Hey everyone!
In the near future, I'll be faced with the decision of choosing the right educational institution for my future studies.
For a while now, I've had this dream of becoming a programmer, but there's just one small problem: I'm not very strong in mathematics. My skills in math are only at a mediocre level, to be honest. However, I did attend some computer courses where I learned Pascal and Delphi. Surprisingly, I was able to grasp the concepts quickly and even became the top performer in my group.
I know that this topic has been discussed numerous times before, but I'd really appreciate some practical advice from those who have achieved success in the field despite not having a strong mathematical background.
I wonder if it's possible for me to pursue a career as a programmer and become a competent professional.

On another note, I don't really have any other options besides programming, so perhaps I should spend this year exploring other areas within the IT industry. But deep down, I have a strong desire to dive into programming.
Thank you all in advance for your input and suggestions!

It's great to hear that you have a strong desire to pursue a career in programming. While a strong background in mathematics can be advantageous for certain aspects of programming, it is not always a requirement for becoming a competent professional.

Programming is a vast field, and there are many different roles and areas you can explore that may not heavily rely on advanced mathematics. For example, web development, mobile app development, front-end development, and software engineering often involve more practical problem-solving skills and logical thinking rather than complex mathematical calculations.

Here are some practical steps you can take to succeed as a programmer despite not having a strong mathematical background:

1. Identify your strengths: Reflect on the aspects of programming that come naturally to you and that you enjoy the most. Focus on building your skills in those areas and find opportunities to apply them.

2. Understand the math prerequisites: While you may not need advanced mathematics for all programming roles, it's helpful to have a basic understanding of math concepts like algebra, logic, and discrete mathematics. Consider studying these foundational math topics to strengthen your skills as needed.

3. Specialize in areas with less emphasis on math: Explore programming languages, frameworks, and domains that align with your interests and have lesser math requirements. For example, front-end development often focuses on creating user interfaces and may require less math compared to other areas like machine learning or cryptography.

4. Leverage available resources: Take advantage of online courses, tutorials, and learning platforms like Coursera, Udemy, or freeCodeCamp to enhance your programming skills. These resources often provide practical exercises and projects that can help you gain hands-on experience.

5. Practice and build a portfolio: Employers often value practical experience and a strong portfolio of projects. Work on personal coding projects or contribute to open-source projects to showcase your programming skills and demonstrate your abilities to potential employers.

Remember that success in programming is not solely dependent on mathematical prowess. It's essential to have a growth mindset, a passion for learning, and a willingness to continuously improve your skills. With dedication and perseverance, you can become a competent professional in programming, even without a strong math background.

Based on my life experience, I am able to provide my own opinion. Mathematics is also challenging for me, but that doesn't stop me from sitting down and understanding the necessary sections needed to solve specific problems.

Personally, I have a general tendency to not retain knowledge that may not be useful in the near future.

I would like to emphasize an important point. During my three years as an administrator at a university, I encountered numerous individuals who pursued careers in programming simply because they enjoyed sitting in front of a computer.

Hence, what matters most is not how easily you grasp a subject or related disciplines, but rather how prepared you are to face difficulties. It is crucial to understand that programming encompasses not only intricate and exciting tasks but also a significant amount of routine work, which can be time-consuming and lacking in intrinsic satisfaction. This routine often acts as a filter, effectively eliminating people even more than their aptitude for the subject.

Considering the current state of affairs, I would suggest focusing on C-like languages such as C#, Java, and C++ as the era of Delphi has been gradually declining for quite some time now.

As mentioned above, everything depends on the instructor. During my time as a student, the subject that caused the most expulsions from our group, around 5-7 people, was Mathematical analysis. Our teacher was strict and principled, but it was possible to navigate the course through memorization, cheating, or other means. If individuals genuinely desired to learn, they would persevere.
However, it is not advisable to solely rely on this approach. It is better to hire a tutor, push yourself through the challenges, and truly grasp mathematics. In the future, you may deeply regret wasting time without a solid mathematical foundation. When I was in university, I did not pay much attention to various branches of mathematics such as discrete math, calculus, or probability theory, although I consistently achieved good grades.

Many individuals on programmer forums claimed that mathematics is unnecessary for programmers, except for game development and similar fields. I also shared this belief initially, but later realized that mathematics is essential for any skilled programmer. Regardless of your programming abilities, without a strong understanding of mathematics, you will inevitably create less efficient systems compared to a programmer who possesses mathematical knowledge that matches your skill level.

Yes, you can become a competent programmer without strong math skills. While math can be useful, especially in certain domains, programming mainly requires logic, problem-solving skills, and understanding coding languages. Passion and practice are key.

Find Your Niche Within Programming:
There are many niches within programming where the dependence on heavy math is not substantial. For instance:

Web Development: Involves building websites and web applications. You could focus on front-end development (dealing with the part of the website users interact with, involving HTML, CSS, JavaScript), back-end development (focuses on the server-side, using languages such as Node.js, Ruby, Python), or even full-stack development (which includes both).

Mobile Application Development: This involves creating apps for mobile devices. You could choose to specialize in iOS or Android development. Frameworks are available (like React Native) that allows you to write code once and deploy it on both platforms.

Software Testing: This might suit you if you enjoy digging deep into code, and finding and fixing bugs. This often involves writing code to automate the testing process.

DevOps/Site Reliability Engineering: DevOps roles require a solid understanding of tools and practices to bridge system administration and development. It requires a good understanding of cloud platforms, CI/CD pipelines, containerization tools, etc.

Improve Your Problem-Solving Skills:
Even without strong mathematical skills, it's essential to be a good problem solver in programming. Logical thinking and the ability to methodically work through problems is key to being a successful programmer. Designing algorithms and understanding data structures can help increase your problem-solving skills. Sites like LeetCode, HackerRank, and CodeSignal offer problems that you can practice.

Make Use of Resources Available:
There are many resources available online (both free and paid) that can help you learn to program. Resources like EdX, Coursera, Udemy have fantastic courses with which you can begin. FreeCodeCamp and Codecademy also provide interactive lessons were you can learn by doing.

Connect With Others:
Joining a coding community can be very beneficial. It allows you to collaborate with others, understand different approaches to solving problems, and get help when you're stuck. GitHub is a great platform to share your projects and collaborate with others.

Improve Your Mathematics Skills Gradually: If you encounter areas of programming that do require some mathematical knowledge, don't get discouraged. Mathematics, like programming, is built upon a hierarchical progression of knowledge. You're not expected to immediately understand complex mathematical concepts. Instead, seek out resources to improve your mathematical skills gradually at your own pace. Khan Academy, for example, is an excellent platform that offers lessons on various topics in math.

Build Projects: Building side projects can help reinforce your learning and give you practical experience. Start with simple projects and gradually move to more complex ones. This will solidify your understanding of programming concepts and enable you to learn at your own pace, evading the mathematical complexities if they're not needed for your projects.

Learn from Real-World Examples: Sometimes understanding abstract mathematical concepts can be difficult, but linking them with real-world examples can make them much easier to grasp. Many programming concepts have real-world analogies or applications, so try to find these connections whenever you're learning something new.

Use Tools and Libraries: Certain areas of programming that require advanced mathematical knowledge, such as machine learning and graphics programming, often have libraries and tools you can use to abstract away most of the mathematical complexity. For instance, libraries like TensorFlow and PyTorch have made it possible to build complex machine learning models without needing a deeper understanding of all the underlying mathematical details.

Attend Boot Camps/Workshops: Coding boot camps or workshops can be a great point of entry to learn programming skills intensively over a short period of time. They often focus on practical skills, meaning there's less emphasis on the mathematical facets of programming.

Leverage Tooling and Libraries: Even in spaces where math does come up, there are often libraries or tools you can use to help. For example, if you're dealing with dates and times, libraries like Moment.js or date-fns in JavaScript handle complex date calculations for you. If you're dealing with more complex math, libraries like NumPy in Python allow for efficient processing of large arrays and matrices, without requiring you to write those algorithms yourself.

Documentation and Stack Overflow: Don't be afraid to rely on documentation when you encounter a concept or function that seems math-heavy. Developers of all skill levels use documentation to make sense of things they don't fully understand. Don't hesitate to Google terms or algorithms you're unfamiliar with—chances are, someone has had the same question, and there may be a helpful explanation on sites like Stack Overflow.

Learn the Basics of Discrete Mathematics: While many fields of programming do not require sophisticated math, understanding the basics of discrete mathematics (set theory, propositional logic, etc.) can be very valuable for understanding various programming concepts, especially for certain domains like databases and algorithms.

Pair Programming and Code Reviews: Working with other developers can also help you learn to program without a strong mathematical background. Pair programming, where you work together with another developer on the same code, can be a great way to learn from others. Participating in code reviews, where you review and provide feedback on other developers' code, can also help you see different ways to solve problems, which can help you improve your own coding skills.

Contributing to Open-source Projects: Joining an open-source project can offer a great learning experience. You can learn from more experienced developers and gradually understand how complex systems are built up from smaller pieces. While you contribute, your coding and problem-solving skills will improve which is valuable regardless of your mathematical ability.

Participation in Hackathons: Participating in hackathons can be an excellent way to learn new things and also to understand how to work under pressure. They foster a unique learning environment where you can learn a lot in a short amount of time. Besides, they help you network with other developers and professionals in the industry.

Learn Problem-Solving Skills: Problem-solving skills are one of the most crucial skills for a programmer. Proficiency in mathematics isn't required to be a good problem-solver. You can improve problem-solving skills by practicing coding problems on platforms like LeetCode, HackerRank, Codewars, etc. These platforms also provide solutions and detailed explanations which can help deepen your understanding.

Choose Your Field Wisely: Not all areas of programming require strong math skills. Web development, for instance, requires very little math. On the other hand, machine learning or graphics programming tends to be math-heavy. So, picking the right specialization within programming that aligns with your skills and interests is crucial and can allow you to avoid areas where intense math skills might be needed.

Online Tutorials and Courses: There are countless online resources and platforms like YouTube, Coursera, Udemy, edX, etc ., where you can learn programming step by step, at your own pace, starting from the very basics. Not all of these lessons heavily require a mathematical background.

Community Participation: Join online communities such as Github, StackOverflow, Reddit, etc. These platforms hold a plethora of information where numerous queries related to programming are posted and solved by community members. It's a great way to learn from others' experiences and get your doubts cleared.

Break Down the Problems: When faced with complex problems, try to break them down into smaller, more manageable pieces. This can make it easier to understand and solve them without needing to rely as much on complex mathematical concepts.

Reading Books: Reading programming books can provide you with a solid foundation. They were written by professionals and have been reviewed extensively for accuracy. These books usually provide you with a deep understanding of the topic they are written about and rarely require advanced mathematics unless they are particularly about a mathematical topic in programming.

Practice, Practice, Practice: There is no substitute for hands-on practice in programming. Regardless of your mathematical background, the more you code, the more fluent you'll become. Over time, you'll be able to tackle increasingly complex challenges with greater ease.

Remember, the key to becoming a good programmer isn't necessarily about having deep mathematical knowledge — but rather lies in continuous learning, logical reasoning, and problem-solving capability.