Hatching Out🐣-Dev Retro 2022

2022 has been a year with lots of ups and down that has taught me a lot.

The beginning of the year 2022 came with an opportunity to start something that would add value to my skillsets. I hardly had any. Being a CS undergraduate, our college didn't participate actively in providing basic skills of coding but some senior folks made an effort to educate us but I procrastinated since I found it to be difficult, so I switched to Youtube. I started learning Java from someone I aspire to be in the future, Kunal Kushwaha.

Gradually, I started grasping the topics that earlier I thought to be very difficult. The explanation was up to the mark, which helped me with in-depth knowledge of the topic. I started getting into tutorial hell. I took Kunal Kushwaha's advice and instead of watching tutorials, I started practising code on various platforms, mainly Leetcode and GeeksForGeeks. This helped me in strengthening my basics and also improved my problem-solving ability.

The code taught to me in college was on C++ programming language. But the logic remained the same with some changes in syntax. I started understanding the code in college that I found difficult previously. I started solving questions daily, questions I previously spent hours on. I started maintaining a streak, I don't know but I found it to be fascinating. After nearly two months of consistently doing questions, I lost the streak due to the exams. For a month I didn't practice at all. As a result, I started forgetting whatever I learned in the previous months.

I joined some programming communities that promoted coding through various challenges. Challenges that would be rewarded once completed. This sounded like a great way to recall the habit of coding every day. I took their challenge and started coding consistently.

Our college's GDSC released vacancies for leadership positions in various domains. I applied for a specific domain and I got shortlisted for the interview. This was my first interview and I was a bit nervous. When my turn came, I was asked about the basics of Data Structures and Algorithms and then was asked to solve a question based on pointers in C++. I failed to solve that one question. I lacked communication skills. As a result, I wasn't selected for the position. But this failure taught me a lot. I'm still improving on it. Since then, I have started participating more in events related to tech.

But just coding was not enough. Knowing this, I started exploring the development and finally tried to learn Android development. With a little bit of knowledge and a lot of help from Rahul Pandey from Youtube, I was able to build some basic android apps. I with a couple of my colleagues started coding daily and helping each other in code. We also built an app that we submitted in a micro internship. But I still lacked some knowledge that I needed to work upon.

In mid-September, I was introduced to Git and GitHub and learned the basics of GitHub, how GitHub works and to contribute to Open Source. My college's GDSC introduced me to Hacktoberfest which was to be held in October. This was an opportunity knocking at my door and I didn't let slip. I contributed to beginner-friendly repositories maintained by folks in our college.

I ended the year by focusing on my academics and learning some important topics like Computer Networks, Operating Systems and DBMS. Having practical knowledge of MySql and MongoDB not only helped me in my practicals but also added value to my skillsets.

From a student who knew nothing at the beginning of the year, who used to memorise code instead of understanding it to this stage, it has been an amazing journey mixed with uncertainties. I'm still working on various skills when it comes to contributing to Open Source and learning development, hoping to get a hold of them.

I will try to build and improve these skills in 2023, stepping out of my comfort zone and trying new things, because a wise man once said: "Invest in your portfolio of failures until you can afford to succeed".