What Really Happens When You Press "Run"?

Nelvin Ochieng — Mon, 17 Aug 2026 12:14:02 +0000

We press Run almost every day, but have you ever wondered what happens behind the scenes?

After attending a conference on Compilers and Interpreters, I learned that our code doesn't go straight to the computer. It first goes through several stages: tokenization, parsing, Abstract Syntax Tree (AST) generation, semantic analysis, and finally compilation or interpretation before it can be executed.

It's amazing to think that what starts as human-readable code is transformed into machine instructions in just a fraction of a second.

As someone still learning software development, this gave me a new appreciation for what happens every time I press Run. Sometimes, understanding what's happening behind the scenes is just as exciting as writing the code itself.

What happens after you press "Run" on your machine?

My First Experience Learning Go During the Piscine

Nelvin Ochieng — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 11:05:43 +0000

I started learning Go out of curiosity and because I wanted to experience a peer-to-peer learning environment. My journey began during the LakeHub Piscine, an intensive one-month coding program where we learned through daily quests, weekly projects, checkpoints, and collaboration with fellow learners.

At first, concepts like variables, loops, functions, and slices were challenging to understand. However, the peer-to-peer learning model made a big difference. Discussing ideas, solving problems together, and learning from one another helped me build confidence and understand Go much better.

After successfully completing the Piscine and joining the cohort, I worked on my first Go project, Go Reloaded. The project reads text from a file, processes embedded text commands, formats the text correctly, and writes the processed output to another file. Completing this project was a rewarding milestone because it allowed me to apply the concepts I had learned during the Piscine to a real-world programming challenge.

Challenges

One of the biggest challenges was learning how to break a large problem into smaller, manageable tasks. Debugging also required patience, as even a small mistake could lead to unexpected results. Understanding the project requirements before writing code was another skill I had to develop.

How I Overcame Them

I overcame these challenges by practicing consistently, carefully reading the project instructions, and asking for help whenever I got stuck. The support from my peers and the habit of testing my code step by step helped me identify mistakes and improve my solutions.

Lessons Learned

This experience taught me that programming is more than writing code. It requires patience, persistence, teamwork, and continuous learning. I also realized that making mistakes is part of the learning process, and every bug I fixed helped me become a better programmer.

Conclusion

The LakeHub Piscine gave me a strong foundation in Go, while the cohort projects have allowed me to put that knowledge into practice. Completing my first Go project has motivated me to keep learning and take on more challenging projects. I'm excited to continue growing as a developer and to share what I learn along the way.

DEV Community: Nelvin Ochieng

What Really Happens When You Press "Run"?

My First Experience Learning Go During the Piscine