Advice for Typing Speed

Hello everyone,

I want to get some advice. I feel like I am being limited by the speed at which I type, should I try and improve this while learning to code or should I just continue coding (since I feel my typing speed has gone up since I start coding regularly). Also I believe part of the reason I do not type fast is because I am a horrible speller, so should I work on my typing, spelling, coding or just try and improve all three?

Thanks

just use the correct finger for the correct key. speed will come. keep at it.

3 Likes

Typeracer 15-20 minutes a day can help. I’m currently typing on average 120 wpm cause of it. But I think 60-80 should be the goal for the average person.

1 Like

As with most of life’s problems, “there’s an app for that”.

https://www.typingclub.com

1 Like

In my opinion, typing speed doesn’t matter much in coding.
I think you spend a much longer time thinking, pausing, and formatting your code to look pretty, rather than typing when coding.

If you want to increase your typing speed for other matters, just practice… Use this site to test your speed.

http://typing-speed-test.aoeu.eu/

I got 364cpm, 73wpm

2 Likes

I’d have to agree. Typing speed is kind of irrelevant after a certain point since you’re thinking a lot more of what you’re going to type than just typing. I think anyone, not particularly programmers should still try to hit a min of 60 though.

Instead of increasing your typing speed as the ultimate goal, (which isn’t too important in coding), try to make your goal to be able to type WITHOUT taking your eyes off the screen and looking at the keyboard. – Once you master this, the increase in speed will come naturally.

this one is really good.

Don’t rush it - typing slower gives you a chance to learn from your mistakes - what’s helped me is that after I took ‘keyboarding’ class in middle school - throughout high school almost all class assignments had to be typed and submitted through Google Classroom plus being obsessed with coding and stuff which keeps me constantly at a keyboard has improved my typing speed :slight_smile:

It’s funny I thought everyone typed like what you described naturally.

I’m somewhat of a fast typer. In my experience, fast typing doesn’t help much in the world of coding. It’s better to be slow and write quality code.

That being said, if you really want to increase your coding efficiency,use keyboard shortcuts. You’d be surprised how quickly you can do things on they keyboard vs the mouse. The time saved really starts to add up.

Also, whatever text editor you’re using, look at all of the features available on it and try to use them as much as possible. A text editor like Sublime has 3rd party packages that can help with various things too.

I started to learn to touch type because I always dreamed of typing in front of a black terminal, just like hackers.

I started from 27 wpm and am now near 60. Haven’t practiced for a year now.

The point I am trying to make is, if you reach the typing speed you want, you’ll have a small achievement that will give you encouragement to do more coding. I say so because coding, touch typing, proper grammer are long term skills.

The best way to go about it is to devise a plan. I used a pirated version of typingmaster.com which now has a free version. It has small 10 min lessons that you can easily do one everyday.

Same goes for coding, improving spellings. You have to improve slowly everyday.

This DOESN’T mean that you must have good typing speed to be a good coder, but it will definitely give you a boost when you’ll discover that you really can learn a skill like touch typing all by yourself.

Most of the continuous typing I do for work is replying to emails. Learn to touch-type. Learn your keyboard shortcuts. Don’t worry about it.

That was fun!! I got like 53 wpm on my laptop sitting sideways on my couch so not too bad :wink:

@johnny1864 I would definitely go and do some kind of typing practice game. That way it’s not super boring and you’ll get your speed up. Like @wtkwon said you only need like 60-80 words per minute. Typo’s aren’t that big of a deal. :smiley:

Typing accuracy is more important than speed, but I’d argue they are both very important to the career. In the workforce, it can be frustrating to pair with someone who constantly hits backspace to fix syntax errors, or someone who takes too long to write out code. The less time spent typing means to more time spent for thinking.

I’ve been touch typing ever since my father forced me to learn how to type using a old clunky typewriter and a binder full of typing exercises. My best advice is to force yourself to put your fingers on the home row and get used to typing by touch.

Beyond that, typing speed doesn’t really help in coding (at least at the beginner level I’m at). Most of my hours are spent reading documents and webpages trying to figure out why something isn’t work. But touch typing does help when it comes to typing in special characters like $, {}, [], (), etc. Having to look at your keyboard to find those special characters can easily add minutes to coding.

I type with a couple of fingers on each hand and my thumbs for the space-bar - and I can still type faster than I can think!

1 Like

I used to do that and I convinced myself for years that it was good enough, but it isn’t. Being able to touch-type is more about not having to look at the keyboard than it is about how fast you’re going. For me, not having to constantly look backwards and forwards between the keyboard and the screen has been a real game changer. I’m able to work for much longer without getting fatigued.

Learning to touch type was difficult precisely because I was so well adapted to doing it the other way. Typing with the right fingers, without looking was waaaay slower to begin with and it’s only now, after about 12 months of practise that I’m back up to about the same speed, or maybe a little quicker than I was getting before.

I just forced myself to do it, even when it was super frustrating. I found that typing the lyrics to songs as I was listening to them was a good, low stress way to practise. Also, you definitely don’t need to be able to type quickly when you’re learning to code because you’re generally going slow for so many other reasons so I actually found it a good opportunity to practise.

Actually I don’t look at the keyboard too much anymore either - call what I do a “modified” touch typing skill.