Top 6 tips to help your kids ace a coding quiz
Participating in a coding quiz is an interesting way to gauge one’s knowledge about the subject. It can reveal a lot about the participants’ conceptual clarity, preparedness and experience with programming in different languages. It’s also an opportunity to showcase one’s coding abilities in front of other participants and peer group. With so many programming languages and new features being rolled out every day, how does one come out with flying colours in a coding quiz? Help your kids follow these tips to ace it.
Focus on mastering the basics of coding
Well, it sounds cliché yet is true. Variable declaration, operands, looping structures, control structures, and programme structure are all basics that should be learnt and practised before attempting a coding quiz. Motivate your kids to study and refresh their knowledge of the fundamentals even if they already know how to code. This will give them an edge over the others during the competition.
Work on the programming language best known to you
With a whole lot of programming languages like C, C++, Python, Java, JavaScript, etc. available today, working on fine tuning the knowledge of a programming language that your budding coder already knows would help. For instance, if you are comfortable with Python and know about its libraries and algorithms better than JavaScript, work on it. It may happen that quite a few questions in the quiz could be asked from the programming language of their choice.
Practise writing the code as many times as possible
Motivate your little coder to work on coding problems that are difficult to solve. Help him come up with new ideas and improve his skills with the help of online resources. There are websites that provide written instructions in great detail. These are helpful for coders to planning to participate in a coding quiz. Also, one needs to keep a track of time while practising to write code.
Explain your code during the quiz rounds
During a coding quiz, a participant may need to explain his coding approach and style. Help your young coder prepare for explaining his answer both orally and on a whiteboard. Practising with mock coding explanation sessions at home will be a good idea to boost confidence for the quiz contest.
Expand the knowledge base
Coding is a wide field of computer science that is aligned with mathematics, machine learning and engineering among others. So, make sure that your young coder doesn’t limit himself to only common topics. Help her widen the horizon of knowledge not only in coding but also in the allied fields while preparing for the coding quiz.
Approach the questions with a curious mindset
Curiosity is essential for learning. During a quiz contest, it is essential for participants to clarify your doubts by asking questions. Quiz masters are looking for more than simply the right answer. They're interested in seeing how coders think. Asking questions is the best approach to reflect one’s thought process.