I am not a SWE. I use coding heavily to solve data problems. Have an engineering background. Have done a lot of coding (not SWE level but enough to solve high value problems in data). I think I have Pretty solid logical thinking. However, I found that I struggle a lot with Python coding. Take several days to solve a simple problem. I know you get better at coding only through coding more. However, I have been at this for a while now and feel like I haven't made significant improvements despite having previous coding xp and good logical thinking to back it up. I have a feeling this is specific to Python. Am I missing something? How have you all gotten better at Python? I have my notes (one note, ppt etc) which I update after every coding exercise I do to add what I have learnt- which is a lot of self learning through Google etc. Am I missing a very useful important source that is holding me behind? How do you all use/create/save/manage cheat sheets/learnings? What helped you get better at Python? TC: 250k YoE: 7 yr (different industry)+ PhD + 4 years = PhD + 11 yrs
Use AI to help should cut your effort in half
Did you mean use chatgpt by that?
Try GitHub copilot. It is available integrated with VS code. Sounds like you and I use code for similar purposes. I also know that I am not a good or even competent SWE, but I make up for it with really sound logic and an exceptional ability to abstract complex problems involving data. I can always find an implementation to steal once I figure out what the correct approach is. Used to use Stackoverflow, now we can go straight to Chatgpt.
Thanks for the pointers. Never used GitHub copilot either. And yeah am still using stackoverflow- yet to move to chatgpt.
Python is probably one of the easiest languages. Not sure where you are getting hung up. But I like to dev in ipython so I can see what methods are available in classes, auto complete and get instant feedback. Try out ipython maybe and see if that helps?
Ok never tried ipython. Autocompletions and listing methods are all helpful. Thank you!
Yeah itâs just interactive python. Letâs you try stuff on the fly. Should help out especially if youâre getting confused on types.
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What types of problem? Leetcode? Have you actually tried solving the same problems in another language and verifying that you don't struggle there too? I personally feel like the actual coding part is not usually the hard part and once you see something clearly the programming language doesn't matter all that much
I have actually never used leetcode. Is that something you recommend? I usually use vscode as the ide and find ways to solve through debug and googling solutions others have used. I haven't used solving the same problem in other languages. I have used other languages like C# in the past and still do and didn't find the learning curve challenging there. The kinda problems I deal with- get data from somewhere - cleanse it- build models- could be any kind of model. Am certain the problem itself is not an issue. To give you a sense maybe I struggle with the various libraries used, data types used, data frames vs arrays vs series vs lists vs dictionaries. And maybe what libraries/methods are applicable to what. Takes me while to figure it out I think. Appreciate you taking time .
Leetcode is a site with a collection of coding problems to try and work through. But it sounds like maybe what you need first is coding bats. https://codingbat.com/python that might help you practice the basics.