A common question asked by new developers starting out, especially during the first few months of learning, is ‘when does it start to get easier?’
The reality is it never really gets ‘easy’, but with experience it does get easier. When you’ve seen enough similar problems and previously worked out solutions before, that knowledge and experience helps you approach new problems.
A completely new problem that you’ve never seen before obviously takes more time and effort to work out an appropriate solution. A problem that you’ve already seen before takes less time because you’re able to apply the previous knowledge and solution.
The point where things start to get easier is where you’re able to pull from previous similar problems that are different from the current problem you’re working on, but enough knowledge and previous experience helps to find a solution to a completely new problem.
When do you reach this point? It varies for everyone, it depends what you’re working on. If you’re working in an environment where you’re working on very similar problems day after day, you’re not encountering enough variety to grow your experience so will take you longer. If you’re lucky enough to be working in an environment when you’re exposed to a broad range of problem types, then you’ll develop your experience quicker.