From the course: Python Essential Training

About the challenges - Python Tutorial

From the course: Python Essential Training

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About the challenges

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- Hi. So in upcoming challenges, you're going to be on your own with CoderPad. I'm sorry, no friendly videos of me cheering you on. Just click over to the challenge, and you get your CoderPad screen, just you and the open code. But here and now, I've made an exception to give you a little, well, heads-up. If you've never programmed before, this first challenge might be daunting. You may stare at CoderPad, drawing a blank, unable to even write that first line. So, how do you deal with this? First, relax, it's normal. It's not because you haven't learned any Python or you're unprepared for the challenge. It's because writing a new program is a new and weird way for your brain to work that it's never had to do before. This course is, what, 4 1/2 hours long? You're not going to go from zero to programmer in the time it takes you to watch two feature-length movies. And yeah, you've been watching me write programs. I make it look super easy, right? Well, I've been doing this for 20 years. And also, here's a filmmaking secret: everything is actually written beforehand. That's right, the words I'm speaking right now I wrote down previously, sent through a team of editors, workshopped, and I'm reading them off a teleprompter. The programs I wrote, I wrote them, and then, while I record the screen capture, I just retype them from what's written just off screen. Movie magic. Also, watching someone write programs and then writing them yourself is like the difference between reading a novel and writing one, or being a passenger and then driving a car yourself. Totally different skills, totally different brain functions. So in this challenge, if you sail through it, good for you. If you find yourself frustrated and stuck, also, good for you. Frustration motivates discovery if you do it right. If you do get frustrated, here are some things that you can do. Spend more time learning and understanding the problem. I've created challenges that include bite-sized math and computer science topics that frequently come up in programming. There's a lot of explanatory text written that you may or may not need, but if you think you might need it, make sure to carefully read it. Run through a few examples on paper. Look at other learning resources, particularly if you've never encountered a math concept before. You're allowed to use a search engine. Go to the Hints file. For every challenge, I've included a Python notebook in the exercise files that says Hints. It provides very explicit nudges in the right direction. You can copy and paste the code, run it, modify it. Give yourself space and time. Again, if this is your first time writing code, this is not going to be a five-minute thing. Understand that if it takes you a long time to write, that's all time spent learning Python. The world does not need another factorial function. This is for you. This is about your learning process. If you do feel that there's a specific skill that you're lacking or something you missed, please go back and watch the video again. This is not a university lecture hall. It's a series of short, fast-paced videos that are there for you to use as needed. Pause and rewatch. Write something else. Go back to the Python notebooks and play around with the code. Write your own thing. Write a function that literally just returns the word "Hello." Write anything. Remember, you want to get your brain used to this new skill. So take a deep breath, and welcome to Python programming. And if this is your first CoderPad challenge, good luck.

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