As coders, we are always building projects or automating tasks that we as humans do. However many of these tasks we do as 2nd nature and don’t even think or realize how many different steps it takes but computers are really dumb they are only as smart as we teach them to be. Problem-solving is to take a complex problem and break it down into small piece they try to solve it bite-size pieces.
I was taking my 5yr old twins swimming today and teaching them how to swim. Then it dawned on me that I know how to swim and can even show others how to swim. Can I break it down into small short really simple clear steps that a 5yr old can understand?(porbally not) The same thing is with coding or even debugging going thru the logic flow, step by step breaking it into small parts.If we take this approach whether it is building complex projects with sophisticated code or a simple hacker rank code challenge at its core it is the same skill.
At one of my jobs, I was responsible to manage a library of over 20k of books.I wasn’t given my own pc but would borrow one of the other secretaries, needless to say, I was in the office often. I seemed to have the knack or ability to fix things and became the unofficial computer guy to fix all the IT problems. One day I was entering some new data into my DB and suddenly we lost all the internet in the whole building. The first thing I did was I went to the (computer) lab which also had the server, router and modem. I traced the connections and I noticed that the router and switch had power but the modem did not. I tried resetting the router but that didn’t work. At this point, it was one of two things the modem is dead or the outlet is gone. I plugged into a different outlet, Walla it was fixed. The actually IT guy spent 2hrs trying to see what settings he messed up on the router(he sat by his desk trying to fix the router firewall). **Moral of the story, if you break down the problem to small steps it becomes much clearer what may be the exact issue. **Then the answer will come alot easier.
Singing off
Sim Greenbaum