Kosta Nikanchyk

I am a Masters student in Cyber Security at City, University of London. I have been helping individuals of all experience levels learn programming online for 2 years. I started programming at the age of 14 and have built an diverse portfolio of projects since, ranging from simple streaming clients as a teenager to networked services and a software exploitation framework. I aim to foster the same excitement in all my students as I had when I was teaching myself to program 8 years ago.


Because lesson time is limited, I prioritise the following in all my lessons:

1) Excellent understanding of the fundamentals. All advanced problems and solutions can be reduced to fundamentals. When first engaging in a new topic area, it is learning the fundamentals that is often the most challenging, mentally draining and discouraging part to learn. I am to provide simple and human explanations, give parallels to tangible real world examples and get the student to play around with the concepts to get a feel for how they work.

2) Learning through practice. Taught theory often lacks the supplementary information necessary for practical implementation. It is during practice that almost all of the problems that make programming difficult arise. Taking the first steps with a tutor around is very efficient and saves hours of digging around online that the student may otherwise have to do (or even worse, give up!).

3) Keep it fun & engaging. I am to inspire my students to undertake projects that they choose themselves. This is almost always the most exciting way to learn and keeps students engaged, teaches them how to learn independently and showcases the value of perseverance.

4) How to think. Programmers in the wild are faced with the need to learn new technologies all the time. Approaching never before seen topics can be daunting. I aim to walk students through the methodologies they can employ to approach new topics. This is exceptionally useful for students that are passionate and want to create stuff in their own time. Official documentation is often aimed at professionals and is difficult to approach as a beginner.