CST 338 - Software Design | Week 0

Week 0 was mainly introducing us to Java. I haven't coded in this language for over a year so it was really rusty for me. However, thanks to Codingbat, I got to relearn some of my java capabilities. Here is a recap:

Did you plan it out or throw code at it?
In the first few exercises I did initially try just throwing code at it. I quickly realized that this was more than just solving a problem. We have to be systematic and organized as we learned in CST 300. You can't just get work done; you have to do it right. 

What worked?
I was thinking of hurrying through it and take only 45 minutes to an hour as it said it would take that long for these assignments. However, when I started planning out my solution and actually working through it, it took me much longer. What worked was to understand what the problem is asking from you and then to complete it step-by-step. 

What DID NOT work?
Throwing code at it didn't work. I had to look through the different functions and lines that java uses such as the math function, the if statements, the loops, mapping, etc. And then after reading through those and trying it out a little, I then used my logic to systematically find a solution step-by-step ultimately succeeding and understanding why I wrote each line of code.

How many tries did it take?
It got hard after the first few exercises and took me multiple tries. I did it line by line making sure there were no syntax errors as this is java and this language is known for its annoying syntax.