Why does everyone tell new coders to start with a huge project?

I was helping my nephew learn Python last week, and his teacher told him to make a full game as his first thing. He got stuck for days and almost quit. I told him to just make a simple number guessing game first, and he finished it in an hour and felt great. Starting small builds confidence way faster. What's a better first project you'd suggest to someone brand new?

3 comments

3 Comments

beth_park2d ago

That teacher had the right idea honestly. A big project like a game gives you real problems to solve, not just textbook examples. Getting stuck for days is part of the process, it forces you to learn how to debug and search for answers. Finishing a tiny script in an hour doesn't teach you how software actually comes together. The struggle is the whole point, it builds real skill, not just a quick confidence boost.

johnson.river2d ago

Totally agree with @beth_park about the struggle being the point. I used to hate getting stuck and just wanted quick wins. But hitting a wall for two days on a save system for my dumb platformer taught me more about reading errors and stack overflow than any tutorial ever did. It's frustrating but it actually sticks.

carr.abby2d ago

My first coding class was a full semester game project. It taught me more about fixing bugs than any lecture ever could. That kind of deep struggle is how you actually learn to build things.