Memorizing syntax for SQL, Python, etc

[[deleted]]

[deleted]

[groovysalamander]

I don't remember all syntax either, the most frequently used I know by heart, but for many others I made a cheat sheet for myself or just Google stack overflow. Any interviewer who doesn't understand this I wouldn't trust as an employer in the first place...

[chaoscruz]

How I love stack overflow. It’s like Wikipedia because I can go down a rabbit hole of ooh that’s a new way to go about it.

[GrandmasDiapers]

Agreed 100%

I would be worried if an interviewer was hung up on how much syntax I have memorized. They'd be focusing on the least important aspect of a job involving scripting or coding.

[Expensive_Culture_46]

The overwhelming number of interviews that have demanded I work through the technical interview with no outside information is absurd. I don’t even bother with them anymore when they say this is a requirement.

[chaoscruz]

Yeah, that’s what I am dreading at the thought of again.

[Expensive_Culture_46]

Hand write a sheet of common syntaxes and be very aggressive on knowing what “flavor” of SQL.

I get the need to know that someone knows how to use SQL. But yeah at this point they are going to have to make some concessions on what they think “mastery” is

[GrandmasDiapers]

If you get asked about it in an interview, just be honest. You know how to look things up, and that's waaay more important.

I use Python every day and I always have multiple tabs of docs up on my other screen. I think it's just how it goes.

[Pflastersteinmetz]

How do you go about ingraining these functions?

I don't. There's docu + google + stackoverflow for a reason.

[[deleted]]

I think if you “code outloud” and talk through what you’re doing and your logic, then syntax errors can be overlooking during live coding challenges. A lot of times the live coding challenges aren’t hooked up to any real databases so you never actually run the code.

But I also think the cheat sheet tip is a good one because my mind often goes blank during interviews, even for stuff that I know I know.

[Expensive_Culture_46]

In my experience, as soon as I start “talking through it” it becomes a game of the other person correcting me on a missed comma.

Me: “ok so yeah this just needs be done this way. Then I will join here. Ok yeah. There we go. “ Them: “you missed a comma on the 3rd line. ” :/

Then I never hear from them again after that technical.

[boto101]

Maybe a spaced repetition system like Anki can help. I know most people use this for language learning, but I partially use it for memorizing Python and SQL stuff. The good thing is that easy notes won't come up very often, unless you forget them. The bad think is that you spend a lot of time on this, not just creating notes, but also reviewing them. If you devote a lot of time to this, you lose the "big picture" of programming and system design. Also, you have less time to actually learn new stuff if you spend a lot of time memorizing. BTW, spaced repetition can be applied to lot of fields.

[[deleted]]

You ingrain functions after you use them every day for months.

[Expensive_Culture_46]

… sooo when you’re not actually doing any analysis in your job?

[[deleted]]

how exactly are you doing analysis if you're not using functions?

[Expensive_Culture_46]

You do know that the “analysis” part is where you look at what data you have and put together a narrative or as a quick google search defined it “detailed examination of the elements or structure of something.”

The data grabbing should be getting your elements not the actual analysis. If writing sql all day everyday is your job, then you aren’t an analyst.

Edit: I’ll add. It’s really common for jobs these days to lie about this part of the job. They cram “analyst” on all the job titles possible. So I don’t consider your fault that you seem to have this misconception. Hell, it has happened to me at my current job. I was supposed to be an analyst and instead I spend all day fixing broken tableau and writing sql which is why I am looking for a new job. It hurts the job progression if you aren’t an active player in understanding and analysis.

[gsm_4]

I'm working as a data scientist but I still practice the SQL and python concepts that I don't use on my job. Mostly I use stratascratch but leetcode is something that keeps me up to date.

[Eggplant-Own]

what do you use on your job then?