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Ask HN: Young developer looking for some guidance

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Re: Ask HN: Young developer looking for some guidance

#11

Post by radnam »

mattm wrote: post #6
valarauca1 wrote: post #4

Algorithms. Yes boring old pure data and programming algorithms. This skill is more useful then learning a dozen frameworks. In interviews you'll have people asking you dozens of questions that will all boil down to, "Do you know algorithms?" And not to mention that toolset is applicable over nearly every development domain. You'll very very rarely find software teams who will scoff at somebody who knows their algori…

Any recommended books or resources? I'm out of university but feel I need to brush up on algorithms.

You should also try going through MIT's online course on algorithms based on CLR: http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-comput...

Re: Ask HN: Young developer looking for some guidance

#12

Post by qohen »

radnam wrote: post #11
mattm wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any recommended books or resources? I'm out of university but feel I need to brush up on algorithms.

You should also try going through MIT's online course on algorithms based on CLR: http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-comput...

FYI, if you download the course materials, there are transcripts of the video lectures included, so you can get a good feel for what the lectures are like and, maybe, not have to spend over an hour per lecture. You can download the course materials here:

http://ocw.mit.edu/ans15436/ZipForEndUsers/6/6-046j-fall-200...

Note: you may still want/need to watch them since there's notation that is likely easier to read off a blackboard vs reading a transcript of someone describing it, e.g.

"The conclusion is the same thing, but summing over all k. So, k equals one to n, alpha_k x_k. Take f of that versus taking the sum of the alphas times the f's. k equals one to n. So, the definition of convexity is exactly that statement, but where n equals two."

Re: Ask HN: Young developer looking for some guidance

#13

Post by qohen »

mattm wrote: post #6
valarauca1 wrote: post #4

Algorithms. Yes boring old pure data and programming algorithms. This skill is more useful then learning a dozen frameworks. In interviews you'll have people asking you dozens of questions that will all boil down to, "Do you know algorithms?" And not to mention that toolset is applicable over nearly every development domain. You'll very very rarely find software teams who will scoff at somebody who knows their algori…

Any recommended books or resources? I'm out of university but feel I need to brush up on algorithms.

For anyone looking for an easier on-ramp for algorithms -- i.e. not a textbook -- I got an email last night from Manning about a book-in-progress of theirs called "Grokking Algorithms" [1], which looks to be pretty user-friendly (i.e. it's conversational, has pictures, etc.). There's a free sample chapter on the book's page if you want to see the style.

Sadly, the book was 50%-off yesterday as their daily deal, but if you sign up with Manning, there will likely be other sale categories that'll include the book (e.g a 50%-off sale on all books-in-progress or whatever). Given that only the first 2 chapters are available at the moment, you might be able to wait for another sale to come round.

[1] http://www.manning.com/bhargava/

Re: Ask HN: Young developer looking for some guidance

#14

Post by duketon »

valarauca1 wrote: post #4

Algorithms. Yes boring old pure data and programming algorithms. This skill is more useful then learning a dozen frameworks. In interviews you'll have people asking you dozens of questions that will all boil down to, "Do you know algorithms?" And not to mention that toolset is applicable over nearly every development domain. You'll very very rarely find software teams who will scoff at somebody who knows their algori…

Thank you for your response.

This is something that I really have been trying to cover in my spare time. Unfortunately (in this regard) my degree is very 'industry-focused' and hence discards the more 'theoretically inclined' units. Something which I disagree with personally, however that's a discussion for a different time and place.

I'm currently undertaking Intro to Algs from MIT (6.006). With my given course load this is about as much as I can commit to this area at the moment. I however feel like I need to be doing more in this area. What would you recommend? I feel like getting results on Topcoder/et.al would provide a nice tangible learning experience. Would you agree with this or recommend some other activity/resource?

Cheers again.

Re: Ask HN: Young developer looking for some guidance

#15

Post by duketon »

doobiaus wrote: post #10

Programming is the 'easy' part. To be employable learn the rest of the process, which is typically language agnostic: Dev Processes & workflow (scrum), DVCS (git), TDD, CI/CD (Travis/Jenkins/TeamCity), devops (puppet). etc They're the things, regardless of language or project you will need, but which are rarely taught properly.

This is good to hear. I'm currently attending a program through a software consultancy here in my city in which we create a project in teams of devs/BA's using Agile/Scrum, a heavy git focus, continuous integration, and testing frameworks. I'm learning heaps (things we don't really cover at uni) and hope it will help in internships/junior positions.
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