s how it should be.

Alexander Baranovsky:

The best option is to combine business with pleasure :). Books broaden your horizons and provide a point of view on a problem/technology. Trainings allow you to consolidate knowledge in practice under the supervision of a trainer.

Svetlana Zakharenko:

In this matter, I would not separate one from the other; reading a large number of books/forums/articles will not be useful without a clearly defined trajectory. A coach or specialist with extensive practical experience in the chosen field can guide you correctly and suggest the most successful sources of information. On the other hand, attending a training without studying additional literature will also not bring the desired result. Everything also very much depends on how a person is used to learning the material: in a group of students, alone and with a book, or one on one with a teacher. A combination of learning from books, with a teacher and a group of students is possible:).

6. What trainings in the field of information technology are popular among students today (by technology and location)?

Alexander Baranovsky:

The long-standing “Introduction to Functional Testing”, Java, .NET, as well as new areas – Mobile Development, BI are popular.

Svyatoslav Kulikov:

The most popular areas of EPAM training in Minsk are Java, .NET, testing - training in these areas is carried out mainly on the basis of BSU, BSUIR, BNTU. You can always familiarize yourself with the list of areas of training provided by the EPAM training center on the basis of leading universities of the Republic of Belarus on our website. It is worth emphasizing that we train not only programmers and testers. Keep an eye out for openings for trainings.

You can often hear the question of where it is better to go - to the training center of a particular IT company or to an independent (commercial) training center. The answer is simple: any IT company, conducting free training for students, wants to see them among its future employees. Therefore, such trainings are maximally adapted to the business processes of a particular company and it is better to attend them if you want to work in this company. Commercial training centers, as a rule, provide more “universal” training, but since it is impossible to “teach everything” in a reasonable time, this approach may miss points that are important for employment in a specific IT company. This is not the fault of the training centers, this is an objective reality. Total: in “branded” centers – “narrower, but deeper”; in commercial centers – “wider, but shallower”. By the way, you can combine both approaches :).

7. What sites, forums and communities should you visit to keep abreast of the latest events inIT-sphere?

Svyatoslav Kulikov:

An IT specialist is one of the most in-demand professions of our time. What do you need to know and be able to do to master such a profession? Where can you get this profession? What “inconveniences” do IT professionals face? Let's try to figure this out.

In the twenty-first century, information decides everything, and practically no industry operates without the use of information technology. Hence, there is constantly a high demand, both for the development and implementation of special programs for existing and newly opened enterprises, and for specialists in this field.

That is why an IT specialist is one of the most sought-after professions of our time. What do you need to know and be able to do to master such a profession? Where can you get this profession? What “inconveniences” do they face? IT specialists? Let's try to figure this out.

Who is an IT specialist?

Scientists began developing information technologies back in the mid-twentieth century, when the need arose to automate the processing, systematization and storage of information, since classical sources (library, periodicals) could no longer cope with this task fully.

By the way, nowadays librarianship also cannot do without the use of technical support: the network of electronic libraries is expanding, ancient manuscripts and archives are entered into electronic file cabinets and duplicated in digital form. This makes rare editions more accessible to the general public, while access to original sources remains very limited.

The first computers (electronic computers), which appeared in the late sixties of the last century, have already sunk into the past. This technique recorded information on punched tapes, long strips of paper with a dot pattern. But such information also needed to be stored somehow. Since the beginning of the 60s, humanity began to actively use magnetic recordings and cellular communications, and by the end of the 90s, hard drives appeared that record information in the language of numbers. Processing information required people who knew how to create commands (programs) for machines, as well as specialists who created artificial intelligence.

This is how a whole family of professions appeared, which are united by one name: programmer, system analyst, system architect, system administration specialist, information systems specialist, information security specialist, PC operator, information technology manager, database administrator, Web master, etc. .d.

Today, information technologies are widely used for communication, in management, banking; on their basis, educational programs, geo-exploration and resource extraction are developed and implemented; high technologies are necessary in modern industry, medicine, and security. The scope of application of information technology in a variety of industries is gradually expanding, and this directly indicates a constant and increasing need for the services of IT specialists, which means we can safely say that this profession of the future.

What personal qualities should an IT specialist have?

To become a sought-after IT specialist, you must first of all have a high basic level of training in such disciplines as mathematics and English. This requirement is due to the fact that all computer programs are written in the language of numbers, and the international language, English, is used to create them.

Also, the future IT specialist must:

have a good memory;
be able to find logical relationships;
demonstrate non-standard approaches to solving various problems;
be diligent and attentive;
have a tendency to self-organize;
be able to work in a team;
take the initiative.

We emphasize that the listed requirements are only the “Minimum” program.

To realize yourself in one of the specialized areas of information technology, often certain creative abilities are required: artistic taste, creativity, passion for the field of activity for which the program is being developed.

Advantages of being an IT specialist

It is believed that every job should have at least three advantages, which are the incentive to take it up. The profession of an IT specialist has the following advantages:

Every person strives to keep up with the times, engaging in self-development, improving education, and broadening their horizons. But for this, most often, you need to specially allocate free time from work. An IT specialist has the opportunity to improve his intellectual level without leaving work, since this is his direct responsibility.
Since labor activity of an IT specialist is intellectual, then, thanks to the same technologies, he can carry it out while being at a great distance from the immediate place of work (that is, remotely).
It is impossible not to note the demand for the profession and the fairly high level of salaries (both in private business and in the state system). According to statistics, this profession is marked by an annual increase in wages of 10-16%, which is often paid in dollar equivalent.

In addition, the still existing shortage of personnel in the field of IT technologies makes it easy to resolve employment issues, while for specialists in other professions the search for available vacancies is associated with great difficulties. This trend will continue for quite a long time, because the training of specialists in the field of technology provision is still noticeably lagging behind the growing demand for their services.

Disadvantages of the IT specialist profession

It's no secret that even the smartest machines sometimes break down and require the intervention of a person who is able to get them working - an IT specialist. Well, since machines have not yet learned to determine whether it is working time or a day off, they break down at any time of the day. This means that such a profession is most often associated with an irregular work schedule, which, of course, often violates personal plans.

TO disadvantages of the IT specialist profession This can also include constant and high mental stress, which negatively affects the emotional state and normal functions of the nervous system. Therefore, when choosing a profession, a person must be able to properly organize work and rest, despite an irregular schedule.

We should not forget about the negative impact of professional activity on health: constant and very high visual loads require careful attention to the visual organs, and a “sedentary” lifestyle often leads to problems with excess weight and the musculoskeletal system.

(Russian State University of Oil and Gas); Faculty of Automation and Computer Science;

; Faculty of Information Technologies.

By the way, if you have a good basic level in mathematics and English, then before taking the entrance exams to a university it would be a good idea to take special courses: icnd1 or Cisco. Such preliminary preparation will help you successfully pass entrance exams, practice and get an initial idea of future work.

12/22/14 157.6K

Every time, with difficulty overcoming life’s obstacles, I want to take and reshape this world for myself. Unfortunately, we were not born the creators of this universe. For those who want to satisfy their creator's ambitions, only the virtual world remains.

Although to create here you will need not so much magic and knowledge of runes as knowledge of the basics of programming. Therefore, for all aspiring virtual reality creators, we will tell you how to learn to program.

What a teapot needs to know

As much as I would like to admit it, in reality programming is not such a magical thing. Creating code can sometimes be compared to walking barefoot on a seabed covered with sharp rock fragments.

To become a programmer, you need to be not only smart, but also patient and persistent. Learning to program is always accompanied by headaches, red eyes from lack of sleep, and a distant look. This is how you can easily recognize a programmer.

Many beginners consider writing code to be almost the most romantic profession. The number of people wanting to learn programming has especially increased after watching the movie “The Matrix”. It was the main character of this picture, Neo, who pushed many to take the path of comprehending software sciences:

But most of those who start studying give up after a few weeks. And the main reason for this is the wrong direction of study, methodology, or even a programming textbook.

After the collapse of the USSR, all domestic universities for a long time did not even try to reshape their education system to the needs of the modern market. Technical universities were no exception to this rule.

Programming as a separate branch and specialization did not exist as such. Its fundamentals were taught only as a link to other engineering disciplines. And even those crumbs of knowledge that were given to students in this area did not meet modern standards and lost their relevance 20-30 years ago.

In the countries of the former USSR, the main programming language taught in technical universities was BASIC.

The situation has not changed radically even 10 years later. Only a few educational institutions, sensing the trends of the new time, began to reshape their education to world standards at the beginning of the 2000s. And only from that moment on, programming began to be perceived as a separate profession and specialization of training:

At the same time, various specialized commercial courses and educational institutions began to appear. But the quality of teaching and the knowledge provided was at an extremely low level. There was a shortage of competent professionals capable of teaching newcomers not only theoretical knowledge, but also practical programming skills.

And this is the most important aspect in the profession of a programmer. Therefore, most of today's gurus of the Russian IT industry began their programming training from scratch on their own.

To some extent, this trend continues to this day. Although in our time the number of professionals involved in teaching has increased significantly.

Which language should I start learning programming from?

Comprehension of software sciences is characterized not only by hard training, but also by its beginning. It is sometimes difficult for a beginner not only to begin self-learning, but also to determine the coordinates of the starting point of the process. Therefore, we will try to help you get around all these difficulties:

Before you break your teeth on the granite of science, you should decide where to start learning programming. At the first stages it is very difficult to decide on a specialization. Therefore, let's start with selecting the first language.

Most often the choice falls on the C programming language. This is where most beginners around the world begin their training. The majority of programming languages have been created based on C, and in many ways they inherit its structure and syntax.

By learning C, you learn the basics of not just one programming language, but several.

Let's look at the features of this language that make it optimal for learning:

An easy-to-understand basis - some of the built-in capabilities of the language are included in separately plug-in libraries for simplicity. These elements include most of the mathematical functions and methods for working with the file system;
Optimally tailored type system - thanks to a simple set of data types and strict typing, the risk of making errors in the process of writing program code is reduced;
The focus of C on the procedural type of programming, in which a clear hierarchy of all code elements is observed;
Access to machine memory using pointers;
Minimum number of supported keywords;
Name scope support;
Support for custom data types ( associations and structures).

Simply put, C is where a beginner should start before learning to program in other languages.

Programs (compilers) for programming

To learn programming, it is not enough just to have a desire and a computer with Internet access. To write programs in C, you will need specialized software - a compiler.

A compiler is a special program that translates program code into a form understandable by a computer.

Here are some specialized compilers that support the C language:

Microsoft Visual Studio is a professional tool that supports many languages, including several server languages. Suitable for beginners, if you take it “for growth”:

Borland C++ is a free compiler ideal for beginners. Unlike the previous tool, it has a clear and understandable interface. Therefore, mastering it will not cause any particular difficulties even if you independently master the basics of programming:

Code::Blocks is a free development environment that supports writing code in multiple languages. Medium difficulty option:

As for specialized literature, we will not recommend books by certain authors. Here, as they say, choose what you want. Because in most cases, choosing a programming tutorial is an individual process. Use the source that is most suitable for you.

And you can find a lot of information on the Internet. For example, on our website a whole section is devoted to specialized literature on IT topics.

Explore your computer hardware. Hardware is what makes up the physical foundation of a computer, as well as the means by which data is transferred between computers.

Learn your computer software. Software is what makes the computer work. The term "software" includes applications, protocols and operating system.

Review your computer's configuration. There are special programs for determining the computer configuration in case you cannot determine them offhand, for example, CPU-Z.

Learn to use the command line, but only use it when necessary. Learning to use the command line in Windows or the terminal in Linux is very important to at least increase the efficiency of using your computer. In Windows, the command line is not very necessary, but it is still a good idea to learn how to use it. However, on Linux or UNIX, Mac or BSD, and other UNIX-based operating systems, it is important to know how to use the command line in order to work more efficiently using bash scripts.

Learn to touch type. This is not a particularly important point, but it will definitely improve the practicality and productivity of your work on the computer.

Ask. If someone is doing something interesting on the computer that you want to know about, ask them about it.

Learn a programming language. This is one of the most important things to do. Don't confuse different types of languages. Interpreted languages like BASIC aren't very good for real programming, but if all you want to do is write simple computer games, then it'll do. HTML or CSS are used in web pages, learning them is a good idea, but they are not very useful for actual programming. It is recommended to learn a shell scripting language (such as bash) as it will give power and efficiency to the new programmer or administrator. However, you can learn any language you want.

Learn the basics of computer repair. This will help you fix problems with your or someone else's computer, and will also increase your reputation as a computer specialist. You can learn advanced techniques, but this may require lessons from a real expert.

Collaborate with others to solve computer problems. By interacting with other users, you can learn from them what you didn’t know before, and vice versa. However, since you want to become a computer specialist, you should always want to know more about computers than your friends.

Help others solve their computer problems. This will not only make a name for you, but it will also be good practice and will also help you become aware of situations and problems that you have not encountered so far.

Learn to install and update drivers for various types of hardware. This knowledge will come in handy when you reinstall your operating system.

Learn to recognize unwanted software (computer viruses, spyware and other nasties) before starting your daily antivirus scans.

Use a good firewall. Ordinary people cry because they don't understand how to use it. But of course you know how to use it!

Use open source operating systems. Most computer professionals use open source operating systems such as *BSD or Linux because they are usually free and allow you to do cool things like program, run servers, and use the command line (CLI).

Use keyboard shortcuts. It's important to know keyboard shortcuts because they save you valuable time, second by second.

Find out how the Internet works.

Everything ingenious is simple. Avoid confusing ideas. Instead, focus on learning the knowledge and skills that you will need in the future to bring your big ideas to life.

Expand your knowledge. A true computer scientist always learns new things. If you don't understand something, you can always ask for help. Collect and analyze knowledge. Read articles on Wikipedia, participate in computer forums for your programming language or just general forums and ask questions. If you have trouble learning, write down the questions on paper and give yourself a quiz. Constantly learn new things about computers in any way that suits you.

A computer specialist must understand number systems. 1 bit of data is a binary unit, 1 or 0. 8 bits is 1 byte. Most people think that a kilobyte is 1000 bytes, but it is actually 1024 bytes. Find out how many bytes are in a kilobyte (KB), megabyte (MB), gigabyte (GB) and so on. Once you remember this, you will feel more confident in the binary number system. Next, learn the octal and hexadecimal number systems, and how to convert numbers from one to the other. When you understand why programmers always confuse Christmas and Halloween, you will find your own path to becoming a real computer expert.