When I first started learning to code, I found myself heavily relying on tutorials. They seemed like the perfect resource, step-by-step guidance, pre-built projects, and the reassurance that I was “learning.” But after months, even years of following along, I noticed that I couldn’t complete coding projects on my own. This common feeling is known as "tutorial hell.” This is something many aspiring developers face. In this post, I’ll explain what tutorial hell is, why it’s a problem, and how you can break free and start coding without tutorials.
The Problem: What Is Tutorial Hell?
Tutorial hell is when you rely heavily on coding tutorials that you struggle to build projects from scratch. You might find yourself spending countless hours watching videos on YouTube or Udemy. Though you might feel like you're learning a lot when you follow along with a tutorial, it’s going to cause problems when it's time to start a project on your own. The concepts you thought you understood will be a blur to you once you’re finished.
I know that you do not want to end up stuck in a cycle where you need another tutorial to finish even the simplest projects. This can be incredibly frustrating and leave you feeling like you’re not progressing as an engineer or developer.
Why Does This Happen?
There’s many reasons why this happens. Tutorials often encourage learning where you follow along and type what the instructor does. You’re copying rather than engaging not realizing you’re more focused on achieving what is shown instead of understanding the concept at hand. You may finish the project, but you won’t be able to recreate or modify it later. When you rely on tutorials, you don’t get to practice problem solving because the tutorial has already solved the problem for you. Lastly, the fear of not knowing where to start or feeling like you aren’t ready can also cause problems.
How to Break Free
Breaking out of tutorial hell doesn’t mean avoiding tutorials entirely, they can still be valuable. The key is to use them in the right way and to balance them with practice. Here are some steps to help:
Start Building Small Projects Without Tutorials
Challenge yourself to build simple projects without relying on tutorials. Pick a project idea that excites you, something as simple as a to-do list, a calculator, or a personal portfolio. Focus on implementing features that you’ve learned but do it on your own terms. Even if you get stuck, resist the urge to immediately search for a tutorial. If you get stuck, use documentation or forums like Stack Overflow for specific questions instead of watching a whole new tutorial.
Learn to Break Down Problems
Instead of seeing a project as one big task, break it down into smaller, manageable chunks. In industry when you’re on a development team, tasks for large projects are broken down into user stories to be completed during various sprints, and each feature on the user story is a small piece of the project. This helps you accomplish bits and pieces at a time. For example, if you're building a weather app, break it down into steps:
- Set up the API call to get weather data.
- Create the UI to display the data.
- Add error handling for invalid data.
This approach will help you think like a problem solver, which is crucial for coding on your own.
Project-Based Learning
Follow project-based learning, where your goal is to build real-world projects from start to finish. Try to build a project on your own, even if it’s challenging. If you run into obstacles, it’s okay to look up resources, but make sure you’re the one putting the pieces together. There’s many resources and websites to help you come up with ideas to help you reinforce what you have learned.
Pair Tutorials with Documentation
When you finish a tutorial, don’t move straight into another one. Instead, review the documentation for the language or tool you’re using and try to build a related feature on your own. This reinforces what you’ve learned and helps you create a habit of referring to documentation, which I find very helpful daily as a Software Engineer.
Join a Coding Community or Challenge
Joining a coding community and participating in challenges such as 100 days of code can help you a lot. You’ll learn by interacting with others and working on collaborative projects or coding challenges. Plus, you’ll have support when you hit a roadblock.
My Experience
I personally experienced tutorial hell early in my coding journey even once I first became a developer. I followed countless tutorials, but when I tried to create something on my own, I couldn’t get past the initial steps. The breakthrough came when I forced myself to build a small project without a tutorial and when I would complete challenging tickets that caused me to completely focus and understand what is needed and why. It wasn’t easy, and I struggled a lot at first, but the satisfaction of solving problems on my own was worth it.
The key for me was to switch to project-based learning and build things that interested me. Instead of following coding tutorials I found the best approach for me was to watch the videos to understand the foundational knowledge needed. I would jot down things in my own words in a way I would understand and remember it. I also learned to embrace mistakes and rely on documentation, rather than following solutions from tutorials. Slowly, I gained the confidence to complete projects independently, and now I use tutorials more as a tool to learn new concepts rather than a crutch.
Conclusion
If you feel like you’re stuck in tutorial hell, know that you’re not alone and there’s ways to overcome it.
The key is to shift to project based learning and change the way you’re remembering core concepts. After you do this, build your own projects to reinforce learned concepts. With motivation, patience, consistency and determination, you’ll gain the skills and confidence to tackle projects on your own and grow as a Software Engineer.
Remember: You don’t have to know everything to start building something meaningful you just have to start!