How to start in IT, specially programming

I often see people asking me in forums, groups, and even onsite what they should do to start programming, so I resolved to write this post. Before anything, I like to say clearly that the tips/information here may not match your reality, and they are based on some research that I made and on my experiences.

That being said, in programming, we have many areas that we can follow, such as:

• Frontend: build website interfaces using HTML, CSS, and Javascript;
• Backend: work on the server side ensuring the system/website works the way it should, saving, updating, deleting, and getting the data from the database or another server. Many tools can be used to do that like PHP, Java, C#, Node.js, Ruby, Go, etc;
• Mobile: build apps for cellphones, can be a specialist on Android with Java/Kotlin, IOs with Swift, or with hybrid platforms like Flutter and React Native;
• Fullstack: Frontend + Backend, in some cases +Mobile too;
• DevOps: make scripts to deliver mobile apps (PlayStore/AppleStore) or the Backend/Frontend;
• Fullcycle: Fullstack + DevOps;
• Data analyst: interpret the data, analyse the results, and use statistics methods;
• Data scientist: collects, organizes, and analyzes the data to get insights and information for the company;
• Machine/Deep learning: research, develop, and model the artificial intelligence responsible for machine learning;
• Big Data: model, build, test, and maintain the data processing systems that work with a big amount of data;

For the areas of Data analysis, Data Science, Machine/Deep learning, and Big data the most used technology is Python.

Common items to study

To start in any of these areas you should learn these topics:

1. Logic programming
2. Algorithms
3. Data structures
4. Analytic thought

Good and free/cheap to study

Udemy (there are cheap and some free content)
Youtube (free)
CodeAcademy (free)

Some good channels on YT

ThePrimeagen
Fireship
Stefan Mischook
Computerphile
Coding with John
Matt Pocock
Nick Chapsas

Don`t know where to start still?

If you are having trouble defining a step-by-step to start to learn something in programming you should access here to get it for free