My coding journey

My coding journey

The Education I Chose Learning to Code in the Age of 17

Oct 22, 2025
Pratik Jha
Pratik Jha
4min min read

Hey, I’m Pratik Jha, a 17-year-old self-taught programmer with a wild passion for building beautiful, interactive, and meaningful experiences on the web.

My journey into coding began back in July 2024, when I was just 15, restless, bored, and itching for something real. Now, 2 year later, I’m learning every single day, upgrading my skills, exploring freelancing, and figuring out how to turn website clicks into cash, not for greed, but to prove to myself that what I know has value.

My Stack So Far (In 2 Year)

  • Webstack: Next JS, Supabase, Shadcn UI, AI-SDK, Appwrite

  • Appstack: Tauri and Expo

  • Gamstack: Godot with GDscript

I don’t just build websites to get paid. I do it because it’s art. It’s soul. It’s me.

But some questions arises and those questions are how did I get into programming? What made me interested in it? Where did I start learning? What challenges did I face, and how did I overcome them?

That’s what this blog is all about, my journey, struggles, lessons, and experiences from the past 2 years. Let’s dive in!

The Night That Changed Everything

It all started with a random summer night. I couldn’t sleep.

I was 15, had just entered 11th grade, and I was tired of the usual cycle, chess, Rubik’s cubes, rinse, repeat. I felt like school wasn’t preparing me for the future I dreamed of.

Suddenly, this thought hit me like lightning:

"What am I even doing?"

So, I decided that I would focus on something that could actually pay off in the future. Programming had always intrigued me, and although I had thought about learning it someday, I never knew when to start, until that night. I grabbed my phone, opened the Play Store, and searched “learn coding.” The first result? Mimo. I installed it, opened it at 2 AM, and boom, my coding journey began with a single <h1> tag.

Starting with Mimo: The First Spark

Mimo introduced me to the different types of web developers, front-end, back-end, and full-stack. I learned the basics of HTML, then CSS, and instantly fell in love with designing things my way.

But then came the real test: JavaScript.

HTML and CSS were like primary school, easy, fun. JavaScript was high school: logic, complexity, head-scratching bugs. I needed help. So I searched “JavaScript for beginners” on YouTube.

And that’s where I made my first mistake.

First of all, my sister had went to Germany we had only one laptop and she took that too, and I had nothing except one mobile

YouTube: My Love-Hate Relationship

I chose a 14-hour tutorial by Prashant Kirad. No chapters. Complicated explanations. Learning on mobile. It was chaos. But I pushed through it... even though it made everything feel harder.

Eventually, I found Apna College and things started to make sense. Then I stumbled across something that changed everything:

Sheryians Coding School

The goldmine.
Their content? Deep dives, real-world logic, not just surface-level fluff. They showed me the magic behind web dev, especially animation and interactivity. Watching them wasn’t just educational. It was inspirational.

They made me realize:

“I don’t just want to code websites, I want to craft experiences.”

Also shoutout to CodeWithHarry, who helped me quickly understand tools like Firebase and Clerk and some more useful technologies. I think everyone is great except some teachers like Prashant Kirad

Struggles, Mistakes, and Burnouts

Let’s keep it real, this journey hasn’t been smooth.

There were days when I’d stare at the screen thinking:

"Ye kya bakwaas hai bhai?"

Biggest challenge? Information overload.
There’s too much content, and as a beginner, you don’t know what to trust.

And then there’s the tutorial trap, watching content for hours, feeling like I’m learning… but not writing a single line of code.

Eventually, I pivoted.
I started building small projects. A to-do list. A calculator. A weather app and some games. I stopped just watching and started creating. I made Google my best friend. Read docs. Asked AI. And little by little… things started to click.

10 Big Lessons from My Journey (So Far)

  1. Start before you're ready. That 2 AM spark changed everything.

  2. Don’t trust one resource. Mix docs, YouTube, AI, and projects.

  3. Tutorials don’t build you. Projects do.

  4. Confusion = Growth. If you're struggling, you're leveling up.

  5. Google smarter. It’s your best friend.

  6. Code daily. Even 30 mins a day adds up.

  7. Failure teaches. Break stuff. Then fix it.

  8. Ask questions. Curiosity is a superpower.

What about now?

Right now, I’m focused on going very deep in the Vercel ecosystem Next JS, AI-SDK, Shadcn UI, bot management etc. And also learning Godotengine because why not when you can.