📓 1.0.0.07 How to Ask for Help
In this lesson
- A step-by-step process for getting unstuck faster
- An example message you can copy and adapt on Discord
- Where to ask and when it's okay to reach out before everything is "perfect"
Time: ~10 minutes
Throughout your programming career, and especially while you're just starting out, you're going to need help from other people. You are not bothering anyone by asking questions. Instructors and classmates are here to help you learn. If you follow the guidelines below, you'll usually get useful answers more quickly.
You don't need to have everything figured out first
These steps are a helpful order, not a test you must pass before you're allowed to ask. If you're stuck after 20 - 30 minutes, or you're not sure which step to try next, ask anyway and say what you've already tried. It's better to ask early than to stay frustrated for hours.
How to ask for help
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Break the problem down. Most difficult problems are actually several smaller problems that aren't so difficult. Is there a smaller piece of the problem you're working on that you could solve?
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Do your own research. Go through the debugging steps you know so far (see Debugging in JavaScript: Reading Console Errors and related lessons in Intro to Programming). Re-read or re-watch the relevant lessons on this site. Search online — or ask AI to explain an error in plain language — to see if others had the same problem.
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Have your problem as close to being fixed as you know how. When something isn't going right, you might try many different things. Before you ask someone for help, get your project back to the state you think is closest to working.
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Demonstrate the problem. It can be tempting to show only the problematic code and explain everything you tried, but without seeing what's going wrong, it's harder to help. Demonstrate the bug, show the part of the program you can't make work, and pull up the error message.
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Narrow down the problem. Show which part of the code you think is the culprit. Explain why you think your code in its present state should work, and any ideas you have about why it doesn't.
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Share your hypotheses. You'll often have ideas about what's going wrong based on your understanding and clues from your research. Share those with the person helping you—they may not be obvious from the code alone.
Example message (Discord)
You can adapt this template in your cohort's help and classroom text channel (see Installing and Using Discord):
Hi, I'm stuck on [lesson or exercise name].
What I'm trying to do: [one sentence]
What happens instead: [error message or unexpected behavior]
What I've tried so far:
- [step 1]
- [step 2]
My best guess about the cause: [optional — or "I'm not sure yet"]
Link or screenshot: [GitHub repo, CodePen, or screenshot if helpful]
During live class time, you can also ask in voice when your instructor invites questions, or message them directly on Discord if they've asked you to reach out that way.
Note: For independent projects, classmates usually cannot help with your code until you've both passed that code review. See Academic Honesty. Your instructor is always the right person to ask about project requirements and resubmission.
Using AI to Ask for Help
The same six steps above apply when you ask AI for help. AI is especially useful for turning "I'm stuck" into a clear, specific question — but only after you've tried to break the problem down and do your own research first.
Before using AI, ask yourself: Do I have the license for this? If you can't evaluate AI's response or take responsibility for the output, ask an instructor or peer first.
Ask clear questions, provide useful context, evaluate AI responses critically, and know when to stop using AI and ask a human.
Strong vs. Weak Prompts
| ❌ Weak prompt | ✅ Strong prompt |
|---|---|
| "Fix my code." | "I expected this function to return a number, but it returns undefined. Can you explain 2–3 possible reasons this might happen without giving me the solution?" |
| "Explain Git." | "I'm trying to push to GitHub and got 'rejected non-fast-forward.' Can you explain what that means in plain language?" |
| "What does this error mean and fix it." | "My terminal says 'command not found: node.' What are 2–3 things I should check before asking my instructor?" |
| "Fix my HTML." | "My <img> tag isn't showing an image. Can you explain 2–3 things I should check in my src attribute and file path without writing the fix for me?" |
| "Why isn't my CSS working?" | "I added a class selector in my CSS file but the styles aren't applying. Can you explain how the cascade and specificity might affect this?" |
| "My git push failed." | "I ran git push and got 'rejected non-fast-forward.' I expected my commits to upload. Can you explain what this error means and what I should try first?" |
Strong prompts include what you expected, what actually happened, and what kind of help you want. They ask for explanation or next steps — not finished solutions.
For Fidgetech's full AI principles, the Three AI Stances self-assessment, and guidance on when to use AI vs instructors vs peers, see Using AI Responsibly at Fidgetech.