Vibe coders without fundamentals do fine with basic and simple apps…

Vibe coders without fundamentals do fine with basic and simple apps. But things go wrong when they are trying to solve a bigger problem.

The first issue is complexity. Large apps have many parts that work together.

Back when I built a global search feature for a B2B marketplace, users needed to search products, stores, documentation, etc at once. Before I wrote any code, I had to learn how each part of the system worked, how the data is synced to Elasticsearch cluster, and how we can rank the results.

Without understanding the system, you’re lost. What should you change? How do you make sure the AI doesn’t break things that already work? You can’t just ask AI and hope for the best.

The second issue is documentation. After you understand how things work, you need to write clear docs so your team knows what to change and future engineers can maintain the code. This is where vibe coders struggle. Without the fundamentals, they can’t explain how things work.

What happens when the original engineer leaves? Without proper documentation or deep understanding of the system, it’s hard to maintain it. This isn’t just a tech issue, it also hurts the business long-term.

Vibe coding works for some things, but building large systems needs solid foundations that AI can’t give you alone.

Don’t take this negatively. I do vibe coding too. Most of my code now is generated by AI also. My advice is don’t feel satisfied after you generate an app with AI. Keep learning the fundamentals so you can grow over time and be ready to handle larger problems.