10% !

After finishing the Google Certificates course in data analytics, I moved on to 100 Days of Code where I learn Python. Since I have recently made it past the 10% of the way complete mark, I thought now is a good time to reflect!

My first impressions of this course, right off the bat, were all very positive! I am so impressed with how this course is structured. It strikes the perfect balance (for me) between instruction and hands on projects. I am able to tackle every coding challenge and project myself, but the answers are there if I need them. I especially love how I am coming out of this with 100 projects in my portfolio.

At first I felt confident and comfortable moving through the "days" of the course. Each day is supposed to take about an hour, and I was taking maybe an hour and a half, which I was fine with. I felt like having learned SQL and R previously helped the beginning stages a little easier on me.

At around day 5 or 6, I started to slow down and feel like "wow! This is coding and coding is no joke!". I have been trying really hard not to look at answers and even to start off by not even looking at any hints. I need to make sure I really understand each concept. I will admit though, sometimes what it has taken for me to understand a concept is to look at the finished code (written by the instructor), because on my own it was not clicking. I now feel like I have a very solid understanding of each concept that I have learned- so I feel comfortable debugging future code.

On the subject of debugging, I have learned tricks along the way to help with that. I have learned to draw things out in a notebook if the logic of a statement is confusing me. I also have started adding frequent print statements (which I will comment out later) into my code so that I can run it as I work through it and understand what my code is actually doing. Of course, we cannot forget Slack Overflow! I had used it before, but I now am a lot more confident in my abilities to use the internet to help debug my code.

I am still in the "beginner" modules of the course. I wonder what will come next! I felt like I was rushing myself to complete the Google Certificates course, but with this one I feel more comfortable taking my time and making sure I absorb each concept.

If you would like to view my codes or try the apps/ games I am building, you can get access to it on my GitHub! https://github.com/AnniesAnalytics/100-Days-of-Python-codes