fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
Circular Locks and Graph Theory
Tags: Interview Questions, Software Engineering, Coding, Programming, Software Development

Problem:

You are given a circular lock with three wheels, each of which display the numbers 0 through 9 in order. Each of these wheels rotate clockwise and counterclockwise.

In addition, the lock has a certain number of “dead ends”, meaning that if you turn the wheels to one of these combinations, the lock becomes stuck in that state and cannot be opened.

Let us consider a “move” to be a rotation of a single wheel by one digit, in either direction. Given a lock initially set to 000 , a target combination, and a list of dead ends, write a function that returns the minimum number of moves required to reach the target state, or -1 if this is impossible.

Solution:

This problem has an obvious solution based on graph-algorithm — once you formulate it correctly. Here is one way of formulating the algorithm:

Every lock combination, like {1, 2, 3} forms a node of the graph. Combinations which differ in one digit form the neighboring nodes of the graph (and are connected by an edge) (e.g. neighbors of {1, 2, 3} are {0, 2, 3}, {2, 2, 3}, {1, 1, 3}, {1, 3, 3}, {1, 2, 2}, {1, 2, 4} . The “dead ends” are simply absent from the graph, and have no edges going into or out of them! The problem of finding the minimum number of moves reduces to finding the shortest path in this graph! It can be solved using and standard graph algorithm like Breadth First Search (BFS)!

Let’s start with preliminaries before implementing the BFS algorithm: We are going to define the data structure to represent a combination lock. We are going to do that using a 3-element array, std::array<int, 3> . In addition,

We will define an unordered_set of lock combinations to store the visited lock combinations. In order to define the set, we need to define a hash function on std::array . Our hash function will simply convert the array into a three digit integer ( arr[0] * 100 + arr[1] * 10 + arr[2] ). Finally, we need to define a queue type to keep a pair of lock combination and the number of steps (int): std::queue<std::pair<std::array<int, 3>, int>> .

We are now ready to implement our main Breadth-first-search (BFS) algorithm to systematically iterate over different lock combinations to find the shortest path from the initial combination, {0, 0, 0} to the target combination.

We inset the initial node {0, 0, 0} into the BFS queue. We also insert 0 to indicate the minimum number of moves taken to reach the initial states. At every iteration, we pop the front of the queue. We calculate the valid neighbors of the front of the queue. The valid neighbors are defined as the neighboring nodes which haven’t been previously visited and which are not dead ends. We increment the step count by 1, and insert every valid neighbor along with this step count into the BSF-queue. We return the step count once we reach the target node. If we empty the BFS-queue, and never reach the target node, we return -1, indicating that the target node is not reachable.

Here is the C++ implementation using the data structured defined above:

Testing:

Here are a few test cases to try:
Book Review of Innovative Interview Questions
Tags: Books, Interview, Blogging, Interview Questions

Title- Innovative Interview Questions

Publisher- Vibrant Publishers

Many people enquire from me about the type of questions one is likely to face during job interviews. Well, to be honest, due to dynamic scenarios and limited job opportunities, candidates get a bit jittery in facing job interviews. Moreover, lack of knowledge related to what could be asked by employers also holds back the candidates in facing.

Personal Interview (be it for job or admissions) could be scary as hell. Those of you who are preparing for interviews can check out this Job Interview Questions Series by Vibrant Publishers. I got this book for myself and I am really amazed to see the diversity of questions provided. Not only this, but you will also find how to answer that particular question as well as an example that you can give while facing the interview in real life.

What can you gain from the books?

Subject Knowlege

Confidence

Major Abilities to answer Questions

Good Examples

Overall, the book contains 250 questions which are divided into 10 chapters-

Leadership

Personality

Confidence

Character

Adaptiveness

Composure

Behavioral

Innovation

Problem Solving

Job Competency

If you are someone who is looking for a job and want to know the latest questions that are most likely to be asked, then try out this book once. The language is simple. In the end, a sheet for notes is also available which I think is another good part.

Bookish MB

Author

Believes in GOD
Reversing words of a sentence in C++
By: Wael Mohammed
Tags: Interview Questions, Coding, Programming, Cpp, Coding Interviews

Explanation of 4 different methods that aren’t the only way to do it.

So reversing words of a given sentence is a popular question in fresher interviews and I am guilty of not being able to do this one during my very first interview. As I chose C++ as the object-oriented language I was to interview in, I was asked to implement the above in C++. To be honest, I thought they asked me to reverse the given string, like for the string, “CPP is amazing”, the answer would be “gnizama si PPC”. On explaining my approach, the interviewer figured out that I didn’t pay attention to the question and used the above example and told that the right answer was “amazing is CPP”. So in case, you don’t get my explanation for the problem and aren’t interested in reaching out to me, I hope that you learned a small lesson from my experience. Listen carefully to what question is being asked in an interview and if you don’t get it the first time, ask them to repeat.

Video Explanation of all the below approaches

The First Approach:-

So on understanding this question correctly, I suppose you may have an approach in mind. Mine was to store the words in an array and then get them printed in the reverse order. The space characters would separate the words and once you count the number of words, you could create a string array of the required size. Simple, right? Well, let's look at the code doing just that.

The Algorithm goes like:-

Get the needed string from the user. I have used the getline function as it accepts a string with space characters. (lines 14–17) Then we parse through the given sentence and count the no. of words based on the space characters, such that a word is counted only when a space character is encountered after it. I am assuming that there will be no space character after the last word, so I have incremented the counter once after the loop is finished. In case that a space character is the last character in the sentence, we should ignore it. (lines 19–24) Now that we know the no. of words, we can create an array of strings and store the words individually in each index of the array. The memory is assigned at runtime depending on the length of the sentence given by the user. I have used the stringstream class, which is a buffer that stores strings in a one after the other fashion. By creating a stringstream object ‘ss’ and initializing it with the given sentence, the constructor stores the words sequentially by removing the space characters. (lines 26–28) The separated words are stored in the earlier array of strings that we created, from the stringstream object ‘ss’. (lines 30–32) Finally, the stored words are printed in the reverse order. We start from the last index position to the first and enter space characters in between. (lines 34–36)

Well, we got the desired output, but to be honest, I saw that there was much scope for improvement and made the following changes.
5 Things You Really Need to Know For Your Technical Interview From a Lead Engineer
By: Valerie Nadi
Tags: Interview Questions, Software Engineering, Technical Interview, Interview, Software Development

5 Tips to Prepare for Your Interview and Technical Assessment

Given Eleanor’s knowledge of tech interviews, we were curious to see what advice she would offer others. If you’re exploring the next step in your career, consider these five interview tips from Eleanor:



1. Spend Time Preparing

Interview prep isn’t just for students. Prospective employers want to see you at your best so they understand the potential you can bring. “Practice answering coding questions, sharing your story, and discussing features or products you’ve worked on. And when discussing those projects, be ready to explain the whole system — the architecture, the components, and how your feature is integrated in it. Don’t just focus on what you developed. This shows how thorough and collaborative you are.”



Not sure where to start? Salesforce created a learning module to help candidates prepare for their interviews. Take the Navigate the Salesforce Hiring Process trail, with a module on Strategies for Successful Software Engineer Interviews. Dig in to discover what recruiters are really looking for on your application and during your interviews.



2. Check Your Work and Check Your Edge Cases

Sure, working fast is great. But what’s even better is delivering code with quality. At Salesforce, this translates to maintaining customer trust — our most important value. “When completing a coding assessment during the interview, you can demonstrate your ability to write thorough and high quality code by considering edge cases and testing your code,” Eleanor says. “And if you get stuck, try to reflect and share your thought process. It will help you concentrate and show the interviewer how you unravel a challenge.”



3. Demonstrate How You Collaborate

“We collaborate a lot. Either with customers to gain their feedback, or with colleagues when rolling out new features,” Eleanor shares. “A good developer needs to be able to work with people. And be approachable to others who want to collaborate with them.” Be ready to share examples of how you’ve partnered with others in the past to achieve something better, or faster, than you could have alone.



4. Market Yourself Genuinely

“Be confident in your strengths and highlight expertise that you know well. But do this with grace. We all have areas of opportunity — acknowledge these by demonstrating that you want to keep learning and growing.” Eleanor reminds us that it all starts with an accurate and concise resume that emphasizes recent work and new skills you’ve gained.



5. Show Your Curiosity

“If you’re interested in Salesforce, ask yourself: ‘Am I incessantly curious? Does the idea of learning new things every day excite or unnerve me?’ Working with the latest technology requires a drive to continually learn.” If that’s you, Eleanor goes on, “Engage. Ask questions about the team, features, and technologies. This shows the interviewer how you think and that you’re serious.”
Dynamic programming: part 1
By: Antonio Pereiro
Tags: Interview Questions, Interview Preparation, Dynamic Programming, Problem Solving, Coding Interviews

The basic idea of ​​DP (dynamic programming) is to solve complex problems by dividing them into simpler recurring subproblems. And then store the values to not recalculate them every time.

Let me show a basic interview question

You are climbing a staircase that has n steps. You can take the steps either 1 or 2 at a time. Calculate how many distinct ways you can climb to the top of the staircase.

Guaranteed constraints: 1 ≤ n ≤ 50

Solution

A naive recursive solution can be: Make a single step, and solve for n-1 plus make a double step, and then solve for n-2. We also need a base case and that’s for n = 1 which return 1, and for n = 2 returns 2

Recursion tree

This code easily solves the problem, but the time complexity is O(n!), and that is so bad. But the idea of DP is to improve that solution, storing the previous results, so throw that solution to trash, and write a better one.

Now, this solution has time complexity equal to O(n) but the space complexity now is O(n) as well, but this is not necessary, because, the solution only uses the last two calls to solve the problem. So, we can store only the last two calls.

solution with constant space complexity

Now the time complexity still O(n) but the space complexity improve to O(1) For python, we can also do this improve using the first solution, and use lru_cache

Now we have a nice solution with linear time complexity and constant space complexity, so we achieve the goal for the interview! :D
Top spring boot interview Questions
By: Lenin Stalin
Tags: Spring Boot Interview, Interview Questions, Spring Boot

Here are the frequently asked spring boot interview questions

Spring boot interview questions

1) Explain Spring boot

For making production ready, the Spring boot will make it simple for you and it has an excellent view of developing Spring application quickly. Convention over configuration is followed by it. In easier terms, there is default configuration for lots of Spring projects and there is no need for lots of bootstrap for any spring application.

2) Explain the usage of a boot in your application?

Spring application can be created with spring boot to make it simple as mentioned earlier and it can save a good amount of time and efforts.

3) Explain the disadvantages of Spring boot

For turning your old spring application to Spring boot it is not a direct approach and takes a lot of time.

4) How is it possible to override the default properties in Spring boot project?

There are lots of properties offered by Spring boot that can be overridden by giving them with application properties.

5) Explain the running of Spring boot application on a custom port?

In application properties, there is a need to simply put server port properties.

6) Explain Spring boot starter and its usage?

There are lots of starters that is present in Spring boot which is a group of convenient dependency descriptors that can include your prom.xml.

7) Can Spring boot be used by us with applications that are not using Spring?

It is not currently feasible. Spring applications are the basis for Spring boot.

8) Explain the configuration name file for you to use in Spring boot?

In Spring boot projects, configuration files are used along with properties. It is quite significant for usage to override various default configurations.

9) Explain the actuator in Spring boot?

The most significant feature of Spring boot is Spring boot actuator. It is used for accessing a present state of running an application in the production environment. You can find lots of metrics for you to check the present state of the application.

10) How is spring security implemented with Spring boot application?

In Spring boot application there is a usage of Spring security for very little configuration. In pom.xml there is a need for you to include spring-boot-starter-security. You must also create Spring config class for extending WebSecurityConfigurerAdapter and override method for requiring to achieve security in Spring boot application. All these questions mostly grouped from the candid Spring boot interview questions .

Thankyou….
Core Java and OOPS Interview Questions
By: Vasanth Kumar
Tags: Interview Questions, Java, Placement, Software Engineering, Oops Concepts

JAVA AND OOPS

In this article, I’ll be covering the most frequently asked Core Java and OOPS Interview questions for Product based companies.

Why do you prefer using Java instead of other programming languages? Why is java platform independent? Is Java a purely object oriented language or not, give reasons. Explain about JVM , JRE and JDK and JIT Compiler. Garbage collector in Java. Memory Layout in Java. Why do we write public static void main(String args[]) in Java? Difference between String and StringBuffer. Explain classes and objects in java (Make sure you give real life examples) Constructors in Java. Static blocks in java. Encapsulation, Inheritance, Abstraction, Polymorphism ( Give real life examples also ) What do you mean by Overriding, Overloading in Java. Can a top class level be private or protected in java? Can we override private, static, final methods in Java? Can we overload the main method? 4 types of access specifiers. this, super keywords in java. Abstract classes and Interfaces. Why doesn’t java support multiple inheritance directly ? ( Diamond Problem ) Exception handling in java ( types of errors, throws, try, catch, finally, throw clause, re-throw ) Difference between final and finally in java. Difference between HashMap and HashTable in Java. Difference between set and list in Java. HashMap Internal working and collisions in Hashing.

Refer to :

a. https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/internal-working-of-hashmap-java/

b. https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/hashing-set-1-introduction/ What is a thread and how do you implement threads in Java?

About Methods like : start(), join(), sleep(), wait(), run() and yield(). What is Synchronisation in threads?

Books to refer:

https://www.amazon.in/dp/9351199258/ref=cm_sw_r_wa_api_fabc_FIk5Fb3Y52VT5?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

That’s it.. Hope you liked this post. Please feel free to drop in your comments to improve the post or to add some important questions.

And… CLAP-CLAP if you like this post..!!
6 Things to Remember Before a Media Interview
By: Transfunnel Consulting
Tags: Interview Questions, Media, Media Interview Tips, Interview, Media Interview Training

TransFunnel Consulting

While most people wait for the moment they can stand in front of the media and make their first public address, the actual moment can be quite daunting when it finally arrives. Several spokespeople have often complained about not having the right answers to media queries, being stumped by statements and questions, and oftentimes being deviated from the set track of the interview.

To help you overcome these challenges, we’ve listed a few salient rules that you can follow to ensure that your interview sails through seamlessly and provides the outcome you are looking to achieve.

Jot down the points you want to convey and rehearse your interview

Take time off to craft a story and see how you want it to flow. Make sure you have all the points covered and spend some time practicing how you want to deliver this story to the media person. This often provides clarity in thought and allows you to streamline the conversation.

2. Do your research on the media person

Check their social media profiles, read some of the stories they have written before, and understand the stance they take. This prepares you for unmitigated circumstances where the media person might toss you a curveball and you will be able to hit it out of the park successfully.

3. Run a mock interview with possible negative questions

Get a person to play devil’s advocate and ask you the tougher questions and the ones that might possibly lead to a controversy. Prepare your answers to these and keep them handy. More often than not, when answering the difficult questions, you’re going to be at ease with this practice.

4. Relax before an interview

Grab a cup of coffee and just take a few moments to gather your thoughts. Walking into an interview with confidence often reflects in the outcome. A confident spokesperson bolsters the image of the company on the whole.

5. Stay clear of un-truths

You’d rather say that you are unsure and you will get back to them with the right numbers or facts than concocting information. The media is always well prepared and will catch the falsified facts. The repercussions of this could be grave.

6. Stay in control of the interview

Ensure you are staying on track with the story you decided to go with. The interview may meander around a few additional points, but make sure to find your way back to the story you intended to convey. Never stop the media from asking their questions, but stay on course.

With these tips in mind, you’re geared to take on your next interview. Good luck!
Frequently Asked JavaScript Interview Questions in 2020
By: Coding Tag
Tags: HTML, JavaScript, Interview Questions, CSS, PHP

JavaScript has been one of the most in-demand languages in the niche of website development. If you also have various lined up interviews for JavaScript, then we have prepared this blog for you. In this blog, the most frequently asked JavaScript Interview Questions have been enlisted along with their appropriate answers. Note that these questions and answers have been prepared for both fresher as well as experienced to tackle the technical interview sessions.

1. What is the difference between Java and JavaScript?

Java is an Object Oriented Programming language; however, JavaScript is a client-side scripted language which can be inserted into HTML code to be understood by the browser.

2. What different data types are used in JavaScript?

Different data types which are included in JavaScript are:

· String

· Number

· Boolean

· Undefined

· Object

3. What is the use of isNaN function in JS?

isNaN function in JavaScript is used to check whether the argument which is passed is a number or not. If the argument is not a number, the function returns true. Else, it returns false.

4. What do you mean by negative infinity?

Negative Infinity in JavaScript refers to a number that is generated every time any negative number is divided by zero, giving the output as negative infinity.

5. What is the concept of timers in JavaScript?

In JavaScript, timers are used to specify which code will be executed at what time and also to repeat the code execution at a given interval of time. Various timers function included in JavaScript are:

· setTimeout to start a function at a given delay

· setInterval to repeat the function execution in a specific time delay until it has been cancelled

· clearInterval to stop the timers function execution

You can also visit Technical Interview Questions of you want to learn more in terms of Website development interviews.

Source url : https://codingtag.webnode.com/l/frequently-asked-javascript-interview-questions-in-20202/
聯發科 C語言測試題目
By: Jaime Lin
Tags: Mediatek, Interview Questions, Programming, C Language

MediaTek Interview Questions

Okay 上一篇才剛發沒有多久, 趁著還稍微記得題目內容來記錄一下, 希望可以幫到迷途的孩子們

C語言測試

筆試14題(C/C++), 包含填充題跟選擇與填充題 & 兩題上機考, 共50分鐘

螢幕會提示時間, 並建議分配26分鐘在選擇與填充題, 24分鐘在上機考

由於時間緊迫, 非常難以記住全部14題, 此部分僅回憶出題目想考的概念, 實際數字並不相同, 請同學們當成練習題即可

選擇與填充題

Question 1

keyword: (1) global variable (2) pointers as function arguments

Question 2

keyword: (1) global variable

Question 3

keyword: (1) Macro

Question 4

此題為選擇題, 題目會列出4個選項, 問實例出的func會是什麼內容

Ans: A function takes double and integer argument and return double.

keyword: (1) C++ template

Question 5

實際題目比我列出來的還要繁瑣一點, 但概念上是相同的

keyword: (1) Char array and index

Question 6

題目Explanation of the following code, 為四選一選擇題, 實際題目還要複雜一些, 建議清楚弄懂function pointer的英文解釋

keyword: (1) function pointer and array

補充: 這邊有份網路上常見之pointer explanation, 不懂的同學可從此下手

Question 7

此題為四選一選擇題, 求執行結果

Ans: compiler error

keyword: (1) Macro

Question 8

這題是四選一選擇題, 但其實我不太明白想考什麼…

我的想法是 a 肯定跟 b c 不一樣, b 也跟 c不一樣, 我就直接挑了三者皆不同之答案, 有其他想法的網友們歡迎分享答案

上機考

An integer array is given. The system gives you a series of integers, and please find it as a correct position in the sequence then print the corresponding value.

For example:

arr = [5, 8, 4, 9, 1] is given

Please find the position 2 , 1, 3 , 4, 0in this array

Print: 5, 4, 8 , 9 , 1

簡單來說就是sort之後query 就ok了

後記

由螢幕上可看出考題應該是從莫約100題中挑出14題, 如果運氣不錯搞不好看完這一篇會如有神助呢! 後面順便整理列出我有讀過的題目錦集, 如此一來這篇文就能成為一個大補帖啦!

Reference

打完這一大篇加修飾也是好累der, 如果有幫助到您請不要吝嗇您的讚 :)
Surviving your Coding Bootcamp: Three Steps
By: Freeman Neil
Tags: Bootcamp, Coding, Codingbootcamp

Use your resources

This is the most important step to follow. If your bootcamp is anything like General Assembly (GA), you will have (what seems like) unlimited resources to reference.

As the pandemic turns classrooms into classZooms, there are obvious negatives. However, each class was recorded and markdowns were saved for students to go back to as they please.

From my personal experience, instructors would go out of their way to assist you if you were stuck. Don’t forget they are doing what they do because they enjoy it. The two instructors I had were senior engineers, so money was not their motivating factor. Remember this.

The previously stated resources will only get you so far. The last and most important resource at your disposal is your classmates. Who better reach out to than someone going through the exact same experiences as you? There will undoubtedly be times where they are able to teach you. Believe it or not, there will be times you can help them as well. Plus, it’s great to begin learning how to work with others, as most jobs “out in the wild” will require this.

Growth Mindset

To me, a growth mindset is setting a goal, and working towards that goal each day. When you hit that goal, make another one. Rinse and repeat.

Were there days I doubted my choice to join an immersive bootcamp? Of course. Did the thought go through my head I could never learn everything I needed to know? Yes.

But, that mindset doesn’t help me or anyone else. When I started to feel overwhelmed, I’d ask myself, “Are you better than you were yesterday? Do you know more about the subject now than you did last week?” Again, the answer was yes.

In today’s world, everyone wants instant gratification. However, you don’t get to the finish line without taking thousands of steps along the way. Each step is integral to getting to your destination

Time Management

Immersive bootcamps should feel overwhelming. Over half the day was spent learning complicated, new material. There were homework assignments I could have worked on all night until class started the next day.

Each day seems like a sprint, but a course like this is more of a marathon. Don’t get caught up in feeling like you need to get everything done, at all costs.
Ironhack challenge 3: Usability Evaluation and Site Redesign
By: Morgane Favchtein
Tags: Redesign, Bootcamp, Usability, Ironhack

Photo by Matthew Huang on Unsplash

For this last challenge during the Prework, IronHack asked us to evaluate one of the many apps for travelling thanks to users’ evaluation, figuring out their main pain-points and try to redesign the app to solve these problems.

User type

For this challenge, I have chosen to cover the “young group 20–40yo (4)” scenario:

You and your friends have decided to invest and spend some quality time together. You are planning your trip one year in advance to really make it happen and accommodate everybody’s schedules and needs. You’d like to share as much time together and plan for a lot of fun. You’re interested in a mix of culture and leisure. You have all saved for the last year for the trip so, while you’re still price-conscious this is the opportunity to spoil yourselves.

I have selected the destination which will be one of the 7 wonders of the new millenium: Chichen Itza in Mexico.

Research

Nearest airport: Cancún

Currency: peso

Day needed to visit: 7 to 9 days

Best season to visit: October and April.

Scenario

The scenario will be 1 week journey during spring, in a hotel where the group can enjoy free drinks and party but also it has to be close from the main attraction: Chichen Itza. As it is located in the Yucatan region, the most convenient international aiport will be Cancún. A comfortable budget for this week would be 1100€.

Let’s go !

Comparing apps

We had to choose between these 4 apps: Kayak, Skyscanner, TripAdvisor and Hooper.

I conducted a Usability Heuristics evaluation with Nielsen’s Principles on three applications which are Kayak, Tripadvisor and Skyscanner.

As my users are young people, I decided to focus on Skyscanner as it is modern, minimalist and I used to use the web app to compare flights so now I’ll try the mobile app. Moreover, it applies many of these principles such as:

Visibility of system status Match between system and the real world User control and freedom Flexibility and efficiency of use Aesthetic and minimalist design

TEST

My 3 users are 23 to 27 years-old, they are regularly travelling and are using travels apps on the web.

So I started with the 5sec usability test, they couldn’t figure out what app it was but at least they saw it was a travel app.

After that, I moved on to the usability test. During the test, my users had to :

Find a cheap return flight to Chichen Itza with your friends (max 450€, 7 to 9 days, luggage included)

Find a hotel that is close to the most famous attraction and where you can party next door! (max. 650€ )

My questions afterwards were:

To what extent does the interface make the task intuitive and efficient?

Are the information and options displayed clear?

How long does it take to complete the task?

What is your general feeling about this app ?

Here are the main pain points that I found after observing my users during the test:
Angular:(validation)
By: Pramod Pattade
Tags: C Sharp Programming, Mvc, Bootcamp, Angular, Typescript

Angular:(validation)

Validations are normally applied to user interfaces (Forms) and User interfaces have controls and on the controls, we apply validations.

validation Structure:

At the top we have FormGroup, FormGroup has FormControls and FormControls has one or many validations

components for Angular validators:

NgForm: Angular tags for validation.

FormGroup: Helps us to create a collection of validation.

FormControl and Validators: Helps us to create individual validation inside FormGroup.

FormBuilder: Helps us to create the structure of Form group and Form controls. Please note one Form group can have many FormControls.

Create FormGroup: create an object of FormGroup in which we will have a collection of validation

simple validation: Once the FormGroup object is created the next step is to add controls in the FormGroup collection. To add control we need to use the addmethod. The first parameter in the addControl method is the name of the validation and the second is the Angular validator type to be added.

composite validation: If you want to create a composite validation then you need to create a collection and add it using the compose method.

If you are new to Angular start with the following must-watch video.
The interview process for Turing is hard and that’s okay
By: Sabrina Robinson
Tags: Bootcamp, Web Development, Programming, Turing School

I want to first start out by letting you know that this was not my interview process when I applied to the Turing School of Software & Design. This is an updated article with resources and links to help potential students. I didn’t have to submit a written GitHub gist or record a video of myself discussing why I wanted to go to Turing like this student. I got lucky when I applied because I went through a “fast lane” process when my friend who attended Turing referred me. My process was talking through some logic questions and a culture fit interview. Turing doesn’t have a “fast lane” process or the video submission anymore. Turing’s process changed because they got feedback and data from the students who attended that it needed to change. I didn’t know how much it changed until I mentored a potential student during their interview process, and for the first time, I heard of a potential student not getting accepted.

It’s hard to be rejected. It doesn’t matter if it’s school, job, or relationship(s), rejection is not always easy to take in. I was proud of my mentee, even though they were accepted to other coding boot camps their number one was Turing so they kept on trying.

So what are the next steps?

Today, there are two parts: a work history/resume, and a logic portion. Most people that apply to a coding boot camp assume that the logic portion is a coding challenge on websites such as Codewars or any of these examples, but it’s actually an LSAT logic test. Yes, the exam that students take to get into law school.

Why on Earth are you taking an exam that is designed for law students when you want to be a developer? Because they want to see how you can logically break down problems and your strategy to solve them. This portion of the interview process is key.

Key things to know about the logic portion

Practice, practice, practice. First, start out with this amazing video where Josh walks you through an LSAT logic test. During the logic portion, you will be timed, you’ll be asked to talk through your process (I like to call it your mental model), and afterward, you might be asked if you would do anything differently. Keep in mind that the interviewer may stop you during the test to ask you some clarifying questions. Do not worry, this can be really helpful to you during the tests.

If you’re more of an introvert than an extrovert, work on talking out loud with a friend on some LSAT logic problems.

If you can get overwhelmed with breaking the problem down into smaller pieces try some logic games on Brilliant.

If you have trouble with taking feedback. Take a moment to realize your emotions and be mindful that the interviewer is trying to help you so you don’t go down a rabbit hole.

I am so pleased to tell you that my mentee made it into Turing all because we worked on these hurdles together!

I hope this article helps other potential Turing students in the future. Feel free to leave any helpful comments.
From biology to computer programming: review after 6 months with Launch School
Tags: Launch School, Bootcamp, Programming

I first heard about Launch School, summer last year, while reading some posts in Reddit about bootcamps. I saved the webpage in my bookmarks and only start reading about the curriculum a few days after. While going through it, I have to say that I was a bit surprised. The tone was honest and blunt. Their program “is not made for everyone”. One might think that these kind of arguments are only for marketing. Nevertheless empty speech is not the motto of Launch School. In complete opposite to the majority of bootcamp out-there, they base their program on a mastery-based learning approach. Instead of a “quick and dirty” learning process which can work for some people, we are here in a more “slow and deeply” learning process. Launch School wants to teach you the fundamentals, the things that don’t change in a field where technologies change regularly. And they expect you to take time for it. I was seduced by this approach and decided to give it a try and started the free preparatory course around mid-September 2018.

The preparatory course gave me the best reasons to jump into the Launch School program.

The preparatory course was very interesting. Instead of directly diving into introductory computer programming concepts, I had to follow a MOOC on Coursera named *Learn how to learn* and read a book called “Mastery” by George Leonard. I really enjoyed the online course and the tips they give you to enhance you approach to learning new concepts and fields. More than tips their course is articulated through and supported by extensive scientific data. Definitively, applying some of their methods will help you going through the Launch School curriculum and learn efficiently. I have to admit that I was a bit reluctant about reading the book. Unexpectedly my attention got captured by it and made re-discover some concepts that I actually applied when I was younger in school but also through all the sport I practised. Reading this book also made me realized how much goal-oriented I became especially as a scientist, my goal being essentially to publish articles as fast as possible. While reading this, I decided to avoid doing the same mistake, take my time and also try to enjoy as much as possible the journey I engaged myself into.
Pros & Cons of Sass/SCSS
By: Virginia Lash
Tags: Sass, CSS, Scss, Bootcamp, Coding

Photo by Pankaj Patel on Unsplash

A few weeks ago in my software engineering immersive boot camp (shoutout to GA), we had a day where we could learn about any topic we wanted and had to present to the class at the end of the day what we learned. I decided to learn SASS/SCSS.

What is Sass/SCSS?

So first, what is Sass and SCSS. Sass stands for Syntactically Awesome StyleSheets; it is an “extension of CSS that adds power and elegance to the basic language.”As for SCSS, it is just another CSS extension created to bridge the gap between SASS and CSS. It literally just stands for Sassy CSS. Sass/SCSS allows you to use variables, nested rules, mixins, and inline imports, etc. to make all your stylin’ dreams come true!

So what were my thoughts on this take on CSS?

Pros

Cool name

I mean, guys, SASS?! SASSY CSS?! It’s amazing. Gotta love it. Huge thumbs up from me.

2. Reusable

Variables!! Having a specific color for your brand has never been easier. Just set and go. Instead of typing out numbers and # or whatever else you just create your variable once and bring it in at the drop of a hat.

Here is the example from sass-lang.com.

$font-stack: Helvetica, sans-serif;

$primary-color: #333; body {

font: 100% $font-stack;

color: $primary-color;

}

See! Easy peasy.

3. Nesting

This is probably my favorite part of this whole thang. It is visually so much easier to understand styling when done in this way. You don’t have to say nav li, nav a, nav ul, or whatever else you need because with SCSS you just pop it under itself

So instead of writing:

nav ul {

margin: 0;

padding: 0;

list-style: none;

} nav li {

display: inline-block;

} nav a {

display: block;

padding: 6px 12px;

text-decoration: none; }

Which is just stressful and terrible in my opinion. You can just write this:

nav {

ul {

margin: 0;

padding: 0;

list-style: none;

} li { display: inline-block; } a {

display: block;

padding: 6px 12px;

text-decoration: none;

}

}

Like MAGIC!!

Cons

Another thing ya gotta learn

As a developer or anyone in this industry, we continuously are learning new skills, languages, syntax, frameworks, whatever else so sometimes you just don’t want to learn something new when the old way worked pretty well.

Final Thoughts

CSS itself IS pretty good on its own. It’s straightforward, the syntax is easy, and it was probably one of the first things you learned when you started on your coding journey. So why mess with something that already works?

I’ll tell you.

It’s just way cooler and better.

Okay, that’s not enough of a reason probably, but I can’t tell you what to do. The pros and cons of Sass/SCSS will be different for every person, so all I can say is I personally love it and don’t know how I ever styled before without Sass/SCSS. It was easy enough to learn, and so I just encourage whoever is reading this to give it a try and see what happens or not, because as my lovely professor Zakk Fleischmann would tell you:
My Coding Bootcamp Experience Through COVID-19
By: David Chung
Tags: JavaScript, React, Bootcamp, Flatiron School, Programming

Flatiron school sections its curriculum into 5 modules. Each module consists of 3 weeks. The first week of the module is what I call the “learning” week. Each day of the week we would have lectures in the morning and then have a paired programming lab in the evening. Homework labs would be deployed to us usually in the beginning of the week that supplements our learning. Personally, I would try to get through all the labs/lessons before we even have the lecture on the topic during class. I felt like this way worked for me and I retained information better. On the second week of the module, a code challenge is given near the end of the week that gauges whether or not we know the foundational knowledge of the language we are learning. If we fail the code challenge, a re-take code challenge is given during the third week. If you fail the re-take, then the student usually gets deferred to the next cohort or drops out. Lastly, the third week of the module is project week. This is where we take the knowledge we learned during the first two weeks and build a project with it. At the end of the third week, we present our projects to our classmates/instructors.

Module 1 was learning to adapt to a different style of learning. When I went through college, I was comfortable with memorizing large amounts of information and then regurgitating that knowledge on written tests. Programming is less about testing you on what you have memorized, and more about being able to logically build applications with the foundational knowledge you know. When I first started to learn how to code, I didn’t respect the code. What I mean by that is that certain languages have certain methods or ways to solve the problem. Once you learn the intricacies of each language, learning becomes much easier. Another thing I learned to do is to learn how to read documentation and stack overflow well. One of the first things our instructors told us to do is to google our problem if we were ever stuck. At first, everything on stack overflow and documentation looked really complex, and it confused me even more than it helped. However, once I got comfortable reading documentation, I was able to solve most of my problems on my own.

Project week was the week that I had the most anxiety with during the program. The reason I was so anxious was because I felt like I didn’t know enough to build an application. What helped me significantly was reading a plethora of articles the weekend before project week to help prep me for the upcoming week. My partner and I planned each day what we wanted to accomplish, gave ourselves a realistic timeline of hitting those targets, and built each feature one at a time. By the end of the week, we built a fully functional command line application! (See demo here: https://youtu.be/hdhr5TliaoQ).
<Bootcamp Day #2>
Tags: HTML, Web Development, CSS, Bootcamp, Full Stack

Day 2, a familiar experience by now. Trying not to stare into the laptop camera, the talking heads floating on the Zoom toolbar, and the constant checking to make sure my mic is muted.

We started with an excellent breakdown of the terminal and its abilities. Admittedly, it’s peaked my curiosity and I find myself looking at how to implement more into my life. CLI aka the Command Line Interface truly seems to be superior to the GUI aka the Graphic User Interface.

The other part of this class was an introduction to HTML, we did a guided practice and were assigned 6 projects and 1 bonus project. Most of these projects involved building rather archaic looking sites with HTML, with each project it got more complicated. From one page to a mock 3 page restaurant website with a menu page and an online ordering page.

Another topic that was briefly touched upon and will be expanded on next class was Github. A coder’s home-base, it is where all of the class projects live and where we will upload our finished projects. More than that, it’s basically a coder’s resume. I did manage to figure out how to perform a “git clone” of the bootcamp repo, that was exciting.

The bootcamp repo was updated with a new chapter in our learning which is the .CSS projects. From what I’ve learned It’s a coder’s design tool. Perhaps It’s an over-simplification but I look forward to learning this language.

All in all it was a solid second day of the bootcamp!
Happenings at BoothCampXVI (5)
By: Youth With A Purpose, Ywap
Tags: Ywap, News, Bootcamp

Whoop! Whoop! It’s Day 5 already.

Time really flies when you are having a good time.

As you already know the routine, we had our Bible study session which was on “Walking in Love” and we got to find out that certain members were employees at WII FM (What’s In It For Me) rather than being preachers of love. Yes it’s a thing!

After the Bible studies, we proceeded for intense prayer cruise. We know you want to catch cruise, but what ship are you on? Prayer cruise was everything flames!!

Meanwhile who else noticed the drip of our DC’s and our very own Uncle C!! Come onnnn! We didn’t come here to play!

Tonight we had games and from random election, most campers want “Nenkinan for President”. We hope you put BBS in charge of everything that concerns editorials once you become the President.

Here are some other things we are still struggling to understand;

1) Oshey constantly announcing his bachelorhood, tambout “My house no too get things ohh, Bachelor house ohh”. Okay Bro, go straight to the point.

2) “Who wants to do Bible study?” Is a new way of shooting shots, thanks to Ire

3) Eva and her crew obviously don’t understand the meaning of “favorite color” because what in the name is “Pink in my mind, nude for shoes, white for sneakers, brown/deep purple for bags”? Sis, favorite color is singular.

4) “Shalom Shalom, did you bribe any angel for your dentition” Would definitely be the lamest line we’ve heard at this camp.

5) After all TiTi from Makurdi Center’s hustle to get Delta platoon to win platoon war, they still didn’t win. Sorry fam.

6) Also, Minkir that was seen desperately hustling to be named as someone’s friend, couldn’t even show up for Bible study with Ire. People wey serious, e easy to know them.

7) Aybee stopped shooting air ball at uninterested ladies

8) Bryan hasn’t given up toasting a certain lady since day 1 (Although he tried with others and failed)

9) Cyril’s constant energy level is a thing to be studied. Well done guy!!

10) Joy Ekpah was seen earlier today trying to save a certain sister from catching feelings for the handsome Mr Fist. My people, it did not work! That guy is fine sha!

11) Because of Iyin of Delta platoon, some homies are renouncing their platoon, in an effort to port to her side. A Queen! We Stan!

12) Precious Bonnet and Dakat of Victor platoon intend to take their discussion private. What a wow!

Keep enjoying your time in Camp!

Until next time,

~Yours in gist, Boothcamp Broadcasting Station

#Challenge Accepted: Love is making sure everyone around us hears the gospel.
Which backgrounds can you come from to be a developer?
By: Chris Meah
Tags: Coding Bootcamp, Bootcamp, Learn To Code, Technology, Diversity In Tech

Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

Short answer: any!

We’ve ran the School of Code Bootcamp helping more and different types of people into tech and helped hundreds of people change career. In our experience, we’ve found it doesn’t matter where you come from, so long as you have motivation, humility, and a love of learning. Don’t believe us? Here’s an A-Z list of backgrounds for people who’ve been on the School of Code journey and changed careers into tech have come from:

Actor

Admin Worker

Aerospace Engineer

Air Hostess

Artist

Automotive Engineer

Baker

Bank Worker

Bar Staff

Barber

Barista

Barrister

Beautician

Bicycle Repair

Call Center Worker

Carer

Carpenter

Casino Croupier

Charity Worker

Chef

Chemist

Civil Servant

Community Manager

Complaints Handler

Construction Worker

Council Worker

Dentist Manager

Design Engineer

Designer

DJ

Engineer

Entrepreneur

Factory Worker

Fashion

Fast Food Worker

Finance Worker

Football Coach

Foreign Language Teacher

Forensics

Forklift Driver

Geologist

Healthcare Assistant

Higher Education

Hospital Porter

Hospitality Worker

Human Resources

Insurance

IT Support

Jeweller

Kitchen Designer

Landscape Gardener

Librarian

Lifeguard

Lorry Driver

Marketing

Medical Researcher

Mental Health Nurse

Metallurgist

Musician

NHS Worker

Operations Manager

Palaeontologist

Personal Trainer

PhD Researcher

Police Officer

Primary School Teacher

Probation Officer

Project Manager

Quality Checker

Recruiter

Refugee

Retail Worker

Return To Work Parent

Sales Person

School Leaver

Secondary School Teacher

Social Care Worker

Social Entrepreneur

Social Worker

Special Educational Needs Teaching Assistant

Teacher

Temp Worker

Theatre Director

Translation

Unemployed

University Graduate

Volcanologist

Waiter

Warehouse Worker

Xerox Machine Operator

Yacht Worker

Zumba Instructor

Cool eh?! 😎

You can get into tech from any background!

Join our transformational Bootcamp and change your life today: schoolofcode.com