Top Coding Projects for Beginners of All Ages

1. Odd or Even?

This is about as simple as it comes — this program will take a number input by a user and then tell the user if the number is odd or even. The project will help you get set up by downloading a programming language and the software you’ll need to start writing code. 

Here is a guide from Rosetta Code with code examples in a very wide variety of programming languages. 

2. Dice Rolling Simulation

Creating a dice-rolling simulator is a great beginner project to help you learn Python. In the real world, rolling dice allows you to generate a random number ranging from 1 through 6, so your program should have the same functionality. This project uses the random module to generate random numbers and print them to the user. 

This Python project is a simple way to become accustomed to the process of writing code. If you’re able to write the simulator, consider experimenting by allowing the user to choose the number of dice, using dice with different values, or showing a picture of the number on a die when the number is generated.

3. Alarm Clock Application

This project can help you get started in working with Graphic User Interfaces — also known as GUIs. These allow users to interact with a program without having to use a command line. 

This project involves keeping track of time, setting the alarm, and generating a sound when the clock strikes a specific time. It’s a great beginner project that can help you get set up and started with your programming environment. This project can be completed in multiple languages, but here’s a guide to building it using Python. 

4. Rock, Paper, Scissors

Rock, paper, scissors is a straightforward game in real life that’s helped solve arguments and determine who does what. However, coding a game of rock, paper, scissors is more complex than you might think, making it a great intermediate project for anyone wanting to learn Python. 

The rock, paper, scissors project uses a random number generator, similar to the dice rolling project. However, the project goes further by requiring you to code in the rules and logic of the game and create additional choices and elements for a user to pick. Here’s a breakdown of the rock, paper, scissors project if you’re interested in getting started. 

5. Calculator

The calculator is one of the most useful and essential tools available on most computers and smartphones. It’s also a great way to help you understand the basics of working with code, deploying a user interface, and getting experience building a project from scratch. You’ll reinforce many fundamental concepts involved with programming during this project. 

If you’re interested, this guide from the Odin Project can help you get started. 

6. Mad Libs Generator

Mad Libs is a word game that many of us played on road trips with family when we were younger. This game makes an excellent programming project that lets you work with strings, variables, and printing. 

This project aims to create a program that will prompt a user for a series of inputs, similar to a game of Mad Libs — nouns, adjectives, and so forth. Once the information has been put into the program, the program will take that information and use it in a premade story template, printing the results. 

This project can be completed in many different programming languages, including Java, JavaScript, and Python. Here is a guide on completing the project in Python if you’d like to read more. 

7. To-Do List 

Creating a to-do list is a great beginner programming project that can be completed in just about any programming language. Completing a to-do list in JavaScript is a great beginner project for anyone interested in web development. 

Your to-do list will need to allow users to add, complete, and delete tasks. This will require an understanding of variables, functions, arrays, objects, and other basic JavaScript concepts. If you don’t understand these finer points — this project will help you get started. Freshman.tech has a great writeup of requirements for creating a simple to-do list in JavaScript.

8. Fizz-Buzz

Fizz-buzz is a simple coding project and interview question encountered in some coding interviews. The premise is relatively simple: Write a program that prints the numbers 1 to 100. For multiples of three, print the word “Fizz” instead of the number, and for multiples of five, the word “Buzz”. For numbers that are multiples of both three and five, print the word “FizzBuzz.” 

Fizz-buzz is deceptively challenging, as it takes a bit of logic to determine how to create a solution for the problem. It also introduces an important programming concept — efficiency. Often, there are many ways to solve problems in programming. Some solutions are more efficient than others, which can be important in large software projects. 

Here is a guide and discussion of Fizz-Buzz that goes into incredible detail and shows solutions in many different programming languages. 

9. Hangman Game

This is a “guess the word” game that many of us have played before. The goal of the game is to guess a word with a limited number of letter guesses. This project will help you become more familiar with random variables, booleans, inputs and outputs, strings, and printing. 

You’ll need to design a way to pull a word for guessing, which can come from a pre-made list or, if you’re looking to create a more complex project, your word can come from a web API or scraped list. You’ll also need to code in functions to limit a user to input a single letter, checking to see if the letter is in the hidden word, printing letters, and a way to limit the number of guesses the user has available. 

This game is slightly more complicated than some of the previous projects on the list, as the user input needs to be parsed and checked for correctness before being accepted or denied. This guide from GeeksforGeeks can help you get started with the project. 

10. Quiz Application

Quiz applications show a set of questions to the user and give them the chance to answer them. This can be as simple or as complex as you want — maybe your quiz responds immediately with the correct answer after a user makes a selection, or maybe the results aren’t presented until the end of the quiz. 

This guide from Dev.to has an in-depth explanation of how to create a quiz using Python. 

11. Text-Based Adventure Game

This project uses Java and can be a great way to get started with this object-oriented programming language. The project is great for beginners and more experienced programmers alike — your game can start simple and become more complicated over time as you learn more about Java and build new mechanics into your game. 

Starting this project typically involves some planning — consider sketching out a map for your game. How many rooms will there be? What kind of items will be on the map? Will there be enemies for the player to fight? For example, maybe a room in your game has a key that opens a door in another room, but a skeleton guards it. Having a list of the elements in your game and the attributes that each item needs can give you a starting point for your code. 

Once you have everything in place, you can start building your game using the basics of Java. Creating a game can give you a good feel for classes, integers, and conditional logic. 

12. Contribute to an Open-Source Project 

Open-source projects are incredible for anyone wanting to enter the world of coding. Generally, open-source projects are open to the public, meaning that anyone is free to use, examine, change, or distribute a project for their use or the use of others. These contributions can become valuable parts of your portfolio as you enter the job market. 

Contributing to an open-source project typically involves more advanced coding skills and should be reserved until you have other experience under your belt. There are resources available to help early-stage developers find simple contributions to open source projects. First Timers Only is a resource dedicated to helping new coders understand how contributions work and find projects that have easy issues for coders to tackle.

Having some experience working with open-source projects can help you get started as a professional developer. These projects will be similar to working with a codebase at an actual business and show a recruiter or hiring manager that you have real-world experience.

13. Build Something For Yourself

Some of the best projects spring out of your own need. Maybe you can’t find a free flashcard application with which you’re satisfied. Maybe your budgeting software doesn’t calculate something specific that you’d like to know. 

This project is broad because you’re the only one who knows what you need. Think of the applications you’d like to use in your day-to-day life, and build the most polished version you can. These can be a great addition to your portfolio, and they can show off your skills to recruiters. 

1. Build a Portfolio Website

There are many drag-and-drop website builders available, so it’s possible to build a website without writing a line of code. However, building your own website is an excellent way for a budding web developer or designer to understand every stage in the website-building process. 

Building a website from scratch will require a small investment — procuring a domain name and hosting your site will cost a bit of money. 

What you build will be up to you, depending on your needs and skill level. One great option is building a custom portfolio website that includes your resume, projects, and skills. A well-designed portfolio website is also a project in and of itself, which can impress recruiters and hiring managers alike. 

2. Create a Social Media Bot

Social media bots have gotten a bad reputation in recent years, but they’re not all malicious. Creating a simple social media bot can help you learn an important skill used across many programming disciplines — Application Programming Interfaces. Also known as APIs, these elements are composed of software layers that allow two applications to interact with each other. 

Building a social media bot requires an understanding of the basics of a programming language like Python — and an understanding of how to connect to a service using an API. Your first bot can do something simple, like posting a canned reply on Reddit whenever it sees a user mentioning a predefined keyword. More complicated bots are used to help companies market and support their products on social media, so understanding how they work can help you build a valuable skill set. 

If you want to learn more, here is a guide from Mozilla’s developer documentation about APIs and their uses. 

3. Build an E-Commerce Website

This is a great project for anyone wanting to learn web development. Building an e-commerce website involves many different components — interacting with a database of products, handling prices and inventory, and creating a checkout system. 

If you’re interested in this project, this Medium post can help you get started. 

4. Scrape and Analyze Data from the Internet

Web scraping is the act of collecting data from the internet, in any form — and the process can be automated using computer programs that parse through webpages and collect data based on preset parameters. As data science and data analysis are important for many programming and coding disciplines, web scraping is a great way to generate data for analysis to get a feel for the process.

Companies use data scraping to collect information on competitors, improve SEO, monitor their reputation online, or compare prices between goods and services. 

If you’re interested in learning more about web scraping, this guide from opensource.com has a great walkthrough of the process using python.

5. Recreate a Website or Application

You don’t always have to reinvent the wheel when you’re working on a new project. Sometimes, the creative limits involved with recreating an existing website or application can help you pick up new skills more quickly. 

You can create a copy of a popular social media website, like Reddit or Facebook, or attempt to develop a web browser that behaves like Chrome or a file explorer that’s similar to the one that comes with your operating system. 

6. Build an iPhone, iPad, or Android App

Developing applications for mobile devices and tablets is unique and will help you build a specialized set of skills for each platform. For Android, you’ll need Java, and for iOS, you’ll need Objective-C or Swift. 

Developing a mobile app is a challenging yet rewarding skill that’s worth the time investment. If you’re interested, here are developer guidelines for Android devices, and here are developer guidelines for Apple devices. Review the guidelines for your platform of choice, and you can start building your first application. 

7. Machine Learning or AI Project

Working with machine learning (ML) or artificial intelligence (AI) is an advanced-level project that requires some level of programming experience before you start. Learning more about these tools and concepts is becoming easier for experienced programmers. 

Some previously mentioned projects make for great first steps into learning ML and AI. For example, you can create an unbeatable tic-tac-toe engine that always plays an optimal strategy and cannot lose a game. You could also create a chess engine that can play chess against a human opponent. Chatbots also make great machine learning projects — you can even start out by using a pre-made conversational dialog engine like ChatterBot. 

You have many different choices when it comes to getting started with AI and machine learning. If you’d like to learn more about machine learning and AI, Google offers a wide variety of guides and educational materials. Here are a few resources to help you get started.

• The People+AI Guidebook
• AI Experiments
• AI Explorables
• Machine Learning Guides
• Introduction to Machine Learning Problem Framing
• Data Preparation and Feature Engineering for Machine Learning