Hey.
I don’t know how to start this. It’s all over me. I’ve been trying to learn Coding, Data Structures, Algorithms, Design Patterns, Best practices etc… but will I still need that? Am i wasting my time? Can really AI do all this, and actually do it better? Are we in an Era, where one should only need to learn the ‘basics’ of development, so that I can understand some LLM generated code? Where do we go next? How will DEV interviews look like in 5 years? Is LeetCode still a thing now? Did I waste all my time?
What happened to those days where we’d spend hours watching youtube videos, taking online bootcamps, reading documentation all just to be able to develop our app or do something. All is thrown to the garbage now? This is a frustration post. I don’t do what to do next. I just loved coding, and enjoyed code-crafting. Anyone has the same crisis? How are you coping? What are you doing next?
Do I Stop Learning Coding? DSA?
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Re: Do I Stop Learning Coding? DSA?
#2All reasonable questions that are very hard to answer.
Re: Do I Stop Learning Coding? DSA?
#3All reasonable questions that are very hard to answer.
If I could see the future well enough to answer those questions, I'd be a bitcoin billionaire.
Re: Do I Stop Learning Coding? DSA?
#4Ok I have to ask you are you in it for the paycheck or the passion? How you answer determines your path. If a paycheck optimize for the largest salary you can conceivably obtain based on your ability and education. If passion follow your passion, get educated and eventually you will find some work in your field. The passion is contagious and will positively affect your life in ways you can't even imagine at your age currently (self satisfaction plays a lot into child rearing). Notice I didn't say money. The day I stop learning is the day I die. My advice, don't stop learning.
Re: Do I Stop Learning Coding? DSA?
#5Consider that as of (always and) 2026 you are held accountable for whatever AI-slop* you produce. Will that change within 5 years? The mindset is shifting from doing the right thing, to instructing the AI to do the right thing. Even if you're not responsible for the instructing part (e.g. using AI export feature drafts, to use an AI software factory to refine and implement), you're still owning said implementation in the end because you're responsible for the refinement and review. You should know how to do the work and reason about it—but you're also responsible now for correcting AI—less work but more responsibility.
Re: Do I Stop Learning Coding? DSA?
#6You have to build something for yourself that makes money.
> I’ve been trying to learn Coding, Data Structures, Algorithms, Design Patterns, Best practices etc… but will I still need that? Am i wasting my time? Can really AI do all this, and actually do it better?
Yes. No. No. Not really.
I think you should double down on this. You can only know when the AI is wrong if you know the fundamentals and the interviewers will test you on that.
If it goes wrong, you are paid to explain exactly why it went wrong. Not just writing the code; generated or not.
> How will DEV interviews look like in 5 years? Is LeetCode still a thing now?
They will just do Leetcode in person and quiz you with a whiteboard.
> Did I waste all my time? What happened to those days where we’d spend hours watching youtube videos, taking online bootcamps, reading documentation all just to be able to develop our app or do something.
It is a scam if you are not genuinely interested and are there because of the salary.
The point is don't wait for someone to tell you to just build something. You have to do it and learn as you go along.
Re: Do I Stop Learning Coding? DSA?
#7producing code is just part of the programming, albite a very important part. from my very limited exp, i say programming is more about ...reasoning about behavior, managing complexity, making tradeoffs, handling failure, and building things that still make sense six months later.
AI gets your there faster, but you still need to do the work.
Also think about.. understanding correctness, performance, memory, concurrency, failure modes, and long-term maintainability is another.
just IMHO.
Re: Do I Stop Learning Coding? DSA?
#8If you had a kid, would you tell him not to bother learning to read since he can just listen to audiobooks? Would you tell her not to learn math because she can just use a calculator? Would you tell them not to learn a musical instrument because they can just listen to spotify?
Re: Do I Stop Learning Coding? DSA?
#9Just because AI makes code that technically works, doesn’t mean it is designing good maintainable systems.
Even if I’m using AI to write some code, I’ll often have it do it several times, because the first way it does it seems overly complex and kind of dumb. When it does this, logical errors are also harder to spot.
Knowing how to code, and having experience, will help you have opinions about these kinds of things, challenge poor ideas from the AI, and when it can’t get out of its own way you’ll maintain the option to do it yourself.
Re: Do I Stop Learning Coding? DSA?
#10If you had a kid, would you tell him not to bother learning to read since he can just listen to audiobooks? Would you tell her not to learn math because she can just use a calculator? Would you tell them not to learn a musical instrument because they can just listen to spotify?
As a former kid, I remember challenging the idea of learning math, due to the calculator existing. The counter argument was always, “you’re not always going to have a calculator in your pocket”. It turns out that was dead wrong.
However, I’m still glad I learned math and wish I had learned even more.
A calculator is useless without knowing what to type in, as well as having a rough idea of what kind of answer to expect incase it’s typed in wrong. The counter argument against, “but I have a calculator”, isn’t, “you won’t always have a calculator”. The real counter argument is that knowing how to do the math enables the use of the calculator, and the more math a person knows, the more useful that calculator becomes. A mathematician or physicist can do things with a calculator that I don’t even know are possible.
When a person doesn’t know what they don’t know, even AI can become nerfed. To get the most out of the AI, they need to know that what is being asked is possible, how to ask it in an intelligent way, and how to understand and make use of the result. All of this requires a base of foundational knowledge. The larger that base, the further the AI can be pushed while also maintaining understanding and control.