DEV Community: Doug Jones

Interview Tips

Doug Jones — Mon, 11 Jul 2022 03:38:44 +0000

I recently attended another Webinar for insight on the interview process.

As normal there were some of the typical questions.
1) What are companies looking for?
2) What should I be studying?
3) How do I standout?

For the most part the answer have all been relatively similar from company to company.

But one thing that was interesting was the recruiter telling us that they were no longer allowed to ask trick questions.

The process of problem solving was more important than actually solving the problem.

They want to know what your thinking how you approaching the problem and if your headed in the right direction.
Some of the biggest mistakes most people make in live coding is
1)Jumping right into the code
Tip: Take your time. Repeat the question back to the interview er to make sure you have a good understanding of whats being asked.
2) Not writing real code
Tip: Pseudo code is ok. But make sure it helps lead you to writing real code to solve the problem.
3) Not testing your solution
Tips: Makes sure you think about edge cases and ask the interviewer about testing your solution.
4) Only practicing coding in one type of environment.
Tip: Trying writing code in a google doc, white boarding, or even in a text file.

It never ceases to amaze me that no matter how many of these I have been to there is always something new to learn and share. So many of these company are looking for similar things but have different requirements for how you get there.

I hope these tips help you as much as they have helped me.

Keep Practicing and as always
Happy Coding 👨🏿‍💻👨🏻‍💻🧑🏾‍💻👩‍💻

Functional Class

Doug Jones — Mon, 04 Jul 2022 02:53:27 +0000

I see a lot of question asked about javascript. As I One of the things I have been studying is function vs classes.

One of the things I learned is that anything that can be written as a function can be written as a class.

Below I have typed out an example.
We have a book function that gives us some attributes of a book object.

Function

function Book(title, author, ISBN, numCopies) {
  this.title = title;
  this.author = author;
  this.ISBN = ISBN;
  this.numCopies = numCopies;
}

Book.prototype.getAvailabitly = function() {
  if (this.numCopies == 0) {
    return "Out Of Stock";
  } else if (this.numCopies < 10) {
    return "Low Stock";
  }
  return "In Stock";
}

Book.prototype.sell = function(numCopiesSold = 1) {
  this.numCopies -= numCopiesSold;
}

Book.prototype.restock = function(numCopiesStocked = 5) {
  this.numCopies += numCopiesStocked;
}

const Divergent = new Book("Divergent", "Veronica Roth", 9780007550142, 5);
console.log(Divergent.getAvailabitly());
HungerGames.restock(12);
console.log(Divergent.getAvailabitly());
HungerGames.sell(17);
console.log(Divergent.getAvailabitly());

Class

class Book {
  constructor(title, author, ISBN, numCopies) {
    this.title = title;
    this.author = author;
    this.ISBN = ISBN;
    this.numCopies = numCopies;
  }

  get availability() {
    return this.getAvailability();
  }

  getAvailability() {
    if (this.numCopies === 0) {
      return "Out of stock";
    } else if (this.numCopies < 10) {
      return "Low stock";
    }
    return "In stock";
  }

  sell(numCopiesSold = 1) {
    this.numCopies -= numCopiesSold;
  }

  restock(numCopiesStocked = 5) {
    this.numCopies += numCopiesStocked;
  }
}

const Divergent = new Book("Divergent", "Veronica Roth", 9780007550142, 5);
console.log(Divergent.getAvailabitly());
HungerGames.restock(12);
console.log(Divergent.getAvailabitly());
HungerGames.sell(17);
console.log(Divergent.getAvailabitly());

Both will give you the same results.
But one of the things that I like about using a class method is that we can encapsulate our code so we know what function belong to the class. It helps us better organize our code and follow the flow.

As I am learning classes are becoming more of the standard when you have to choose between the two.

Hopefully as I learn I can continue to help make this path easier for others.

I hope this helps and as always
Happy Coding 👨🏿‍💻👨🏻‍💻🧑🏾‍💻👩‍💻

SORTING IT OUT 👨🏿‍💻

Doug Jones — Mon, 27 Jun 2022 03:44:07 +0000

Selection Sort

I recently came across this algorithm problem in my studies.
It took me a while to try to full grasp it. So hopefully I can save someone else some time.

The Concept

In Selection Sort you are taking an array and sorting them by value. Until the entire array is in numerical order.
Example:

Before Selection Sort:[4,3,1,5,2]
After Selection Sort: [1,2,3,4,5]

How it works

The idea behind selection sort.

Take the number at the first index in the array.
Compare in to the rest of the numbers in the array.
If another number in the array is smaller than the one we are comparing it to. The lower number is compared to the rest of the array.
After going through the array the lowest number is place in the spot of the number it was compared to. The process repeats itself until all number are in order and the entire array has been iterated through.

Final Thoughts

I have seen this done a number of ways.But I hope this helps break it down for you. Up to this point my favorite solution is to create an empty array and push the results into the new array after being iterated through.

I hope this helps break it down and makes it a little bit easier to understand. If you have a process that you like please feel free to share it in the comments.

Happy Coding 👨🏿‍💻👨🏻‍💻🧑🏾‍💻👩‍💻

ALL WE ALL IN ?

Doug Jones — Mon, 20 Jun 2022 03:32:17 +0000

Tech Community

Personally I'm very new to the tech to community. Like many before me I had always heard such great things about how welcoming the community is. Fortunately up to this point I have been very fortunate to meet some wonderful people and have not experienced many negatives at all since entering.

But after this too day conference my mind was blown 🤯🤯.

The Challenge

As I listened to a number speakers the message was overwhelming clear. A lot of speakers spoke about not having representation of their race, gender, and disabilities. How it seems we have unintentionally created apps without considering some of these everyday users. The challenges they face using some of the apps that we use everyday.

Some Examples:
1) Elderly people trying to navigate a phone to check the weather.
2) A person with a missing limb trying to navigate a screen with no mouse.
3) A person with bad vision using a screen reader to get important information.

The Progress

As I learned there are some government standards for website and apps to include some of the challenges these people face. How many times do we as developers miss some of these edge cases. When developing apps. One speaker went as far as challenging us to build open source project to help with some of these challenges. Since some of these services can get expensive and not everyone can afford it.

A Step in the right direction

How can we in tech help with some of these problems. Since after all we are problem solvers.
1) Make it personal.
I speaker made a joke but its was 🎯. One day we are all going to get old and be faced with some of these challenges.
2) Do you research. One thing I learned was that there are organizations out there that will answer question. Some are even willing to help test your app for you give you feedback.
3) Educate yourself on what available for you to use to teach others. Learn how to use some of the features on your phone, tablet or computer ...etc. Use the screen reader, voice commands, study and learn how to navigate around the computer without a mouse. Then teach others.

Now I mean this as no slight at the community but I hope we can have conversations about these topics and begin to create things that continue to help make the world a better place.

Keep creating keep reaching and keep changing lives.

Happy Coding 👨🏿‍💻👨🏻‍💻👩🏾‍💻👩‍💻🧑🏾‍💻

Too Much Of A Good Thing ?

Doug Jones — Mon, 13 Jun 2022 04:08:42 +0000

I recently attend an online tech conference. Surprisingly the biggest takeaway wasn't how to be a better programmer or what would make me a better engineer. It was the path I would take in order to achieve these goals. 🤯🤯🤯

To Many Resources

In our modern world we have access to information at the click of a button. We can learn and explore just about anything, for most of us it's goole or stack overflow or something along those lines. But the big question that was given to us was.

Are we using the right resources for the task at hand?
The answer for most of us was NO.

Solution: The speaker gave us some insight into some popular books and resources most of us would turn to two. He encouraged us to pick 3.
1) To learn and study from.
Focus on one learning platform really take our time and master what we are studying and then go from there.

2) Find two place to look for answers when you get stuck.
3) Find a systems that works for you in multiple situation.
Practice not just what your good at but also were you know you struggle.

Organize Your Notes

😯 Yes I used the N-word.(Notes)
This has been an interesting topic within the coding community on note taking.(Save that for another day).

But we were encouraged to break things down into categories and to write out the problem steps used to solve them and why they work or don't work.
If you are a note taker have a section for Algorithms another section for Data Structure, a section for Big O etc....

This way when your preparing for an interview you can go back and review and prepare for what you are doing and be ready to go.

Understand Yourself.

The last thing he share was to understand how you learn best. Know when is the best time for you to study. Understanding what to study.

The comes the fun part applying everything you have learned. To your own projects.

I hope these tips help you as much as they have help me gain perspective in moving forward. It's incredible what we learn from the people who have been down the road were own now.

Hopefully these help and as always

Happy Coding 👨🏿‍💻👨🏻‍💻👩🏾‍💻👩‍💻

ON THE GRID

Doug Jones — Mon, 06 Jun 2022 04:13:46 +0000

This weeks learning goal was to work on some algorithms to grow my problem solving skills and to work on little projects with a focus on developing a skill.

The Project

This week I decided to try a calculator in react. Since I have heard of this coming up often as a beginner friendly project. Once again CSS grid is in the mix. I can honestly say I am enjoying this learning process.

Let start with the basic.

What is CSS Grid.

To put it simply. It is a systems of columns and rows used to build different layouts and segments of a web page.

In the picture above we can get just an idea of what outlines we can build with this tool.

Calculator Grid

In the photo above we can see. Our buttons are line up in columns and row and our = button is spanning across the button on the bottom row.

In this layout we have our C and 0 span across multipole rows

In this layout we see our AC, 0, and = button all change in size and design.

While all of these calculators function the same. CSS grid allows us to build and customize the look and design.
To our liking.

I hope you attempt CSS Grid. Having the freedom to create columns rows, and where we want things to go before we adding the functionality to them is one of the most enjoyable parts of coding.

I hope this helps peak your curiosity and you learn and experiment with CSS grid as well and as always happy coding.

👨🏿‍💻👨🏻‍💻👩🏾‍💻👨🏻‍💻

Imposter Me

Doug Jones — Mon, 30 May 2022 02:32:35 +0000

I've been out of bootcamp a couple of months now. I've always heard once you get out it's a completely different world.
They were right.

The Struggle

All of a sudden I miss the structure of having a roadmap of lessons, guidelines for projects and teachers there to help you get unstuck.

One of the biggest struggles is dealing with imposter syndrome.
For some who may have not heard the term before. Long story short it's just like it sounds. Feeling like you don't belong or know what your doing.
You doubt your skills, or accomplishments and abilities.

The Fight

Learning to navigate through picking my own projects to focus on developing certain skills. Learning how to solve algorithms for now and moving onto learning data structures. I am reminded everyone was once in my shoes and made it.

Imposter Syndrome is real for all of us and we all will go through it over the course of our journey. But understanding how to recognize it and have the tools to deal with it is important.

Overcoming The Struggle

One of the biggest ways I've been working through overcoming the feeling of imposter syndrome is:

Review old projects Looking at old project and reading through the code. Following the code flow. Updating the code. Loading the project and playing around with it.
Helping other's Finding a coding community and helping a new coder solve simple problems. Contributing to an open source project is a great way to get involved as well.
Go back to the basic and resolve old problems with a different solution. This will show you how much you have learned from then until now. Finding a different solution will also help you get a better grasp on concepts and grow your knowledge.

ONE STEP FORWARD IS A STEP WORTH TAKING IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION NO MATTER HOW BIG OR SMALL IT IS

I hope these tips help no matter where you are in your coding journey.

Never Give Up. You are never in this alone.

Happy Coding 👨🏿‍💻👨🏻‍💻🧑🏾‍💻👩🏾‍💻👩‍💻

Algo Step 👣👣👣

Doug Jones — Mon, 23 May 2022 03:07:48 +0000

Crawl before you code?

We have all heard the term at some point in our lives you have to "Crawl before you walk".

Well in the case of learning algorithms it almost seems like we are going from walking to running. 🤔🤔🤔

1) When we crawl we start learning the basic of coding.. variables, function, data types...etc

2) We start walking when we learn to put them together by building projects or start with some basic problem solving.

3) In my case now. I feel like we are starting running a little bit maybe a light jog. As we start to diving deeper into understanding problem solving using algorithms and data structures.

Lets Jog Together

Let's look at a problems and go though it step by step.

Step 1 - Understanding the problem

Given an Array, find the first duplicate value that occurs. If there are no duplicates, return -1.

This seems pretty simple to understand but to reinforce this rewrite the question in your own words.

Take the given array and find the first matching pair. If there are no matches return -1.

The Array: [1, 5, 3, 10, 2, 5]

Step 2 - Pseudocode a path or solution to how your going to solve the problem.

Pseudocode is just a step by step outline of your code in plain text.

1)Iterate through the array
2)Check the value of the first index and compare it to the rest of the array for a match.
3)If there is a match output the match.
4)If no match move on to the next index and compare it to the rest of the array.
5)Keep going until all values in the array have been checked.
If not match is found return -1.

Step 3 - Code

Code out the solution to the problem and if needed don't be afraid to write out your own test to check if you are getting the results you are looking for.

function findFirstDuplicate(arr) {
  let elementSet = new Set()
  for (let i = 0; i < arr.length; i++) {
    if (elementSet.has(arr[i])) return arr[i];
    elementSet.add(arr[i]);
  }
  return -1
}

As with anything there is more than one way to do things but as I have started these are the steps I have started taking.

Hopefully you have found this helpful and as always.

Happy Coding 👨🏿‍💻👨🏻‍💻🧑🏾‍💻👩‍💻

The Little Things Matter...

Doug Jones — Mon, 16 May 2022 04:18:04 +0000

When first learning to code if your anything like me you started with printing "Hello World!" in your language of choice.

Then it was variables how to set them. Data types like string, integers and Booleans …etc. Then it was function using the variables and passing them in as arguments and the list goes on.

But one key concept I learned early was iterating. At the time I didn't understand how important this was going to be combine with all the basic I was learning before. So my advice to anyone learning to code is Take Your Time really get a good feel for the basic before moving forward.

For my example were going to use JavaScript as our language and were simply going to be looking at a reverse string algorithm problem and connecting the dots.

This is an example of how a for loop is set up:

for (initializer; condition; iterator) {
    // statements
}

Here is an example of a for loop in action with a simple reverse string algorithm problem.
In this example we have a combination of the basic on display.

We have a variable set to an empty string.
We have a function with an argument of str (short for string) -which is a data type.
We are iterating over the string
Returning the string in reverse.

function reverseString(str) {
  let reversed = "";       
  for (var i = str.length - 1; i >= 0; i--){         
    reversed += str[i];  
  }     
return reversed;  
}

As I continue to start working on learning different algorithms. It is clear that these simple concepts are actually really important to the being able to do complex things in coding.
As I have learned. You really have to crawl before you walk.
I hope this helps and as always.

Happy Coding 👨🏿‍💻👨🏻‍💻👩‍💻🧑🏾‍💻

Promises Promises

Doug Jones — Mon, 09 May 2022 03:23:20 +0000

I was recently in an interview for javascript and was asked what I though was an easy question.

The interviewer ask me to explain promises.

...Well I though inside this is easy... I got this.

...Welp needless to say things didn't go as I expected.

What are Promises in JavaScript

Promises are objects used to run code asynchronously.

To keep in simple. We can defer the completion of a block of code until the async request is complete.

Promises also have what I like to call a fail safe in the .catch method. Which simply put will catch the errors in our async call.

Promises are becoming more useful with us running more and more things asynchronously. Having the ability to catch our errors in one place is extremely important as we develop as developers.

I hope this helps and if you get this question in an interview..good luck

Happy Coding 👨🏿‍💻👨🏻‍💻👩‍💻🧑🏾‍💻

Terminal Trouble

Doug Jones — Mon, 02 May 2022 03:33:45 +0000

The Issue

So I recently did an update on my Macbook to the macOS 12.3. If you are anything like me. We usually just run the update without looking into what the update includes and what it will effect. 🤷🏿🤷🏿🤷🏿

Welp...lesson learned

The new update effectively removed the ability to open files in VScode via the code . in the terminal and again if your anything like me that's not going to fly.

The Fix

When I first came across this issue. I though I was doing something wrong. So I rebooted my Macbook, checked my spelling and a host of others thing before I decided to Google it. (Google is out friend).

It turns out that with this update apple removed it's support of python 2 🙄 and python 3 doesn't come with Mac which causes the code . command to not work anymore.

🤔🤔 Now what? After doing some research ...aka Googling.
I came across this fix.

To open a file from the terminal use the keyword "open" and the file path/name.

To open a VScode file follow these steps
1) cd /usr/local/bin
2) nano code
3) change python => python3 on the following line

Make sure you have the shell command code set up in VScode

I hope this helps and if you come across any other fixes or tips for this issue please feel free to leave them in the comments

As always Happy Coding 👨🏿‍💻👨🏻‍💻🧑🏾‍💻👩‍💻

Steps to 👨🏿‍💻👨🏿‍💻👨🏿‍💻 part 2

Doug Jones — Mon, 25 Apr 2022 04:11:05 +0000

I just finished coding my first game. Even though it was something I could have finished in a shorter amount of time. I really wanted to grasp the concepts of this process.

In a world where we hear phrases like "Time is money" and in a "New York minute". I think we lose the value of the process and can sometime do ourselves more harm than good. This could have been a three day process but I took the time to enjoy the experience and learn as much as I could. Here are some of the things I did along the way:

Map out the structure of the game.
Research some new methods and function I was using.
Test, Test and Test some more, which lead to some debugging.

Now by doing that I feel like I have added more to the tool box. Which I can say I feel confident using in the future for other projects.

As I was going through building this game. I made sure to take notes on new things I was learning and looking for other examples of how they were used to help my understanding. Here are some tips I use along the way.

Use documentation and example found in them to help you.
Write it out in your own words or try to explain it to someone.
Play around with it in a repel(Depending on the method).
Comment it in your code and use variables to help you define it until you don't need the comment anymore to understand what it does.

I hope these tips help. I hope to continue to add more as I learn more on this journey to share with others.

Until next time Happy Coding 👨🏿‍💻👨🏻‍💻👩‍💻🧑🏾‍💻