Since LW is the place where I found out about App Academy… I started working through their sample problems today, and at what level of perceived difficulty / what number of stupid mistakes should I give up? Both in the sense of giving up on working toward getting into App Academy specifically [because I doubt I think fast enough / have a good enough memory to pass the challenges—the first four problems in their second problem-set took me over an hour, and I had to look a few things up despite having gone through the entire Codecademy Ruby course] and in the sense of giving up on programming as an at-least-short-term job plan?
Not sure how much of this is lack of practice (maybe implementation / avoiding stupid errors would get better with practice, but designing the algorithms takes me a while, and I’m not new to programming at all), how much is overconfidence / unrealistically high expectations wrt skill (but they say the code challenges are supposed to take 45 minutes each) and how much is that I really don’t have the talent to get into that particular program, or to not fail miserably at the job, or to develop the skills to be able to even get a programming job...
Hey, I have good news for you. I just tried those practice problems and timed myself to see if I could give you something to compare to (and for fun). I completed the first four in about an hour and 10 minutes (though I am a bit out of practice). Those practice problems are not trivial; they take some thought. I didn’t have to use any outside resources, but I did have to test quite a few things out in the terminal as I was coding it.
For background: I am self taught, but I’ve been programming for almost 2 years. I have done freelance rails programming. I have built multiple rails apps from the ground up by myself. One of these is still in use by multimillion dollar company as a part of their client onboarding program. I’ve been offered a job as a rails developer, though I didn’t end up taking it as I had a higher paying offer on the business end of things.
So I say don’t worry if you have a bit of trouble with it. If you felt like you were looking things up all the time, then you just need some more practice. For the algorithm design part (especially the mathy ones), look into Project Euler. It’s a great list of problems to get practice and you can use whatever language you want to find the answer, so use Ruby. Practice taking the problems apart into pieces, using helper functions, and writing the pseudocode before you actually code anything. That will make this style of thinking feel more natural.
What do you mean by “not new to programming at all”? How many hours programming have you done? How many projects have you completed? Because unless you’ve had a job as a programmer before or you did CS as a college degree your previous experience will be utterly swamped by App Academy. If you feel insecure about algorithms specifically practice them specifically. If you want more practice with Ruby maybe do Hartl’s book. The Codecademy Ruby course is not the end of the world. If programming appeals to you prepare, apply and let App academy do the judging.
Edit: Remember, many people who have had jobs as programmers can’t do FizzBuzz if asked to in an interview. Retain hope.
Since LW is the place where I found out about App Academy… I started working through their sample problems today, and at what level of perceived difficulty / what number of stupid mistakes should I give up? Both in the sense of giving up on working toward getting into App Academy specifically [because I doubt I think fast enough / have a good enough memory to pass the challenges—the first four problems in their second problem-set took me over an hour, and I had to look a few things up despite having gone through the entire Codecademy Ruby course] and in the sense of giving up on programming as an at-least-short-term job plan?
Not sure how much of this is lack of practice (maybe implementation / avoiding stupid errors would get better with practice, but designing the algorithms takes me a while, and I’m not new to programming at all), how much is overconfidence / unrealistically high expectations wrt skill (but they say the code challenges are supposed to take 45 minutes each) and how much is that I really don’t have the talent to get into that particular program, or to not fail miserably at the job, or to develop the skills to be able to even get a programming job...
Hey, I have good news for you. I just tried those practice problems and timed myself to see if I could give you something to compare to (and for fun). I completed the first four in about an hour and 10 minutes (though I am a bit out of practice). Those practice problems are not trivial; they take some thought. I didn’t have to use any outside resources, but I did have to test quite a few things out in the terminal as I was coding it.
For background: I am self taught, but I’ve been programming for almost 2 years. I have done freelance rails programming. I have built multiple rails apps from the ground up by myself. One of these is still in use by multimillion dollar company as a part of their client onboarding program. I’ve been offered a job as a rails developer, though I didn’t end up taking it as I had a higher paying offer on the business end of things.
So I say don’t worry if you have a bit of trouble with it. If you felt like you were looking things up all the time, then you just need some more practice. For the algorithm design part (especially the mathy ones), look into Project Euler. It’s a great list of problems to get practice and you can use whatever language you want to find the answer, so use Ruby. Practice taking the problems apart into pieces, using helper functions, and writing the pseudocode before you actually code anything. That will make this style of thinking feel more natural.
Feel free to PM me if you want to talk more.
Use the try harder Luke.
What do you mean by “not new to programming at all”? How many hours programming have you done? How many projects have you completed? Because unless you’ve had a job as a programmer before or you did CS as a college degree your previous experience will be utterly swamped by App Academy. If you feel insecure about algorithms specifically practice them specifically. If you want more practice with Ruby maybe do Hartl’s book. The Codecademy Ruby course is not the end of the world. If programming appeals to you prepare, apply and let App academy do the judging.
Edit: Remember, many people who have had jobs as programmers can’t do FizzBuzz if asked to in an interview. Retain hope.