While scrolling through Reddit's programming subreddits I noticed a question similar to "Looking for beginner programming projects". Now, I see this post come up quite often across many different programming subs. I've noticed these questions often have a similar response in the comments. Usually, the comment is similar to "Just build something that you would use daily". Another response I see is something from Github's Awesome lists. Now, I'm personally a big fan of those lists but I think it's typically used as more of a catch-all since the lists usually span a wide variety of topics. I think the answer needs to go down deeper. Typically to provide a good answer to this question we need to know why the person is interested in programming in the first place or why they would like to learn. Most people don't just wake up one day and think they need to learn whatever programming language is trending that day. I've found that people typically start for three reasons. They want to learn to automate things, they want to build a website or web application, or they want to learn to program for penetration testing. I know there are other reasons but these are the ones I'll focus on as they are the reason I've learned programming and continue to learn.

As this is my first blog post and fits the topic I'll go over why I started programming. When I got my first job in IT my boss suggested I learn PHP as their ticketing system and the ITIL application is built in PHP. You can extend the application by building modules but you need a basic understanding of PHP. So, that got me interested in programming and I've built several applications in PHP before picking up Python and then moving to other languages as need. The most important thing I've learned about programming so far is to think of the languages as tools, not solutions. You build the solutions using the tools so sometimes some languages are more suitable for different projects than others. I'll be providing some example projects I've done or have a plan to do in the future. All of these projects can be done in multiple programming and scripting languages.

One thing I want to take time to address. I've noticed on various tech subs that people write questions about a lot of basic things that can easily be found with a quick Google search. Learning how to efficiently find information and solutions online is another invaluable lesson when getting started with programming. If you want to make this a career you can't necessarily make a Reddit or StackOverflow post every time you get stuck. So learning how to Google your question is a great skill also using Google Dorks can get you there a lot faster here's a good cheat sheet to get started.

Automate All the Things

With a large increase of people automating business processes, I see a lot of people looking at how to break into the field. There are many great resources on how to learn this subject but often they provide the basics and start you off with a few projects. Which is great but they don't often take you past the beginner stage. If you want to expand your knowledge here are my three project ideas to get you started.

• Daily wallpaper Grabber: I'm not sure what they're called but a lot of people make scripts or small applications that look at popular image sharing sites and find popular images and update their computer's wallpaper daily. I think this is a great beginner project and can get you interfacing with making web requests programmatically. Which is a very important skill to have when building automation tools.
• Daily Email Update: If you want to make sure you get all of your important emails without having to filter out the spam then maybe make your daily email updater. Most email providers like Google and Yahoo have an API you can interface with which allows you to get and send emails. You could add a filter to make sure you don't get your normal spam and then create a list of email subjects and bodies that you get at the end of the day. This will be a great way to work with emails which I think is something that is often overlooked but it can be very useful.
• Backup Utility: I often find that working with the filesystem can be tricky when starting. Especially when trying to programmatically traverse directories or perform an OS Walk. This is why building a backup utility can be a very good project when starting and you can learn a lot. It's also something that can be expanded upon. Maybe turn it into a program archiver. When you finish an application you run a script that makes sure it's checked into Git then you zip the files up and move them to a backup drive.

Build a Website/Webapp

With a growing need to develop web applications for a lot of different devices and with more people moving away from desktop applications there is a growing need to develop them. I think they're one of the more useful things to develop and they can be built in so many different ways. You have to often keep expanding your knowledge and trying to make it more efficient. These are the three projects that I think can help get you the experience you would need and provide you with a lot of ways to expand.

• I think the first option is a no-brainer. Building a blog is a great way to test your knowledge as well as share it. So you may as well build your own. it will also show you where you need to improve which in my case I struggle with frontend design. I'm not a very creative person so this allows me to try new things and try and improve on those skills. You can often start with just putting your resume on a web page. This will allow you to show prospective hiring managers or supervisors that you take learning seriously and you have something to show them. Then you can always expand it to include a blogging system, contact me page, etc.
• News Letter: A lot of websites use newsletters to keep people updated with what's going on with a company, content creator, etc. But, they can also be used in smaller settings. Such as a quarterly family newsletter. That you take news and events that are happening across your family and keep people informed. It can be a fun project that everyone can enjoy.
• Task Tracking: If you're like me you often spend more time thinking about projects than actually doing them. If you're really like me you think of that great project and forget what the idea was by the time you sit down to start. This is why I think a task tracker is a great first project. It can be as simple or as complicated as you'd like. But at the basics it allows you to enter new ideas with some notes. You can move things to an active project or pending project, Maybe even add a "give me a random project" button for those days you want to do something but are just not sure what to do.

Penetration Testing/Network Security

This is often considered one of the faster growing IT fields but is one of the hardest to staff. Mostly because it's not an entry-level job. You have to focus on a lot of subjects and have quite a bit of experience. This is why I suggest you learn at the minimum the first two Automation and web apps. You should focus on a lot of other things such as networking, firewalls, security controls, etc. But I'll provide some beginner projects that may get you moving in the right direction.

• Packet Analyzer: If you've looked into network security or have networking experience you may have come across WireShark. Though, anyone can build an application that can look at network packets. It may not be considered a beginner project per se but with this being what I consider an advanced topic this should give you a good familiarity with how packets work and how you would be able to read them.
• Port Scanner: Port scanners at their basic level are, well, pretty basic. You're sending a request to a specific port and see if you get a response. If you get a response you know the port is open if not it's most likely closed. Though, there are other complications that you can build in as you improve such as filtered ports and your requests being dropped by security controls. A basic port scanner can be built in a weekend if you want very basic functionality. Plus it's a good useful project to have around if you want something you know how to modify.
• Keylogger: This is kind of where it could start branching off into Pentesting. But, there are other legitimate uses for a keylogger. It can even be used as a security measure. Such as if you type the wrong password a keylogger starts on your PC to see what they're doing. Which on Linux can be done using PAM. But, this will get you interfacing with low-level APIs. Which will help you learn how they interface with your OS.

While this isn't a complete project list I think it's a good starting point with the projects that allow you to expand them naturally. I think this is a good way to look at applications especially side projects since you're only using them to grow your skills it's always good to look at them in ways that can help you. Whether it's at work, at home, or just on a specific project. I'm personally using this list as a list of things I want to build which I also plan on blogging about. So if you want to follow along stick around.