# DevRetro2022

Introduction 😁

Hello everyone, I am Vikas Rai, I'm 22 years old and studying at Maharaja Agrasen Institute of Technology.

In this article, I am sharing my web dev journey and my experiences from 2022. This artilce is for #DevRetro2022 .

Why did I start learning Web development? 🤨

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So it all started in January 2020, I had just joined my college and 4&5 months have passed.

In the first year, there were many subjects that we have to study and trust me it was kind of boring and I was not happy with that, they were all normal subjects from school like Mathematics, Chemistry, Physics and many more.

But the main thing that was on my mind was, I wanted to pay my college fees on my own, and I started to thinking ways to make money side by side with my studies.

And I started searching online for ways and found out that, Blogging was the best thing that I can do, but the problem was I didn't have money to purchase a domain name and hosting to start my blog.

Then later, I sated to search for free ways to start blogging and I found out that we can create our own website/blog using ( programming/Web development) and I was very happy.

So this was the reason, why I started learning web development, although I ended up learning so many things that I had not thought of.

My Journey as a Web Developer 🚀

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I started web development 2 years ago in June 2020 when I was 20 years old. I was in the first year of my college and I had zero knowledge of web development.

I had a deep interest in programming since my school days. And besides that, I didn't get a Computer Science Branch, I still focused on learning it by myself.

I followed many Youtube Tutorials,3 and 4 Udemy Courses, and official documentation of various programming languages and by 2021, I learned so many things about programming and web development.

My favorite YT channel for learning was CodeWithHarry (Hindi Language), FreeCodeCamp (English Language), and many more that I discovered later.

After learning the basics from Youtube, I was not confident in building projects, especially Fullsatck Projects.

After that, I decided to take a Fullstack Web Development course from Udemy which was (The 2020 Web Developer Bootcamp by Dr. Angela Yu). This was a perfect course for me and After completing this course, I became quite good at programming and also learned the fundamentals of backend development.

But soon after, I completed my course, there is a new thing that was becoming more popular and that was UI libraries and Frameworks like React.js, Vue.js, Gatsby, etc.

I was like, now I have to learn this also ., so I again started learning about React.js through Udemy and YT tutorials.

All in all, by the end of 2021 I had become quite good in front-end web development, but still lacked confidence in building projects by myself, because I had built all of my projects either through Udemy courses or through watching YT tutorials.

Challenges I faced in 2022 😓

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So, the first problem was whenever I want to create a project a personal project, I was not confident that I can build this on my own.

Secondly, whenever I wanted to implement a certain feature in my app like (Search Functionality or Form validation etc...), I didn't know how to do that, even though I learned things from courses and YT tutorials, I feel like I know nothing.

The only option was to search on google and find the solution to my particular problem.

Third thing was, I lacked self-confidence, Although I had all the knowledge to build the app or website but still I think that I cannot do it.

Fourth thing is that, even though I built a project by watching YT tutorials or through a blog post, after 2 & 3 months, I cannot remember how I build this particular feature or design in the app.

I was very angry that even after knowing all this, I was not able to make the project properly.

After all this, I realized that I was trapped in a Tutorial Hell !! . I was busy learning only and not making projects on my own to understand how to build.

How did I overcome my challenges and found a solution to my problem? 🧐

So there were two problems that I have to solve:

1. I have to make good projects by myself without any help from courses and online tutorials.
2. I had to increase my self-confidence and participate in competitions and hackathons.

After all that, I thought that I should start learning from scratch again and this time I didn't watch Youtube tutorials or udemy courses, instead, I started learning from Web documentation.

Then, to practice my learning, I started building projects from Frontendmentor.io and also started writing a blog about how I built this project.

I will be very honest with you, this thing helped me to improve myself as a self-taught web developer.

I become a little more confident in myself and I did this for 3&4 months after that I had become quite good in frontend development.

The only thing remaining was to apply my learning to build a real word project on my own by participating in Hackathons or any online competitions, so I can learn new things as well.

After that, to boost my confidence I participated in Hashnode Wrietathon (Which was a blog writing competition). I participated and wrote an article on (Build 5 Web Apps in 10 Hours using Next.js, React.js & Tailwind CSS.) just for fun and luckily I won and came in 12th position from the 100 Runner Ups.

After this, I got some self-confidence and after that, I participated in Hashnode X Linode Hackathon (June 2022).

Trust me or not, I participated in this hackathon to build an open-source project by myself and also to boost my self-confidence.

I don't know how but I was thrilled that I have won the hackathon, I was really happy about this because my hard work paid off.

Lessons I learned in 2022 🤗

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I learned many things in my web dev journey, especially in the year 2022.

1. First is that you should have self-confidence in yourself that you can do anything. Never underestimate yourself.
2. To learn anything new in tech, instead of watching a tutorial about it start building something using that tech and you will eventually learn or understand something by doing. #learnByDoing.
3. You should not stop making projects, if you have mastered something then start learning new tech.
4. If you are not writing a blog as a web developer then you should start writing a blog.
5. The best way to improve your learning is that you should write an article or blog on your daily learnings or projects that you have built. It will not only help you but also help others to learn from your learning as well.

My Accomplishments in 2022 😎

I did not accomplish many things, but I did accomplish my goal of winning hackathons by building open-source projects.

Here is a list of some of my accomplishments:

1. I came in the top 10 in the UI/UX Challenge by Technovanza organized by VJTI.
2. I came in 12th position out of 100 runner-ups in Hashnode Writeathon and won a 100$ cash prize. (May 2022)
3. I also won the TezosIndia X Code8 Hackathon by securing 2nd position and winning a Cash Prize of Rs. 10,000 ($120). (May June 2022).
4. After that, I participated in Hashnode X Linode Hackathon (June 2022) and won a cash prize of $500 and Hashnode swags.
5. Again in Sep 2022, I participated in Hashnode X AWS Amplify Hackathon and won a cash prize of $500, $100 AWS credits, and Hashnode Swags.

I am really happy about all my accomplishments, I had never thought I'd win so many things.

Note: I am very grateful to Hashnode for providing this platform for writing blogs and also organizing these amazing Hackathons, without this, I would never have won all this.

Conclusion 🤯

So overall, my journey as a developer in 2022 was very good and amazing .I built and learned so many things, especially through the Hashnode Community.

My best part was winning two Hackathons on Hashnode, really this is the biggest achievement for me in 2022.

The only thing I would say is to believe in yourself and have self-confidence in yourself that you can do anything.

So yeah that was all about my journey, I hope enjoyed reading about it and if you really liked it then please show your happiness by liking the post and do comments about your accomplishments in 2022.

Thank you all, I will see you in my next blog.

Connect with me: 🔗

1. Twitter Link
2. LinkedIn link
3. Facebook Link
4. Github Link