DEV Community: ChiEn Leow

Python VS Ruby

ChiEn Leow — Mon, 05 Apr 2021 03:10:13 +0000

The Language

Ruby

Python

Created by Guido van Rossum in 1991

The Usage

Ruby

very human friendly
More than one way to do the same thing
Dynamic, reflective, object-oriented, general-purpose programming language
Used widely for websites such as Hulu, Twitter, ZenDesk, Basecamp, Shopify, Urban Dictionary, GitHub

Python

most understandable way to do something and that is how it should be done
Used for websites such as Google, Yahoo Maps, Dropbox, Venmo, YouTube

From Excel to VSCode

ChiEn Leow — Mon, 29 Mar 2021 01:56:11 +0000

Being an INFJ, I always have thousand of ideas running in my mind, from food recipes to shark tank ideas and everything in between. Years ago, while working at my e-commerce sales analyst position, I found myself constantly brainstorming ideas on how to optimize the tools that I used. I was trying to program in Excel to create tools to increase efficiency at work. I did end up creating a couple of tools using Excel, but the curiosity didn't stop there.

The moment I realized all I need is a computer and a whole lot of googling and learning to digitalize my ideas, I made the biggest leap in my career journey, which is to learn software engineering. From coding my first "Hello World" on screen, I never looked back.

All the well-prepared resources and motivating testimonies I found on the internet have completely demolished my previous long-held perceptions that computer science is meant for men who are good in math and sciences. Some of my biggest inspirations have been ted talks about computer science and podcasts by women in tech and minorities in tech, for example, Learn to Code With Me by Laurence Bradford and CodeNewbie by Saron Yitbarek.

Programming is about Problem-Solving

ChiEn Leow — Sun, 21 Mar 2021 22:52:01 +0000

After all, programming is more about problem-solving than actually writing code. I would like to share my take-away from this podcast episode by Developer Tea - Interview w/ Nicole Archambault (Part 1).

8 Steps in Problem Solving

1. Read and Understand The Problem

Understand the problem thoroughly by reading the question out loud at least 3 times. In a live coding interview session, I usually clarify the question with the interviewer to make sure we are on the same page.

2. Rephrase The Problem

Rephrasing the problem by putting it into different teams allows us to really understand it. By doing so also allows us to see the problem from different perspectives.

3. Identify Input, Output and Variables

Ask yourself, what input and output are we expecting? What given variables do we have? Does it expect a different data structure as an output?

4. Break Down The Problem

As an example, go grocery shopping: make a shopping list, go to the store, pick out items, pay for them, carry them into your car, etc. You are going to break down the problem into bite-sized pieces that you can do something with.

5. Pseudocode

Pseudocode your solution in plain English. What is pseudocoding you may ask? Here's an example of how to write pseudocode.

6. "Translate" Your Code

"Translate" your code from plain English to a programming language.

7. Debug Your Code

8. Optimize Your Code

You can post your solution and get perspectives from others.

I like to put it this way, we programmers are like magical translators, what sets us apart from non-coders is that we basically problem solve by translating English to computing languages all day.