Introduction

When I was just exploring different domains of tech, I decided to get started with web development. Web development is one of the most in-demand skills in the Industry. So, I started a course on Udemy.

Foundation

From the course that I was doing, I learned HTML, CSS and javascript. I learned about different HTML tags like image, heading, paragraph, semantic tags and a lot more. In CSS I learned about different properties, pseudo-classes, units, flexbox, grid and mediaquery. I wasn't using Javascript much whenever I was creating webpages.

Improving the basics

To improve my HTML and CSS skills I started implementing designs that I found on the internet. It was challenging in beginning but as I kept pushing forward it started to feel easy. I would say to improve a skill you need to gradually increase the intensity, in this case, the complexity of design to implement.

A short break

I started to get bored with it and I started to learn some other stuff(ML and AI), it sounds cool, right? So for the next 6 months, I learned nothing about web development. Just tried different technologies like TensorFlow, flutter and so on. Then I realized that I should stick to one thing and try to absorb it completely.

Getting started with the backend

I felt like I should stick to web development and learn the backend. So I chose Spring framework in Java. As I started learning spring, I started to enjoy the learning process. For me working on the backend was exciting, but soon I realized that for building an MVP or for just building a simple website spring was not a good choice. In java, a ton of code has to be written. In the end, I switched from Spring to Django. I don't know if Django was too easy to learn or if I am a good learner but I finished the basics of Django in a week whereas for Spring it took me almost a month to reach the authentication part. Whatever the case may be, I created a Blog in it from scratch though I later learned that there are various projects which make it too easy to build blog applications in Django.

Similarly, I built some other projects to reinforce my learning and also extend it. Since then I have been sticking to Django. The deeper I am going into Django, the more I am loving it.

If you are interested in learning Django you can check out my Django-project Series

Conclusion

I started from the basics and improved by practicing and applying the knowledge I had gained. If I hadn't taken the 'short break', I might have gained more knowledge and experience. Building projects helped me a lot, trying different approaches is a great way to improve development skills. So try building different stuff to keep challenging yourself.

What do you think are different ways to test your newly acquired skill?