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Julia
Julia

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Social Distancing and What am I Doing with More Free Time.

It's pandemic time! I am not going to lie, as a former CBRN (Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear) specialist in the US Army, whatever is going on in the world fascinates me 😅. However, I am a software developer now, and my crazy days as a soldier are in the past, even though my training kicks in once in a while.

Pandemic hit at the worst time of the year for me, though: I am in search of a job. All of the career fairs for veterans I was going to go were moved online, which makes it super impersonal, and all the interviews are held over the internet and phone. It is what it is 🤷🏻‍♀️.

However, there is a positive side to the situation! Since I don't have to commute into New York City for fairs or interviews, I am saving a ton of time. This gives me an opportunity to work on my skills, learn new things, finish old projects, and collaborate with others on new ones.

My plan is as follows:

  • Finish an old project (soooo overdue)
  • Practice algorithms and data structures (can never stop practicing basics)
  • Do some fun 100 days of code challenges
  • Start learning C++ (which will come in handy for my masters program I am starting in the fall)

With this said... What are some of your favorite code challenges? What are some really cool and creative tutorials you've ever written or came across? I will take all of the recommendations for super out of the box thinking creative and funky stuff 😅. Let me know in the comments!

Top comments (3)

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dellannie profile image
Corey Rodney

Thanks for this post. I just found out that the schools will be out and I think they're closing down jobs here in the Midwest also. However my wife turned to me and said I guess you will be leanirng some new skills.
I'm not into C++ I struggle with that language but you should check out codewars. There's tons of things to do there especially code challenges.

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sciencebae profile image
Julia

Yes! I love codewars. They interface and ranking system is a lot of fun. I wrote a post before where I lightly compare codewars with a few other similar platforms.

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jlohani profile image
Jayant Lohani

Hackerrank is one of the best platforms for coding practice as well as competition. The score on hackerrank also sometimes play an important role during the interview. There are other options to like Hackerearth but Hackerrank is my personal favorite. And if u are looking for some courses, i would suggest you Udemy. It offers some of the best courses, some of which are free while others paid. Well there is always an option to download those tutorials free via torrent but if you want certificate, go and buy the course according to your interest.
All the best 👍