Katas are a great place to start when practising the fundamentals of programming languages and also when preparing for tech tests.
(Just remember that they should not be used as a replacement for building projects to showcase your knowledge)
Exercism https://exercism.io/
Vanilla Java 30 challenge https://javascript30.com/
Hackerank https://www.hackerrank.com/ (also a job site)
Leetcode https://leetcode.com/
Advent of code: https://adventofcode.com/2022
Algodaily https://algodaily.com/
Here’s a short video about reviews. What a review is, how to book them, joining a review, and the beginning of one.
Here are 3 example reviews [one, two, three] from students who’ve permitted them to be shared. Have a watch to see what actually happens during a review!
The most important part of our work at Makers is to help you get a job. And reviews are the most effective way to see if your processes are of a professional standard. They’re an hour long, giving you a great read on how you’re working.
We’ll always ensure there’s enough review slots available, so you can book them whenever you want.
Reviews will still give you extensive written feedback on your process and how you tackle programming problems. And you will have the option of submitting your review feedback to apply for technical jobs: to augment your regular job application, and to help our shortlisters pick the right people for the right jobs.
How do I book a review?
You can book a review any time: there are 24 slots available each week, Monday to Friday, 10am to 6pm. Please only book one review at a time.
Booking is a simple, one-step process. Visit the Hub reviews page, and click the plus icon (or visit this link) and pick a time.
At the time of your review, make sure you’ve got a quiet space for an hour, your laptop is set up, and you’ve downloaded and installed Zoom. Headphones are optional (but recommended).
After your review, kick back and relax – you’ll get your feedback on Slack soon. Only book a new review when you’ve had feedback from the previous one and have taken steps to improve.
The review is an hour-long remote session conducted via Zoom. The reviewer roleplays as a product owner with a set of non-technical requirements. The developer uses the Makers dev process to convert these requirements into a working, tested, well-written application.
To try and decrease feedback bias, we’ve tried to anonymise you as much as possible. Every developer will be issued with a unique identifier, so your name isn’t visible, and has the option to either keep their camera on or off. You’ll need to share your screen.
The review assesses how well a developer:
Converts fuzzy, human wants and needs into technical requirements,
Writes good tests,
Writes clean code,
Debugs when things go wrong,
Delivers value to the customer in an Agile way.
You’ll receive your feedback within 48 hours after the review took place. Against each goal, the reviewer states what the dev did (eg “You spent a couple of minutes trying to pick a good name for a method”) and follows up with actionable feedback (“you should keep that up - the other devs in your team will be grateful”).
Both you and coaches can see that feedback. When you apply to a job at any point during the course, you are able to submit the feedback along with your job application through Hub. If you provide it, the careers team will use the information in your review feedback alongside your job application to shortlist the people best-suited for roles.
You can book as many reviews during the course as you like – there will be 24 available to book each week. We believe this will help you keep improving your developer process.
If anyone is concerned that a review was mishandled, or they disagree with the given feedback, just let us know. We record every review to a database which is only accessible by the coaching team, and will review the review for any signs of misconduct, and act accordingly. Our partner reviewers are bound by the same Code of Conduct as we use at Makers.
If you can no longer attend a review you have booked, please cancel the booking through Hub. Declining or deleting the calendar invite will not cancel the booking, so others will not be able to book the slot.
Our partner reviewers, CoGrammar, manage an availability calendar. Booking creates a scheduled review record, and a calendar event to which CoGrammar and the developer are invited. The calendar event contains a Zoom link, and instructions to download Zoom.
An hour before their review, the developer receives a reminder email.
At the time of the review, the developer and reviewer join the same Zoom session.
The reviewer completes a review scorecard. Zoom auto-records the session and the reviewer uploads the recording when submitting the scorecard.
While we’re testing this system, the feedback is queued for review by Education or Coaching, who mark it acceptable. (It’s expected this step will become redundant in future.)
Review feedback is then to the student in Slack.
As of today, it’s not possible to fail a review.
The review offers developers formative feedback: feedback to help Makers do better, and prepare them for job interviews and developer roles. It’s not summative - there is no pass/fail measurement involved.
When can I do a review?
As many times as you like. We’ve currently budgeted for 4 reviews per person during the course, but we’ll revisit that depending on usage. To start with, we’re going to roll Reviews-as-a-Service out for developers who are past Week 10 (including jobhunters).
We do reserve the right to revisit this, or apply a limit, sometime in the future – just in case.
The review is there to measure the developer’s process. Based on 300+ previous reviews, the Education team pinned down what development process can predict if someone will be successful in a developer role. Makers receive training on developer process during the course in the form of workshops, and all the coaches are trained in giving feedback that improves the devs’ process.
The review is there
To ensure that devs apply to jobs they are the best prepped for
To ensure that our Hiring Partners are satisfied with the devs Makers put forward to jobs.
In 2018, we found that 20% of the jobs were not filled because Hiring Partners felt that the devs we recommended for their jobs weren’t ready. If a Hiring Partner turns down applicants, they rarely come back - which makes it more difficult for future Makers to get a job they love.