One More Byte CS Devlog

     For our the first week, time was spent setting up Anaconda and learning the fundamentals of Python along with an introduction to NumPy. While the basic syntax was straightforward, it was good review to revisit the distinction between expressions and statements and how expressions produce values while statements perform actions.      An interesting topic this week was the difference between standard Python lists and NumPy arrays. took a look at how NumPy is faster for numerical operations largely due to how data is stored in memory. NumPy arrays store elements of the same type in a contiguous block of memory, which makes access much more efficient. This allows NumPy to take advantage of low level optimizations showing that that NumPy’s speed is not just about better algorithms, but also about how data is structured and processed.     P ractice with manipulating arrays using slicing and fancy indexing, as well as creating and working with mult...

What went well? My time volunteering as a developer for The Document Foundation was genuinely rewarding. The most valuable aspect was getting first hand exposure to a large, real world codebase, which is something that classroom projects can't replicate at scale. I had the opportunity to learn how to set up a professional development environment from scratch, navigate a complex project, and engage with an industry standard code review workflow through Gerrit. I also got experience with bug tracking tools and learned how to locating the right targets for code changes within a massive project structure. Altogether, the experience gave me a much clearer and more real sense of what day to day work as a software developer actually looks like. What was the most impactful part? The most impactful part of this experience was definitely working directly within a large codebase along with a real code review system. It pushed me out of my comfort zone in a productive way like becoming more...

     This week we first covered counting sort and radix sort. I was especially impressed by the design of radix sort because of how elegant and efficient it is when applied in the right context. It was interesting to see how a noncomparison based sorting algorithms was able to outperform the traditional approaches.      We then moved into dynamic programming. At first, I found the concept somewhat confusing because it did not immediately seem different from simply working through a problem step by step. However, it eventually clicked during the homework that dynamic programming is about intentionally breaking a complex problem into smaller, manageable subproblems, solving each of them once, and then combining their results to build the final solution efficiently. Using this, I was able to pull apart the coin problem logic into smaller pieces and recombine it once each part was solved.      After that, we covered the coin-row problem and work...

     This week started with covering AVL trees and 2-3 trees. At first the order of operations required to properly rebalance and maintain these trees after insertions or deletions was a bit tricky to follow but carefully working through the videos and demonstrations helped clarify the rotation and restructuring processes. Seeing multiple examples made it much easier to understand how these self balancing trees maintain structure.      After that was heaps, how to identify them, how to construct them while maintaining heap properties, and how heap sort works. The progression from understanding heap structure to applying it in heap sort helped connect the conceptual sides of the topic. The final lectures this week focused on hashing and hash tables. I found hashing interesting because the overall concept feels intuitive, which made the material easier to grasp while still demonstrating how powerful hash tables can be for achieving efficient lookups.  ...

       This week, we covered the quicksort algorithm along with the median of three selection technique that helps improve efficiency and reduce the likelihood of worst case scenarios. We also reviewed binary tree concepts such as height and traversals. While binary tree traversals were a review for me, it was still nice to revisit them and reinforce that knowledge.      We then moved on to binary search and the decrease and conquer strategy, focusing on how breaking problems down in smaller pieces can lead to increased efficiency. One of the most interesting topics this week was directed acyclic graphs and their sorting method. The process of removing source nodes and repeatedly identifying new source nodes felt very intuitive and made the idea of topological sorting easy to understand.       Finally, we discussed the usefulness of presorting and how it can greatly improve algorithm complexity by allowing more efficient approaches...

This week was primarily focused on preparing for the midterm exam. This involved reviewing all of the material we have covered so far. Going back through the concepts helped me identify areas where I could improve, particularly reading and writing pseudocode and analyzing the efficiency of algorithms based on that pseudocode. Recognizing this gave me direction in what area I should focus my study. I especially enjoy exams that allow the use of a written study guide. The process of creating it helps cement the material in my memory. I often find that by the time I finish preparing the guide, I don’t need to rely on it as much as I initially expect. While I was nervous, as I usually am before exams, the structured review and preparation made me feel more confident going into the midterm.