What does it take to become a software engineer?

[brandon180]

Ever since I was little I've always loved computers and I loved what many things they can do. right now I'm currently a junior in high school and I do know a little bit about computers because ever built one myself for gaming, but I really want to know more about software. I want to learn how to code, program, and much more. my plans are to graduate high school and attend a university and major in computer engineering but I want to prepare myself and be more familiar with programming so what can I do?

 

[MarkW]

I describe it this way. Think about learning the most complicated language on the planet. Almost every work has multiple definitions and options. And then triple that.

Programming languages are complex beasts anymore. Every function has multiple parameters, and many times, each parameter can be another function, which again has multiple parameters. And somehow, all of that has to make some sense to a human, or it can never be properly debugged.

I highly recommend going to college to learn programming anymore. 40 years ago, when I was learning languages on my own, they were much simpler than they are today.

 

[Kewlx25]

Programming is easy, programming well is hard. Languages are the easiest part, figuring out how you want to solve a problem is the hardest part. There are a thousand ways to skin a cat, but only a few are proper ways.