So i’ve been coding for about 4 years now, and today something clicked.
Doing tutorial questions in class vs problem-solving at work or in interviews? Completely different energy.
What i love about interviews and real work:
- You can clarify. “Does this need to handle duplicates?” “What’s the input range?”
- You can discuss your approach. Share thinking, get feedback, pinpoint better direction.
- Collaborative energy. Back-and-forth sparks ideas.
But classroom problems?
- Wall of text. Figure it out. Alone.
- Ambiguous spec? Guess what prof meant.
- Stuck? Keep staring at it.
- No energy. Just grind.
After 4 years of working: PRs with reviewers, design discussions, debugging with teammates, my brain is wired for collaborative problem-solving. Going back to “isolated spec, figure it out” feels disconnected…
It’s not that i can’t code. The format doesn’t match how i actually solve problems.
But for this module, i am grateful that my professor is actually someone open; he took my advice to improve on the questions, to reply to my clarifications and provide direction on the portal very quickly.
Taking forward: Keep bringing interview energy. Externalise thinking even solo. Demand better specs when they’re trash.
Context: Session notes here (for myself) - 4h TCX1002 Tutorial 3.