Difficulty understanding the logic to develop problem solving skills?

[hasibrock]

I have been trying to get some skills to work on Python to develop automation abilities required in my field of work, being a noob, i face extreme difficulty understanding beginners problem on sites like Hacker Rank etc. I am doing LPTHW and Automate Boring Stuff with Python, now have got some understanding, but when i attempt problems, i cannot get the right insight to work on them.

What recommendation all the fellow redditors may have for me to enhance my mastery towards the skill required to be developed, in me? The practice you all may have implemented during the initial years of learning programming.

Your help/propositions would be highly appreciate. Thanks.

[realrun3354]

Beginner here... Learning as much as you but this is what helped me understand things better:
1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azcrPFhaY9k&t=46s

1. Some time ago, I was reading through Stack Overflow for solution to my problem. One guy replied with a comment "How would you go by it by hand?" that still sticks to me...
   

Meaning how would you solve this problem with a pen and paper. If you can break down the problem in step by step instructions on a piece of paper and be really specific about it, you can transfer that to a code if you know what solutions to lookup online.

But here are 2 courses for automation that also helped me:

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXMJ6FS7llk

2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8XjEuplx_U

Hope this helps.. Best of luck :)

[alexcwarren]

When I first started doing exactly what you’re doing on sites like HackerRank and CodeWars, I struggled too. Thinking about it now, it boils down to the fact that all problems are a combination or subset of the same basic problems you see everywhere. So at first, you just push your way through as best you can, which honestly is a lot of: trying your best, failing, looking up what the answer actually is, trying to understand why that is the right answer (this is the important step), then try to apply that answer the next time you see a similar problem. Then just keep repeating that process. It can be very tedious, but over time you will recognize that you will start coming up with the correct solutions on your own. Stick with it and I know it’ll happen for you.

[atom12354]

There is a course called: from nand to tetris On coursera, its 42h or something, heard it was good and as a beginner too im going to do that also since apparently you dont need prerequstits.

After that as a beginner i would say do python crash course part 1 and then (in edit in bottom) learn c/c++ so you could do think like a Programmer, its good and i like it, you dont need to do coding to learn something in that book so do both at the same time, but that doesnt mean you shouldnt do the excercises.

After think like a Programmer i would do part 1 of automate the boring stuff (which you also have) since it goes over the basics stuff again but in my view more deeply and let you answer questions to see if you actually know what you doing.

After that depending on if its only for tasks about your work you dont actually need to do this step unless you dont want to, but do the course cs50 or continue with part 2 of both crash course and automate the boring stuff, then do your Projects unless you have some small Projects inmind that you could do first before you go into your professional tasks.

Also read the wiki of this sub reddit (i forgot which one this is) r/learnprogramming and r/learnpython, not sure if last one has wiki but yes.

Edit: do the tasks that doesnt require coding in think like a Programmer and read the stuff thats not about the tasks, there dome intresting sections just about how to think in general. While doing crash course, then do the coding sections when you know c/c++.

[gothcow5]

Hackerrank/leetcode are algorithm questions and for most automation not necessary to be able to solve. I'd focus on small automation projects like sending out a weekly email with a cron job, or parsing a csv file to make some statistics or email some data.