Problem Solving

Before we start, we want you to remember this: Learning to write software is fun and cool, and at times, can be tricky. Fear not!

Be patient with yourself and your teachers, and you will succeed. Traits that will help you:

• Be autodidactic - self-directed in your learning.
• You should struggle to find answers, this is a good thing!
• Try to solve the problem yourself.
• Next, try to find answers to your problems on the Internet.
• You must develop the reflex to be self-sufficient in your work - this is the single most important skill you can develop.

Here's some steps to help you when you come up against a problem:

• Make use tools like logging and debugging.
• Google it! Another coder has experienced and solved the same problem, and written about it on the Internet.
• After struggling for 15 minutes, ask questions - to your fellow students, teachers, and on our Slack channel.

When writing software applications, you will get things wrong more times that you will get them right. This is part of the process of hacking away until you find the solution. As you grow in your ability, you will hack away less and less, and get it right on the first or second attempt.

Remember, nothing is hard, only new!