Recently, I’ve discovered a new way of learning programming languages – the CodeWars. The idea is quite simple – to gain the experience and necessary skills you have to practise, and the more you practise the higher experience level you obtain. The creators were clearly inspired by Japanese martial arts – the tasks are called Kata and the ranks are ordered from 8 Kyu (which means an absolute beginner) to 1 Kyu, and then from 1 Dan to 8 Dan.
The platform allows selecting the language(s) you want to work on. I chose Python and SQL, and started as 8 Kyu apprentice. To date I completed 19 Katas and my overall rank is 5 Kyu (SQL: 6 Kyu and Python: 7 Kyu). After obtaining 5 Kyu rank, I decided to proudly insert the CodeWars badge on the home page of this blog as a visible sign of my skills:
The tasks I completed were of highly variable difficulty, with some really hard SQL Kata on 4 Kyu level (although, as my skills grow constantly, I hope to think of them as a piece of cake soon). The Kata also allowed me to explore some more advanced SQL techniques, such as window functions.