> "I was freaking out when I couldn't solve some Project
> Euler questions, and pretty much lost all of confidence in
> my programming abilities for a while.
I've read way too many people online suggest Project Euler as a way to "teach yourself programming". This is almost a sadistic suggestion. Project Euler is way too hard to teach yourself programming.
Evidence: nearly 180,000 people have solved problem #1. Only 76,000 have solved problem #10. Losing 60% of your audience by problem #10 is pretty bad question design for learning.
Anecdote: I've been programming for over 25 years. I was near the top of my class in a top-10 computer science university program. And I've solved 30 Project Euler problems in the last 3-1/2 years. But I still can't solve problem # 18. I've worked on it off and on since December 2007. Only recently, quite by accident I learned that it is probably a "dynamic programming" question, which is something I've never done before.
Never lose confidence in your coding ability because Project Euler stumps you now and again.
I've read way too many people online suggest Project Euler as a way to "teach yourself programming". This is almost a sadistic suggestion. Project Euler is way too hard to teach yourself programming.
Evidence: nearly 180,000 people have solved problem #1. Only 76,000 have solved problem #10. Losing 60% of your audience by problem #10 is pretty bad question design for learning.
Anecdote: I've been programming for over 25 years. I was near the top of my class in a top-10 computer science university program. And I've solved 30 Project Euler problems in the last 3-1/2 years. But I still can't solve problem # 18. I've worked on it off and on since December 2007. Only recently, quite by accident I learned that it is probably a "dynamic programming" question, which is something I've never done before.
Never lose confidence in your coding ability because Project Euler stumps you now and again.