After 10+ years and now working as a Principal Software Engineer, I've discovered the real challenge isn't in the code, it's in everything that happens around it.
Last week, I watched my wife (who happens to be a software engineer) spend three hours debugging what turned out to be a simple typo.
The fix? One character.
But here's what struck me: those three hours weren't wasted. They were spent thinking, investigating, and understanding the system. The actual typing took 30 seconds.
This perfectly captures the reality of software engineering that most people miss.
Whenever someone outside the tech world hears you're a software engineer, they usually imagine you're some kind of wizard, typing furious lines of code, fixing bugs in seconds, and pushing the next billion-dollar feature by lunchtime.
But the truth? Coding is not the hardest part of software engineering.
Sure, writing code can be tricky. But for most of us, especially after a few years of experience, syntax becomes second nature. We know the tools. We know the patterns. We've solved enough problems to know how to Google the rest.
The real challenge lies in everything that happens before, during, and after we write that code. It's the invisible mental work that determines whether our solutions actually solve problems or create new ones.
1. Understanding the Problem (The Real One)
Photo by Zuzana Ruttkay on Unsplash
Here's where things often start to wobble, and it's usually the biggest source of project delays.
In most projects, the hardest part is not writing the logic, it's figuring out what the actual problem is. You get a task for a feature request, and it seems simple enough:
"Add a filter to the dashboard."
Easy, right? Until you start asking questions:
- What should the default behaviour be?
- How should it interact with existing filters?
- What happens when there's no data to filter?
- How will this affect page load times with large datasets?
- Should filters persist across user sessions?
Suddenly, you're not just adding a UI component, you're designing a feature that touches the database, affects user experience, and needs to scale.
The key insight: Most requirements are actually requirements in disguise. Your job is detective work first, coding second. The best engineers I know spend 30% of their time just making sure they're solving the right problem.
2. Brainstorming and Aligning on Solutions
Once you understand the problem, the next challenge is deciding how to solve it and getting everyone on the same page.
Picture this: You're in a meeting discussing that dashboard filter.
One engineer suggests adding it client-side for speed. Another wants a new microservice for scalability. The product manager just wants it "simple." The designer worries about mobile layouts.
This is where good teams separate themselves from struggling ones. The best solutions emerge when you can navigate these conversations effectively:
- Evaluating trade-offs between speed and maintainability
- Balancing current needs with future scalability
- Considering team expertise and available time
- Understanding the broader system implications
The challenge: There are usually multiple right answers, and you need to pick one that works for this context, this team, this moment. It's like playing chess while juggling, you're thinking three moves ahead while keeping current priorities in focus.
3. Naming Things and Designing Structure
Does this gives you nostalgia!
There's an old programming joke:
"There are only two hard things in computer science: cache invalidation, naming things, and off-by-one errors."
It's funny because it's painfully accurate.
I once spent 20 minutes naming a single function. Not because I couldn't think of a name, but because I wanted it to be clear, descriptive, appropriately scoped, and meaningful to future developers (including future me).
Then comes the structural decisions:
- Where should this code live?
- How do we organize these components?
- What's the right level of abstraction?
- Will someone understand this in six months?
Last month, I inherited a codebase where someone had named a critical function processStuff(). It took me two hours to understand what "stuff" actually meant and why it mattered.
The reality: You're not just coding for now, you're coding for the future. Every naming choice and structural decision is a message to future developers about how the system works and why it's designed that way.
4. Edge Cases and Real-World Complexity
Let's say you've implemented that dashboard filter. The happy path works perfectly.
"Users can filter by date, see results instantly, and everything looks great in your demo."
Then reality hits:
- A user with 10,000 records tries to filter and the page crashes
- Someone enters an invalid date format and breaks the UI
- The API is slow and users see empty screens
- A user with restricted permissions sees data they shouldn't
- Mobile users can't scroll through filtered results
Remember! Nothing is as easy as it seams!
These edge cases aren't fun to think about, but they're what separate amateur projects from professional software. Engineering isn't just about building what works, it's about building something resilient that gracefully handles the unexpected.
The mental cost: Thinking through edge cases requires patience and methodical analysis. It's the difference between "it works on my machine" and "it works for our users in the real world."
5. Working with People, Not Just Code
Here's the plot twist that no computer science program adequately prepares you for:
"Software engineering is fundamentally a team sport."
Your daily work involves:
- Translating business requirements with product managers
- Collaborating on user experience with designers
- Mentoring junior developers through complex problems
- Getting architectural guidance from senior engineers
- Reviewing code and providing constructive feedback
- Explaining technical decisions to non-technical stakeholders
I've seen brilliant developers struggle because they couldn't communicate their ideas effectively. I've also seen average coders become invaluable team members because they excelled at collaboration and knowledge sharing.
The human element: Technical skills get you in the door, but people skills determine how far you'll go. Miscommunication leads to delays, frustration, and sometimes building the perfect solution to the wrong problem.
What Makes This So Challenging (And Rewarding)
The hardest part of software engineering isn't choosing between React and Angular, writing perfect SQL queries, or configuring cloud services (though AWS IAM permissions can be pretty brutal).
The hardest part is the thinking:
- The thinking before you code
- The thinking during implementation
- The thinking afterward when you're making it better
Every line of code represents a decision, and those decisions compound over time. Choose poorly, and you'll be fighting technical debt for months. Choose well, and you've built something that can adapt and grow.
But here's the beautiful part: this is also where the real satisfaction lives. When you solve a genuine problem elegantly, when your code helps users accomplish something meaningful, when your architectural decisions make the next feature easier to build, that's the magic of software engineering.
If You're Struggling, You're Growing
If you ever feel mentally exhausted by these invisible challenges, that's not a sign of weakness, it's evidence you're doing the real work of engineering.
Software engineering has never been about typing fast or memorizing syntax. It's about thinking clearly under complexity, making thoughtful decisions with incomplete information, and building solutions that work for real people in the real world.
Here are three ways to embrace this reality:
- Ask more questions upfront: Spend extra time understanding the problem before jumping to solutions. Those "annoying" clarifying questions prevent expensive mistakes later.
- Invest in your communication skills: Practice explaining technical concepts to non-technical colleagues. The better you communicate, the better your solutions become.
- Think like a future developer: When naming functions, designing APIs, or structuring code, ask yourself: "Will this make sense to someone else in six months?"
The next time someone asks what you do for work, you can tell them:
"I solve problems by thinking through complexity and building solutions that work reliably for real people."
Because that's the real work. And that's why it matters.
What's the hardest part of software engineering for you? I'd love to hear about the invisible challenges you face daily. Share your thoughts in the comments below or connect with me on LinkedIn @rohtashsethi, let's start a conversation about the real work behind the code.
About the Author
Rohtash Sethi is a Principal Software Engineer at Sophos with over 10 years of experience building software solutions. While he primarily focuses on frontend development and Angular (and writes extensively about Angular), this post explores the broader challenges that transcend any specific technology stack.
As Co-founder of NG DELHI Community, Rohtash is passionate about mentoring and providing the guidance he wishes he'd had in his early career. He believes the most valuable lessons in software engineering often come from understanding the human and thinking aspects of the job, not just the technical ones.
He's always open to discussing the real challenges of software engineering, sharing experiences, or helping fellow developers navigate their careers.
Top comments (15)
After over 10 years, I've learned coding is the easy part.
The hardest part? Estimates, explaining tech subjects to non-tech managers, convincing clueless PMs why we can't finish a project in half of the time or have crazy features in a 2-week sprint, navigating the corporate world and its dynamics...
Exactly! Also, the ever changing requirements and priorities!
I'm beginning my web developer career now and it's very nice to see texts like yours! Being a freelancer means that I don't have people to talk to and share my experiences/frustrations, so posts like these are very helpful! Thanks for this
Your welcome. I'm glad it resonated and you find it helpful. I'm planning to write more such articles which gives perspective to the beginners so that have a right direction in navigating their careers. If you have any pain points do share here.
After years in the industry, I’ve realized the same thing — the hardest part isn’t the syntax or even the debugging itself, it’s the thinking work around understanding the real problem, aligning with the team, and making decisions that won’t cause headaches six months later.
That “one character bug” story is such a perfect metaphor. The hours spent investigating aren’t wasted — they’re where the true engineering happens. Writing the code is just the tip of the iceberg; the real weight is in the invisible mental effort underneath.
Great reminder that software engineering is as much about problem-solving, communication, and context as it is about programming.
Right! And this is something which everyone should internalise. Every now and then, I hear about how someone Vibe coded a new application or feature.
Is that even possible without having the critical thinking?
Getting the happy path to work is the easiest part. Making sure it doesn't take down Production is separate but more important skill.
It's easier to make something complex than it is to make something simple. Identifying the touch points and prioritizing the deliverables can make or break a project. The experienced developer should have equal weight in the room, not to be shooting down PM ideas, but to reframe the solution into a smaller and less risky implementation that provides the biggest bang for the buck.
This really resonates—after years of experience, it’s never been the syntax or frameworks that challenge me the most, but rather the thinking: clarifying the true problem, navigating edge cases, and aligning with the team before writing a single line of code. It echoes perfectly what was shared recently in “The Good Devs, the Bad Stress and the Ugly Truth”—the mental load, the pressure to keep up, the constant balancing act between quality, growth, and well-being. Thanks for shining a light on the invisible aspects of engineering that deserve more recognition.
For anyone interested, here’s the post I mentioned: The Good Devs, the Bad Stress and the Ugly Truth
Really nice article!
Great article, and I think all newbie to read this
Yeah, they really should!
thanks for sharing. it's *very helpful *
Glad it was helpful!
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