CodeWars

[guinness]

Do you enjoy programming? Brain teasers? Then check out http://www.codewars.com/. I have been doing them since yesterday (in JS, C# and Java) and have to say it has been very enjoyable! =)

[Jon]

Going to have a look. I like the signup process  

[Jon]

Haha. The first question was to return a missing element from an array that should contain numbers 1 to 9. I did an obvious solution of checking 1 to 9 and then returning the first one that was missing. Then you see some of the better answers from other people. I loved this one:

using System.Linq;

public static class Kata
{
  public static int GetMissingElement(int[] superImportantArray)
  {
    return 45 - superImportantArray.Sum();
  }
}

I would never have looked at it that way.

[JLogan3o13]

I signed up a while back on the Java side, but haven't been back in a couple weeks now. I also like http://www.checkio.org/ . I found it as a fun coding site for the 12 yr old, but have to admit I enjoy it as much as he does

[guinness]

Haha. The first question was to return a missing element from an array that should contain numbers 1 to 9. I did an obvious solution of checking 1 to 9 and then returning the first one that was missing. Then you see some of the better answers from other people. I loved this one:

using System.Linq;

public static class Kata
{
  public static int GetMissingElement(int[] superImportantArray)
  {
    return 45 - superImportantArray.Sum();
  }
}

I would never have looked at it that way.

I was the same. First one I did I made it all neat and tidy, following best practices in JS, then I saw the solutions after submitting and realised that it's about thinking way outside the box.

[Jon]

Hahahah - just did all the if statements for checking if something was a leap year only to see the final top-rated solution:

return DateTime.IsLeapYear(year);

[guinness]

Classic!

I did a JS max one (second kata I did) and the top result was...I did the basic loop for...of loop

function max(args) {
  return Math.max(...args);
 // ES2015
}

console.log(max([10, 20, 1, 9]));

But then it begs the questions, is using helper methods the whole point?

Edited September 19, 2015 by guinness

[jvanegmond]

I'm doing the C# ones too. I have seen some of the ugliest verbose hacks in other people their work (some guy named Jon?) and here I am writing best practices code without pause, putting forth my best behavior. I have become boring! Please send help!

 

Edit Me and guinness are allies. Go team AutoIt!

Edited September 19, 2015 by jvanegmond

[jvanegmond]

Spent a few more hours doing these. They are a lot of fun.

I liked http://www.codewars.com/kata/55466989aeecab5aac00003e and http://www.codewars.com/kata/55251c0d2142d7b4ab000aef . They're good examples (kinda mathy) of the sort of questions you can expect right after the beginner type of questions are completed. Not impossible but you don't immediately know the answer if you have not seen them before.

Edit Non mathy one http://www.codewars.com/kata/554ca54ffa7d91b236000023 are plenty too.

Edited September 19, 2015 by jvanegmond

[guinness]

Edit Me and guinness are allies. Go team AutoIt!

Yippee! Jon should join us too.

[jvanegmond]

Doing the harder challenges. Blood sweet and tears went into 30 minutes into painstaking labor. I check other people their results after finally succeeding in my implementation:

using System;
using System.Linq;
using System.Collections.Generic;

public class Brace {

    public static int cntr = 1;

    public static bool validBraces(String braces) {
  
     Console.WriteLine(cntr);
   
      if(cntr == 4 || cntr == 5 || cntr == 6 || cntr == 7 || cntr == 11 || cntr == 12 || cntr == 14)
      {
        cntr++;
        return false;  
      }
        cntr++;
      return true;
    }
}

It's counting the number of unit tests done and which results it needs to return.

You might as well make it return true/false randomly and spam the Submit button.

[Jon]

Yippee! Jon should join us too.

Sure. But I'll be out of my depth and/or bored soon enough. What do I click on?

[guinness]

2 honour points for this one >> http://www.codewars.com/kata/complex-csv-parser/ Argh!

[jvanegmond]

2 honour points for this one >> http://www.codewars.com/kata/complex-csv-parser/ Argh!

How do you know how much honor points it gives?

I wrote my own CSV parser once in C# because we were getting so much weird data in "csv format" and had no good way to deal with it. I spent a day on a CSV parser and the rest of the week on detecting the actual format of the file. It was a nightmare but it solved the business problem beautifully once it was done.

[guinness]

I know because I completed it this evening. It passed the tests first time, but not the submission ones, on account of some weird ideas by the author of how a csv file should be formatted.

[jvanegmond]

I know because I completed it this evening. It passed the tests first time, but not the submission ones, on account of some weird ideas by the author of how a csv file should be formatted.

Yeah I really don't like that the submission tests contain all these hidden requirements that are not in the given unit tests. You make a stellar implementation which passes all tests first time only to figure out you are solving completely the wrong problem based on 'hidden test' results.

Now what I like to do is if the question is unclear, make a method which prints its parameters and submit this to the final unit test stuff. I'm not sure that means I get less honor but at least it saves time.

[guinness]

It really is super annoying. I have been doing something similar to what you have been doing too.