My Journey of #100DaysOfCode at Crio
This round of #100DaysOfCode journey has been a roller coaster ride so far.
Why, What is the difference between this 7th round to other rounds?
Reason- I joined Crio's full-stack dev program
My background- I am a biology background guy who has a passion for technology. started my coding journey using #100DaysOfCode suggested by Quincy Larson of FreeCodeCamp.
(How I started My coding Journey will be a topic for another day.)
My quest for Learning-
I was looking for some online/offline coding Bootcamp type of setup where I can hone and update my coding skills under guidance. I applied for many, some rejected me after taking a preliminary test and some rejected me after an interview. Some have total fee in lacks (man this is not The USA, where education is very costly, here in India you can get a full 3yrs degree in less than that).
There is some weird thing about many bootcamps that they say the Bootcamp is beginner-friendly but test your Data Structure and Algo (DSA) skills, how can one know DSA in the beginning, it comes after a lot of practice.
Anyways coming back to the topic #100DaysOfCode at crio.do
After the completion of CWoD (Crio winter of doing), I got a whopping 50% scholarship, but being from a middle-class family, many calculations were going on in my mind before investing the money.
My old plan- Becoming a self-taught dev
Thinking and thinking 🤔 - I wasted/utilized more than 1 month of time thinking, then I thought I most probably would not get any chance to learning in a good coding environment without going to a college, so this is my chance to change my career in 6 months.
The Start- so Finally I transferred the fee and I started my Crio journey at the ending of March 2021.
My learning- Before Crio I knew many things but mostly superficially, and I used to skip/copy-paste the complex code snippets.
The Joey movement (F.R.I.E.N.D.S) - when you don't know something, and you nod to feel included in the group.
When you are learning by watching tutorials and some complex part comes and the instructor says that you don't need to understand the code and you just copy-paste and complete the course and really don't understand wtf is going on.
At Crio's, they explain these wtf moments (complex part of code) and make us dig deep in the documentation, they share the required Reading material, some great articles on the most important topics. So that you develop a 360-degree understanding of the topics.
Module Walkthrough videos- explains what do you need to work on in the module.
Module Walkthrough cum QnA sessions by zoom call-
According to the module at which you currently are, you will get a/two module walkthrough session/s, where the mentor will explain the module requirement and how you should approach it.
In QnA -You can ask any question and the mentor will help you to understand the concept.
Learning-
(I am sharing only those topics where I was not good at)
Frontend
- DOM manipulation
- Working with Reactjs
- debouncing
- React hooks
Backend-
- Basics of Node Js
- HTTPS
- Rest API
- Express js
- MongoDB (completed M001 course at MongoDB University also)- it was a video-based interactive course provided by MongoDB
The DSA part- I have learned that DSA will make or break your interview, I am very weak at it. So I am working on it.
I have completed 2 DSA modules and going to start the 3rd one. I am planning to work for at least 1-2 hours per day, I know it is impractical because sometimes a single problem can take 2-4 hours, but something better than nothing. I test this for one week and will see if it needs any changes.
Projects completed-
(Sharing the major projects only)
- Adventure website (used html, css, Bootstrap, Js)
- Newsletter website
(Used HTML, CSS, Bootstrap, Js) - Amazon clone (ReactJS, bootstrap, antDesign)
The middle messy part-
There was a time when I was stuck at some problem and wanted to solve it without taking any help, Sometimes I even lost my desire to code😭, but watching the Slack community and seeing that many people facing the same type of problems kept me afloat/alive.
Although at Crio they say, stuck anywhere ask for help, you don't need to waste a lot of time, if you are still facing problems get 1:1 mentor support. It was really easy to get support.
Star advice -
One Mentor (Sumit Jha -Frontend) used to say whenever you face some problem give it at least three days before asking for any help, that helped me to get a good habit to dig deeper and figure out on my own. This will be very useful in the long run when I am working in a company and no one to ask for help. I solved many problems on my own by googling and debugging my code. It also reduced my frequency of asking questions on the platform.
What else?
Missing - Good old slack-based support, it was quick and more interactive too. Also daily after finishing coding, I used to check various slack channels and see where people are facing problems and how they are solving them, but with the current new help web page, these things are not that simple (UI/Ux problem), and also the support becomes less interactive.
Positive interaction with peers at slack
At slack, I can see who is ahead of me and dm him/her about the problem I am facing and most of the time people used to respond and genuinely help me solve the problem. This was the easiest and great way to interact with peers and create good relations, I have got some really good friends from interacting at slack for problem-solving, whom I am in touch with, who helped me, or I helped them.
Don't Like- Most of the TA provides a blanket code (copy and paste solution code from repo) even before understanding the concern, this solves the problems in no time but sometimes understanding where a person is facing a problem and solving/helping them by explanation would be a better way to make him understand,
New Habits-
Reading Documentations - Before starting any topic, now I read all the important documentation from original/good resources, I know it's is time-consuming and nobody advised me to do so, but I want my basics very strong. I read ReactJs docs (took 7 days) only hooks took 3 days to understand, MongoDB M001 course (took 3 days),
Making Notes- I make notes, it comes handy when I need to look something up or want to revise a topic. It is also very useful when you are explaining to someone else or in the interviews.
Where I am Now
❌currently, I am at the backend part of my coding journey and finishing the MongoDB M001 course, Going to start QKart Backend soon. I also want to add functionality to my XFlix (youtube clone) frontend but I could not able to complete it, There are so many things to do so I currently am prioritizing the backend first.❌
✔Change in the plan✔-
I have a discussion with my mentor and I am prioritizing the front-end interviews first. I am preparing for the frontend interview first, following #30DaysOfCode.
My timeline of the interview preparation -
First 15Days for revision- first 15days for revision of various topics -HTML/CSS/JS/React and also questions related to the projects I have created till now.
Next 3 Days- CV building
Remaining 12 days
Aggressively applying and revising the basics and solving at least 2 DSA problems.
What is next -
I have somewhere around a little more than 2 months remaining in this course.
- Completing backend
- Completing both X-flix - frontend, and backend
- Improving DSA
- Career preparation
- Interviews I know I have many things (The hard part) on my plate, I will work extensively for that.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I would say, it was the best 100 days I have ever spent learning to code, Crio helped me speed up my learning process, great curriculum and the extensive reference material shared by Crio is sometimes exhausting but in the end, it improved me a lot.
This is all about the 7th round of the #100DaysOfCode (excluded break days) journey at Crio so far.
This is my first draft; I am going to update it really soon.