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Individuals who primarily rely on memorization and rote learning (cramming) to code tend to focus on memorizing syntax, specific functions, or patterns without necessarily understanding the underlying concepts. This approach may allow them to produce working code in familiar scenarios but can limit their ability to adapt to new problems or troubleshoot effectively.

In contrast, those who possess a deeper understanding of programming principles and concepts have a solid grasp of foundational ideas such as algorithms, data structures, problem-solving strategies, and software design principles. This deeper comprehension enables them to write more efficient, maintainable, and scalable code, as well as to learn new technologies more quickly and adapt to novel challenges.

While memorization can be useful for quick recall of syntax and common patterns, developing a strong conceptual understanding is generally more beneficial for long-term growth and versatility as a programmer.

Alphabyte3:
Individuals who primarily rely on memorization and rote learning (cramming) to code tend to focus on memorizing syntax, specific functions, or patterns without necessarily understanding the underlying concepts. This approach may allow them to produce working code in familiar scenarios but can limit their ability to adapt to new problems or troubleshoot effectively.

From my experience, those I have worked with who do not have a degree in computer science or software engineering tend to memorise only a limited set of syntax and are limited to the few they can memorise. This is because there are millions of syntax that need to be referenced in order to find an effective solution. By contrast, a programmer with a computer science or software engineering degree can efficiently navigate and reference this vast body of syntax, enabling them to arrive at solutions much more quickly and not having to memorise millions of syntax. Those without such a background are often limited to the few syntax elements they have memorised, which can lead to poorly developed software or even the abandonment of projects altogether.

I once worked in an a large global organisation where the principal software engineer with only a secondary school education, had no understanding of SQL relationships and very limited knowledge of handling complex programming challenges. This kind of situation is unfortunately not uncommon in the industry.

I find software development to be one of the most dysfunctional fields to work in, largely because many IT managers, along with the programmers they prefer to hire, do not hold degrees in computer science or software engineering. This preference reflects a broader acceptance of mediocrity within the industry.

Consider, for example, a forum advert that reads: “From Accounting to Software Development in Less Than Four Months.” This is nothing short of a joke. Even after three or four years depending on the country, studying computer science or software engineering at university to understand the fundamentals to advanced level, it still takes years of practical experience to become very good and even then, continuous professional development is essential.

MindHacker9009:
From my experience, those I have worked with who do not have a degree in computer science or software engineering tend to memorise only a limited set of syntax and are limited to the few they can memorise. This is because there are millions of syntax that need to be referenced in order to find an effective solution. By contrast, a programmer with a computer science or software engineering degree can efficiently navigate and reference this vast body of syntax, enabling them to arrive at solutions much more quickly and not having to memorise millions of syntax. Those without such a background are often limited to the few syntax elements they have memorised, which can lead to poorly developed software or even the abandonment of projects altogether.

I once worked in an a large global organisation where the principal software engineer with only a secondary school education, had no understanding of SQL relationships and very limited knowledge of handling complex programming challenges. This kind of situation is unfortunately not uncommon in the industry.

I find software development to be one of the most dysfunctional fields to work in, largely because many IT managers, along with the programmers they prefer to hire, do not hold degrees in computer science or software engineering. This preference reflects a broader acceptance of mediocrity within the industry.

Consider, for example, a forum advert that reads: “From Accounting to Software Development in Less Than Four Months.” This is nothing short of a joke. Even after three or four years depending on the country, studying computer science or software engineering at university to understand the fundamentals to advanced level, it still takes years of practical experience to become very good and even then, continuous professional development is essential.

The OP is talking about programming u jump from your bed start typing about Computer Science up and down.

Who told u computer science is all about programming or software development?

Programming is like one course and sometimes even an elective course in computer science.... You can be a world class software developer even without stepping inside the 4 walls of a university.

One thing I always say is that 'the documentation is the best companion to have'. Why would I have to memorize stuffs when I don't have to pay a dime in order to reference something in the documentation?

Thanks to the nice documentation of Laravel, all I do sometimes is just a quick search on the documentation and I'll get the information I need.

I have come to notice that people who memorize syntaxes tend to write "hacky" codes when of course there are simply ways to do the same things if only they checked the documentation.

DevLaive:
One thing I always say is that 'the documentation is the best companion to have'. Why would I have to memorize stuffs when I don't have to pay a dime in order to reference something in the documentation?

Thanks to the nice documentation of Laravel, all I do sometimes is just a quick search on the documentation and I'll get the information I need.

I have come to notice that people who memorize syntaxes tend to write "hacky" codes when of course there are simply ways to do the same things if only they checked the documentation.

What does it even mean to "memorize syntax"?
If you claim to know a programming language, its syntax should come naturally to you not something you constantly have to look up in documentation. Of course, there may be exceptions for parts you don't use regularly or encounter in your day-to-day work like when I first encountered ternary operators and template literals in JavaScript

The best programmers are those who can bring their own ideas and the ideas of others to life through code. Nothing more, nothing less.
It doesn’t matter how you do it, as long as the code is clean and works as intended. That’s what truly matters.

No, a software engineer doesn't need to memorise all syntax. While it's helpful to know common syntax for frequently used languages and tools, the reality is that most developers rely heavily on resources like documentation, code editors with autocomplete features and search engines to look up specific syntax when needed.

Software engineering is more about understanding how to solve problems, design algorithms and write clean, maintainable code. Syntax is something that can be quickly looked up and tools like IDEs (Integrated Development Environments) can make this process even easier by suggesting or auto-completing code as you write it. The focus is generally on problem-solving, logical thinking, and understanding the principles behind the languages and frameworks you work with.

In short, you don't need to memorise every detail, you just need to know where to find the information when you need it!

Revealpanda:
What does it even mean to "memorize syntax"?
If you claim to know a programming language, its syntax should come naturally to you not something you constantly have to look up in documentation. Of course, there may be exceptions for parts you don't use regularly or encounter in your day-to-day work like when I first encountered ternary operators and template literals in JavaScript

The best programmers are those who can bring their own ideas and the ideas of others to life through code. Nothing more, nothing less.
It doesn’t matter how you do it, as long as the code is clean and works as intended. That’s what truly matters.

I'm not sure you understood me. You don't have to always reference even the most basic things. There are still things that should be second nature to a programmer when writing code.

However, you can write code that is "clean and works as intended" but which uses extremely old and outdated patterns. That is why languages and frameworks have versions. The fact that it is "clean and works as intended" in version a.b.c doesn't mean it might still be the recommended way of doing it in say version x.y.z

Whatever you understand by syntax, the point is to always reference the documentation not for basic syntaxes but whenever you're in doubt. Don't always stick to what you knew before. That's not the life of a programmer!

Revealpanda:
What does it even mean to "memorize syntax"?
If you claim to know a programming language, its syntax should come naturally to you not something you constantly have to look up in documentation. Of course, there may be exceptions for parts you don't use regularly or encounter in your day-to-day work like when I first encountered ternary operators and template literals in JavaScript

The best programmers are those who can bring their own ideas and the ideas of others to life through code. Nothing more, nothing less.
It doesn’t matter how you do it, as long as the code is clean and works as intended. That’s what truly matters.

This means you are only writing simple hello world applications with if else statements.
The ternary operator is a shorthand for if...else statements. Syntax: javascript: condition ? expressionIfTrue : expressionIfFalse;

If you're developing an SaaS application where you have to do new complex stuff like:

How to convert HTML to PDF
How to generate tables in PDF
How to merge/split PDFs
How to add watermarks or metadata to PDFs
How to sign or encrypt PDFs

MindHacker9009:
This means you are only writing simple hello world applications with if else statements.
The ternary operator is a shorthand for if...else statements. Syntax: javascript: condition ? expressionIfTrue : expressionIfFalse;

If you're developing an SaaS application where you have to do new complex stuff like:

How to convert HTML to PDF
How to generate tables in PDF
How to merge/split PDFs
How to add watermarks or metadata to PDFs
How to sign or encrypt PDFs

And here is a list from ChatGPT speed up this comment:
Here's a list of complex programming constructs and tasks that even experienced programmers often need to check online to recall the correct syntax. These are things that aren't used every day or vary subtly between languages, making them easy to forget:

🔧 Advanced Language Features
Regex syntax (e.g., lookaheads, backreferences, character classes)

Multithreading / concurrency primitives (e.g., pthread, async/await, futures)

Lambda/function expressions in unfamiliar or rarely-used languages

Decorators / annotations (especially in Python or Java)

Generics / templates (e.g., T extends Comparable<T> in Java or template<typename T> in C++)

Pattern matching (e.g., in Scala, Rust, modern Python, or C#)

Reflection / metaprogramming (e.g., getattr, type() in Python, or Java Reflection API)

Coroutines / generators (yield, send, await syntax)

Memory management keywords (malloc, free, new[], delete[], unsafe in Rust)

🌐 Cross-Platform / Interfacing
Foreign Function Interfaces (FFI) (e.g., ctypes in Python, JNI in Java)

WebAssembly bindings or Emscripten syntax

Interfacing with REST APIs (e.g., curl vs fetch vs requests vs http.client)

Shell commands within code (e.g., subprocess.run or backticks in Bash)

💾 Data Format Syntax
MongoDB aggregation pipeline

GraphQL query syntax

Complex JSONPath or XPath queries

YAML anchors and references

Protocol Buffers (.proto files)

Avro or Thrift schema definitions

🧪 Testing & DevOps Tools
Unit test assertions (e.g., pytest.raises, expect in Jest)

Mocking / patching syntax (especially in Python or Java)

Dockerfile commands and build contexts

Kubernetes YAML configuration

CI/CD pipeline configuration (e.g., GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, CircleCI)

Makefile syntax (tabs, targets, variables, conditions)

🧱 UI/Frontend Frameworks
React hooks (useEffect, useMemo) and dependency arrays

Vue directives and watchers

Angular decorators and DI syntax

TailwindCSS complex utility combinations

🧠 Language-Specific Oddities

Rust’s ownership and lifetime annotations

Haskell monad or functor syntax

Elixir macros or pipelines

Go error handling (defer, recover)

🔄 Build & Meta Tools
Webpack configuration

Babel plugins setup

Gradle or Maven dependencies

CMake syntax

NPM scripts with special shell quoting

Dude I was only giving an example to buttress my point sitting when I was new to JavaScript...

What's with the Chatgpt reply 🤕


The HTML to PDF converter shouldn't be categorised as complex though... It's something 5 to 10 lines of codes would do.

Revealpanda:
Dude I was only giving an example to buttress my point sitting when I was new to JavaScript...

What's with the Chatgpt reply 🤕


The HTML to PDF converter shouldn't be categorised as complex though. It's something 5 to 10 lines of codes would do.

There are hundreds of thousands of short code snippets 5 to 10 lines or more that can make an application work correctly. It's unrealistic to expect anyone to memorise them all.

Using ChatGPT is like using your phone today it's simply a modern tool to help you get things done quickly and efficiently.

MindHacker9009:
There are hundreds of thousands of short code snippets 5 to 10 lines or more that can make an application work correctly. It's unrealistic to expect anyone to memorise them all.

Using ChatGPT is like using your phone today it's simply a modern tool to help you get things done quickly and efficiently.

My problem with u is, sometimes u reply as if you're on crack or something stronger.

Totally out of point