No team needs to — or should even try to — build everything from scratch. Knowing where to look for help and which tools to use is as much a part of FTC programming as writing code.
LibrariesLink to this section
Pedro Pathing, NextFTC and SolversLib are libraries widely used by the FTC community to speed up autonomous development and code organization. Using a well-maintained library tends to be more efficient than rebuilding the same solution from scratch — but it's worth understanding what it does under the hood, not just copying and pasting.
- Get familiar with Pedro Pathing, NextFTC and SolversLib.
- Understand why libraries can speed up development.
- Recognize when it makes sense to use a library instead of building everything from scratch.
Community libraries
Learning from other teamsLink to this section
The FTC community shares a lot of knowledge publicly — code, projects and explanations from other teams. Searching before trying to solve a problem completely on your own saves season time you're unlikely to have to spare.
- Learn where FTC programmers share knowledge.
- Find code examples and projects from other teams.
- Learn to research before trying to solve everything alone.
Community and questionsLink to this section
FTC community Discord servers are usually the fastest channel to get technical questions answered. Knowing how to ask a good question — with context, code and what's already been tried — greatly increases your chances of getting real help.
- Get familiar with Discord servers and communities.
- Learn how to ask a good question when you need help.
- Look for reliable documentation and references.