5 reasons why I love coding challenges

#watercooler #webdev #challenge

Unfortunately the DevAdventCalendar challenge by Marc Backes came to an end.

I loved every day of this challenge and participated in all of them.

In this closing article about this series, I'll give you my 5 reasons for loving these coding challenges.
And hopefully, even spark you to try them out!

1. Learn by doing

The cool part about coding challenges is you don't have to think about what you will be programming.
Someone spent a lot of time thinking of a problem you will have to solve.

This is an excellent way of doing since the correct answer (output) is already defined.
It's up to you to learn by doing things until it works.

When you contribute to open answered challenges, you might even get the chance to compare how you solved the challenge to how other people have done it.

For me, this is a great way to learn about new concepts that I might not know of.
Or specific methods that are better or faster.

2. You are not alone

As briefly mentioned in point one, you are not doing this alone.

Multiple people are trying to solve the challenge, and sometimes you might even get stuck, or hey, the challenge might be wrong.

This is a great way to learn, meet and interact with other developers also trying to solve the challenge.

I've met some fantastic new people through the DevAdventCalendar challenge, which is the real win for me.

3. Certain things you might not think of

When you work as a dev, there might be things you will never touch but are really cool to know.

For instance, when we used the Linked List for the coding challenge, I've personally never used them, so it's a great way to experience something new in a fun way.

And to get back to point one and two, I got fantastic feedback on the article I wrote on how I could even improve my code even more.

And you might get feedback from either the creator or by looking at how other people have solved a particular issue.

This might give you ideas on how to solve it differently.
You can even take some of these learnings and look at your existing code at work or your own products.

4. Try out new things

Another reason to love these challenges is that you can pick one that is not your primary language.

Let's say you are already a really good JavaScript dev but really want to dive into Python.

It could be a really great experience to try out a Python coding challenge.

It's a fun and great way to learn this new language by solving puzzles in a specific language.

And like mentioned, you might receive feedback on how to do certain things differently in the future.

5. You might even win

Don't tell everyone, but you might even win in some of these challenges.

For example, the DevAdventCalendar had excellent prices (yes, I also contributed one).
But also keep an eye out for other ones.

It could be a great way to explore a coding puzzle while even winning some great swag, money, or courses.

Besides this, some companies also use coding challenges to evaluate new people they might hire.
So you might even be super prepared for your next interview, which makes it win you a job!