The 100 days of code challenge is becoming more popular by the day. It was started by Alexander Kallaway as a way of forming a habit, one of regular coding. More developers seem to be committing to the challenge daily.
Starting the challenge has been on my mind for a while now, and I've finally decided now is the time to commit to it. Today is my Day #1. You might be wondering why I decided to join #100daysOfCode? Or what do I plan on doing during the challenge? Well, all is answered below. This, of course, will likely change as the 100 days progresses. So to keep up, check back to this blog regularly or follow my #100daysOfCode Github repo.
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My first 100 days of code challenge! Wish me luck...
My 100 days of code challenge 2018
Why?
Because I need some structure! My life is hectic, at best. So I need social accountability (otherwise known as positive peer-pressure) to get shit done sometimes. It's how I wrote my first book!
This will also help me take steps to build my portfolio, friends, and confidence as I aim for the next level in my career as a developer.
The (modified) rules
I vow to code for a total of one hour per day. This will be done in one or more sessions.
This coding time will be used to build portfolio and personal projects, and not client work. It may include tutorials that involve following along while coding. Just watching the videos doesn't count. Writing pseudo code does count.
Writing coding tutorials for my blog may count towards the total time, but can not make up more than half of…
(If you have never heard of the challenge, you can find the official rules and FAQ here.)
Why take the challenge?
Because I need some structure! My life is hectic, at best. So I need social accountability (otherwise known as positive peer-pressure) to get shit done, sometimes. It's how I wrote my first book!
This will also help me take steps to build my portfolio, friends, and confidence as I aim for the next level in my career as a developer.
The (modified) rules
I've taken the liberty (like many before me) to modify and extended 'the rules'. The rules below extend the official rules of the challenge.
I vow to code for a total of one hour per day. This will be done in one or more sessions.
This coding time will be used to build portfolio and personal projects, and not client work. It may include tutorials that involve following along while coding. Just watching the videos doesn't count. Writing pseudocode does count.
Writing coding tutorials for my blog may count towards the total time, but can not make up more than half of the total time spent (30 minutes max).
On travel days I will miss no more than two full days consecutively. Any days missed will be added onto the end of the challenge until 100 coding days has been reached.
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Acceptable reasons for missing a day:
- Traveling on plane/train/car over distance.
- Nursing sick children.
- Loss of limbs / or serious hand injury.
- Death.
Code is to be pushed to Github or Bitbucket (for private repos) daily. Not all code will be in my #100daysOfCode repo. Projects may require their own repo, in which case the links to those will be placed in the on this README.md file.
What will I build?
I have a few ideas. Some are mentioned on the repo for the challenge. Some, well, will be private. Not everything has to be open-source and free. ;)
One thing is for sure though, I will be starting the challenge with the Real Python Course. Some of it, admittedly, might be aimed at someone a little newer to programming than I. But practice is practice, and I'm sure I'll get plenty out of it all the same. I intend to share some of the things I've learned on the course on this blog.
In the spirit of transparency, I do work for Real Python as their Community Manager. The copy of the course I have is an advance copy of the newest version of the course, which I'm told has had major rewrites and will be released at some point later this year. I plan to be honest in my assessments and reviews, however, as I know my feedback will help improve the course for future Pythonistas.
Ready, Set, Go...
I guess the only thing left is to start coding! You can check my daily progress on Twitter (as per official rules). You can follow me on twitter, or search the hashtag #100daysofcode for updates.
Are you doing the challenge? If so let me know in the comments. Any advice you have will be appreciated :).
Happy coding.
Top comments (21)
Best of luck Ricky!
And thank you for posting this. You're officially the straw that broke the camels back. I've seen too many posts about the #100DaysOfCode challenge but haven't done anything about it. Time for me to take part 😊
I was the same. Let me know when you start and I'll be sure to egg you along, too.
Whelp here goes!
dev.to/hf-solutions/100-days-of-co...
Good luck Ricky.
I tried this challenge the last year and it's difficult, although I didn't finish I learnt a lot about organizing my time, python and other stuff; I know that this will give you a lot of things. If you will write here about I'll attend the post.
Thank you! I'll definitely update my progress here.
Have fun!
I've tried doing it in the past, but since I write Javascript tests for 8+ hours a day, I'd end up not wanting to dive into anything different at night. Even just commiting to 30ish minutes a day of something codelike outside of work didn't work since that didn't feel like enough to make progress on anything. And then grad school started, so I had even more excuses and less time.
I'd like to try it again, but I don't think do x for y days works with me. Maybe work on z every week. That way I could cram it all on a Saturday and still feel accomplished despite playing Guild Wars 2 Sunday through Friday.
If I coded for a full day I doubt I'd take the challenge either. I wouldn't like need to, either. For me it's about getting some hours in towards my 10,000 hours of mastery.
The issue is that I don't feel married to software QA, so it would be nice to branch out and learn more than the Jasmine flavor of Javascript. So I love the idea of learning a skill over 100 days! Especially when at work it feels like there's no new challenge since I only need to know my little framework of one language, so it doesn't feel like 8 hours of progress towards anything skillful.
So I try to do all the things and then I get sleepy and it falls off pretty quick :P
"I get sleepy and it falls off pretty quick" -- I know how you feel 😂
A really good post!
I like it very much. You have made me want to do #100daysOfCode. I am looking forward to your posts. Thank you.
Good luck!
I like you write the plan, just like specification. I bet you will go far with project. I star your repo and hope to learn a few things along the way.
Thanks you. I hope to not disappoint.
Best of luck, Ricky! Does this challenge mean 100 consecutive days including weekends and holidays? I think having at least 1 rest day every week is necessary for staying fresh/avoiding burnout.
Usually it's 100 consecutive days.
Good luck!!!
Thank you, Ben 👍
Great decision! I did one iteration of #100daysofcode earlier this year (I finished in July) and it really boosted my confidence as a programmer and taught me a lot of good habits.
Best of luck :)
Thank you, Doaa. 😊
There are some courses aimed at the #100daysofcode challenge if you wish to use them. They are beginner focused though, normally. A lot also have their own plan for what to build/learn.
I need to do this challenge. the point 5 😂