How to become an effective programmer?

I know many of has have this question in our minds especially students and people who are new to coding. Now just like any other skill, coding doesn't have a right or wrong way of learning. This is one of the reasons it's easy to get misguided as a beginner.

So what it actually takes to be an effective programmer?

My take on this

Here are few tips which have helped me to improve both as a dev & as a student:

• Start learning about Data Structures & Algorithms early (start with basics)
• Don't skip the maths (knowing basics can go a long way)
• Start building things (learn as you go)
• Collaborate & Code
• Participate in coding competitions & hackathons
• Build an online presence with a developer profile

Discuss

Feel free to share your own tips which have helped you to improve as a developer in the discussion/comments.