It is not an issue of specific differences. The terms can be synonymous and usually would be. However, there can also be specific usages in which some standard is used. For example, there could a Sword Fencing Schools which places those with no experience at all in a NOVICE category, and has another category for those which have a little experience which qualifies those persons as BEGINNERS. There is not much exactitude here. There is flexibility. If you can I were both starting today to learn an obscure language in New Guinea, people could call us NOVICES and BEGINNERS equally. Such questions are difficult when student pick synonymous terms, and then ask for someone to tell them the differences between the terms. Because English is a melting pot of languages, many terms can be interchanged. .

Someone who is a novice is inexperienced at doing something - they haven't had a lot of practice in the role that they are in. The term refers to the amount of time they have had to gain experience. A beginner is someone learning a skill, such as a language or a musical instrument, who is still in the early stages. There is often a set programme of study, and the term refers to the stage they have reached eg they may still be at grade one for the instrument they are playing.

Often there is no difference in meaning. And I do not agree with the distinctions that at least one other person has given. A beginner is someone who is inexperienced at doing something. I am a beginner at playing the piano. And a novice is someone learning a skill. I am a novice at playing the piano. Only in one field will the two terms mean something different: a novice is a "beginner" in a monastic or other religious order. In this context, novice is a technical term and beginner is not a synonym in this context.

Beginner: First time. No experience. Novice: Little experience. More skilled than beginner.