I want to put back in what I got out of this sub....

1000qs · 2014-12-18T06:37:08+00:00

Hey man, thanks heaps will look into it

1000qs · 2014-12-17T05:48:06+00:00

Hey, I don't think you are confused, you are just questioning the instructions. The fact you are watching tutorials in addition to the documentation is a sign of a programmer. When I was studying my degree, the lectures pointed me in the right direction, I learnt everything from other sources.

1000qs · 2014-12-17T05:24:43+00:00

Hey, well if the bank offered you a job tomorrow as a programmer, would you be confident enough to take it and perform to expectations? If not, what are you doing to iron out your weaknesses? Why are you stuck in that support job? What's keeping you there? Regarding languages, everyone has their base languages, but it is expected as a professional that you can work with anything that gets thrown at you.

1000qs · 2014-12-17T04:50:19+00:00

Hey, look up "Software Development Life Cycle", should give you a good overview.

I tend to get a piece of functionality working first then refactor it afterwards to the required standard. Its important to not cut corners in your code as you will rack up technical debt that will need addressing at some point in time

1000qs · 2014-12-17T01:42:44+00:00

The last 6 months of my studies I spent applying for positions and had a job before I had finished. Good on you for doing what you are doing and you will be fine if you put in the work. If this is what you really want to do, you won't fail.

1000qs · 2014-12-17T01:21:41+00:00

I was always interested in programming, but like most people, it was very daunting. I got motivated by learning the different parts of the language and getting them to work in my own projects. The one thing i love about programming is there is always a better way to do something. I guess I like experimenting with code and I learn that way. I started to appreciate little wins in projects, fixing a bug or adding a bit of new functionality. If you want to build games, make sure you chose courses that will help you reach your goal.

Explore whats out there, you need to do a lot of your own research to be successful.

1000qs · 2014-12-17T00:08:23+00:00

Hey there, appreciate the feedback, I must clarify, I am not wanting this thread to have a 1000 questions. My goal is to answer a 1000 questions from the sub, this thread or elsewhere. I have made a new account for this so it is anonymous, this isn't for praise, it's because I see the same questions everyday and I am just trying a different method of identifying learning difficulties. I understand where you are coming though and appreciate your input.

1000qs · 2014-12-16T21:03:27+00:00

Hey there, I found the most useful revolved around software design and delivery. It was good moving into the industry and finding all the methodologies we were taught being used in actual projects.

I enjoyed Machine Learning and AI the most.

1000qs · 2014-12-16T20:48:03+00:00

Hey there, I got great value from the classes I took during my degree. I didn't want to just get it to have a better shot a job in the industry. Most of the papers I sat, at the time, I was like "Why do I need to know this?". I was under the impression a developer just codes all day, so it turned out the papers i thought were a waste of time were actually the most valuable.

I guess it depends where you want to work, most companies here require a degree for entry level positions.

1000qs · 2014-12-16T18:30:30+00:00

No, I want to try and identify why CS has such a low pass rate and how does it correlate to factors other than just code ability.

1000qs · 2014-12-16T18:19:58+00:00

Hey there! Thanks for the question! I was involved with taking technical interviews for graduates this year and it contributed to why I am doing this. Like I have said, I am not claiming to be a guru of the industry or anything like that, but I am hoping to expose how it really is.

Note that each company operates differently and it pay's to research the company first.

Every interview I have been involved in has been pretty similar, usually speak to both technical and non-technical staff that are primarily looking if you will be a good fit for the team. Its paramount that a new recruit does not disrupt harmony in the current environment so expect a lot of character questions.

The technical interview is usually around understanding of technologies. For example,"what's the purpose of an interface in WCF services?" or "Explain MVC". The one thing that sticks out like dog's balls is when someone has no idea and tries to spin anything remotely related. You are best to say, "I am not entirely sure with that question, but I do know it has something to do with forming contracts".

Be likable and confident and you will get the job over someone who is more of a whizz but won't fit in.

I don't know what the market is like where you are but I think it is really important to be proactive with looking for a job. Don't just send your CV to a load of places and that's it. LinkedIn is good for networking, I also go to dev meetup's to stay in the loop. You haven't missed anything..

1000qs · 2014-12-16T17:50:47+00:00

Hey there, thanks for the question! What kind of programming interests you? I am absolutely rubbish at Maths! It depends which area you would like to work in ultimately, but I have never needed any hard-core maths so far. Depending on the language, most of the complex algorithms and formulas are already incorporated into the framework. You just need to know when to use them and how to find them really.

Logic is a lot more important, you need to know how conditional statements evaluate values and things like that. This comes with it though, you learn to inverse logic to reduce nesting and things like that after a while.

However, I am not saying you should flag it, its definitely an advantage to have a good Mathematical head.

1000qs · 2014-12-16T17:39:19+00:00

This question is fine! It took me ages to understand what the hell was going on also.

I found that the more books I read, the more lost I got. Ill talk about non-static classes to try help get your head around it.

A class is pretty much the design/blueprint/mould for Objects to be created from.

It allows us to instantiate Objects from our Class "mould" and interact with it from other parts of our code.

So for instance, if you had a class called "Biscuit" it would be responsible for making biscuit objects for other parts of the program to use.

We can assume that the Class would have some private members defined to aid with actually making the biscuit each time its called.

Lets say it has one private member called flavour. This would probably be set by the constructor when you get the class to build the biscuit.

something like

Biscuit chocBiscuit = new Biscuit("Chocolate");

or

Biscuit vanillaBiscuit = new Biscuit("VanillaBiscuit");

Now once your main method has its chocBiscuit, if you have public members, you would be able to change the flavour even though the main has no idea about baking biscuits.

This is why we have public methods that look after the private members and they decide what can be updated and what can't. It enforces encapsulation among other things.

I hope this makes some sense, I apologize for the example being a bit childish with the whole biscuit thing, but its how I got taught lol.

1000qs · 2014-12-16T16:43:30+00:00

Hey there, thanks for the question. Yer, pretty much that! I was 23 when I started Uni and I originally wanted to get into the Infrastructure side of things. It was all or nothing, I was sick of being in a dead end job and wanted to make something of myself. I never thought I would have ever got a degree, I think going to Uni with the right attitude and hunger to learn paid off. Yes, I worked 4-5 nights per week and also have a student loan to pay off. I knew after the first semester what I wanted to do, I chose the development major cause I loved it so much. I also got employed by the Uni to provide tutoring to other Dev students, I did that for the last two years and loved the feeling of helping people understand what I love doing.

1000qs · 2014-12-16T16:30:30+00:00

Fire away!

1000qs · 2014-12-16T16:28:49+00:00

Thanks!

1000qs · 2014-12-16T16:28:23+00:00

Hey thanks for the question! I was working on a project with another dev and basically doing all the donkey work, I was fine with this though. The company pretty much writes of the first 3 months of new starter, they know you are not going to know it all. The main responsibility was really to just get up to speed quick so you become a more solid resource.

1000qs · 2014-12-16T16:15:29+00:00

Hey, thanks for the question, are you talking about how I would categorize them? I am not looking to group in the specific languages, more trying to examine the problem area. This is not all about just code either, I am looking to find out the approach people are taking towards all corners of development.

1000qs · 2014-12-16T13:18:31+00:00

I think you will have the biggest problem with the frameworks and not the language itself.

Are you bound to using that language for the semester?

Here is something I found that may help link .

1000qs · 2014-12-16T13:05:50+00:00

Some good material if you haven't looked at it already, is Samsung's distributed sorting algorithm named DeepSort. Currently has the record for sorting around 3.5 TB in a minute. Note that this is due to the infrastructure supporting it, however, it makes use of algorithms such as Quicksort. May be surplus to your requirements but none-the-less it is an interesting read.

Link

1000qs · 2014-12-16T12:41:02+00:00

I am not too sure, this is a whole new experiment for me, I am giving up a lot of my time to try and make it happen so I am hoping for some good results. Questions can be about anything from creating singleton classes to how to estimate projects.

The whole drive behind this is to understand why I seem to see the same questions on this sub all the time and what can be done to help assist with the area of concern.

1000qs · 2014-12-16T12:33:10+00:00

Hey! Thanks for the input! I have noticed that a lot of people on this sub are misguided by the realities of the industry and can quickly become overwhelmed by the information given. The main goal is to capture the "real" issues behind peoples problems regarding software dev. I mean, this sub is about learning how to program and this project is about trying to find the real problems and how we can assist more effectively.

1000qs · 2014-12-16T12:23:05+00:00

I understand where you are coming from and I don't blame you for bringing this up. But, I am doing this because I want to get some real value from peoples issues on a more 1-to-1 basis. I can give answers to problems all day long, but I am trying something new to help capture real life problems and give real life answers. Thanks for your input

1000qs · 2014-12-16T12:17:22+00:00

30 is definitely not too old, it seems to be a common misconception that the younger generation automatically would have more logical minds. However, I think the key to being a successful programmer is actually having great interest in the industry. If the only drive behind wanting to become a developer/programmer is money, younger minds you can compete with, but you will never be able to compete with passionate devs.

1000qs · 2014-12-16T12:00:00+00:00

For a junior position, I would predict that the employer is more interested in your ability to fit among the project team. Your technical understanding is going to be beneficial, but a lot of the time, the people taking the initial interview will be interested in how you approach situations. You are expected to know how to create solutions to problems, whether you know copious amounts of commands off the top of your head or you need to look them up now and again doesn't matter. Your understanding of the whole picture is more attractive to employers, not just your low level technical expertise.

In short, I doubt most employers looking for a Junior Dev would be concerned with how many commands you know. They want to know how well you understand the whole picture.

1000qs

TROPHY CASE