I don't think you can memorize how code works enough to explain it and not learn codding.
this post was submitted on 05 Feb 2025
365 points (96.9% liked)
Greentext
4979 readers
1360 users here now
This is a place to share greentexts and witness the confounding life of Anon. If you're new to the Greentext community, think of it as a sort of zoo with Anon as the main attraction.
Be warned:
- Anon is often crazy.
- Anon is often depressed.
- Anon frequently shares thoughts that are immature, offensive, or incomprehensible.
If you find yourself getting angry (or god forbid, agreeing) with something Anon has said, you might be doing it wrong.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
It's super easy to learn how algorithms and what not work without knowing the syntax of a language. I can tell you how a binary search tree works, but I have no clue how to code it in Java because I've never used Java.
And similarly, i could read code in a language I dont know, understand what it does and how it works even if I don't know the syntax well enough to write it myself
load more comments
(1 replies)
load more comments
(4 replies)
You'd think that, but I believe you are underestimating people's ability to mindlessly memorize stuff without learning it.
load more comments
(1 replies)
I'm a full stack polyglot and tbh I couldn't program in some languages without reference docs / LLM even though I ship production code in those language all the time. Memorizing all of the function and method names and all of the syntax/design pattern stuff is pretty hard especially when it's not really needed in contemporary dev.
Yeah a doctor has to read up on a disease in a book when they encounter it. Completely normal
load more comments
(2 replies)
Unless they're being physically watched or had their phone sequestered away, they could just pull it up on a phone browser and type it out into the computer. But if they want to be a programmer they really should learn how to code.
load more comments
(1 replies)
If it's the first course where they use Java, then one could easily learn it in 21 hours, with time for a full night's sleep. Unless there's no code completion and you have to write imports by hand. Then, you're fucked.
If there's no code completion, I can tell you even people who's been doing coding as a job for years aren't going to write it correctly from memory. Because we're not being paid to memorize this shit, we're being paid to solve problems optimally.
load more comments
(4 replies)
My first programming course (in Java) had a pen and paper exam. Minus points if you missed a bracket. :/
load more comments
(3 replies)
load more comments
(1 replies)
generate code, memorize how it works, explain it to profs like I know my shit.
ChatGPT was just his magic feather all along.
load more comments
(1 replies)
He should be grateful. I hear programming interviews are pretty similar, as in the employer provides the code, and will pretty much watch you work it in some cases. Rather be embarrassed now than interview time. I'm honestly impressed he went the entire time memorizing the code enough to be able to explain it, and picked up nada.
I'm honestly impressed he went the entire time memorizing the code enough to be able to explain it, and picked up nada.
Or he asked the LLM to summarise it and memorised that.
load more comments
(1 replies)
run it in a vm
Been a TA when chatGPT was released. Most students shot their own foot this way before we figured what was happening. Grades went from bell shaped to U shaped. A few students got 85+, the rest failed, it was brutal. Thought I failed my students horribly before I found out it was happening in all classes.
If you actually stuck in such a situation, solve as many problems as you can. An approach that will work for most people:
- Try to solve
- Fail
- Take a peek, understand your failure. If the peek didn't include full solution, go back to step 1. Else continue to step 4.
- Move to the next question and go back to step 1.
Make sure to skip questions if they are too easy. Evey 4~ hours take a 20 minutes nap (not longer than 25 minutes). If you actually manage to solve enough problems to pass, go to sleep, 4.5 hours or a longer multiplier of 1.5 hours.
After the exam go back and solve all homework yourself. DO NOT cram it, spread it or you will retain nothing long term.
Good luck.
Now imagine how it'll feel in interviews