DEV Community: Priya Vaidya

How I passed the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner Exam (with no prior AWS knowledge)!

Priya Vaidya — Fri, 04 Sep 2020 01:51:53 +0000

Some overview of the exam:

The AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner exam is intended for individuals who can demonstrate an overall understanding of the AWS Cloud. The exam can be taken at a testing center or from home as an online proctored exam. I took the exam at home, it is a proctored exam and I was required to pass a verification to prove I wasn't cheating or using resources during the exam.

Resources I used to prepare:

I started off with this video from FreeCodeCamp:

It's a 4 hour video but it highlights all of the topics that are included in the exam. Keep in mind that I started with no prior AWS knowledge so this video was a great starting point for me. I highly recommend doing the follow-along in the video, because there is no better preparation than hands-on experience. This resource was the most helpful for me. I did however watch it a couple times to solidify topics. I made flashcards after going through the video with definitions of highlighted topics/cloud concepts. There are a lot of abbreviations used instead of the full form of certain technologies within AWS so the flashcards were a huge help.

Walk-through videos of sample exam questions:

It was helpful to watch the walk-through of the sample questions to learn the different strategies that could be used to figure out some of the exam questions.

Amazon Web Services Whitepapers:

AWS Overview
AWS Pricing Overview
AWS Support Plans Overview

Now, I know that it's not fun to read these, but personally it was helpful to skim through these for review. You don't need to know everything in the whitepapers line by line. Just an overview will suffice.

There are lots of paid resources and classes for this exam but after using these I don't think those are necessary at all.
Everything that was asked in the exam was covered by most of the resources that I listed above. If you have any other questions, leave a comment!

Why I Became a Software Developer.

Priya Vaidya — Fri, 04 Sep 2020 00:49:55 +0000

Growing up, I’ve always been interested in technology and how it was possible to make such intricate programs and websites. As high school came to an end, I was left with the decision to decide what I wanted to major in. I ignored all my instincts to study a tech-related field and chose psychology. I sold myself short because I simply thought that I couldn’t become a successful software engineer. When I thought of people who were successful in this field I never really thought of people I, as a woman, could relate to, and it discouraged me from even starting to study software engineering. After a semester of studying psychology, I started to become uninterested and the reason for that is simple. I didn’t have the passion to study psychology. I was truly passionate about software engineering but I shied away from getting into the field because 18 year old me told myself I couldn’t do it.

I started self studying programming and got into the basics of coding. Within a few tutorials, I realized that this is what I’ve been wanting to do all along. While doing my research, I found out about women like Grace Hopper and Betty Holberton who were one of the many pioneers of software engineering. I felt inspired and I soon realized that I should’ve never sold myself short in the first place. I should’ve went with what I was passionate about instead of putting myself down. But what’s done is done and now I will never sell myself short when doing something I am passionate about. Now, I take on challenges as they are thrown at me instead of turning the other way and choosing an easier option. Not only do I want to be a successful software engineer because of my love for what I’ve learned so far in programming, but to represent women in technology for other aspiring women so that they don’t feel underrepresented in any way.

When I found out about Lambda School, I was taking CS courses at my local community college and I was planning to attend a coding boot camp. I enjoyed studying Computer Science however, I wasn’t able to apply the information to real-world projects partly because everything was being presented in lecture format. In my personal opinion, one cannot become a successful software engineer by listening to lectures and taking multiple choice tests. After researching Lambda School, I found that it taught software engineering with the progressive approach that I wanted from college all along. Lambda School provides a more hands on approach to learning software engineering. It also pushes working as a team and learning how to network with others in order to accomplish tasks which is similar to how software engineers work in the real world. Ultimately, it would give me the skill set to become a successful software engineer.

What is the Game of Life?

Priya Vaidya — Tue, 30 Jun 2020 21:54:46 +0000

First you need to know about Cellular Automaton(CA).

A Cellular Automaton (plural - Celluar Automata) is a system of cells with the following characteristics:

The cells live on a grid.
Each cell has a state, it is either alive or dead (on or off)
Each cell has a neighborhood, typically a cells neighbors are considered to be the cells that are adjacent.

The state of each cell depends on a set of rules and the behaviors of its neighboring cells. Imagine that being similar to filling in squares on a piece of graph paper. Now imagine that there are a set of rules that determine how the pattern changes over time. This is a process that can exhibit behaviors of biological reproduction and evolution. One of the most popular Cellular Automaton was created by John Conway, called the Game of Life which is a 2-D Cellular Automaton invented in late 1960s at the University of Cambridge.

What is the Game of Life?

A 2D grid of squares on a (possibly infinite) plane.
Each square can be alive (1) or dead (0)

Each cell has 8 alive or dead neighbors, left, right, top, bottom, and diagonals. These cells become alive or dead by following a set of rules which eventually create a pattern which can be considered a depiction of "generations".

The Rules:

If an alive (black) cell has fewer than 2 alive neighbors, it dies (turns white) -- loneliness
If an alive cell has more than 3 alive neighbors, it dies – overcrowding
If an alive cell has either 2 or 3 alive neighbors, it goes on living (stays black) -- happiness
If a dead cell has exactly 3 alive neighbors, it comes alive -- reproduction. Otherwise it stays dead.

How patterns are made:

The game proceeds in generations, one generation per step
In each generation, some cells come alive and some die according to the rules stated above.

In the image above Generation 1 on the left changes according to the rules and becomes Generation 2 after one step. This continues over a period of time which results in what looks like a continuous pattern until all the cells die.

Various patterns emerge as steps increase, the most popular patterns are gliders and spaceships. Once the cells are placed in the starting position, the rules determine everything that happens later. In most cases, it is impossible to look at a starting position (or pattern) and see what will happen in the future. The only way to find out is to follow the rules of the game.