Hello Aspirant,

You must follow the step by step process I have mentioned below and devote a chunk of your time each and every day and take things really seriously if you wish to learn and grasp clear concepts of computer science.

First: Learn How to Code

This is what you should do when you start out. No need to wait until you go into college. As a matter of fact, you don’t even need a degree to learn how to code.

One common question is “what programming language should I learn first?” And my answer is, it really doesn’t and shouldn’t matter.

In this stage, you will be learning general programming concepts that will be useful down the road for any other programming language you want to learn in the future. I’d personally pick Python and/or Java because they are widely used.

Second: Be a Sophisticated Programmer

In this stage, it is not about just writing code that does cool things.

It is about writing efficient code. Understanding how to structure your code in such a way to be more efficient either in terms of performance or resource utilization.

This is also the step where you start learning about the various layers underneath your software. For example, operating systems, compilers, and hardware. All of these topics are crucial to a well-rounded programmer.

Topics in this stage include Data structures, algorithms, operating systems, computer architecture, and digital designing.

After this stage, you are hirable in a decent company.

Third: The Advanced Computer Scientist

This is when you are seasoned enough to know how to design highly scalable systems for performance and fault-tolerance purposes.

This is also when you branch out to other advanced computer science topics that might be interesting to you (e.g. data science and machine learning).

Topics in this stage include distributed systems, machine learning.

Hope this helps.