Hi guys,
So I originally powered through the Basic Algorithmic Scripting modules, and took a break to brush up on responsive web design on another website, and also learn about Wordpress…
Now I’m back on FCC and it seems like there have been some new lessons/challenges added to each category. I looked at one of them, and while I’m not blanking out… I’m kind of struggling to get back into the mindset which I had when I originally went through these challenges…
About me, I went through a 3 month part-time course for the foundations, 2 years ago – and since then I’ve been self taught. I’m trying to switch careers in my company (creative advertising), from a business role to a web dev role. They’re now starting to give me small basic projects, that thankfully do not require any “algorithmic scripting” javascript similar to the one in the challenges.
My question is… are we supposed to remember and memorize the solutions to the algorithmic scripting challenges, or is it normal to go back to these weeks later and be somewhat lost? I mean, I assume they are meant to open up our minds to new possibilities of organizing our Javascript – but I’m just not sure how I should feel about being a little lost, and lacking in confidence, while looking at the challenges again…
Thanks in advance, and sorry for the rant. Looking forward to your thoughts and comments!!
I’ve found that to be the case. Unless you actually work as a computer scientist for a big firm, you will probably not be writing a lot of algorithms as a web developer. At least I haven’t doing some small freelance work. The skills and concepts you learn while doing the algorithms is important.
I don’t think you need to remember and memorize the solutions. If I was to go back and look at the intermediate challenges I did a year or two ago, I would probably be somewhat lost. However the ideas I learned improved my coding, and I don’t think it would take me too long to figure them back out.
If you can master the fundamentals of programming–conditionals, loops, objects, arrays, functions–on the algorithm projects, you should be just fine even if you don’t remember the exact solution to the problem.
There’s no reason to have these solutions memorized and immediately remember how to do them when you see them again. What does happen with time and experience is that it becomes easier to solve them. You gain experience in recognizing problems and being able to identify what sort of approach you need to take.
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I have the same experience with you only that after I learned some js through YDKJS I forgot most of the stuff I learned about HTML and CSS… it is kind of frustrating though. So you are not the only one. That’s why people suggested me to do HTML/CSS and JS both. And switch between them when I am coding.