"Basically, "level 3" seems to span everything from Norvig and djb to someone who got a BS and just read Code Complete." I was going to post that reading Code

"Basically, "level 3" seems to span everything from Norvig and djb to someone who got a BS and just read Code Complete." I was going to post that reading Code Complete is one way perhaps to help OP recognize when you are improving, but there's more to it, you need to read, lots. A programming career can be a long one, and many people may never stray far from their home town, whilst others might wash up, bedraggled, all across the globe. There have been lots of articles on HN recently about self-development, but common threads seem to be: - directed practice - reflection - publish and be criticized by others (good way) Between reading the great books, writing real code and exposing your code to others' criticism, there should be a path that leads to serious improvement at a steady pace. I've interviewed recently, and it's caused me to look carefully at what I do, and how much I know. That in itself has been valuable, and helped me pick out what to read (C and C++ books in my case), and given me a target to become more surefooted in my programming.