How to Design Your First Real Program | 7xmohamed

"First, solve the problem. Then, write the code." – John Johnson

So you finally learned how variables work. You know what a loop does and you can even write a function without googling the syntax every 3 seconds. That is a huge win. But then you sit down to build something real and suddenly your brain just stops.

We have all been there. You have the idea but the transition from a thought to a file named main.py feels like trying to climb a mountain.

Since this is only my second blog post, I want to keep it real with you. The secret is that the best programmers spend way more time thinking than typing. It is not about writing code immediately. It is more about designing the path.

Start with the What and not the How

Before you even touch your keyboard, you need to know what you are making. Let's take a simple example. Suppose you want to build a system for a School. Maybe something to keep track of students and their grades.

Instead of thinking about arrays or databases, just describe it in plain English (or your own language).

"I want to be able to add a student, give them a grade, and see who is failing so I can help them."

That sentence is your compass. If you find yourself writing a feature that doesn't help with those three things, you are probably wasting time. Honestly, keep it simple. You don't need a massive system on day one.

Breaking the Giant into Pieces

This is where most of us get stuck. We try to build the whole thing at once. That is how you get overwhelmed.

Imagine we are building a Movie Database instead. You want to track movies you have watched. Don't try to build the search engine and the rating system and the "forgot password" flow all at once.

Break it down into small tasks that feel almost too easy.

Create a way to store a single movie name
Make a list to hold many movie names
Write a way to print that list to the screen

Once those three work, you have a program. Then you can add the Delete button. Then the Rating system.

Designing the Data

Think about your data like a physical object. If we go back to our School example, what is a "Student" ?

In code, it might look like this :

student = {
    "name": "Adam",
    "id": 101,
    "grades": [85, 90, 78],
    "isPassing": True
}

When you define your data early, the logic starts to make sense. If you want to add a new grade, you just do something like this :

# Adding a grade to our student
student["grades"].append(95)

The Logic Flow

Now you need to decide the order of events. Think about a Movie App. What happens when the user opens it ?

First, the app needs to load the movies from somewhere. Then it shows them. Then it waits for the user to do something.

Maybe you want to filter your movies to see only the best ones.

# A simple way to see only the movies we actually liked
favoriteMovies = [movie for movie in movies if movie["rating"] > 4]

If you don't plan this sequence, your code will look like spaghetti. You will have functions calling other functions in a random way.

Don't be afraid to be bad at first

Your first design will probably be messy. That is fine.

I remember my first program was a total disaster. The logic was all over the place and I didn't even use functions. I just had one giant file with hundreds of lines of code. But it worked. And that is what matters when you are starting out.

As you build more, you will start to see patterns. You will realize that a School System and a Movie Library are actually very similar. They both just manage a list of items and let you change them.

Stop overthinking the perfect architecture. Just pick a small piece, design it on paper, and then write the code.

You have got this 😊.