Learning to Code in the Age of AI: Advice From a Top Udemy Instructor

Summary

An interview with Python educator Ardit Sulce examines how beginners should learn programming as AI changes development and teaching. Sulce says AI now handles many small questions, while teachers provide curated learning paths, judgment, and context; he also argues that students should preserve productive struggle while outsourcing setup friction. He recommends evaluating understanding through code explanation, review, and debugging rather than treating working code as proof, and identifies reading unfamiliar code, debugging, and system understanding as important junior skills. His proposed three-stage path moves from writing syntax by hand in a professional IDE, to using AI as a tutor, and finally to using it as a co-worker while reviewing increasingly complex projects.

Takeaways

1. 1

   Students should struggle with concepts such as control flow, but can delegate one-time obstacles such as broken driver installations, setup errors, or outdated tutorials to AI.

2. 2

   Employers and educators can test understanding by asking people to explain code, review AI-generated code containing subtle defects, or debug problems face-to-face.

3. 3

   The recommended progression is manual syntax, AI-assisted tutoring, and AI collaboration across increasingly complex projects, shifting emphasis toward system understanding.