Codewars as a Training Tool

In this post I wanted to stick up for CodeWars and help explain to the novice coder why this site is so fucking awesome.

First, a little backstory. My boyfriend and I are both just starting out in this whole programming world. He was the one who told me about it first and when I first went to the site, I could barely get past the mandatory (but simple) coding challenges you have to get right in order to gain access to the full site.

Fast forward to today and I am on the site at least once a day training. It has become the best learning tool for me thus far. It challenges me every day, reminding me why I like coding. My boyfriend on the other, while he can build out an entire rails app, absolutely hates the site. I think it's because he hasn't given it enough of a chance (which is true), but he says his learning style is different (which also is true). Either way, I happen to think that anyone who uses the system the right way will soon too become a true believer. So, herein this post I present to you my methodology to using the site so that even you can conquer and earn your honor.

1. Select your level.
On the left hand side you will find everything you need to make sure you are doing problems within your range. The levels are from easiest, 8, to hardest, 1. Truth be told, it's best to have gone through the basics so that you can attempt the problems, but even if you are going along as you learn you can customize which problems to do (see below). Start off with 8, and move at your own pace. Some of the problems within are going to be a lot more difficult than some of the others. But give yourself some patience and work through them, absorbing everything you can.

2. Select what areas you want to train.
Once you've selected which level you want to compete in, you can then choose problems that have been tagged with certain areas of concentration. On the left hand side, under Tags, you can select Arrays, Numbers, Bugs, Fundamentals, etc. When I was starting out I found that the best thing that helped me was completing level 8 "bug" problems. They re-familiarized me with syntax and some other basic concepts that helped me to solve some other problems without the worry of that. If you're working through the problems while trying to master one area of a certain language, this will be one of the best ways to use CodeWars to do just that.

3. Don't be ashamed to forfeit honor.
No one likes to lose, obviously. But sometimes, you need to suck it up. There are problems that for some reason will not pass the tests, but once you click submit will actually work. Save for these cases, if you can't figure out why something won't work, it might be time to just unlock the solutions to that problem. It could be something simple you overlooked, but if it's something you can't figure out on your own, unlock the solutions and see how other people solved it. Think of it as learning, not cheating if you happen to be so honorable.

4. Read other peoples' answers.
Whether I submitted my answer or forfeited honor, I always look at other peoples' answers. There will be things in there that look like straight up gibberish. Even when I finished my Javascript book, there were things I had never seen before. Methods that would produce the right code with a fraction of the lines. It was insane. But it's also insanely insightful. Whenever there's something I don't understand I look it up, and you can get the general idea of the way something works once you see it.

Going through the site without any sort of order can be pretty depressing as a noob. You can easily get that "omg-I'm-never-going-to-understand-this-and-I-better-get-back-to-my-dead-end-job" feeling, but I swear with time, patience and a little order CodeWars can and will open all sorts of doors.