JEG2
If you don’t make it past the first sentence of this post, here’s what you need to know: I’ve published a free Livebook guide about data modeling in Elixir.
For the completionists, that guide is actually one part of a series of five interactive guides about honing your scrappy programming skills in Elixir using Advent of Code problems for practice. I’ve pulled together five of my favorite problems from 2023 and distilled them down to the essential programming lessons that they have helped me hone. The full series includes discussions about code driven exploration, taming inputs, my undying love for sets, middle school math (but fun), and five of my closest algorithms.
Those who are interested can grab the full series, How to Train Your Scrappy Programmer, with an Elixir Forum discount based on alliteration. You’re welcome, nerds.
Almost every challenge that a programmer faces is in some way unique. You may have done similar things before, but each application seems to require a new twist. How can we prepare ourselves for constantly facing unknowns?
Effective programmers train to use whatever is at hand and push forward with determination in spite of obstacles. In short, they’ve gotta stay scrappy.
This bundle is a collection of five interactive guides, each exploring a different problem from the popular internet challenge site Advent of Code. In these problem solving guides, we will dive into:
- How to use Livebook, the interactive code exploration framework
- Gain insights with charts, animations, data tables, and more
- Uncover four different parsing strategies
- Leverage higher level data structures including sets and graphs
- Employ various optimization techniques, such as working backwards, pre-calculation, and even a little math (binary and middle school)
- Deploy multiple algorithms: binary search, point in polygon, flood fill, and more
By the end of these lessons you will have a full array of tools to confidently face all the unknowns ahead. You might even need to upgrade the old tool belt to a tool box.
If you don’t want five shiny new Livebooks, you can choose to pick up the individual chapters that interest you:
Thanks in advance for the support and don’t hesitate to ask me any questions!
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herminiotorres
Congrats @JEG2 - this one looks fun (and thanks for another great resource!)
JEG2
Thanks so much for the kind words.
JEG2
I just wanted to post a quick reminder that I wrote up detailed solutions to five days from 2023 — ten problems — highlighting parsing, data modeling, analysis, and optimization techniques that you can use in your own attempts.
Here’s a link that includes a HALF OFF coupon for the full set visible once it’s added to your cart: How to Train Your Scrappy Programmer – Voyages in Code
code-shoily
I am so ready! Although this year I don’t intend to do Elixir - first time since 2017. Will be lurking here to other people’s code though.
code-shoily
Oh and thank you so much for the coupon. I downloaded the free lesson few days back and I must say it’s awesome. Looking forward to reading through the rest.
JEG2
Thanks for the kind words. I would love to hear specifics about what you enjoyed. It helps me make more useful stuff down the line.
AntonRich
You have a guide on algorithms. I need to check it out.
P.S. Ah, I see that those courses are put together in one.
JEG2
They are also available separately. Here’s a link to just the algorithms guide: Borrowing a Cup of Algorithms – Voyages in Code
JEG2
I was invited on BeamRadio to talk about my How To Train Your Scrappy Programmer Livebook series and educating developers in general. It was a fascinating discussion. Here’s the episode:
westbaystars
Heard you on Beam Radio last night. I use Livebooks as a playground for experimenting with ideas, but it sounds like you’ve honed that to a new level. The Scrappy Programmer series sounds like the way I want to use Livebooks.
Just purchased the series and look forward to learning more techniques.
Take care.