In Fall 2022, I took a course called Problem Solving and Programming. In this course, we learned how to write code for programs, mainly using the C++ language. Coding involves multiple steps in order to map out the final product, which includes describing how functions and data will communicate with each other. The course consisted of multiple quizzes and smaller projects to help familiarize us with the coding language. The Final Assignment was a true test of our learning because we had to create a board game from scratch using C++.

This course taught me alot about both programming and problem solving. It also helped me organize my work better, as object oriented programming became a big focus down the road. Personally, this way of coding also felt more natural since everything was structured making it easy to see how different functions and data correlated. The reason problem solving is often bundled with programming is because logical reasoning helps guide you through the process of building the software via code. Things invariably go wrong as well and you need to be able to debug your code and figure out crashes, since error messages aren’t always descriptive or no error can show up despite the software not running correctly. Even if I don’t get a coding job in the future, problem solving skills can help me wherever I go. I am already starting to apply coding knowledge to cybersecurity as well by studying how to reverse engineer malware and use automation scripts to increase productivity.

This course taught me a lot about both programming and problem solving. It also helped me organize my work better, as object oriented programming became a big focus down the road. Personally, this way of coding also felt more natural since everything was structured making it easy to see how different functions and data correlated. The reason problem solving is often bundled with programming is because logical reasoning helps guide you through the process of building the software via code. Things invariably go wrong as well and you need to be able to debug your code and figure out crashes, since error messages aren’t always descriptive or no error can show up despite the software not running correctly. Even if I don’t get a coding job in the future, problem solving skills can help me wherever I go. I am already starting to apply coding knowledge to cybersecurity as well by studying how to reverse engineer malware and use automation scripts to increase productivity.