Code Wars!

Zach grabbed a flag and began a kata revolution in Oneleif, taking place on Codewars. I literally just returned to the programming scene last week, so I joined up.

Zach rallying comrades

A “kata” — named after Japanese martial art practice — is a bite-size programming exercise, usually no more than 20 lines long and intended to test your algorithm handling.

I had always lacked confidence in abstract algorithms and, having always been terrible at maths, I did not attempt katas as a programming practice in the past. However I checked out Codewars anyway and the way they invite you to sign up is exceptionally clever — You have to pass a test before you are taken to the sign up form. Sounds intimidating to a poor soul who was already low on confidence to begin with, but look closely to the test — it’s honestly very simple.

Codewars sign up test. That’s all there is.

If you already know the bare basics of your chosen programming language like me, you can solve it. It’s clever because once I solved it, even if it may be stupidly simple, I felt a surge of power inside me, saying oh yes, I can totally do this. Then I could hear Codewars replying back, oh yes, you totally can. That’s all it takes to join us. You already know enough to do anything you want with programming. Come and begin the journey.

Since I joined last week, I have been doing katas at least once every morning after I wake up. It became my morning exercise, albeit a mental one but still important. My solutions might not be the best, not the most optimised, not the smartest nor quickest, but none of those things matter. My priority right now is to at least do some coding every day, and if I think of coding as anything more than solving a small 20-line problem in however way I can think of; if I try to be clever or try to wrestle with algorithms that I don’t yet understand, I would never get things done. Besides, after finishing a kata, I am taken to the solutions page where I can see the clever things other people have done, and I get to learn from them for my next attempts.

In the future wombo combos, I’ll highlight some interesting katas that I’ve come across in Codewars.