7 ms·

How Good Are You At Programming

24 points by krat0sprakhar 12y ago

frozenport 12y ago
How many Project Euler problems can you solve?
- pcmonk 12y ago
  As great as Project Euler is for learning programming, it's definitely not a good measure of most aspects of programming. It measures a very small subset of the required skills. This chart gives a more complete and nuanced way of evaluating one's skills.
  - easytiger 12y ago
    Yea, just because you aren't familiar with combinerics or number theory doesn't mean you aren't good.
  - collyw 12y ago
    I agree, its like the "algorithms and data structures" stuff I was taught at University. In real life, organization of large code bases, picking an appropriate abstraction, and general knowledge of OS's are far more important for most jobs. Never had to implement a linked list in 11+ years of coding.
gaelow 12y ago
This one is much better: http://sijinjoseph.com/programmer-competency-matrix/ http://sijinjoseph.com/programmer-competency-matrix/ It provided me with practical, straight-forward and helpful advice on where to focus to improve my programming skills.
- pcmonk 12y ago
  That's a good matrix for early-to-mid stage programmers. My only issue with it would be that it doesn't go high enough. I'm a level 3 in probably half of those categories, and I don't feel that I'm anywhere close to being a master programmer. I have a long way to go before I'll consider myself even a decent programmer. I think someone could be a 3 in nearly all of these categories without being particularly extraordinary.
  - taurath 12y ago
    You're more than likely a decent programmer if you are 3 in half of those.
- biscarch 12y ago
  Agreed, but there are some issues there as well. (The "database" row could easily be labeled "postgres" for example).
- harry8 12y ago
  These kinds of checklists tend to reveal the bias of their authors. If I were authoring one I'd have a bunch of stuff in there about understanding the hardware, performance, caching, power consumption. How the compiler produces the instructions that actually run on the machine. A bunch of the how's and whys of the various OS designs and how that affects the problem in front of you might go well in there too. And so I reveal my bias and I'm probably overlooking something quite important that's your particular strength that makes you really great in your programming niche. At least I'm aware of it, which neither of these guys seem to be.
  - gaelow 12y ago
    I agree. I should have said: "This checklist helped me a lot, after getting a masters degree, as a starting point listing the general aspects to get to know in the particular professional path that I'm currently following". If CS was my world, that checklist would be a map of the country I'm living in at the moment (or even better: a travel guide).
hayksaakian 12y ago
Odd that there's nothing about writing tests in the troubleshooting section
- collyw 12y ago
  You can test without writing automated tests. I generally find this far more efficient use of my time, though my work is an in house app, with a user base of around 50. I get informed about errors very quickly.
hitchhiker999 12y ago
Been programming for 30+ years, [can solve any problem] in computing, have saved companies millions and invented new ways of doing entire processes for thousands and thousand of people -> I have no idea what most of those matrices were on about. I think I'm a shit programmer. Edit: [have never come across a problem I couldn't solve given time (as I think is the case for most of us)] - fair enough jafaku
- jafaku 12y ago
  > can solve any problem in computing Maybe you should have phrased that differently, because it's obviously false.
- aethertron 12y ago
  How long would it take you to solve world hunger?
  - hitchhiker999 12y ago
    42
- charlesism 12y ago
  I read five or six of those boxes and then just snorted in disgust. It looks like a great slide to show suckers if you're a productivity consultant. A sane chart would be less verbose, and more depressing. You can code your whole life, and still have struggles with pointers, threads, algorithms, new languages, etc. The majority of coders wouldn't even rank in the first column. I'm not a complete dummy but it took me a year before I could instinctively avoid "off-by-one" errors in loops, and almost ten years just to learn to name variables in a relatively self-documenting fashion.
  - circlefavshape 12y ago
    Haha - the older I get the more I agree with the catchphrase about variable naming being one of the hard problems of programming. Get that right and so many other problems never even arise
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
eru 12y ago
Such nerd link-bait.
emsy 12y ago
I read it and thought that must be written by an academic. Searched for the "about" page and wasn't disappointed. So as a fair warning for non-academic programmers: Read it with a grain of salt. That being said, I don't know how well the matrix applies to academic programmers.

24 points by krat0sprakhar 12y ago

frozenport 12y ago

How many Project Euler problems can you solve?

pcmonk 12y ago
As great as Project Euler is for learning programming, it's definitely not a good measure of most aspects of programming. It measures a very small subset of the required skills. This chart gives a more complete and nuanced way of evaluating one's skills.
- easytiger 12y ago
  Yea, just because you aren't familiar with combinerics or number theory doesn't mean you aren't good.
- collyw 12y ago
  I agree, its like the "algorithms and data structures" stuff I was taught at University. In real life, organization of large code bases, picking an appropriate abstraction, and general knowledge of OS's are far more important for most jobs. Never had to implement a linked list in 11+ years of coding.

gaelow 12y ago

This one is much better: http://sijinjoseph.com/programmer-competency-matrix/ http://sijinjoseph.com/programmer-competency-matrix/ It provided me with practical, straight-forward and helpful advice on where to focus to improve my programming skills.

pcmonk 12y ago
That's a good matrix for early-to-mid stage programmers. My only issue with it would be that it doesn't go high enough. I'm a level 3 in probably half of those categories, and I don't feel that I'm anywhere close to being a master programmer. I have a long way to go before I'll consider myself even a decent programmer. I think someone could be a 3 in nearly all of these categories without being particularly extraordinary.
- taurath 12y ago
  You're more than likely a decent programmer if you are 3 in half of those.
biscarch 12y ago
Agreed, but there are some issues there as well. (The "database" row could easily be labeled "postgres" for example).
harry8 12y ago
These kinds of checklists tend to reveal the bias of their authors. If I were authoring one I'd have a bunch of stuff in there about understanding the hardware, performance, caching, power consumption. How the compiler produces the instructions that actually run on the machine. A bunch of the how's and whys of the various OS designs and how that affects the problem in front of you might go well in there too. And so I reveal my bias and I'm probably overlooking something quite important that's your particular strength that makes you really great in your programming niche. At least I'm aware of it, which neither of these guys seem to be.
- gaelow 12y ago
  I agree. I should have said: "This checklist helped me a lot, after getting a masters degree, as a starting point listing the general aspects to get to know in the particular professional path that I'm currently following". If CS was my world, that checklist would be a map of the country I'm living in at the moment (or even better: a travel guide).

hayksaakian 12y ago

Odd that there's nothing about writing tests in the troubleshooting section

collyw 12y ago
You can test without writing automated tests. I generally find this far more efficient use of my time, though my work is an in house app, with a user base of around 50. I get informed about errors very quickly.

hitchhiker999 12y ago

Been programming for 30+ years, [can solve any problem] in computing, have saved companies millions and invented new ways of doing entire processes for thousands and thousand of people -> I have no idea what most of those matrices were on about. I think I'm a shit programmer. Edit: [have never come across a problem I couldn't solve given time (as I think is the case for most of us)] - fair enough jafaku

jafaku 12y ago
> can solve any problem in computing Maybe you should have phrased that differently, because it's obviously false.
aethertron 12y ago
How long would it take you to solve world hunger?
- hitchhiker999 12y ago
  42
charlesism 12y ago
I read five or six of those boxes and then just snorted in disgust. It looks like a great slide to show suckers if you're a productivity consultant. A sane chart would be less verbose, and more depressing. You can code your whole life, and still have struggles with pointers, threads, algorithms, new languages, etc. The majority of coders wouldn't even rank in the first column. I'm not a complete dummy but it took me a year before I could instinctively avoid "off-by-one" errors in loops, and almost ten years just to learn to name variables in a relatively self-documenting fashion.
- circlefavshape 12y ago
  Haha - the older I get the more I agree with the catchphrase about variable naming being one of the hard problems of programming. Get that right and so many other problems never even arise

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

eru 12y ago

Such nerd link-bait.

emsy 12y ago

I read it and thought that must be written by an academic. Searched for the "about" page and wasn't disappointed. So as a fair warning for non-academic programmers: Read it with a grain of salt. That being said, I don't know how well the matrix applies to academic programmers.