If you want to get better at programming, you need to get better at algorithms. In some ways, that statement is tautological. To quote Computer Science pioneer Niklaus Wirth, Algorithms + Data Structures = Programs. But besides the algorithms that you write yourself, it’s also worth studying well-known algorithms such as those taught in introductory […]
ContinueHow to Attack a Programming Puzzle
If you want to get a lot better at a skill, you need a process for practicing it. When you follow a process, it encourages you to practice in a consistent way, rather than using whatever practice technique you happen to feel like using on a given day. As you get experience using your process, […]
ContinueLearning to Code Online
Last week I wrote about the benefits of working on programming fluency. But before a programmer can work on fluency, they need to learn to program in the first place. Until recently, prospective programmers had to go through a complicated setup process to get their compiler and environment up and running. There’s something to be […]
ContinueCommunicating Fluently with Your Computer
As you know if you’ve been following along, I’m currently working through a book called Competitive Programming 3. Each chapter has a set of practice problems, some of which are identified as “starred problems,” and are especially recommended. Chapter 1 contains 39 starred problems, categorized as “ad-hoc problems.” This generally means that they don’t focus […]
ContinueThe Bathtub Puzzle
As I mentioned in my post introducing Project 462, I have spent some time in the past working on historical CodeForces problems to get some idea of what their programming competitions are like. I thought it would be interesting to go through one of those problems, Hot Bath, from the perspective of a CodeForces beginner. […]
ContinueProject 462
The Story So Far Long ago (2008), I read a post on the “xkcd blag” (yes, Randall Munroe occasionally just writes regular blog posts) about “a site with a lot of math-oriented programming problems that you can solve in any language.” I like math and programming, so that seemed like fun. I spent a few […]
Continue12 Reasons to Study Competitive Programming
In my deliberate practice plan for software developers, I suggested that aspiring programming experts find a source of programming problems to use as part of a deliberate practice routine. It turns out that there are more pre-packaged programming problems out there than you could get through in a lifetime. Many of them come from the […]
ContinueDeliberate Practice for Software Developers
In Making Sense of the Deliberate Practice Debate and Coding is Underrated, I introduced the concept of deliberate practice, and suggested a specific skill that aspiring software development experts can use as their practice target. I’m now going to go into detail on a deliberate practice process for this skill. Here’s the skill description again: […]
ContinueCoding is Underrated
In Making Sense of the Deliberate Practice Debate, I argued that deliberate practice is the best way to get better at a skill, even if you believe that innate ability (talent) plays a significant role in how people become experts. In the next few posts, I’m going to start investigating how software developers can apply […]
ContinueMaking Sense of the Deliberate Practice Debate
Deliberate Practice The summer of 2014 was a busy time for online chatter about deliberate practice, the specific type of practice that is designed to improve performance of a complex skill. In July, the journal Psychological Science published a paper (summary, full text) by Brooke Macnamara and colleagues, arguing that practice, even deliberate practice, plays […]
Continue- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 41
- 42
- 43