What do you do if you're struggling to adapt as a programming intern?

If struggling as a programming intern: Seek guidance from mentors or colleagues. Break tasks into manageable parts. Practice coding regularly. Embrace constructive criticism. Utilize online resources and tutorials. Stay organized with tasks and deadlines. Attend workshops or training sessions. Stay persistent and patient; improvement takes time

An internship is foremost a learning opportunity. You are surrounded by people with the same profession as what you aspire to, and so you need to use this time to learn what you need to learn. Seek constructive feedback from your mentors, and your supervisors, and tell them where you want to be. If any tasks are bringing you trouble, they will have useful ways to help deal with that, which comes from their personal experience.

Interns are expected to ask questions and seek feedback. It is a learning opportunity and companies know this... or at least they should. Sometimes I have seen interns who struggle and ask for feedback only to be met with "I am too busy" responses. If this is the case, do reach out to those outside of the company for feedback for tips that might help you inside the company. Join an online community and ask your questions there. Plenty of professionals, myself included, offer our time on there for free and are always providing tips on how to make your time as an intern better wherever you work. :)

Have you spoken to your supervisor/team lead? Be transparent with your struggles so that you can get the help you need. Do not feel the need to know everything. You are an intern and the learning curve is expected. Are you getting the support you need? By support, I do not mean the answer to your task or someone to do your task. Is there something missing that is preventing you to complete the given task? Or is the task impossible? Communicate and be transparent to your lead so that they can help you. Articulate clearly where is your progress at your current task and what is currently impeding you.

Textbooks with code examples in the field you're dealing with are a great way to learn a lot really fast, and the availability of large swathes of open source software in almost every field possible means that you will be able to learn from real life examples. If you falter at understanding code from any of these places, you will get a more focused example of what you are weaker at, and you can get better at that specifically. This will save a lot of your time and have a bigger impact.

Don't be afraid to try some basic projects. You will quickly discover what you don't know and learn a lot along the way. Often times if you can match up a project to what the company you are interning for does, you can learn skills that will then apply to the company. Often times you will learn new or different ways of doing things and can bring that back into discussions internally to the company. Especially if the company is on a project that may not be new in the way of tech or ideas. You can breathe fresh air into their projects.

You should always be practicing. With over 25 years programming, I am still practicing. You are an athlete in this industry and that means you practice rain or shine... but you are happy to do it because it is the sport you love. :)

I have a three step process I always mention to developers I am mentoring: 1. Gather reading material like books that cover the topic you need more help with. 2. Join an online community so that you have a place to network but, more importantly, also have a place to ask questions you have about the reading material in step 1. 3. When you are done with the reading material, find additional videos, tutorials, online articles that cover the topic again. Your goal here is to learn the material again from different points of view.

There are so many resources on the internet to help you in your tasks and career as a whole, so make sure you keep up with the necessary knowledge and concepts required for your role and try as much as possible to solidify your knowledge using these resources. Also website like stack overflow can help guide you when have questions or are facing bugs, it's where you can find other developers that has faced the same issue and how they solved it. Github is also great you can check how developers work on projects and gain some insights from that. Major thing is to keep learning and never give up.

If you join an online community to ask questions in, when you get stuck or seeking advice, you will also tend to build up connections with other professionals. Many will become friends, mentors and resources for any challenges you face in the future. :)

I think what helps me during my internship is to accept that I’m just starting and I’m not suppose to know everything. This helps when your stuck on assignment and scared to ask for help

In my experience, I have tried making things that I like using the programming languages I trying to learn. This usually makes me understand whether it is enough to do the job or not. This also has further advantages such as understanding where it fails and it is strong fundamentally. To me programming is building logic, I also remember that seeking perceptive answers from your senior mentor or lead could lead you to untravelled paths, which often helps you in your career. To sum it up I recommend browsing the internet, communicating with your seniors and trying to create something simple with the language you are experimenting with.