Your questionnaire is missing a few important questions (in my opinion). You should ask for the responders current status (student, professional - if so freelan

Your questionnaire is missing a few important questions (in my opinion). You should ask for the responders current status (student, professional - if so freelance/employed) because this will quite probably color the answers. (Unless everybody will just put "by coding" in the Other section). You should also ask for the number of years of experience, or at least a ballpark. The way one learns changes depending of what you already know. Edit: and to answer your question. At first I learned by reading other's people code and trying stuff. Adapting existing base bit by bit can go a long way. Back then I had no internet. At university most of the curriculum was theoretical. We have done very little actual coding and most problems were too small. Often too specific and vague at the same time. Nowadays I learn by coding. When you re-read your code from a few months back it should look bad, this is the sign that you have progressed. If there are no idiomatic ways of solving a particular problem, I try to find a better way to implement it each new time. Finally, I try to talk to people smarter or more experienced than me. If I would change one thing, it would be to do more projects in university and make them follow agile methodology with the teacher as product owner.