Progress Update Day 4: Grasping Python Basics and Enhancing Interview Skills

Switched to HackerRank 🚀

Today, I switched to HackerRank and solved 10 easy-level problems, focusing on fundamental programming concepts. These problems helped reinforce array manipulation, mathematical operations, conditional logic, and string handling.

Problems Solved & Approach:

✅ Solve Me First (Basic Addition, Function Implementation)

A warm-up problem requiring a function that takes two integers and returns their sum. Reinforced basic function definition and return statements.

✅ Simple Array Sum (Array Traversal, Summation)

Given an array of integers, computed the sum of all elements. Strengthened iteration using loops and built-in sum functions.

✅ Compare the Triplets (Conditional Comparison, Scoring System)

Two players receive scores in three categories. The task was to compare the values for each category and determine the winner. Focused on conditional statements and list-based comparisons.

✅ A Very Big Sum (Handling Large Integers)

Summed up a list of large integers, ensuring correct handling of big numbers in Python. Strengthened list iteration and sum calculations with large values.

✅ Diagonal Difference (Matrix Manipulation, Indexing)

Given a square matrix, calculated the absolute difference between the sum of its primary and secondary diagonals. Reinforced nested loops and careful indexing in 2D arrays.

✅ Plus Minus (Proportion Calculation, Formatting Output)

Given an array of numbers, calculated and printed the ratio of positive, negative, and zero values with six decimal precision. Focused on floating-point arithmetic and formatted output.

✅ Staircase (Pattern Printing, Loops, String Manipulation)

Printed a right-aligned staircase pattern of # symbols based on a given size. Strengthened looping techniques and string alignment formatting.

✅ Mini-Max Sum (Sorting, Subarray Operations)

Found the minimum and maximum sum possible by summing 4 out of 5 given integers. Reinforced sorting and slicing techniques to extract required elements.

✅ Birthday Cake Candles (Finding Max Frequency in List)

Given an array of candle heights, determined how many candles had the maximum height. Practiced finding max values and counting occurrences in a list.

✅ Time Conversion (String Manipulation, Time Formatting)

Converted 12-hour AM/PM format into a 24-hour format. Focused on string slicing, conditional checks, and time formatting.

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Last-Minute Python Interview Prep 🐍

Later in the day, I had an unexpected interview for a Python developer role. I quickly revised the following topics:

📌 Python Fundamentals – List/dictionary operations, lambda functions, string manipulations.
📌 REST APIs – Differences between FastAPI, Flask, and Django.
📌 OOP in Python – Classes, inheritance, and polymorphism.
📌 Common Interview Questions – Coding challenges on lists, dictionaries, and basic algorithms.

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Next Steps ⏭️

🔹 Tackle medium-level DSA problems to increase complexity.
🔹 Start working on Python-based projects to reinforce backend skills.
🔹 Continue DevOps learning alongside problem-solving.

Today was a solid mix of problem-solving and interview prep!

Looking forward to Day 5 💪