Solving Programming Problems and Challenges Step-by-Step

Solving Programming Problems and Challenges Step-by-Step

One of the common hurdles programmers experience is solving complex challenges. Today, Ill give some tips on how to solve such problems and challenges so keep on watching.

My name is Tim Buchalka and I have put together a series of videos which I call the "Programming Tip of the Day". And basically, each video goes through talking about some of the pitfalls and things that you'll need to overcome to succeed as a programmer, things like overcoming frustration and keeping yourself motivated.

In this series I will also answer common questions about choosing a programming language to learn, questions about your career path and things of that nature. Now there's a lot of other things as well that I'll cover in these videos and I'm also opening the lines for you to tell me what you want me to cover.

Now I've been a programmer for over 35 years so I think I'm real qualified to answer a lot of these questions. So if you do have a question, pop the question in the comments section of this video and I'll do my best to address that in a future video.

If you're ready to look at the next tip, click on the link below to get redirected to the playlist for all programming tips:

If you're interested in coding specific programming videos, click on the link below to get redirected to the playlist for programming videos:

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Where to find out more about me:

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[TheLearnProgrammingChannel]

Watch Tim's Free Learn to Code Course on Youtube!

[NoWheelDrive]

Breaking down the problem into smaller problems strategy usually works well! Large problems lead to frustration and even procrastination. It's like climbing a very large mountain. Don't constantly look at the very top of the mountain, it's pretty far and just knowing that you are miles away can make you feel very sad. Instead focus on the smaller segments and complete each of them one at a time. And eventually you'll reach the peak/summit. And celebrating success is very important. I mostly never do this, but I know it's wrong and I need to start celebrating even small achievments.

[MarcelMank]

Thanks Tim, for teaching!
ChatGPT to the rescue 😄

[andrew_hubbard]

Thanks Tim, I've just watched this it gave some good advice, as I struggled with the coding challenges in your Java Course in Udemy. I will go back to them and followed thr advice provided in this video to break them down.

[jasonaquino]

I have a degree in computer science and have been coding for years on and off. With still no success. C++, is kinda..well really hard. I have heard "break it down into smaller pieces" to solve this complex algorithem. The problem with all of this, as the advise doesn't really work. If your faced with a fairly complex coding project, even if you got the fundamentals, is your still going to struggle. There is no silver bullet to any of this. What you need is to A) be extremely confortable with the syntax and all the basic and advanced programming concpets. B) program everyday, don't worry about doing tutorials all the time. The more your fingers get used to the code, the better you get and more confident. Another problem is most instructors, have projects that deal with the emplyee class, or a grade book project, or simple math methods (returning addition of two numbers) this is boring and not very relevent in the real world. Another thing you have to understand is frameworks. Like I want to make a jet fighter targeting MFD. No instructor in this world will show you how to do that. Most don't even know how. So you need to get into things like a gaming engine or QT. In todays world, it is really understanding frameworks and how to use them. Assuming your are comfortable with methods and classes/objects. It is good to know algorithems but all that is has been done for you, nobody writes their own search algorithems anymore. The only way to get good at this is find an application you want to make. And find the platform like QT or Unreal and learn how they work. And see if you can solve your problem from there. If you can do that and show it to an employer, it should have a big impact. But make no mistake, it is really hard.

[aidenstill]

What do I need to know to write my deep learning framework? To understand how it works from the inside.

[msolo]

Tim you are an amazing teacher thank you for this it really helped.

[Anonymous-rimk]

I always have a problem in solving especially if it involves a little bit of math my math is not bad but I just can't understand it since I usually read stuff 1 by 1 and for example when I use sliding window technique on leetcode I don't understand the math part of it maybe it is just because of practice in that part and yeah it really might be I am just gonna work on those lol I figured it out

[AP-gcss]

+The Learn Programming Channel
hey Tim, please make a video about getters and setters. Thanks.

[b.pazoki]

Thanks for your guidance, it would be great if you speak more distinctly and clearly for non-native speaker learners.

[jasonaquino]

Oh and I should mention, if you want to be a professional programmer, your going to need to understand design patterns. Because the problem is, yeah you might just solve your computer programming problem. But it is really inefficient code. Basically a "hack" just to get it to work. There is all sorts of problems with this. Because it means, someone will need to be hired to fix it. There is so many intricacies in writing de coupled code, it is overwelming. You have to understand dependancies, because if you change something, it will be required to recompile the whole project (not good) or just simple break the whole program (even worse.) This is basic stuff to a professional programmer, but a lot of instructors don't teach this. There is definitely a wrong way to write a solution. As it is not managble or maintanable. Or even understandable. So understanding the language, the concepts, fundamentals and advanced topics, is not enough. Even sucssefully solving a computer coding problem is not enough. Especially if it is written in such away, it can't be maintained, updated, modified with out destoying the application. This is the stuff, most instructors never talk about. And regarding C++ it may not even exists.

[jasonaquino]

And I don't care what anyone says, the more math you learn, the easier it will be to sove problems. Unless a framework, like the STL has already solved that problem. Always see if your framework has done this for you already. But you will run into situations, where conditionals for instance can be solved via a clever math trick.

[revenant]

Is it important to learn java Fx ? I want to focus on android development, As well as java backend. So is it important?

[wickhere]

what programming lang. is best to start with C or python ?