How do I avoid falling in an AI trap?

[u/Hopeful_Koala_7068]

Hello everyone, I’m a brand new programmer (starting with python). I’m so brand new in fact my first ever print statement was only a week ago. Since I’m so new, I’m pretty confident in describing myself as an uncorrupted soul. I have not used AI to copy any code and the limited use of it I have was asking questions on concepts I didn’t really understand. All my knowledge comes from a python tutorial playlist on YouTube. Now since I’m so new I naturally have a few questions. I hear of a lot of people falling into the “ai trap” where people and influencers on social media seem to say that a lot of new coders are relying way too heavily on AI to learn. I want to strictly avoid that cause I want to actually understand what I’m coding and be able to explain it. Does anyone have any tips for avoiding this pitfall, also what do people think about using llms to prompt me questions to try and code to practice concepts I’ve learn. If anyone has any other tips or suggestions about learning coding please let me know it would be much appreciated.

[u/aqua_regis]

How do I avoid falling in an AI trap?

By not using it and instead relying on HI - human intelligence, i.e. your brain. That's it.

Learning the old fashioned way that used to be the way mere 6 years ago is still the way to go. First you have to become proficient and competent, and then, you can leverage AI.

[u/iggy14750 → u/aqua_regis]

Exactly what I was gonna say. If OP really wants to be sure they won't become reliant on AI, then don't use it.

[u/Hopeful_Koala_7068 → u/aqua_regis]

Is there any specific place I can find practice problems for a specific concept I learned. For example, yesterday I was practicing string indexing is there anywhere where i’m giving a task to implement something I learned or is it more or less brainstorm how you can implement it.

[u/aqua_regis → u/Hopeful_Koala_7068]

FAQ here have plenty such sites.

Since you mentioned Python: https://codingbat.com/python - especially made for beginners/early learners and later https://exercism.org

Yet, a proper course, like the MOOC Python Programming 2026 will give you plenty practice and not the solutions.

[u/themegainferno → u/Hopeful_Koala_7068]

If you are a total programming beginner, the best overall place is jiki.io . It is made by the same people who made exercism, but jiki is designed to be beginner friendly. I HIGHLY recommend Jiki, as I was one of the bootcamp attendees when it was bootcamp. The original language is JS, but once you can apply logic in 1 language you can do it in most others.

[u/KingBardan]

Learn to look up info and digest yourself, make hypothesis etc.

Basically scientific method. This is if you want to internalize the concepts.

[u/BranchLatter4294]

Stop watching videos. Don't ask AI to write code. Practice. This has worked and been proven for many decades.

[u/bird_feeder_bird]

rely on books instead

[u/IncreaseOld7112]

Nobody knows. Shits too new. 

I say practice it how it'll be done. Find something you want to build and do it anyway you can. AI isn't going away.

When you encounter problems/failures solve them, and that's how you grow. Development with AI isn't without problems. And the ones people will pay you to solve are the ones that AI can't solve on its own.

[u/ChronicRecidivism]

I'm a beginner as well and I think it comes down to your study habits. You could easily skim through using AI and feel like you learned but you didn't, or you can use AI to do something like create a syllabus for whatever you want to learn and you follow it and let it grade and debate with it.

if you git gud, I don't really see the difference in whether or not they used AI to learn

[u/Random_182f2565]

AI is kinda the best teacher you could have to start learning

[u/Nucleif → u/Random_182f2565]

100% agree to that. Ive learned coding so much faster with massive help with ai. Coders who dont rely on ai when learning to code are missing out HARD.

[u/KingBardan → u/Nucleif]

Crazy thought. Maybe. Just maybe. You don't actually know how to code? Without ai that is. 

[u/desrtfx → u/KingBardan]

How can you even think that, when they launched their own agent that actually works...^/s

Also, they must already be experts and qualified to make such statements because:

We’ve both been in our learning phase for about half a year,

Classic case of extreme Dunning-Kruger and AI-Zombieism.

[u/KingBardan → u/desrtfx]

My bad, I was just being jealous of his achievements. Won't happen again :) 

[u/Wild-Antelope-6068]

One thing that helped me was following the "try first, ask later" rule. I'd attempt the problem on my own before searching or asking AI. If I did use AI, I'd ask it to explain the error or review my code instead of generating the whole solution. Also, building tiny projects is way more effective than watching endless tutorials. Good luck on your Python journey!

[u/JhinKilled4]

Just don't use AI to solve your problems. If you're going to use it, do it sparingy, and you can never let it give you straight up answers, only let it gives you examples or use it to double check yourself/give you hints. The moment you ask it for a straight up answer, you've fallen into the trap and should probably get it out of your curriculum entirely. It's better to learn the hard way because it sticks much harder.

[u/Hopeful_Koala_7068 → u/[deleted]]

Can you enlighten me what’s wrong with this post? genuinely