Astrophysics for People in a Hurry

We are stardust brought to life, then empowered by the universe to figure itself out – and we have only just begun.

I’ve been always deeply fascinated with everything that extends beyond our beloved earth out to the universe.

I must say that I had to re read several parts of this book, I forced my little mind in order to grasp some of the magnificent concepts that are presented in this book. It is an introductory book into astrophysics and yet all the chapters are so mind blowing, it’s really hard for your mind to even take a tiny look into the grandiosity of the universe.

I read this review in Goodreads before I bought this book, I found it really funny and I’m agree with it:

Imagine you are standing with your face up and your mouth wide open underneath a waterfall of Skittles.At first, a few Skittles get into your mouth and you can taste them. Awesome, you think. I love Skittles. Then, the Skittles become overwhelming, as more and more try to force themselves in, and millions and millions puddle around your feet, piling up past your knees.

rainbow-puke

If I were not a software Engineer I would have loved to be an astrophysicist, what I’m left is to continue to be amazed by books like this that present us the immensity of the universe and the tininess of us.

Top Code Challenges Websites

Code challenges are great, whether you know nothing about code and want to get started or you are a developer with many years of experience, code challenges are a fun and easy way to keep your skills sharp, get into new technologies and learn from a huge community.

Personally, I think there are many reasons why developers should take code challenges and quizzes on a constant basis, among them:

  • They help you to continuously improve your code skills.
  • Learn new languages and skills.
  • Learn from other developers multiple solutions to a problem.
  • Enable creativity.
  • Great companies love code challenges. Be prepared for your dream job interview.
  • They’re fun!

So, with that said, here are my personal top code challenges websites:

Coderbyte

Coderbyte gives you access to a great collection of challenges that you can solve directly in your browser with more than 10 programming languages. Another great feature is that you can compare thousands of user solutions with your own, it is crazy how many approaches there are to a single challenge.

Coderbyte also has something called tracks, which are a collection of tutorials, and challenges designed to prepare you for technical interviews of different companies, which I think is fantastic.

Codewars

Codewars brings you thousands of challenges in many languages for you to solve as well. The cool thing about Codewars is its dojo thematic where developers become warriors training their skills and get ranked among its community.

A challenge is named Kata and they are the main activity of the site, the Kata can also be created by members of the community and complemented with more languages. You get Ranks that indicate progression and difficulty as you start completing Kata and also you have Honor, which represents the level of respect earned from the community by staying active and contributing.

CodinGame

Same as the two above, these platforms bring you thousands of challenges, but it adds a fun turn, it turns challenges into games, it brings some cool graphics and missions that make the challenges a lot more fun and also you are able to compete in multiplayer challenges with developers all around the world.

Many achievements can be earned and definitely all this game-like functionality makes the challenges and the competition great to learn about many programming concepts and mathematics puzzles. You are also able to contribute with your own puzzles to the platform.


Of course, there are many more code challenges platforms, so, share your favorites with me and start solving challenges.

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