teleren/devto huggingface dataset:
Five websites to practice your coding skills
Tags: career, codenewbie, interview, webdev
Published: 2021-03-01 20:02:07

---
title: Five websites to practice your coding skills
published: true
description: A list of five sites to practice coding skills by doing online coding challenges.
tags: career,codenewbie,interview,webdev
cover_image: https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/acy1as84il18emy2axfj.jpg
---

Completing coding challenges is a great way to learn. They also help with many skills needed to become a better developer and get better results at job interviews.

While completing coding challenges online, you will:

- Learn new algorithms and ways to code.
- Get better at problem-solving.
- Identify coding patterns.
- Spice up the learning process.
- Get used to working with online IDEs.

With the pandemic, online interviews with small coding challenges are the norm. Being acquainted with this type of problem and with online code editors will remove part of the interview's complexity (and stress).

Here is a list of websites with coding challenges that would be great for candidates to practice on. In no specific order:

## [Codewars](https://www.codewars.com/)

This site has a diverse combination of problems in many languages. It **provides performance information** and has a powerful and straightforward IDE.

## [LeetCode](https://leetcode.com/)

Similar to Codewars, this site has **~1700 problems to solve** categorized by difficulty that can be solved with many different languages. I have used it for practicing interviewing in the past, and it's great.

## [CoderByte](https://www.coderbyte.com/)

It has a **combination of algorithms and practical problems**. For web development, it uses CodeSandBox as the editor, which is really convenient as it is the tool we use at interviews at our company.

## [HackerRank](https://www.hackerrank.com/)

It has algorithms and practical problems. **It has back-end and front-end** (and seems more based on the back-end), but it could still be useful for web dev training.

## [Exercism](https://exercism.io/)

This one has **many practical problems for different levels**. It offers mentor code reviews (you'd need to sign up for one of their plans), and candidates need to install an app from the site to run/test the solutions... which is a bit annoying.
C# Loops Explained
Tags: csharp, dotnet, beginners, backend
Published: 2021-03-01 19:53:29

**Loop**

A loop is a programming structure that repeats a sequence of instructions until a specific condition is met. Loops are used very often, that's why you must be comfortable with them.

An example of a loop is a while loop, which states that "while a condition is valid, keep looping". There are other loops in C# as well, as do while, for, and foreach.

Syntax

```csharp
while (condition) 
{
	// Do something
}
```

While Loop Example

```csharp
int i = 0;
int goal = 7;

while (i < goal)
{
	Console.Writeline("We didn't get there yet!");
	i++;
}
```

This block of code would write "We didn't get there yet!" exactly 7 times.

Foor Loop Example
```csharp
          for (var i = 0; i < 7; i++)
            {
                Console.WriteLine($"Current Index is {i}");
            }
            
            /*
             * Output
             * Current Index is 0
             * Current Index is 1
             * Current Index is 2
             * Current Index is 3
             * Current Index is 4
             * Current Index is 5
             * Current Index is 6
             */
```

Foreach loop

```csharp
            var names = new List<string> {"Lukasz", "Jan", "John", "Jane", "Monica"};

            foreach (var name in names)
            {
                Console.WriteLine($"How you doin', {name}");
            }
            
            /*
             * Output
             * How you doin' Lukasz
             * How you doin' Jan
             * How you doin' John
             * How you doin' Jane
             * How you doin' Monica
             */
```

And the last one is the do while loop

```csharp
            var knowledgeLevel = 0;
            var knowledgeRequired = 1000;
            
            do
            {
                Console.WriteLine("Keep studying!");
                knowledgeLevel++;
            } while (knowledgeLevel < knowledgeRequired);
```

## However...
There's one more looping mechanism that you can use. List class has it's own "ForEach" method.

```csharp
            var names = new List<string> {"Lukasz", "Jan", "John", "Jane", "Monica"};

            names.ForEach(name => Console.WriteLine($"How you doin', {name}"));

            /*
             * Output
             * How you doin' Lukasz
             * How you doin' Jan
             * How you doin' John
             * How you doin' Jane
             * How you doin' Monica
             */
```
 
## Are you learning C#?
If you're a person that wants to start learning C# and you want to get prepared for your first job - consider joining the  [.NET School](https://dotnetcoreschool.com)
5 tips to help you get hired
Tags: tips, beginners, discuss, productivity
Published: 2021-03-01 19:48:14

---
title: 5 tips to help you get hired
published: true
description: 
tags: #tips #beginners #discuss #productivity
cover_image: https://external-frt3-2.xx.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=AQGZIFlHdZTH-Oaw&w=1000&h=522&url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2F1i8DMZf7474%2Fmaxresdefault.jpg&cfs=1&ext=jpg&_nc_cb=1&_nc_hash=AQF5V5LA_FYgxqfi
---

As almost every developer, I didn't get my first job at day one. In fact, the journey was long and hard, because I don't have a university degree.

Some jobs later, I looked back and compiled a list of things that I was improving from application to application. Things what each time helped me come closer to the end goal.

Truth be told, it's not only about our skills as developers, but the whole picture, define if we will get the job or not.

[Watch the video on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1i8DMZf7474)
How to send free emails using Sendinblue
Tags: laravel, emails
Published: 2021-03-01 19:41:52

This post was originally published on [my blog](https://www.jeroenvanrensen.nl/blog/how-to-send-free-emails).

Many web applications send emails, for example when someone is registered you want to send them a welcome email. Although you can do it for free using the [Gmail SMTP server](https://www.jeroenvanrensen.nl/blog/gmail-smtp-server), it is more solid to use a service like [Sendinblue](https://www.sendinblue.com/).

Besides, using Sendinblue you can send [300 emails/day](https://www.sendinblue.com/pricing/), and using Gmail you're limited to only [100 emails/day](https://support.google.com/a/answer/166852?hl=en). Unfortunately, I couldn't find good documentation on how to use Sendinblue with Laravel, but I finally got it working so that's why I'm sharing it with you.

## Create a Sendinblue email account

Head over to Sendinblue and create an account. Next, go to your account section and in the left sidebar click SMTP & API. Afterwards click at the SMTP tab and finally copy your secret SMTP key value.

## Configuring Laravel

After you grabbed your secret key, go to your .env file in your Laravel application. Next, add these values:

```
MAIL_MAILER=smtp
MAIL_HOST=smtp-relay.sendinblue.com
MAIL_PORT=587
MAIL_USERNAME=john@gmail.com
MAIL_PASSWORD=VAO929swI6sRIoaI
MAIL_ENCRYPTION=tls
MAIL_FROM_ADDRESS=john@gmail.com
MAIL_FROM_NAME="${APP_NAME}"
```

Be sure to add the email from your Sendinblue account in the `MAIL_USERNAME` and `MAIL_FROM_ADDRESS` sections, and your secret SMTP key in the `MAIL_PASSWORD` section.

That's it! Using Sendinblue you're limited to 300 emails/day on the free plan, and that's more than every other mailing service. If you need to send more emails, their plans start at €19/month or $25/month for 10 000 emails/month.
Google Photos will begin to compress high-quality photos with distortion
Tags: googlecloud, images, compress, photos
Published: 2021-03-01 19:39:00



<div>The Google Photos team has launched an email newsletter about new paid editing features for Google One customers. In addition, free users have been warned that uploading photos in their original quality will result in distortion. Thus, users will have to buy additional storage space in order to save the photo in the desired form.</div><div class="fi"><img src="http://95.182.121.107:9900/up/1434/4.webp" alt="google photos will begin to compress highquality photos with distortion"></div>

<div>When the service was launched in 2015, its creator, Anil Sabharwal, promised that uploading high-quality photos would provide “nearly identical visual quality” to the original images.</div>

<div>However, Google is now striving to ensure that users pay extra for it. The company demonstrated what the difference would be between original image quality and high quality.</div>

<div>High quality image specifications are limited to 16 megapixels for photos or 1080p for videos. They can be stored on the service for free until June 2021. In this case, the images of the original quality are loaded with any resolution that the user's camera provides, that is, they can be larger files. Storing these files will require purchasing a Google One plan after the free 15GB of storage runs out.</div>

<div>Most users probably won't notice the difference between high and original image quality. However, this can be a problem for those who are engaged in professional photography or video shooting.</div>

<div>All new photos and videos uploaded in high quality will take up storage space from June 1st. This applies to both free and purchased additional space.</div>

<div>Last fall, Google also offered Drive users with unlimited G Suite storage for $ 12 a month to upgrade to Workspace for a minimum of $ 20. The former option will be retained only for companies with four or more employees.</div><br><br><a href="https://exceed-team.com/tech/google-photos-quality">Google Photos will begin to compress high-quality photos with distortion | Exceed Team Blog</a>
Nevertheless, Maddie didn't throw in the towel in 2021!
Tags: wecoded
Published: 2021-03-01 19:28:11

---
title: Nevertheless, Maddie didn't throw in the towel in 2021!
published: true
tags: shecoded
---

## My advice for allies to support underrepresented folks who code is... 

take a chance on them. Some of us come from very different backgrounds and experiences, and I would argue that this can be a positive for any problem-solving team. 

Remember: these skills are not a "gift" one is born with; they are acquired and learned over time. 

This post was written as part of the "Nevertheless, She Coded" event. An event that amplifies of the journeys of women and non-binary people who code.
Magic Mouse, it's time..
Published: 2021-03-01 19:17:30

I have been a magic mouse 2 user for what must be 4 years and I know that that hand now resemble a claw, the constant strain has led me to look at my priorities, yes touch scrolling is great but it's very uncommon to find an alternative so I think it's time to say goodbye magic crippling device and hello sensible mouse with arc that fits a human hand.

All suggestions welcome for my next mouse but remember, I am not a gamer I want to have something minimal ideally.
RudderStack is a finalist at SXSW Pitch 2021!
Tags: startup, sxsw, rudderstack
Published: 2021-03-01 19:16:27

[SXSW Pitch](https://www.sxsw.com/awards/sxsw-pitch/) (formerly SXSW Accelerator) is the marquee event of [South by Southwest Online](https://www.sxsw.com/), where leading startups from around the world showcase some of the most impressive technology innovations to a panel of hand-picked judges and a virtual audience.

Out of the more than 500 companies that applied to present at SXSW Pitch 2021, RudderStack was selected as one of the 40 finalists.

There are 8 categories this year with 5 finalists in each:  Artificial Intelligence, Robotics & Voice; **Enterprise & Smart Data** _(the category we are in)_; Entertainment,Gaming & Content; Future of Work; Health, Wearables & Wellbeing; Innovative World Technologies; Smart Cities, Transportation & Logistics; and Social & Culture.

The format this year is pretty simple. A 3-minute pre-recorded pitch video and a 5-minute live-recorded Q&A with the judges.

## Join us at SXSW Pitch 2021
![Alt Text](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/7p8qlgsasi4dx9ignwsm.png)

SXSW Pitch is a two-day event, presented on Wednesday, March 17th, and Thursday, March 18th, during SXSW Online. The winners for each category will be announced during the SXSW Pitch Award Ceremony on Thursday, March 18th.

**I am pitching RudderStack on day 2 of the competition.** If you're attending SXSW Online this year, come watch our pitch and throw some support our way. If not, register for the conference so you can watch us pitch and support us on Twitter ([@RudderStack](https://twitter.com/RudderStack)).
Why did I decide to learn software engineering?
Published: 2021-03-01 18:06:53

I wanted to give myself a chance to have a better life and to be better in life. Most of the jobs that I’ve held have been simple, no brainer jobs that result in easy money, but lack incredibly in the area of being fulfilling. A few months ago I decided that I wanted to change that. After a heart to hearts with my wife and a close friend, I decided to pull the trigger and give myself a shot at actually applying the potential that I finally realized was inside me.

I googled for a few days about coding and the possibilities that come from developing this skill and ended up on FlatIron’s homepage. Since applying, I’ve been working hard on the bootcamp prep course to familiarize myself with what exactly we will be learning. I’ve learned so much from the free course and I’m interested in what I’m going to learn within this time at flatiron. 

I feel as if the winding road of life has led me back to the doorstep of coding/software engineering. At one point in my life, I was juggling with the idea of going to a bootcamp located near a town that I was living in. I decided to not go due to lack of money, and also confidence in myself. The title of software engineer seemed like something only a genius was capable of holding and at that point in my life, I felt less than capable of making that a reality for myself. 4 years later I’m equipped with a new look on life and growing confidence to take on challenges as they present themselves. Currently, I’m looking forward to what I will learn and the skills that will develop from all the work and practice that’s expected of me.
HTML Tables w CSS Styling
Tags: webdev, css, tutorial
Published: 2021-03-01 18:32:40

It's just a matter of time until you'll need to create tables in HTML.  While we no longer use them for layout, they are still used extensively in web design for well.. tabular data.

In this tutorial we'll cover everything from the basics of HTML tables to spans, to css styling!

[Subscribe To The Channel!](http://www.youtube.com/FollowAndrew?sub_confirmation=1)

{% youtube IGBRYTpgyg4 %}

Video Timestamps & Topics Covered

00:00​ - Intro
01:00​ - Rows & Data Cells
02:48​ - Spans (merge cells)
04:01​ - Cell Alignment (vertical & horizontal)
04:46​ - Table Header, Body, & Footer
05:25​ - Cell Padding & Cell Spacing
06:23​ - Table Width & Height
07:22​ - Nested Tables
08:16​ - Deprecated Table Attributes
08:52​ - Real World Table HTML
13:21​ - Real World Span
18:02​ - Real World CSS Styling of Tables
28:47​ - El Fin
How do you guys do it?
Tags: codenewbie, career, motivation, beginners
Published: 2021-03-01 18:27:15

How do you guys do it?

How do you don’t compare yourself with others?

How do you open Twitter every day and not feel overwhelmed with the amount of success?

How do you see everybody talking around, making connections, and don’t feel left out?

How do you see all these nice desktop setups and don’t feel the shame of yours? 

How do you overcome this idea in your head that says you don’t know shit? 

How do you master all these different languages and technologies in your spare time?

How do you get from nothing to a job offer within a year and with a 9-to-5? 

How do you release all these incredible websites and apps every week? 

How do you come up with innovative ideas? 

How do you get over the typical “Unfortunately, we will not be moving forward with your application”?

How do you jump over the first barrier, when you are self-taught? 

How do you know when you know enough? 

How do you prove them wrong? 

How?
React bits from Project Week
Published: 2021-03-01 18:24:45

The final project is completed. I’ve learned about and created with React. Out of everything I’ve become familiar with at the flatiron school, the react framework has certainly made it high on my list. (I love them all equally :-] )

Using React, I created a web application through the use of components. Components could probably be compared to the individual bricks for building a house. Just as each brick is used to build that house, the same could be said about components. In our case though, each brick holds some piece of information that serves a purpose for that house.

While my project isn't a large one, I found myself writing components in the style of both functional and class components. As I’m still learning about both, I’d find it tough to choose which one I prefer between the two. I CAN confidently say that both equally have their advantages. I can share a bit of what I learned about both.

Class Components and functional components both require a certain syntax to be written for each.

a basic class component is written like :

```class Arcade extends React.Component {
  render() {
    return <h1> I wanna buy {this.props.game}!</h1>;
  }
}```
a functional class:

```function Arcade(props) {
  return <h1>I wanna buy {props.game}!</h1>;
}```
Within these examples you can also see another difference between the two. The render method has to be called to return JSX inside of a class component. For a functional component, it does not. Another difference is that Class components are capable of making use of the various lifecycle methods, which could be thought of as moments in time of a components life. Functional components don't have access to these exactly…. but are afforded the use of hooks. From the official documentation:

```Hooks are functions that let you “hook into” React state and lifecycle features from function components.```

As I learn more about react I find myself more interested in the possible things that I could build. I plan to continue being curious about code and aim to become a bit better in each attempt I make.
Video.js plugins / Vimeo
Tags: videojs, vimeo, javascript
Published: 2021-03-01 18:23:37

TLDR; **Anyone know of a working Vimeo plugin for Video.js?**

## About the project

I've been working on a project using Video.js to play a stream of videos sourced from both YouTube and Vimeo, using SQL/PHP to retrieve links, custom titles, and descriptions. 

The project simulates a community TV channel, in that videos are playing 24/7 and the user cannot pause, rewind, switch between videos, or open videos in a new tab. 

The only affordance the user has is to mute the audio and change volume level. I use Video.js components, [MuteToggle](https://docs.videojs.com/mutetoggle) and [VolumeBar](https://docs.videojs.com/volumebar). These work fine for YouTube videos, but not for Vimeo.

## About the issue 

Videos hosted on Vimeo do not respond to the Video.js player mute settings, nor the MuteToggle and VolumeBar components.

I am using an adaptation of the [Videojs-Vimeo plugin](https://github.com/videojs/videojs-vimeo). It was last updated in 2016. 

I think the problem is that the Vimeo plugin I'm using doesn't have code to recognize the MuteToggle and VolumeBar components. I started to try writing this code myself, and also am curious if anyone else has done this?

## Questions

(1) Does anyone know of a more recent Video.js Vimeo plugin?
(2) Anyone have tips on modifying Video.js plugins?
(3) Any outstanding thoughts or wisdom on volume control for custom video players that you'd like to pass on?

Lmk if you need to see the code or a snippet to recreate the issue!

Thanks y'all! 🐞
Piece By Piece
Published: 2021-03-01 18:23:04

Components seemed like such a small peice to the React framework when I first read about them. After a few weeks of labs and the readings, I look at components in a whole new light. Components could be looked at like lego blocks, small peices of connectable “blocks” that when placed together in an organized manner could create something much larger.

Components allow us to keep our code organized and separated into re-usable. A common component could be a class component. An example of this could be written as:

```class Welcome extends React.Component { render() { return <h1>Hello, {this.props.name}</h1>; } }```

This bit of information provides us with a ‘block’ to place somewhere within our application. So wherever we place the <Welcome /> componenet the return text that we see in the render method should be rendered or shown to the user on the page. Of course with a few extra steps such as exporting the file(telling this file be prepared to be used within another file)

```export default Welcome;```

and the importing of that file within another file import Welcome from "./properFilePath"

With the necessary code in place we could easily place this code within the component tree to be shown as delcared in the actual class. A built out application may look something like this:

```class App extends React.Component { render() { return ( <Welcome /> <Header /> <Body /> ); } }```
Squashing Bugs: A JS Skill
Published: 2021-03-01 18:21:46

This last week has been a trying one. Fresh out of the javascript section I found myself heading into project week and not feeling secure in my knowledge of js, especially enough to create a project.

Much like with my time in ruby I ended this project week with a new friend in the provided debugger. Debugger is a tool in JS that is usable by all browsers. It allows one to “pause the flow of code”. With this nifty tool you can view the path that your code follows(totally dependent of how many you throw into your code). About three days into project week I found myself using it more and more to troubleshoot the many issues that were plaguing my application. It came in handy when I found myself hitting wall after wall struggling to make progress. Being able to follow the breakpoints of the debuggers I had placed in my code allowed me a new sense of vision. One could think of it as a way to read between the lines. Going forward into the new section I plan to make use of this tool much more.

JavaScript was probably my most challenging section yet, but thanks to determination and debugger, I’m able to say that Ive made it through this project.