Crio Launch Walkthrough
Learn software development the RIGHT way — Yes, Applied!
How this out of the world programme upskill you, for a career in Tech?
Internet is a dream come true for all modern-day learners, particularly in tech. It presents to you courses, tutorials and code walkthroughs from experienced developers, academic institutions like MIT, Stanford, IITs and MOOC platforms like Udacity.
One of the downsides of online learning is giving in to the trap of continuously completing courses without applying the knowledge gained. On the contrary, Crio Launch gives you back the learn by doing experience.
Launch is a 10-week online merit-based applied learning program to acquire skills in Java, Databases, OOPs, Applied Data Structures, Linux, OS & Networking, and more. It provides projects as curated modules, none of which you’ll be able to complete without grasping the underlying knowledge and more importantly applying the learning.
Why Launch caught my eye?
As someone who has taken a fair number of online courses, I find the programme extremely challenging albeit informative as well as fulfilling. Even though it’s only been a fortnight since the program started, the distinctive features for me are:
1. You aren’t given trivial tasks/answers — only enough hints to give you the activation energy for finding the answers & completing the milestone
2. Mentoring support by lead engineers from Crio.Do
3. A vibrant community of 1500 hand-picked developers either in junior or senior years of their Bachelor’s
4. Excellent support on the forum — receive queries answered by Crio TAs and peers
5. Weekly schedules you actually adhere to, Module-wise Office hours and Weekly Career & Tech sessions
Micro Experiences (ME)
The programme involves three Micro Experiences(aka projects) designed as multiple modules, covering different skills necessary to create and maintain software. The modules are to be completed in milestones wherein we take in the basics, code and reflect on our solution. The solutions are assessed through test cases and successful completion of the module is followed by debriefing which involves a quiz, key takeaways including references, and examples of relevance in the real world
You get to work on 3 intensive projects — QBox, QMoney & QCharm
ME 1: QBox
Quoting from the Launch website,
From the days of FTP to Dropbox, file-sharing has been a fascinating problem with several different use-cases. Build QBox, a secured file-sharing solution for enterprise networks.
The modules involved in the ME are
- Getting started with QBox
Familiarising yourself with the Linux commands and log file which QBox generates - Evaluate system configuration
Computers go crazy if they can’t handle the expenses incurred by the software it feeds. The module involves writing Bash scripts that will be run pre-installation of the QBox application to ascertain the host has supported OS installed and has a minimum threshold of Processor frequency, Memory and Disk space free. - Deploy the QBox server
I’ll try to be a bit lazy from here on 😅
Nb: Correlation = -1
I had to make use of 3 converters for getting the above gif from the screen-captured video after cropping and stretching for larger font size. If anyone knows a better workaround, please be kind enough to pass by the comments section
Now, where were we, 😕… Ah! We just wrapped up module 3
A quick word of caution before we move onto module 4. By the time most of us reached module 4, some of the Rapid Cheetahs had already felt the wrath of module 4 and were kind enough to pass on the fear 😃
4. New Versions of QBox
Despite the milestone taking days for most and 4 for me, in the end, it was excitement all around
5. Resolve Network Issues
6. Implement Secure File Transfer
Up until now, the insecure FTP protocol was used for file sharing and it’s high time we recognize QBox won’t survive in the wild(or in the Dark to be precise). We are gonna need something safe. As we were going to type in the search bar “how to make ftp secure FULL TUTORIAL” , the🔒 next to the search bar caught your eye.
Eureka!, we know what that means. We’ll hire SSL private security firm for safe transportation of our FTP pack(ets)ages. There’s a catch, you need a trusted 3rd-party to verify your partnership to clients, but you are out of funds for the project. As the deal was necessary, you took the risk to masquerade one of your developers as the 3rd-party.
The new feature quickly became worthwhile as more clients started using the application and within no time Security became the selling pitch for QBox. The additional security lead to an increase in the transportation time but nonetheless we can go to sleep knowing the user data’s safe.
With the last functionality in the project specification completed, it’s time to make a toast to all the audacious personnel involved.
Crio Buddies
Crio.Do has brought in Crio Buddies for enlightening the despaired spirits and passing on handy tech tips. Introducing Dev @devgyaan — the spiritual guru, Kri @kriate — creativity is her middle name and Jay @geekjay — the in-house geek
Extensive Forum Support
One of the characteristic features of the programme is the forum support by Crio Tech Leads and peers. Even though you usually go to a forum(or stackoverflow) only when stuck on a bug, I found it a great resource to complement the learnings from the modules. There are quite insightful discussions about peculiarities involved in the topics learnt.
Like Urvashi’s curse turning out in favour of Arjuna, the programme guideline of not to share even a single line of code came in favour for me. It’s easy to reply to a query by pasting the solution code or the configuration list. But, it takes deep reasoning to craft a lucid response under the restrictions. Also, by performing the action of typing the answers, I think, helped better reinforce the learnings.
If you’ve made this far, you would have noticed the fair share of fun going over in the community and trust me, the invitees aren’t the only cool people around
It seems like the Big Boys are now striking back for all the noise we made in #random 😂
We’re only a quarter into the programme and I know it’s gonna be a journey I will always cherish.
Ooh, wait! Almost forgot to tell you about my bragging rights 😅
I was fortunate enough to be among the Stars Of The Week along with some of the highly energetic community members
Learn more about Crio Launch here: crio.do/launch
Nb: Crio.Do has permitted use of their images in this article. Names of peers in images are displayed with consent
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What you went through is my First “published” article. It’s been a while I’ve been wanting to. I don’t understand why one needs courage to publish a piece of writing online(at least the first one). Nonetheless, it took a lot. It’s fascinating how the human brain works! Would like to shower my gratitude to everyone @ Crio.Do and to my peers at Launch, NITC & SPAI for making this possible.
If you aren’t worn out going through so much content, it would be great if you could put in your thoughts on the article in the comments. It’ll help me make my further writings better for you.
If you are exhausted, it’s Okay 👍. Take a quick break, stretch your legs ……. 1. 2. 3 — Yep, you’re all good to go, the comment section’s waiting 😃
You can catch me up on LinkedIn
