This page is a collection of progressively more difficult exercises that are suitable for people who just started learning. It will be extended as I come up with new exercises. Except for the GUI questions, exercises are generally algorithmic and should be solvable without learning any libraries. The difficulty of the exercises of course somewhat depends on the programming language you use. The List exercises for example are more complicated in languages like C that don’t have build-in support for lists.
Whenever I’m TA for a introductory CS class where students learn some programming language, I have trouble coming up with good exercises. Problems from Project Euler and the like are usually much too difficult for beginners, especially if they don’t have a strong background in mathematics.
Learning to program means learning how to solve problems using code. Conceptually it is not very difficult to write a program that solves a problem that you can solve yourself. The skill you need to acquire is thinking very precisely about how you solve the problem and breaking it down into steps that are so simple that a computer can execute them. I encourage you to first solve a few instances of a problem by hand and think about what you did to find the solution. For example if the task is sorting lists, sort some short lists yourself.
A reasonable method would be to find the smallest element, write it down and cross it out of the original list and repeat this process until you have sorted the whole list. Then you have to teach the computer 1) how to find the smallest element, 2) how to write it down, 3) how to cross it out, and wrap this in a loop. Then continue this task breakdown process until you’re confident you know how to write the necessary program.
To make good progress in your programming task, you need to test your work as early and as thoroughly as possible. Everybody makes mistakes while programming and finding mistakes in programs consumes a very large part of a programmer’s work-day. Finding a problem in a small and easy piece of code is much simpler than trying to spot it in a large program.
This is why you should try to test each sub task you identified during your task-breakdown by itself. Only after you’re confident that each part works as you expect you can attempt to plug them together. Make sure you test the complete program as well, errors can creep in in the way the different parts interact. You should try to automate your tests. The easier it is to test your program, the freer you are in experimenting with changes.
To make good progress in your programming task, you need to test your work as early and as thoroughly as possible. Everybody makes mistakes while programming and finding mistakes in programs consumes a very large part of a programmer’s work-day. Finding a problem in a small and easy piece of code is much simpler than trying to spot it in a large program.
To make good progress in your programming task, you need to test your work as early and as thoroughly as possible. Everybody makes mistakes while programming and finding mistakes in programs consumes a very large part of a programmer’s work-day. Finding a problem in a small and easy piece of code is much simpler than trying to spot it in a large program.
To make good progress in your programming task, you need to test your work as early and as thoroughly as possible. Everybody makes mistakes while programming and finding mistakes in programs consumes a very large part of a programmer’s work-day. Finding a problem in a small and easy piece of code is much simpler than trying to spot it in a large program.
| Consulting | Service | Innovation | Management | Ethics | verified | Ethics |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Consulting | 1.12 | 4.35 | 1.43 | 2.32 | 5.32 | 2.11 |
| Customer Service | 1.44 | 1.66 | 1.43 | 2.33 | 5.32 | 3 |
| Innovation | 4.12 | 1.22 | 4.55 | 2.33 | 5.28 | 2 |
| Customer Service | 1.44 | 1.66 | 1.43 | 2.33 | 5.32 | 3 |
| All Items | 22 | 13 | 14 | 9 | 17 | 11 |
A reasonable method would be to find the smallest element, write it down and cross it out of the original list and repeat this process until you have sorted the whole list. Then you have to teach the computer 1) how to find the smallest element, 2) how to write it down, 3) how to cross it out, and wrap this in a loop. Then continue this task breakdown process until you’re confident you know how to write the necessary program.
]]>