How long does it take to learn web-programming from scratch?

Mr.Watson

Is it possible to learn web programming in a year without any previous experience and be able to build complex website? I mean not just simple home pages but sites with many functions like Facebook (Offcourse I don't mean the Facebook so big like it is today, but like it was when Zuck first launched it from his dorm-room) or some kind of prototype Twitter, or blogger etc.

OMGCarlos

Depends, do you have ANY programming experience?

I was freelancing within 2 months of picking up web development by going on eLance and doing small PHP and JavaScript projects, and slowly working my way up. I've also been coding in general almost since I could read...

You could build a prototype of Twitter in an afternoon, and in fact has become a sort of "Hello World" for learning certain languages.

Lemme know what your expectations are, what kind of project you're thinking of, and I can help you from there.

Greg Bernhardt

As OMGCarlos has commented, it really depends if you have other programming or computer concept experience. Math and logic skills also really help.

Also as OMGCarlos said, the core concept of a blog or twitter feed is extremely straight forward and simple. It becomes more difficult when you scale the simple concepts to serve millions of people.

One thing to consider is that most often a web developer is not just using one technology. For example you might need to combine HTML, CSS, Database Management, Javascript and PHP. That is a lot to learn in a year.