Reflection: How Flatiron Prepared Me for Real Life Code Challenges
If you have been following this blog or read my previous posts, I bet you didn’t see me talking about Flatiron School again coming, huh?
A big part of the five phases of the Flatiron course is the code challenge. It is essentially an aptitude test that comes in the middle of the second of three weeks of each phase. If you pass the code challenge, you are cleared to move on to the next phase; if you fail the code challenge in week two, you are able to retake it in week three, otherwise you need to retake the entire phase.
These challenges were structured in a way that was fun and rewarding. You are presented the skeleton of a program or web app and need to code in the meat and potatoes to satisfy a list of deliverables and optional advances deliverables. Usually they had themes such as: a beer review website, a pizza store website, an app that tracks art museums and paintings/artists within them, etc. Each challenge was based around the content that you had learned in the last week and a half before it, plus all the previous phases stacking on top of that content. The deliverables were similar to the content we had studied, but with enough differences to make you need to think about it.
I had previously thought that the code challenges were the checkpoints to see if we could move on to the next phase, but presented in a way that was more engaging than a standard test would. However, I have now encountered two separate job opportunities that have required code challenges that were on par with what I experienced at Flatiron.
The first code challenge was to design a website that populated with the data from the OMDb api and allow users to nominate up to five movies of their choosing. The prompt read exactly like a Flatiron lab or code challenge. I actually had to read through it a few times to make sure I wasn’t still in my bootcamp.
The second code challenge had me access 7timer and create a seven day forecast app for a location of my choosing. Again, I got major Flatiron vibes and felt like I was right at home with this project.
Although both of the “real life” code challenges that I have encountered so far had me making them from scratch, I can’t help but reflect on just how much Flatiron consciously and subconsciously prepared me for taking them on. Originally I was a bit nervous about getting a code challenge from a potential future employer, but now I am excited and ready to embrace them when they come my way!
