Programming • Page 10

Alright, SO..

I wrote a new method called mutate() that randomly calls each specific mutagenic method randomly based on a percentage, doNothing() happens the most, then changeAminoAcid() (the potentially harmless mutation) a little less, then addAminoAcid() and deleteAminoAcid() the least. There is a for loop in the mutate() method that will run through through 1000 "generations" of mutation and populate a list of strings that I converted from character ArrrayLists (so that I could add and delete indexes as opposed to just changing them in a simple array). Now I will need to find a way to "kill" a specific sequence that I am populating into the list if it becomes to dangerous to pass on the new sequence to offspring.

 

I wonder if a LinkedList implementation would work there. Travel through the list, check each sequence, and if it fits the "kill" parameters, remove it from the list.

 

Yeah that would be one way to do it. It shouldn't be too intensive either in terms of computation time while searching the list before each mutation (although as you approach more and more mutations it'll start to take longer to search and compare each element). But since you're only doing 1000 mutations, a LinkedList would probably be the easiest solution to process a kill parameter.

If you start to see it take noticeably longer for some reason, I'd look into other data structures that might be faster for search operations.

 

Anyone have any recommended PostgreSQL sites? I've got a job about to start and I need to brush up on this haha.

 

This might be a good place to start Postgres Guide. I also find this newsletter to have some interesting tidbits Postgres Weekly: A Free, Weekly Email Newsletter.

 

I'll check it out, thanks!

 

Is SQL easy to pick up for someone with intermediate/beginning of advanced coursework in Java, C, Assembly?

 

Yes, sql is super easy. With that background, I doubt you'll have any difficulty

 

I'm starting to apply for jobs. My background is in Python with some front end experience as well. If I start applying for python developer jobs, do you think they're going to ask me data structure questions in the interviews i.e. trees, graphs, linked lists, etc? I don't have a CS degree, so I'd have to learn that stuff on my own.

 

In my experience, algorithms and data structures tend to be the meat of most technical interviews.

 

Any recommendations on online courses or books to learn both of these topics quickly? I've heard that these topics can be difficult to learn on your own

 

You can honestly probably just google "data structures computer science" and you'll get dozens of links to documentation on all of the standard ones (stack, list, hash map, various trees, etc). You can also replace "computer science" with the language of your choice (like python) to check out the API documentation for how those data structures are implemented in that language.

 

Is it more like, talking about said subjects? Or actual coding?

 

Both. Data structures and algorithms are woven into everything. They'll give you a problem, you have to discuss your data structure choices, your approach, your code, what the runtime is, etc. You'll be asked the difference between data structures, asked about how to do fundamental things on different data structures (especially trees). The list goes on and on.

 

Sounds intimidating. Coding will only be half (I think?) of the jobs I'll be applying for so it should be interesting to see what the interviews are like.

 

yeah it generally tends to be coding on a whiteboard, talking to the solution to the problem.

keep in mind that most software engineers maybe spend 10% of their time actually writing code. The rest is spent designing, investigating bugs, working with other members of the team, understanding what current code is doing, etc. So clearly, coding skills are important but they aren't the only thing companies look for in interviews, a huge part the problem solving portion and successfully communicating your solution to the interviewer.

 

The only good thing my CS degree did was teach me these two topics... I was lucky enough to have a professor for the data structures/algorithms courses who was super smart and pushed us to actually learn the hard bits.

Introduction to Algorithms is one of the more popular ones in the field (have heard it referred to as "the Bible" of algorithms). It's gigantic and way dense (also expensive if you buy new), but covers most of what you'd want to know. I got a question straight out of this book on a Google interview once.

Data Structures & Algorithm Analysis covers a lot of the same material but with some different explanations that can be helpful. For me, this one's explanations and code examples tended to be a lot easier to understand. It's also available online for free in two different versions, Java and C++.

Searching StackOverflow/Quora for common algorithm/data structure interview questions and answers helps a lot, too.

 

Both of my data structures class have used this: Algorithms, 4th Edition by Robert Sedgewick and Kevin Wayne It's a principle text for intermediate data structures and algorithms, and a reference for my advanced class. Lot's of good code examples too.

 

@Dirty Sanchez not sure if you're still looking for PostgreSQL resources but I just came across this site (PostgreSQL Exercises) that has a whole list of exercises. Looks like you can do all the exercises in the browser.

 

Very helpful!

 

any of y'all have a preferred Python ide?

 

PyCharm is nice.

 

I used to use PyCharm but now I pretty much use Atom for all my development (Python, Javascript, Elm, Ruby).

 

I'm downloading PyCharm right now. I used "Learn Python The Hard Way" book when I first started learning progamming, but now I'm near the end of my program with advanced data structures, C, assembly, unix yada yada so I figured it be a good time to see how quickly I can really pick it up.