DEV Community: Karuna Sehgal

A Simplified Interpretation of Algorithms

Karuna Sehgal — Mon, 27 Nov 2017 20:00:27 +0000

As a Software Engineer, the hardest concept for me to understand is Algorithms. Since I do not have a traditional CS background, I have never learned about Algorithms until I started prepping for technical interviews. In fact, very few technical programs/bootcamps focus on teaching students Algorithms.
In order to become comfortable with Algorithms, I googled online, attended meetups, and attended a Girl Develop It workshop called Introduction to Algorithms. This workshop really helped me understand Algorithms more clearly and I want to share with you what I learned.

What is a Algorithm?

An algorithm is a repeatable process for determining the solution to a problem. An example is show below:

Do we use Algorithms daily?

We actually do. Here are some ways we use Algorithms on a day to day basis:

Find a cereal in the grocery store.
Re-organizing your closet to make finding stuff easier.
Finding something good to watch on TV.

In fact, let’s use watching TV as an example. There are several ways we find something to watch on TV. Here is one approach:

Finding something to watch on TV: Version 1 (v1)

Turn on TV.
Watch what is on.

Another approach is:

Finding something to watch on TV: Version 2 (v2)

Turn on TV.
Flip through every channel and rate what is on.
Find the highest rated channel.
Watch

Here is another way as well:

Finding something to watch on TV: Version 3 (v3)

Turn on TV.
Check 5 favorite channels and rate what is on .
Find the highest rated channel
Watch

As you can see there are several ways to finding something to watch on TV and the same goes for solving an Algorithm.

So the goal of Algorithms is to solve a problem in a repeatable way. What I touch upon in this blog post is just the tip of the iceberg. There is much more to come. I plan on writing a series of blogposts regarding Algorithms and will go in further detail about Data Structures, Time Complexity, Big O Notation, and various sorting methods.

Nevertheless, Karuna Coded

Karuna Sehgal — Wed, 08 Mar 2017 16:17:02 +0000

I began coding because...

It has been about 2 years since I learned how to code. I was desperate for a career change from working in a government agency, and I wanted to do something that was more meaningful, challenging, gave me potential to grow and improve my technical skill set.

My journey started with an Introduction to HTML and CSS class through Girl Develop It. It was an incredible experience. Not only was it empowering to write my first line of code, it was exciting to interact with other women from different walks of life who were eager to learn HTML and CSS.

Through Girl Develop It, I discovered other organizations such as Women Who Code and Startup Institute that helped me expand my technical skill set in Javascript, jQuery, Github, and Adobe Creative Suite.

Through these opportunities, I built a network of fellow developers and others that are in the startup ecosphere.

I started attending technical meetups and developer conferences where not only did I have the opportunity to share my story but I learned so much along the way. I discovered AngularJS, NodeJS, and ReactJS and created apps using these frameworks.

I'm currently hacking on...

a Rails Job Tracker application with Angular in the front end where the job seeker can maintain details about the job and adding an application checklist to the job.

I'm excited about...

Currently, I am enrolled in Flatiron School's Online Full Stack Web Development program and working on my final project. Overall it has been a hard yet gratifying change. I am completely dedicated to my new future.

My advice for other women who code is...

Get out there and network. Check out tech meetups and participate as much as you can.

Hi, I'm Karuna Sehgal

Karuna Sehgal — Wed, 08 Mar 2017 16:02:52 +0000

I have been coding for 2 years.

You can find me on GitHub as karuna24s

I live in Forest Hills, NY.

I am studying at Flatiron School.

I mostly program in these languages: Ruby, JavaScript.

I am currently learning more about AngularJS.

Nice to meet you.