If you have ever spent weeks hopping from one coding tutorial to another, only to freeze the moment you are asked to build something from scratch, you're not alone.
This loop, known as tutorial hell, is where many aspiring developers get stuck. It feels productive, but over time, you start to realize you’re not really learning how to think or build like a developer. You’re just getting better at following instructions.
In this guide, I’ll walk you through exactly how to break free from that cycle. This is not a pseudo-motivational guide. It’s practical steps based on personal experience, so you can finally start building projects with confidence.
Table of Contents
Why Tutorials Are Not Enough
Tutorials are a great way to get started. They provide structure, simplify complexity, and offer quick wins that make you feel like you’re making progress. In the early stages, that sense of momentum is crucial.
But tutorials can be deceptive. When you’re following along, you’re not solving problems, you’re just replicating solutions that have been worked out for you. It feels productive, but it’s passive learning. You’re learning how to follow instructions, not how to think through a problem or make decisions on your own – that’s the real trap.
Tutorials teach you how to code, but not how to build. You might learn the syntax, but you’re not learning how to build from scratch, troubleshoot unexpected bugs, or take ownership of a project. Over time, after multiple tutorials, this creates a false sense of mastery. It makes you believe that you’re knowledgeable enough, even though you haven’t tested your skills yet.
I know this because I was stuck there too.
How I Broke Free
Breaking free from tutorial hell was not easy. I had to change my mindset and accept something uncomfortable: I didn’t know as much as I thought I did. That realization stung, but it was freeing. I stopped trying to build big, impressive projects – like a Facebook or Netflix clone – and focused instead on small, achievable ones. Projects that challenged me just enough to learn, but not so much that I would burn out.
I also changed how I approached learning. Instead of trying to absorb everything up front, I started with a goal and only learned what I needed to achieve it. This made my learning process more purposeful and, surprisingly, more enjoyable.
What follows are the exact steps that helped me transition from relying on tutorials to building confidently on my own.
Step 1: Accept That You Know Nothing – Yet
It’s natural to feel confident after completing a few tutorial-based projects. But it’s important to manage your expectations and honestly evaluate your skill level. One pitfall I had was overestimating my ability because of the projects I had built following tutorials.
I had to pause and ask myself an important question: Was the success of those projects dependent on me?
After some reflection, the answer was disappointing but clear – they weren’t. I didn’t possess the knowledge I assumed I had. I was just good at following the carefully laid out instructions from the tutorial.
In hindsight, I realized that building a project is more than just writing code. It involves research, planning, and critical thinking – things tutorials often don’t teach or focus on. Writing code is usually the last thing that’s done. This explains why a common complaint from new developers is, “I know the syntax, but I don’t know what to do when building a project”.
Think of tutorials as training wheels. They help you ride a bicycle (build a project) by providing balance (the tutorial), but they don’t teach you how to maintain that balance on your own. When the training wheels come off – when you try to build independently – you fall off the bicycle because you never learned how to ride one without it.
It’s hard to admit that weeks (or months) of following tutorials have not prepared you as well as you thought. But accepting that truth is the first step toward breaking free from tutorial hell. I had to face this reality, and while it wasn’t easy, that moment of clarity became the turning point in my journey.
Step 2: Start Simple
Choosing a good first project was tricky. The common advice I got was to build a project I liked or that solved a personal problem. While that sounded reasonable, it didn’t work for me as a beginner. After several failed attempts, I realized those ideas required more knowledge than I had, so it led to frustration and self-doubt.
Problem-solving is a vital skill for programmers, but in the early stages, choosing a project based on a personal problem can be counterproductive. The complexity often outweighs your current abilities, creating unnecessary pressure.
As a beginner, your priority should be building confidence. The easiest way to do that is by starting with simple projects. A simple project is one you can do without feeling overwhelmed. For me, that was this project on building a QR code generator.
How did I choose it? I used a simple rule: if I looked at the design or the general idea for a project and had no clue on how to build it, I assumed it was beyond my skill level and looked for something simpler. It was not a quick 2-minute decision – I usually gave myself up to 2 two hours to brainstorm. If I was still stuck after that, it was a sign that the project might be too advanced for me.
Platforms like FrontendMentor and iCodeThis offer free project designs categorized by difficulty. They helped me focus on writing code without worrying about what to build from scratch.
At this stage, my goal was not to build something impressive – it was to build something that worked.
Step 3: Break Down the Project into Smaller Parts
When starting a project, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by its scope. The key to overcoming that feeling is to break up the project into small, manageable pieces. By starting with the easier tasks, you ease into the process, gain momentum, and build confidence before tackling the harder parts.
For my first project, I divided it into two major sections: the background and the card component. Then I split each section into even smaller parts. Here’s an image of the project:
I started by dividing the card component into clear sections:
The card background.
The card size.
The card contents.
Then I broke the card contents even further:
The QR image
The heading text
The subtext
Next, I turned each of those items into a simple to-do list of actionable tasks:
Add a background color to the body element.
Create the card component.
Give the card a fixed width and height.
Center the card component.
Add the background color of the card component.
Add the QR image.
Add the heading text.
Add the sub-text.
Make the card component responsive.
Here’s how that looked in practice for the first few steps:
Task 1: Add a background color to the body
body {
background: rgb(220, 220, 220);
}
Task 2: Create the card component
<section class="parent">
<div class="container">
<!-- content -->
</div>
</section>
Task 3: Give the card a fixed width and height
.parent {
width: 320px;
height: 500px;
}
Task 4: Center the card component
body {
display: flex;
align-items: center;
justify-content: center;
height: 100vh;
}
After this, I continued with the same approach for the remaining tasks: adding the card’s background, QR image, heading text, subtext, and finally making the card responsive.
Each small win built my confidence and kept me motivated to move forward. By the end, the entire project felt much less intimidating because I could see steady progress at every step.
Breaking a project into smaller parts is not just about staying organized – it's about making the project feel doable. Focusing on one small task at a time, I moved steadily towards completing the project.
You can see the full source code for this project on my GitHub: View the repo here.
Step 4: Don’t Fear Bugs – They’re Signs of Progress
When I finally started building projects, one of the things I dreaded most was encountering an error. Logical errors were fine by me – they were quiet. No red text in the console to feed my insecurities. But those console errors, written in red, were my nightmare. They made me feel like programming wasn’t for me. Like I should give up and do something else.
It took a while, but eventually I learned to see bugs for what they represented at that stage of my journey: signs of progress. Because if I had a bug, it meant I had written enough code for something to go wrong. That was a big step forward from not knowing where to begin.
When you encounter a bug in your code, start by isolating the problem. Check the error message in your console – it’s usually the best clue on what went wrong. Read it carefully to understand what’s causing the issue. If you’re unsure after reading the error message, copy and search the message online. You will likely find solutions on platforms like Stack Overflow.
Then try out the solutions you find, and once the bug is fixed, take the time to understand both the mistake and the solution. This step is crucial. If you don’t know why the error happened, you are more likely to repeat it.
If there is no error message, you’re likely dealing with a logic bug. Review your code for typos, incorrect variable names, or missed function calls. If everything looks fine, try reverting to the last working version of your project, then reapply your changes one step at a time, testing after each update. This approach helps you pinpoint where the bug was introduced.
If you are still stuck, ask for help. A more experienced developer or a colleague can offer a fresh perspective. If you’re working alone and don’t have anyone to ask, take a break. Go for a walk, or do something completely unrelated. Sometimes, you are just mentally tired, and the solution becomes clear once you return with fresh eyes.
And if nothing works, the project may simply be too complex for your current skill level – and that’s okay. Shift your focus back to something simpler to improve your understanding. You can always return to the project later when you are more experienced.
Step 5: Show Others Your Work
Learning is hard – and learning without feedback is even harder. In this journey, it’s difficult to thrive in isolation. Sometimes, the difference between crossing the finish line and giving up lies in the people around us. That is why it’s essential, especially in the early stages, to join programming communities and consistently share your work online.
When I started, I was building in a bubble for a while, but I always felt I wasn’t making enough progress. Eventually, I joined a few tech communities – Frontend Mentor and Javascript.info on Discord – and that helped me tremendously. I met other developers and even collaborated on a project with two of them. Although the group later dissolved due to circumstances beyond our control, the experience was invaluable.
That project taught me things I couldn’t have learned working alone. I learned how to collaborate with teammates across different time zones, use Git more effectively, resolve merge conflicts, and improve my understanding of the DOM traversal methods.
It’s not an easy step, especially if you are not social media inclined, but it is an important one. These communities are made up of people at different stages of their tech careers. Sharing your struggles and encouraging one another creates a much needed support system. On days when your code doesn’t work and you feel like giving up, these communities will remind you that you are not alone.
Another benefit is access to free code reviews and feedback from more experienced developers. Their insights can accelerate your growth, boost your confidence, and help you approach challenges with a fresh perspective.
Step 6: Build More Similar Projects
Completing your first project is a significant milestone. I remember feeling a strong sense of accomplishment and immediately wanted to take on something more complex. But that decision backfired. The next project I chose, an ecommerce site, was well beyond my current ability. I got stuck halfway, lost momentum, and eventually abandoned it. That experience forced me to reassess how I approached my learning.
I realized that the goal at this stage wasn’t to build something impressive, it was to build consistently. So I returned to simpler projects. I built another card component, landing page, and variations of UI components I had already worked on. These may have seemed repetitive, but each one helped me improve and cement my knowledge. I understood layout better, debugged faster, and wrote cleaner code.
By the time I had built several similar projects, I could feel the difference. I wasn’t just building things, I understood what I was doing and why. The growth gave me the confidence to take on more advanced challenges.
If you’ve just completed your first project, don’t rush to build something complex. Focus on projects that align with your current skill level. Repetition will reinforce what you’ve learned, improve your understanding, and give you the confidence to handle more difficult projects when the time comes.
Final Thoughts
At this point, you have built multiple projects, and your confidence as a developer has grown. That progress deserves acknowledgement. Before jumping into the next big challenge, take time to pause and reflect.
Look back on what you've built. Consider how much you've improved. If there are areas where your approach could have been better, refine them. If not, take a moment to appreciate how far you’ve come. That reflection helps you take stock of what you've learnt and prepares you for what comes next.
When you're ready for your next project, choose it carefully. Choose a project more challenging than your last, but not so complex that it disrupts your momentum. Aim for projects that stretch you just enough to push you forward. Sustainable growth is key.
Breaking free from tutorial hell isn't about quitting tutorials altogether. It's about knowing when to stop relying on them and start thinking for yourself. If you stay consistent and keep building, you will grow into a confident, independent developer.