Practice Makes Perfect

This last article won’t teach you something new by itself (hey, what a selling point), but rather point you in the right direction if you want to continue your functional journey. Because, at least to me, that’s what this feels like. A journey from the imperative kingdom to the functional Nirvana! Ugh, what a cliché.. I’m really sorry, and I won’t do it again. Promise. But still, the thing is, the more I learn, the better things feel.

Which is the exact reason why we write these articles. We truly believe that by attacking problems in a declarative manner, our clients ends up with a better product. More readable code, and less time spent fixing bugs. What else can you ask for? I guess a good user experience is one thing you can ask for, but let’s stick to programming for now.

Thinking declaratively requires experience. It does not come by itself. And without going down this rabbit whole one more time, computer science classes still does not seem to teach anything other than imperative coding. At least not where I come from.

Luckily, there are great resources out there to help you up your functional game. Reading is great and all, but nothing beats practicing on real problems. The first site to visit is exercism.io. Find your favourite functional language, complete realistic coding challenges, and have it reviewed by professionals. Code reviews are a great way of getting exact feedback on how you can improve!

Another resource is HackerRank. Mainly touted as a system for matching developers with companies, they also have a great deal of coding challenges as well. The functional ones are especially interesting for us, ranging from easy to hard, so there should be something for everyone here.

No matter how you end up spending your christmas – on the couch, in front of your computer, or doing something completely different, I hope you have a great time. Ohh, and also that 2021 works a bit better than this year has done!

Merry christmas!