How CodeGym’s Coding Tasks Turn Total Beginners Into Java Pros?

As you should probably know by now, CodeGym’s philosophy when it comes to learning Java can be summarized as ‘practice comes first and foremost.’ Our course’s primary focus is to teach you coding skills that will be applicable in a real job, and that’s why CodeGym has so many tasks. With over 1200 different tasks in CodeGym’s course, you can be sure here you’ll get more than enough practical experience to feel confident as a Java developer (even if still a Junior one).

What kind of tasks CodeGym has to offer?

So we wanted to tell you a little bit about the tasks on CodeGym, what kinds of tasks are there, what are the differences, and, most importantly, how they are helping you to become a professional Java programmer. Just to refresh your memory, the full CodeGym course is divided into four quests, each having ten levels, which you have to complete one by one. Each level is filled with lessons and tasks that you need to solve in order to unlock the next level (using the ‘dark matter’ that you earn by solving tasks). This course structure was designed to ensure each student is getting enough practice to really learn and master all the key skills, while at the same time keeping your motivation high not to give up along the way and allowing your brain to catch a break once in a while for it not to get over exhausted.

Types of tasks based on what you have (or haven’t) learnt

Over 1200 tasks is a lot. If all the tasks in the CodeGym course were the same that would make it quite monotonous and not as fun. Here are the kinds of tasks you will have to solve while going through the course, divided based on the knowledge that you need in order to solve them.

• Tasks to reinforce the theory from a previous lesson.

This one is pretty simple. After you learned some new theoretical knowledge, you need to reinforce what you have learnt with tasks, and these tasks do exactly that. This part of the course is quite traditional: first you learn some lessons and then practical tasks based on this particular part of knowledge follow.

• Tasks to cement what you have previously learnt.

Of course, you also need to do practical tasks on what you have learnt in previous levels earlier. And this is the second type of task that you will see on CodeGym. It takes months and sometimes even years for some people to complete the course. The mission of these tasks is to make sure you won’t forget the theory and won’t lose any essential skills or parts of knowledge along the way. You will see lots of such tasks throughout the course. You may even get tired of solving them and feel like complaining, but remember: they are there for a reason. We, humans, need to repeat everything over and over many times (more than you think) to make sure the brain will remember how it’s done once and for all (or at least for a long enough period of time, to be realistic).

• Challenge tasks.

This is where it gets more interesting as this kind of task is unique to CodeGym. These tasks are based on a theory that you haven’t had a chance to learn yet (it usually comes in one of the following three levels). So basically you are facing tasks that you cannot solve because no one has taught you the theory they are based on yet. Nonsense? No, a cool feature (one of many for that matter) unique to CodeGym. You just need to start googling if you want to solve such a task. The thing is, web searching for an answer or information that you need is an extremely important skill for any programmer, and we would like you to master it just as well as the other crucial skills, such as writing code or looking for bugs. But for those of you who don’t feel like experimenting and want to stick to a traditional learning approach there is a way too. If you don’t like googling, you can always just set these ‘challenge tasks’ aside and return to them once you’ve reached the necessary theory on CodeGym. When it comes to choosing your approach to learning, we are pro-choice, so to speak, every time when it is appropriate.

Types of tasks based on the difficulty level and other parameters

You can also divide tasks on CodeGym based on type, size (time to finish), and difficulty. These three parameters of tasks will vary a lot throughout the course. Don’t make a mistake by assuming CodeGym’s tasks are all simple and meant for children, based on illustrations and easy-going storytelling approach. In fact, the majority of tasks in CG’s course are quite challenging for any grownup, only the first several levels could feel like child’s play. Here are the types of tasks you will find in the CodeGym course if you decide to complete it and become a programmer.

• Code entry.

Code entry is the easiest type of task meant for total beginners. An aspiring programmer needs to start by just feeling the code and the way it has to be written. So in these tasks all you have to do is to copy an example of the code given.

• Analyzing the code and finding bugs in it.

Another good way to learn is to study someone else’s code trying to figure where the mistakes causing bugs might be. Finding errors in someone else’s code is a very important and highly applicable skill for a software developer.

• Writing your own code to meet the task requirements.

At some point, you will start writing your own code. With this type of tasks, you get a set of requirements that your code has to meet. Of course, the requirements are always different and designed in a way to teach you how to perform the tasks a real Java programmer would be facing on a regular basis at his actual job.

• Extra difficult bonus tasks.

For those of you who knock the regular tasks out of the park we also have extra difficult bonus ones. Show us how tough you are by cracking these as they require quite a bit of self-study and designed to develop your algorithmical thinking skills.

• Mini-projects.

These are the bosses of CodeGym tasks: projects where you are required to single-handedly (but not without our help of course) develop a rather complex program. No need to worry though, as mini-projects are normally divided into smaller sub-tasks so you won’t be stuck somewhere in the middle. They are created for you to learn the general process of a program development and steps it consists of. When each task of this type is completed, you will end up with a new program written with your own hands, such as a simple video game or an online chat room. This is a huge advantage of CodeGym since normally (for those who go with other ways of learning Java) it may take years before a coding beginner will be able to create a first complex program from scratch.

• Videos to give yourself a little break.

And finally, watching videos is also a part of CodeGym course, just because it doesn’t hurt to take a break from reading and writing code once in a while. Watching a video is a great way to give your brain some time to relax by switching to a different type of content that is easier to consume. Also, it helps you to reinforce your new learning how to code habit: even when having an off time and relaxing you are consuming programming-related content instead of a TV show or a favourite YouTube blogger. This is another way to tell your brain you are serious about doing this.

Summary

As you can see, CodeGym does literally everything possible for the Java course not to be monotonous and repetitive, which is one of the biggest weaknesses of the majority (if not all) of other online Java courses. But such a variety of tasks was created by us not just so it would be easier for you to study. It is also the only way to really prepare a user starting to learn Java from scratch to what he/she will face when in a real job as a Java programmer. Caring about our students and their future. We like to think this is what really makes CodeGym stand out. Do you agree? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.