If you have worked in the programming field, or even considered going into programming, you are probably familiar with the famous words of Apple founder Steve Jobs:
“Everyone in this country should learn to program a computer, because it teaches you to think.”
Python is one of the most popular programming languages and can teach us a lot about critical thinking. But if you are in programming, you also know that there are important reasons to keep your programming skills up to date, especially with Python. In this article, we’ll consider some of the most important ways you can update your programming skills—and it isn’t just about learning more Python. Critical thinking is essential to programming and a great way to build your skills.
Why programmers need more than programming skills
According to HackerRank,
“Problem-solving skills are almost unanimously the most important qualification that employers look for […] more than programming languages proficiency, debugging, and system design.”
So how can you apply this to developing Python proficiency?
Obviously, the most important way to build programming skills in Python is to learn Python. Taking Python courses is a great place to start, and building toward more advanced Python learning will help you build technical skills. But programmers need more than just technical skills. You need to understand the best way to solve problems. While most people solve problems through brute force, but, this is not the best way to reach a solution. Instead, Python programmers need to develop a methodology for problem solving that will lead them to a well-crafted solution.
Improving Python Programming Skills in Four Steps
There are a few key steps, and they are listed below. However, it is not enough just to read them — you need to actually make them the part of your programming “life.”
- Evaluate the problem. Understand the programming issue you are attempting to overcome and all of the parts of the problem. In Python programming, a key skill is simply evaluating what needs to be done before you begin the process of programming a solution. Therefore, in any Python challenge, the first step is to study the problem in order to ascertain what you need to research and what skills you need to develop in order to begin to approach a solution. Frequently, if you find that you are able to explain the problem in plain English, it means that you understand it well enough to start to find a solution.
- Make a plan to handle the problem. In Python programming, as with any other type of programming problem, don’t simply launch into your programming without making a plan to handle potential problems logically from beginning to end. You want to begin from a position of strength, not simply start hacking and hoping for the best. Therefore, consider where you are starting and where you want to end up in order to map out the most logical way to arrange steps to reach that point.
- Make the problem manageable by dividing it up. When you are programming Python, it can be intimidating to tackle a major project of a major problem all at once. Instead, try dividing your next programming task into smaller steps that you can easily achieve as you move step by step through the programming or problem-solving process. This will not only make it easier to reach your goals but will also help you to celebrate small victories on your way, giving you the motivation to keep building on your successes. One of the best ways to achieve success is, to begin with, the smallest, easiest division to complete and use that success to build toward increasingly large and complex problems. Doing so will often help to simplify the larger tasks and make the overall project easier. As V. Anton Spraul said, “Reduce the problem to the point where you know how to solve it and write the solution. Then expand the problem slightly and rewrite the solution to match, and keep going until you are back where you started.”
- Practice your skills every day. Lastly, the most important way to develop your Python programming skills and how to troubleshoot Python code is to practice all the time. That doesn’t mean you have to seek out problems just to try to fix them. There are other ways to practice the same skill set in other ways. Elon Musk, for example, plays video games and Peter Thiel plays chess to build problem-solving skills that apply in many areas of life.
When Your Programming Skills Are not Enough
While all the tips above will certainly work if you actually apply them, you can rest assured that you will stumble upon many difficult tasks, which you won’t be able to crack without some assistance. Asking for help is one of the most efficient strategies of problem-solving. You can hire a tutor to help you gradually increase your programming skills, analyze your mistakes, etc. However, if the matter is urgent, you can choose another path — start with delegating your coding assignments to specialized services, and let experts help you with your homework here and now. Later, you can use the assignment done by professionals as tutorial material for other similar assignments. Let’s face it, if studying materials were of better quality and answered the current programming trends more accurately, students would need much less extra assistance.
If you are studying Python programming or trying to problem-solve in Python for a course, your biggest challenge is probably making it through your programming homework. Fortunately, if you have programming challenges, you can pay someone to do a programming assignment for you. Professional homework services like AssignmentCore have programming experts who can help with any type of coding project or Python assignment. There is a team of experts who are on stand-by to leap into action as soon as you have a Python challenge that you need an expert’s eye to complete so you can get ahead of the competition.
Author Bio:
Ted Wilson is a senior programming expert at AssignmentCore, a leading worldwide programming homework service. His main interests are Python, Java, MATLAB languages, and web development. He is responsible for providing customers with top-quality help with programming assignments of any complexity.