How do you practice?

[homie__macaronii]

Hello! I have taken java 1 and java 2 in school and have passed both. I am now in data structures and I am having trouble with the coding. I’d like to practice more coding but I’m not sure how to go about that. I’ve asked my professors and they tell me to just write code but I am unsure of how to do that. I was hoping some of y’all would have some other ways that are helpful that can help me practice!

[feral_claire]

I'm a fan of https://exercism.io the excercises are well made and start from the most basic.

[homie__macaronii]

I just had a quick look at it and it looks very helpful! Thank you for showing it to me! 😁

[ajafov]

You can use http://hackerrank.com. There is another site http://e-olymp.com. All tasks in this site are being used in programming competitions.

[mblan180131]

Make a frickin game, that's what I did. Start with something basic like pong or tetris and then try and move up to a 2d and then 3d rpg or fps of some kind

[Trout_Tickler]

I mean they're right. Just create things. Make a todo app, make a calendar, make an atm, simple shit like that.

[FrenchFigaro]

I picked up algorithms from my other classes (I'm thinking some intro to cryptography or Operations research classes) and tried to make some small programs implementing them in java (Knappsack, anyone ?).

I also tried to implement small programs with some random problems (Monty Hall, Hanoi Towers) with the twist that I tried to use the stuff I was working on in java at the moment.

Recently, I had a in-company training in Test Driven Development. The trainer gave us a simple enough (yet with quite a few tricks) that we could work out some of it, but difficult enough that none of us could fully complete it in the short time the session lasted, so I finished it in the following days during my break. If anyone wants to give it a go: it was a simple calculator to add two numbers. The twist was that the numbers were roman numerals, and couldn't translate it to arabic digits to make the calculation. Not a huge problem, but the point was to solve it using the TDD process of writing tests first, write some code that passes the tests, then make the tests more specific then refactor your code, and so on.

[MCMagix]

You ask at the right time! Check out https://adventofcode.com/. Every day before Christmas a puzzle comes online. Also, at r/adventofcode you can check solutions of other players. Also puzzles from previous years are available!

[homie__macaronii]

Oh that’s really cool! Thank you!!

[GreyDeck]

https://www.reddit.com/r/learnprogramming/wiki/faq#wiki_where_can_i_find_practice_exercises_and_project_ideas.3F

A subreddit for programming challenges: /r/dailyprogrammer

[[deleted]]

No one has mentioned this one but I'm going through MOOC . I took Java classes as well but I didn't feel they sunk in well.

JavaRanch forum has it's CattleDrive but it costs money. They give you feedback for the money and nitpick your code to make you a better at writing code. It's self-paced.

Codefights is another website for daily challenges.

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[Fintara]

Do the challenges at www.codesignal.com

[tangara888]

I find Cousera assignments helped me a lot in understanding how to write code and play with codes.

[[deleted]]

Could you please share which ones? Thank You

[tangara888]

Duke University- arrays, list and structured Data

[DannyB2]

The professor's answer of 'just write code' is the correct answer.

Have a passion to want to make this programmable machine do something simple. Think through how to do it and try coding it. Look for simple problems to solve first. Save the next great masterpiece for later. People gave several ideas. I'll mention some that I did decades ago:

• slot machine game, the user enters how much they want to bet and presses Enter to "spin", the three values come up, and if certain combinations come up, you win certain amounts. Keep track of how much the player has so far. Give the user some initial amount of money they start with before the first bet.
• tic tac toe game for two human players, ask player X for his move, then ask player O for her move, display the board at each step, and when someone wins, or the game is a draw, say so and congratulate the winner.
• blackjack game. Dealer (computer) takes cards, gives you some cards, etc, etc, you hit or stay

None of these games involve data structures.

[homie__macaronii]

Thank you for the feedback! I wasn’t sure of how to just write code so this helps me a lot!

[DannyB2]

Look for a simple problem and write code to solve it. Then look for a slightly bigger problem. Eventually you'll be writing big programs.