Alex Spinov

Posted on Mar 25

Stop Building CRUD Apps to Learn Programming

#beginners #career #discuss #programming

Every "learn to code" tutorial ends the same way: build a todo app. Build a blog. Build an e-commerce store.

All CRUD. All boring. All teaching you the wrong things.

Here's what I wish someone had told me.

The CRUD Trap

CRUD apps teach you:

How to read/write to a database
How to make forms
How to do basic routing

CRUD apps do NOT teach you:

How to think algorithmically
How to handle real-world data
How to build things people actually want
How to debug complex systems
How to work with APIs

What to Build Instead

Here are 7 projects that taught me more than any CRUD app:

1. A Web Scraper

You'll learn: HTTP, HTML parsing, rate limiting, error handling, data cleaning.

import requests
from bs4 import BeautifulSoup

resp = requests.get("https://news.ycombinator.com")
soup = BeautifulSoup(resp.text, "html.parser")
for item in soup.select(".titleline > a")[:5]:
    print(item.text)

Scrapers break constantly. Fixing them teaches you more about the web than any tutorial.

2. A CLI Tool

You'll learn: argument parsing, file I/O, user experience, distribution.

3. An API Client

You'll learn: HTTP methods, authentication, pagination, error codes, rate limiting.

Pull data from SEC EDGAR, FRED, or any public API. Build something real with real data.

4. A Discord/Slack Bot

You'll learn: WebSockets, event-driven programming, state management, deployment.

5. A Data Pipeline

You'll learn: ETL, scheduling, monitoring, data formats, error recovery.

6. A Browser Extension

You'll learn: DOM manipulation, Chrome APIs, message passing, async patterns.

7. A Static Site Generator

You'll learn: File systems, templating, Markdown parsing, build processes.

The Pattern

Notice what all 7 have in common:

They interact with the real world (APIs, websites, file systems)
They break in interesting ways (network errors, format changes, edge cases)
They solve a real problem (even if small)
They're NOT just putting forms in front of a database

The Hiring Angle

I've reviewed 100+ junior portfolios. Every single one has:

Todo app
Weather app
Blog

You know what stands out? The person who built a web scraper that tracks apartment prices. Or a CLI that audits npm packages for vulnerabilities.

Unique > polished. Every time.

What's the most interesting project you built while learning?

I'm genuinely curious. The weirder the better.

I write about developer tools and unconventional approaches to learning. Follow for more.

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