Back for round 8. The road to 800!!! I am piggy-backing off of the last round and continuing my back-end dev journey. I reviewed a bunch of core concepts and front-end material last round in preparation for this! I can feel it. This round I am really going to level up and see some of the fruits of my labor. I did so much ground work to repair and build my foundations. Now it’s time to start working on this sky scraper! To the moon! LOL.

TLDR;

Okay, so here are the highlights of what I did:

• Back-end Dev -> Reviewed differ types of HTTP requests like GET, POST, DELETE, HEAD, etc. There is a lot but there is no point in memorizing them. I am sure the most useful one will show themselves to me through projects.
• Node.js -> Continued going through The Odin Project Node.js curriculum. This section is covering the very popular web framework express. I read through some of the recommended introductory guides. So far it is a lot of review for me. That being said, my studying of the Node.js docs and the key http module classes like IncomingMessage, OutgoingMessage, ServerResponse, and ClientRequest really helped me understand what is going on behind the scenes with the express framework. No more black boxes or magic under the hood for me… at least in this context.

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Reference Material for learning Express

• Express Guide – MDN
• Express Guide Intro – MDN
• Express Crash Course – Traversy Media YouTube
• Express in 35 Minutes – WebDevSimplified YouTube
• Express Setup Dev Env Guide – MDN

Middleware:

• Express Middleware directory
• Express Guide Using Middleware – Express Docs
• Express Guide Writing Middleware – Express Docs

Error Handling:

• Express Guide Error Handling – Express Docs

Databases:

• Express Guide Database Integration – Express Docs

Template Engines:

• Template Engines compatible with Express
• Comparing template engines
• Express Guide Using Template Engines – Express Docs
• What is the express-generator package and how can I use it.

Routing:

• Express Basic Routing – Express Docs
• Express Guide Routing – Express Docs
• Express Basic Serving Static Files – Express Docs

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Goal For Round 8 of the #100DaysofCode Challenge

This is my eighth round of the “#100daysofcode” challenge. I will be continuing my work from round five, six, and seven into round eight. I was working through the book “Cracking the Coding Interview” by Gayle Laakmann McDowell. My goal was to become more familiar with algorithms and data structures. This goal was derived from my goal to better understand operating systems and key programs that I use in the terminal regularly e.g. Git. This goal was in turn derived from my desire to better understand the fundamental tools used for coding outside of popular GUIs. This in turn was derived from my desire to be a better back-end developer.

I am currently putting a pause on the algorithm work to build some backend/full stack projects. I primarily want to improve my skills with the back-end from an implementation perspective. I have improved tremendously in terminal and CLI skills but I lost focus due to how abstract the algorithm concepts got. I wanted to work on things that were more tangible until I can get to a position where I could directly benefit from improving my algorithm skills and theoretical knowledge. So that’s the focus right now. Build my backend skills and prove my full stack capabilities by building some dope projects.

Again, I still have no idea if my path is correct but I am walking down this road anyways. Worst case scenario I learn a whole bunch of stuff that will help me out on my own personal projects. Best case scenario I actually become one of those unicorn developers that go on to start a billion dollar company… You never know LOL.