How programmers can type faster

Programming is not mostly typing — it is mostly thinking. But the typing still matters, just not in the way most people assume. The goal is not a high number on a typing test. It is never having to think about the keyboard, so nothing interrupts the thought you are typing out.

Why ordinary practice does not help much

Typing tests and courses use English prose. Prose barely uses the keys code depends on: ( ) { } [ ] ; = < > _ | & !. These sit on the edges of the keyboard, mostly under the little fingers, many behind Shift. A developer can be a fast prose typist and still glance down for a curly brace every time — and a prose trainer will never notice, because it never asks for one.

1. Touch type the symbols, not just the letters

Learn which finger owns each symbol and practise until you can hit them without looking. The brackets and braces are the highest-value keys to learn, followed by operators and separators. The Keyshand code course drills these in that order: brackets, operators, separators, then real identifiers.

2. Practise on code-shaped text

Symbols in isolation are a start, but in real code they come in combinations: =>, !==, &&, ?., ();. Practising on real identifiers and expressions trains the transitions between keys, which is where most of the time goes.

3. Measure your symbols separately

A single WPM number averages everything together. What you want to know is which specific keys are slow. Keyshand measures every key on its own, and its typing test names the keys that cost you the most time. For the symbols, the code course's units show where you stand on each group.

4. Fix the letters too

Identifiers, keywords and comments are still mostly letters. If you do not touch type the alphabet yet, start there — the guide to touch typing covers the basics.

5. Let your tools type for you

Autocomplete, snippets and editor shortcuts remove a lot of typing. Learn your editor's shortcuts for moving by word, selecting lines and duplicating — they save more time than an extra 10 WPM would.

What speed is enough?

There is no magic figure. Many excellent programmers type at an average speed. What matters is that the keyboard is invisible: if you are not glancing down and not stopping to find a symbol, you are fast enough. Beyond that, extra speed helps most for writing — documentation, messages and code review — rather than for writing code itself.