r/programmer

I have had many interviews in my 25 years as a software dev and a few of them were managers only and never even asked me anything technical. So I imagine some vibe coders have pulled it off getting an interview and showing what they created and managing to never talk about code and they just assume the person knows code. Then they see how long they can fake it (or not fake it since if they get the work done who cares)

On a related note.. As a .NET dev I always apply to only .NET jobs but there really is no reason anymore I can't get a java job and understand the general idea and have AI do the technical work.

Recently our Mongodb went down and I looked into the logs and found because of file descriptor limit was reached and I increased limit and also was creating alert system for the database. But then boss just came told us why it went down, told us why we aren't using Claude for monitoring and fixing, told us our degree is a waste, welcome to the new world, you can tell Claude everything, setup routines in claude code and it will do everything for you. Claude this claude that.. Last time he coded something on video call feature with claude code, no client was able to join vide o call for a bug which claude code told him it was big security, so he doesn't use Claude Code to push to prod anymore.. Still he..

What are you guy's opinion on this? I am thinking of just give AI ssh keys, aws keys and tell him to do everything.. Just scared it will run some commands mistakenly and down the company but also thinking if I am just being paranoid..

I've worked full time as a SWE until the end of 2023. Haven't really stayed up to date too much after this with the industry and I'm wondering where it's at right now.

Taking you back to late 2023: I worked mostly on projects with a modern tech stack, React / Next.js for the frontend and often Node.js / .NET Core on the backend.

At that time I saw a shift going back to a more modular monolith kind of approach rather than working with separate SPA's and dozens of microservices from the get-go. Also the idea of a more domain driven development seemed to get more favoured, including neat integrations where models from the backend where automatically generated by the OpenAPI spec and such. People where finally starting to see E2E tests carried a lot of value and gave more bang for your buck compared to unit tests.

At that time the use of AI was quite limited: Copilot was a mess and thus we tried prompting in web UI, often not leading to great results.

Fast forwarding almost three years later, what has changed? I'm mainly interested in:

- Has this shift modular monolith approach trend continued?

- What are things you specifically have noticed changing since then?

- What is a typical workflow for 80% of the devs to involve AI in your daily work?

I feel like things are moving so quickly and people on our teams are focusing on shipping the next thing but never really understanding what they are building off, especially new engineers

A few lines about my pov: I have about 12 years of experience, mostly in game dev. I mostly use Unity as my goto environment just because I like it. But I dabble in many fields from all around the stack.

Recently, all I have heard around everywhere is how good Ai is at coding, and it allready replaced coders competely. I use it on the daily too to make small functions and do some easy straightforward tasks for me.

But anything with even medium complexity it fails at. Even the most expensive models fell apart as complexity rose. Yes, they might produce code that works "fine." But it's unreadable and waaay overcomplicated. Not to talk about that about 20% of the time, their response and code just don't make any sense.

Are people who claim that AI is an expert level coder just never understood how to code properly, or did I miss something that unlocks this capability of the AI?

Could someone pls help me with building good projects,

Recently graduated from my CS degree. while looking for an opportunity, I think of taking an online course of several IT fields. for those with experience, which one do you guys prefer, a long video on YouTube or a course in other platform such as Udemy so I able to get a certification later? since budget is one of my biggest considerations. I'm planning on taking a web dev as my first course btw.

Every single time I start writing a project, it always uncontrollably grows with features that nobody will ever use, but my brain is like "would be cool if it could do that". And then a week later it becomes this huge filled with a bunch of basically dead code, I feel like I haven't made any progress cause the core goal was moved like 1%, and there are many unfinished features.

And I know it, and I am trying to fight it, but I can't help myself but imagine how impressive it would be with all those useless features.

Fresh grad here. I recently got hired as a .NET Fullstack Developer Trainee at one of the biggest conglomerates in the country. Super grateful for the opportunity, but I want to hit the ground running instead of waiting for training to teach me everything.

A bit about my background:

I studied Computer Engineering, so I had OOP subjects, but that was 2 years ago and I never really deep dived into it. However, I've built a ton of projects using:

• Languages: Python, TypeScript, JavaScript, Java, SQL, C++
• Frontend: React, Next.js, Tailwind CSS, Redux Toolkit
• Backend: Node.js, Express.js, FastAPI, Flask
• Databases: PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Redis

I also had a backend developer internship where I built REST APIs and worked with route optimization systems, so I'm comfortable with the general software development lifecycle.

The thing is: I know I'll go through proper training before full employment, but I don't want to show up completely clueless about C# and .NET. I want to at least have some foundational knowledge so I can make the most out of the training and maybe even impress them early on.

My questions:

1. Where should I start with C# and .NET given my existing background? Any specific resources (courses, docs, projects) you'd recommend?
2. Is .NET still a good path for a fresh grad? I know the job market is hot for React/Node/Python, but I rarely see .NET mentioned in "trendy" dev circles. Is this a solid career move?
3. Any advice for someone transitioning from the JS/Python ecosystem to the Microsoft stack? What mindset shifts should I expect?
4. What are some "must-know" concepts in .NET that I should prioritize learning before day one?

I really want to make the most out of this opportunity and set myself up for long-term growth. Would appreciate any honest advice, resources, or even warnings. Thanks in advance!

Not an attack at Open source, but lemme explain.

Back in the old days, programmers were used to put their names at the head of every file of code they create.

/**Created by XXx - some timestamp **… etc

This is no longer a common convention (now git leaves full historical markers who wrote what)

But it shows a big shift in attitude.

Every piece of code was seen as a precious private copyrighted craft, something like that.

Big corps were used to sue each other for millions of $ if they find out some parts of their code were copied into another competitor software.

These cases were so common in the past, look it up.

Courts used to compare two codes to prove code theft (a term that you no longer hear these days).

But then Open Source became a popular thing, to “democratize code” - ever since the code became more or less seen as a cheap commodity, that effect started to happen even way before LLM.

The intent of devs back then was to offer free or cheap software alternatives outside the corp’s monopolies , for the “public good”.

Therefore, the view on code got shifted, reduced to commodity, you no longer hear of “code theft” or code infringement.

At the end all this bit the programmer career in the ass.

It is what LLM got mostly trained on, to make code even a much cheaper commodity; I hardly believe that LLMs got that good due to Stackoverflow answers, surely they were part of the training materials, but the biggest chunk were surely the millions of public github repos.

Please I don’t want to debate the (in my opinion false) tired thing about “Programming/SE is not just coding”; I know it is isn’t , but it was always the biggest valued and most respected skill programmers had in the past (but not anymore) - besides yes LLMs now can do architecture and system design as well, it is trained on millions of architecture blueprints, more than any human can achieve in a lifetime.

So at the end of the day, programmers brought this to themselves by being too nice and oversharing their hard learned skills (Open sourcing).

 just got accepted into engineering college, and I want to learn a skill alongside my studies, like coding, But Im scared because what if I learn something in coding that AI can easily replace??
Additionally, where should I start with coding? Should I focus on learning a specific programming language, or something else? Im clueless

I've been an entrepreneur for the last 20 years and would like to pivot into a new venture, even though I have used AI before and am comfortable with many aspects of it, I am not a programmer nor do I understand the language and will most likely run into issues without that knowledge. Is there anyone out there that could help me build an app? If so please contact me. Thanks for any input, responses and help. Have a great day.

when i was starting out stuff like naming variables properly writing small functions and keeping projects organized felt like extra work now i am wondering which boring habits actually become important once projects get bigger

what habit do you wish you started earlier