Most Recent Challenging learning experience

MY MOST RECENT CHALLENGING EXPERIENCE

For me, learning has always been a very fun thing to do. From learning about how stuffs work to learning about other interesting non-technical stuff, i have always been the type of guy would walk into a school environment, smiling.

Recently, i began to explore the diverse world of computer programming. i have always wondered how the folks who designed the computer and the internet could invent something so all-encompassing and amazing. As usual, i decided to learn a bit about computer programming. I picked up several articles regarding this wide field and i was overwhelmed by many different features and the dynamics of technology. I was so overwhelmed, i initially did not know where to begin to focus on. Nevertheless, due to my love for learning, i decided to go deeper and picked a programming language to experiment with. Moving through the coding examples was quite easy and i became pretty confident.

I saw a post online inviting young Nigerians to apply for Andela, a software company that intends to transform the world. Pretty confident, i took up the challenge. Little did i know i was in for a big shocker. I realised that learning to code is so much more of a greater deal than just reading through some books and little examples. The coding examples in text books are specifically designed to explain a particular concept. As such, they are deliberately made easy so as understand a concept without getting lost in the logic. learning how to code became very challenging, i would take up a code challenge for the andela test and stare and stare at the problem, i would write a block of code inspired by the very first idea that came to my head, very confident in my code, but Andela’s hidden tests would reject my code. I could take up a code challenge and spend days trying to figure out an efficient solution. Asides having to be able to analyse deeply, my background in chemical Engineering was not of much help here. I had to rely on more textbooks, online video tutorials and lots and lots and lots and lots of practice(worth emphasizing). This was very challenging as i had to also meet deadlines for the application.

I have realised that different fields require different methods to thrive. The onus is on you to determine which learning method works best for which environment. learning programming, for me, has been quite challenging and even a bit daunting sometimes but if you want to really excel in any field, you have to love it more than you are afraid of it!

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