From 34 WPM to 110 WPM: How I Learned to Type Fast as a Developer

Ervin Jon Lanada — Sun, 12 Apr 2026 18:11:12 +0000

When I graduated high school, I couldn’t type.

Well, I could, but it was the classic two finger chopstick method. Slow, inconsistent, and painful for anything longer than a paragraph.

I never thought much of it at the time. But once I got into university, especially in computer science, I realized something.

Typing is a core skill and I was bottlenecked by it.

The Spark

Two creators really pushed me to take typing seriously:

Ali Abdaal
William Lin

Watching them made me realize how much speed and efficiency matter, not just for coding, but for thinking.

So I took my first typing test.

34 WPM.

Yeah, I had work to do.

Phase 1: Rewiring My Brain

Instead of trying to type faster right away, I did something more important.

I rebuilt my typing from scratch.

I used TypingClub and focused on:

Proper finger placement on the home row
Using all fingers
Shift key for uppercase
Efficient backspace usage
Spacebar technique
Special characters

At this stage, speed did not matter. I was fixing my mechanics.

After all that work, I reached about:

45 WPM

Not impressive, but this was a huge turning point.

My fundamentals were finally correct.

Phase 2: Volume and Consistency

Now came the grind.

I started using:

10FastFingers
Monkeytype

Any time I had a break:

Between classes
During study sessions
Random downtime

I would do around 10 to 15 races per day.

Over time, I improved to:

60 to 70 WPM

This is where typing started to feel natural.

Phase 3: Obsession

This is where things got a bit extreme.

I started doing things like:

Typing lectures on my desk without a keyboard
Trying to match my professor’s speaking speed
Simulating typing even when I could not physically type

Then I leveled up again with TypeRacer.

Racing real people forced me to:

Push speed under pressure
Stay accurate
Think ahead

The biggest breakthrough was learning to read ahead.

I started looking 1 to 4 words ahead while my fingers kept moving.

Typing stopped being reactive and became predictive.

Eventually, I hit:

100 WPM for the first time

Phase 4: Plateau to Mastery

After hitting 100 WPM, I stopped actively training.

But something interesting happened.

I kept getting faster anyway.

Just from daily use:

Coding
Writing
Messaging
General computer work

Now I consistently sit at:

105 to 110 WPM most of the time

Around 115 WPM on a really good run

I am not typing as fast as I can think yet, but I am close enough that it rarely slows me down.

Why This Matters

This was not just about typing fast for fun.

It improved everything I do.

Coding and Interviews

I can focus on thinking instead of typing.

Competitive Programming

Speed matters when you are under time pressure.

Daily Productivity

Everything feels smoother. Emails, notes, writing.

Developer Workflows

Typing speed compounds with tools like:

Neovim
Vimium

When your inputs are fast, your workflow becomes faster.

Final Thoughts

This journey went from:

34 WPM to 110 WPM
Frustration to flow

The biggest lesson is simple.

Do not chase speed first. Build correct habits and speed will follow.

What’s Next

I am not actively training anymore.

But I might come back and push for:

130 WPM
Maybe even 150 WPM

We will see.

If You Are Starting

Here is a simple roadmap:

Fix fundamentals with TypingClub
Build consistency with Monkeytype or 10FastFingers
Add pressure with TypeRacer
Obsess a little

Do that for a few months and the results will surprise you.

Why I'm Finally Starting to Write

Ervin Jon Lanada — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 22:38:43 +0000

I've had a Dev.to account for two years. Zero Posts.

Not because I have nothing to say. More the opposite, I kept, waiting until I knew enough to say something worth reading. That bar kept moving.

Im EJ, a software engineer at AWS. I write Rust, think about distributed systems, and spend too much time on Codeforces. I'm also doing my Master's at Georgia Tech part-time this upcoming September, because apparently I enjoy being busy.

Here's what finally got me writing.

The Codeforces effect:

I've been grinding competitive programming for a while. What I noticed is that the problems I struggle with most aren't the ones I lack the algorithm for, they're the ones where my mental model is slightly off. Writing a clean explanation of a solution, even just for myself, is how I find the gaps. I want to do that publicly. Forcing clarity.

System design is weirdly fascinating:

I got into systems because I wanted to understand how things actually work at scale. Not framework tutorials, the real stuff. Why does S3 guarantee durability the way it does? How does Tokio's scheduler decide what runs next? Why does Firecracker boot a microVM in 125ms? These questions don't have short Stack Overflow answers. They require digging. I'd rather write up what I find than let it disappear into a private note.

Open source is how I learn best:

Reading production Rust codebases like Tokio, Firecracker, has taught me more than any course. I want to write about that process: what I look for, what surprises me, what I steal for my own code.

So this is the start:

No strict schedule. No niche I'm locking myself into. Just things I'm thinking about: systems, Rust, competitive programming, and occasionally what it's like navigating a CS career while doing a part-time Master's.
If any of that sounds useful, stick around.

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