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5 questions every developer should ask to solidify his learning on programming languages and libraries

· 2 min read
D Balaji

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When I walk into an interview or conduct a tech interview, the question that often comes up would be "Why React instead of Angular or Vue?". Questions like that would be damn simple to answer if you had solid learning outside of library syntax and semantics. I get it. When we decide to do a hello world, we are carried away by semantics, syntax and where is the output mindset. Here are my 5 questions that I would recommend you ask yourself while you learn a programming language or library.

5 Questions to solidify your knowledge about programming language​

  1. What is this programming language about
  2. What are the core concepts in this programming language
  3. Why is this programming language better than its competition
  4. How does this programming language work internally
  5. Are there any threats or possible downsides of building a solution with this programming language

To gain a professional edge over others or for deeper learning of programming language​

  1. Think like an architect, you should be able to pull out key metrics from a programming language like errors, performance, etc
  2. Think about how your team can learn and build
  3. Think about tools for unit testing, release management, etc
  4. Collect style guides, best practices
  5. Implement design patterns that you are aware of

5 questions to solidify your knowledge about libraries​

  1. What is this library about
  2. What are the core concepts in this library
  3. Why is this library better than its competition
  4. How does this library work internally
  5. Are there any threats in building a solution with this programming language

To gain a professional edge over others or for deeper learning of library​

  1. Take a look at GitHub or its source code
  2. Check for performance impacts related to library
  3. Write unit tests
  4. Build an app or integrate it with your app
  5. Keep yourself updated on the library developments

To become a pro​

  1. Answer stack overflow questions
  2. Build something real and put it on production
  3. Contribute to open source
  4. Revisit and keep yourself updated till the library/language is obsolete