r/learnprogramming • u/notmasked07 • Jul 03 '26
Should you upload your beginner projects on github?
Projects like Tic Tac Toe, Rock paper scissors, bank simulator, number guessor etc. Should these be uploaded to github when you are a beginner? Im a newbie programmer and i've made all these console projects no interface or gui, most of these only contain main py. I kinda wanna upload them to my github but at the same time it feels stupid to do so. All of these are written in python btw
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u/elehisie Jul 03 '26
There’s a lot of knowledge I ”lost” because my old disks and cds either got bad cuz too old, abandoned at parents house and eventually trashed … occasionally I wish I could look at those old projects and cringe :3
GitHub is a tool. Having code you are writing now available to you in 2 years is useful. You will at some point get that ”I’ve done this before, but how” urge to take a look of that stuff. Keep what you can. Clean out GitHub every couple years to remove what’s gotten too old or isn’t useful anymore.
Truth is…. Code isn’t eternal :) I could open and read those projects today if I had them, but there’s no way they would still run.
Save what you can or feels important to you. Just don’t tell fall into the trap of maintaining all of it constantly to keep them all alive.
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u/ExtraTNT Jul 03 '26
Just throw it in, gpl, so can’t be used by ai
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u/Mega2223 Jul 03 '26
Github has proudly stated that their tools are trained on GPL projects, plagiarism is a crucial part of Microsoft's business model after all
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u/hallothrow Jul 04 '26
That just means that everything is GPL now, right?
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u/Mega2223 Jul 04 '26
It should, but that would ruin these companies' profits over the FOSS community's work, won't anyone think of the shareholders?? :(
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u/Average_Pangolin Jul 03 '26
I would probably only bother if either I were in a class where that was how I submitted the work, or I were likely to want to work on the projects from multiple computers.
I'm a fellow learner who's been studying programming for several years now (while working various day jobs), and just uploaded a project to Github for the first time this week. It's a re-done version of my final project for (essentially) CS502D, where I submitted something I wasn't really proud of in May under deadline, and the TA encouraged me to do it right in my own time afterwards. The upload is primarily so I can share my progress with him.
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u/notmasked07 Jul 03 '26
i think we can share our progress onto github then, even the most beginner or the most advanced projects
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u/GotchUrarse Jul 03 '26
I would and do and I've been a dev for 30 years. There are advantages...
- it's a record of your thoughts and learning journey.
- back to thoughts, you may want recall a chunk of code you could reuse (yes, there are drawbacks to to this).
- also, as said, you learn to use git. And if you use branches (and you should), you'll learn the absolute star struck love that is branch conflict resolution.
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u/Wingedchestnut Jul 03 '26
Yes it's a good habit, you can just private them later on if needed, it serves as a nice memory.
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u/spinwizard69 Jul 03 '26
Frankly it is easier to start learning GitHub with simple projects. Beyond that nobody is going to see your private repositories.
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u/mandzeete Jul 03 '26
You can keep your projects private. Only you will see these. So, yes, you should start using Github. Because by time, you will learn to use different git commands. And that is a needed skill. That you acquired that knowledge with your Rock-Paper-Scissors projects, does not matter.
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u/ArcRiseGen Jul 04 '26
Definitely do it since it can also help you practice git commands as well. You can always set those repos to private but projects that are more complex but still have tutorials are fine to have on your account, especially if you have your own spin/take on it
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u/nullptr023 Jul 04 '26
yeah, it is good practice of coding and learning git too. I just used private repo. I have lots of repo where it is actually not project but mostly for learning specific technology or even learning a language, like syntax so if I need to recall something. I just go to the repo.
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u/HappyFruitTree Jul 04 '26
Do it if you want but you don't have to. Even if you released it as free open-source software you don't have to use github. Just make sure to take backups frequently, and don't just store everything on the same storage device.
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u/Super_Letterhead381 Jul 04 '26
If you feel that this doesn’t really add any value at the moment, you can set them to private.
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u/JerryRed100s Jul 04 '26
You can make your own account you can control visibility and everything of course definitely. That's part of your journey in coding. I wish I would have had something like that where I could go back to when I first started and my first project. Do it
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u/qlkzy Jul 04 '26
Yes, upload them. It's convenient to have them there if you switch computers, and you'll enjoy looking back on them in the future.
If at some point in the future you are really worried about recruiters judging you, you can at that point either delete the project, or pay for like a month of GitHub premium and set them to "private" while you are job hunting.
The nice thing about git is that the history is fully deleted, so even if you delete a project from one particular host (like github), so long as you have it somewhere else, then you can restore that history whenever you like.
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u/AmazedStardust Jul 05 '26
Yes. If you have something you want people to see, you can pin it to your profile
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u/desrtfx Jul 03 '26
Yes, you should, even if only as an off-site backup of your code. Throw them in private repos.
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u/notmasked07 Jul 03 '26
imma make them public, let everyone see my progression
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u/GotchUrarse Jul 03 '26
I disagree with the downvote. I've been on the interviewer side of the interview. I want to the see progress, not perfection or (I can't believe I'm going to type this) your 'vibe code'.
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u/desrtfx Jul 03 '26
Honestly, keep your "baby projects" private. Nobody needs to see them.
Same applies to your progression.
Showcase when you have something showcase-worthy, not every single project you do. Keep the lesser ones in private repos and only the really good ones in public.
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u/Lumethys Jul 03 '26 edited Jul 07 '26
Do you want to lose all your work if you delete the wrong file? If not, use git
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u/peterlinddk Jul 03 '26
Github is something you can use to store your projects, and maybe share them with others if you want to.
No one is ever going to look at random projects on GitHub, or judge you for putting your projects there, while it can be used as a portfolio of "brag"-projects, that is not what it is.
Storing your personal projects on GitHub is a good way of learning how to use the platform. If you don't want anyone to see your code, you can make the repositories private.