how can i become a better software engineer
some background: currently a 4th year cs major at a decent university and am currently interning at amazon (have one previous internship) I feel like i’m not as good as i can be but idk where to look. Youtube tutorials are trivial, university classes have terrible code (one of our profs forced us to write our entire programs in one file, imagine a 2-3k line program just in one .c++ file) How do L5/L6s become so good at coding? What’s their secret sauce. #engineering #software #swe
Make sure you can explain designs in plain language. And learn to draw proper sequence diagrams and other UML that can clearly convey designs. Communication and clarity of thought are things that many engineers never learn, so they're more valuable than tweaking the algorithmic complexity of a solution from O(n) to a slightly faster O(n).
If you can communicate better, you will also work better in a team, where others understand what you're trying to achieve, and they can help you get the best technical solution.
And ask lots of questions to understand edge cases better.
what hw are you doing 2-3k lines????
computer simulations course
prof would force us to write everything in c/c++ with no libraries. So if you needed a queue you had to implement it urself
I used to be in your shoes, feeling like I was missing something despite doing all the "right" things. I'm gonna throw a curveball here and suggest grad school. I know it might seem like an odd move, especially when you're already at Amazon, but grad school can really take your understanding to another level. It's not so much about the letters on the paper as it is the deeper, more focused learning. You get to specialize in something, anything that strikes your fancy, and that might give you the edge you're looking for. Of course, grad school is a commitment, no doubt about that. It's gonna take up your time and money, but at the end of the day, it could potentially equip you with a level of understanding that sets you apart from the rest. Just something to think about, no pressure.