Where can a beginner practice?

Question

OOP

Hello everyone, I am self-taught in programming. Learned HTML, JavaScript, Java, C# and Pascal at school. Now I am writing a toy in Unity using C #, but this is all nothing more than scripting (I hope I didn’t offend anyone). I would like to become a real programmer and I want to get practice in working in a small but real project. I saw recommendations to go to Open Source, but also opposite opinions, in general, advise a place for practice) Preferably not a job, since you still need to finish school).
PS Almost everything is interesting, I plan to become a "sishnik"

Answer 1

I am for participation in Open Source and here's why:

• these projects gave a huge impetus to my development as a developer, because even with a permanent job, it is far from certain that you will be doing something innovative and interesting there all the time, something that really raises the skill.
  
• over time, if your projects are good, they will grow into some kind of community. People will start to participate, find bugs, ask for new functionality, etc. This will further push your development.
  
• own Open Source projects, if they are really good and popular, will give odds to any portfolio when looking for a job.
  

Answer 2

here on the right I have a vacancy with brainstorage. requirements from there:
Good knowledge of C ++, stl, boost Extensive
experience in designing and developing network multi-threaded applications under Linux
Ability to understand other people's code
Knowledge of C, C # is an advantage
Network programming skills: TCP / IP stack, sockets (Linux)
Deep understanding of all processes occurring in modern computers when executing programs
Experience in writing and debugging low-level applications (drivers, kernel modules) is an advantage
Higher technical education
Ability to solve non-standard problems
Ability to work independently and offer ideas for improving, optimizing the application
Knowledge of English (reading technical literature)
I think that for now there is something to study on your own, without participating in this project, because anyway you will be told to deal with the theory first and write training bikes to consolidate. In general, do not rush.

Answer 3

An excellent book for a week of meaningful reading - Stroustrup 'A tour of C ++' - for programmers who want to become "cish people" this is just the basis. Its coolness is that everything is there at once on business, without water and without basics. Further, understanding how the language works - start studying design patterns - without architectural skills, knowledge of the language is only useful to Indians. There is even a super book that explains the architecture of cool open source modern applications: www.aosabook.org/en/index.html
Well, stuff like that. At the same time, you decide on the direction that you are interested in - graphics, hardware, fast computing, big data, distributed systems, operating systems, networks, etc.

Answer 4

If you are just programming without studying payment systems, then sooner or later you will face the need to attract one more person to your team who will deal only with payment solutions.
Therefore, I recommend that a huge part of your work with programming also be associated with the study of the current financial infrastructure and how you can integrate payments into software products you have written, think about ideas for monetizing your software. Also think about how you would accept micro-donations - after all, not every user is ready to part with their personal data because of a $1 donation. In this regard, a revolution is taking place in the field of Bitcoin. I recommend the YouTube channel which well outlines the prospects of the Internet 2.0. as a side effect of the Bitcoin phenomenon:www.youtube.com/user/bitnovosti/videos focus on this for a moment, this is a very important development of the internet