Study Tips for Code Challenges
Code challenges are a big part of being a developer. Whether it be in school or applying for a job you will be tested on your skills via code challenges. What helped me in studying for code challenges at school was reviewing with other students, and building full applications. As for job interview challenges the best study practice I have found is using Hacker Rank and Skilled Inc, which are 3rd party sources to help you prepare and practice code challenges. Everyone has their own study methods, so please remember to use the techniques that work best for you.
The code challenges at school were always on one language at a time. For example Ruby, Ruby on Rails, Vanilla JavaScript, JavaScript React, etc. Now the great thing about all these languages is that you can build applications in all of them. Originally I thought it would be best to work on each section of the language individually and then bring it all together in an application. However, doing that only made me more confused on the sections I didn’t understand well. The best way I found to go about it, was to build a full application in the language and see how each part effects the app as a whole. By isolating the section I was having trouble with, I narrowed my vision and couldn’t see how the section applied to the big picture. Creating the app not only reinforced my knowledge of other sections, but also helped me understand the greater purpose of a section I didn’t understand well.
Another tip for preparing for school code challenges is to study with your classmates. Now I don’t mean you should ONLY study with classmates, you still need to prepare on your own. However, studying with a group does wonders for your own comprehension. Not only can you ask other students questions regarding some material that may confuse you, but you can also help fellow students with a topic that you understand that they may not. By doing this you reinforce your knowledge on the topic, which allows you more study time to focus on areas you are not as strong in. To be successful in a study group there must be some give and take, and you don’t want to be the person in the study group that only takes. This is a negative because without any self taught knowledge on the topic, you fall victim to pattern matching. Pattern matching is just following step by step how someone does something without understanding the functionality of each part. Sure you may be able to pass a code challenge, but it will only set you back further in the long run. Remember, the goal is to both reinforce your knowledge and improve your weak sports.
On to job interview code challenges. These differ from school code challenges because rather than be given a topic to be tested on, you must do everything on the fly to show your coding logic. Typically these challenges are done using vanilla JavaScript in a sandbox-type environment. Hacker Rank is one of the best resources to have when preparing for a job interview code challenge. Hacker Rank offers interview code challenge prep, as well as JavaScript reviews to help refresh your skills. It is free to use with an account and I strongly recommend using it. Not only does it give you code challenges, it also does the code challenge a test environment so you know in real time if your solution is correct or not. Keeping up with your code is very important, so be sure to check this site out daily to keep your skills up to par.
Lastly, another great practice for code challenges is utilizing Skilled Inc. Skilled Inc is a 3rd party interview prep that DOES cost money. Fortunately for me I was given a free trial from my school to use it once. The process is both simple and helpful. You are taking a code challenge and pretending it would be one for a job interview, but the difference here is that you are sent a full recap of your code challenge with grades for every section. This way you can focus on improving specific areas of your code knowledge. Skilled Inc was a great experience and I advise anyone preparing for a job interview code challenge to use it.
