Factsheet
I'm a beginner - I've only gone through the first eight chapters of Automate The Boring Stuff.
I've often seen Codewars mentioned on here, but I was far too intimidated to even think of solving problems with the little knowledge I had. But I also didn't feel like diving into the next chapter of ATBS so gave it a shot.
I've learned an amazing amount in the past week I've been solving these problems (or katas, as they're called there).
So if you're a beginner, here is my advice from a fellow n00b:
- Don't be intimidated! The katas start off fairly easy; if you've been able to solve the practice projects from ATBS then the easiest katas shouldn't pose too much of a challenge
- It feels really good to apply your knowledge and solve real problems. It's a great middle step between learning syntax and starting to create your own programs.
- You'll learn a lot. I know not everyone follows ATBS, but you'll learn a lot of really interesting , easier, and more intuitive ways to rework your code that go beyond that book. I'm pretty sure the same can be said for most introductory courses as well. Once you've completed your kata, you can view solutions from other users.
- Don't be put off by the answers performed in one line. At first it annoyed me and made me think I'm doing an absolutely terrible job if my 50 lines of code can be condensed into one, but apparently it's just something called code golfing, where brevity is prioritized over readability. I find it often better to sort answers by "Best Practice" instead of "Clever" to get more helpful answers. Granted, you should look for ways to make your code more efficient, but don't think you have to strive to condense it into a single, hard to understand line.
- After you've completed a kata, look through the solutions and strive to improve at least one aspect of your own answer, even if it's something small. For example, instead of writing out [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10], I recently learned this can be also done with list(range(1,11)).
- Unless you love to make your eyeballs scream in pain like a vampire exposed to sunlight, don't press the crescent moon icon at the top.
I find it often better to sort answers by "Best Practice" instead of "Clever" to get more helpful answers.
If there's one piece of advice I always try to pass along to anyone starting on codewars, it's that one.
I used to love Codewars, need to check it out again.
I found that after a certain point there’d be a plateau where the katas would go from like “reverse this list then insert it in your nan” to “solve the knapsack problem using only array methods and reach arounds”.
Maybe time to check it out again and see if it’s worthwhile?
I'm I the only one who thinks codewars is underrated ?
I would rate codewars 9/10 it is almost perfect.
why? : community driven and beginner friendly
But I am still curious to know some alternatives to this which provides similar beginner friendly coding challenges
Hey fellow programmers, I've been using Code Wars to enhance my problem-solving skills. Despite being at 6 kyu, I still find most 6 kyu problems challenging, and I feel that the system might not be working optimally. I lack knowledge of algorithms and related concepts. Is there a sequential order I should follow to deepen my understanding? what do you recommend I do?