I took up a challenge called 100daysofcode on 11th February 2022, and today(22nd May 2022), I completed this challenge. Overall, it was a fantastic experience learning something new each day, pushing your limits, and not giving up. Sometimes you feel like skipping a day, and then somehow, you get up and sit to code; It is just amazing. I did not know that I could be consistent for these many days.

What is this challenge all about?

100daysofcode is a challenge in which you need to code consistently for 100 days, not skipping any one day, and learning something new each day. It improves your coding skills by making you consistent and dedicated to coding for at least an hour a day.

My motivation to take up this challenge

I was a procrastinator before this challenge. I used to code back then, but could not continue it for long. My streak used to break quite often. Also, I wanted to learn python as it was one of the most in-demand skills in the market right now and doing a lot of stuff was possible with python and its vast reserve of libraries, modules and frameworks. Also, it was a part of my 3rd-semester curriculum. So, learning python was the best option I had and so I had chosen the same.

How was the journey?

100 days have passed by, and I would not say this was easy. Instead, it was tough. As a college student, where you are given tons of assignments, practicals, and class tests, getting through the attendance criteria is excellent. Also, I had the mid semesters exams halfway through. Plus, if you ever have been in a mess/PG, you would know that time is also spent on cleaning your room and clothes, making arrangements for food, and stuff like that. In all these engagements, it's a real deal to get the time out for your upskilling. But I am glad that I could make it through no matter the circumstances or the consequences.

I liked the journey as a whole - like learning new things every day, implementing what I learned, making some real-world applications using them, getting stuck in a problem or creating a feature of the application, and spending hours solving the problem. Overall it was a fantastic experience and I would recommend anyone reading this blog to take up this challenge and learn the thing or that one skill that one wanted to learn but has been procrastinating to some later time.

I kept on posting what I learnt ,what I did each day from Day 1 to Day 100 in my LinkedIn profile

What did I learn?

I can grade myself as an Intermediate Python Developer. I am confident that if I am given a problem in python, I can walk through it(solve it) sooner or later.

Regarding the topics that I have covered, I have gone from the basics, operators, conditionals, loops, functions, lists, dictionaries, tuples, classes and objects, and Object-Oriented Programming concepts in python. Then I learned some of the modules like BeautifulSoup for web scrapping, Numpy and Pandas for data visualization and analysis, OpenCV for Computer Vision and Image Processing, and Tkinter for Graphical User Interfaces.

I also did some projects based all the modules and the concepts I learned during this period. All my projects are uploaded on GitHub. You can have a look there as well.

What couldn't I cover?

Its quite sad that I could not complete all the important modules in python, but I also am happy that I could cover some of them. There are many things that I could not cover, like Django/Flask, which are used as backend Web frameworks, TensorFlow, Sklearn, Scipy, Keras, and similar modules that are used for Machine Learning and Deep Learning, and much more. At the end of the day, all that matters is what one has achieved, more than what one couldn't.

Resources I followed

I mainly followed the channel CodeWithHarry. It is by far(according to me) one of the best and most popular coding channels I've come across. The instructor (popularly known as Harry Bhai) is one of the most energetic. His explanations are too simple, and anyone starting should be easy to go with them.

There is a course named 100 Days of Code: The Complete Python Pro Bootcamp for 2022 by Angela Yu on Udemy. If you want a structured course, that you can follow throughout the period and if you are not that type of a guy who wants to google or search on the web and make their way out themselves, then this is the course you should go for. Click on the Link to get to the course

There are other channels, blogs, and articles as well, and above all, the official documentation of the modules and python are also available for you to read. But jumping directly to the documentation is not what I would suggest. Instead, go through some video tutorials and develop a good enough base to facilitate your understanding when reading documentation.

Conclusion

When I was thinking about taking this challenge, I could not directly take it up. I kept on procrastinating for over a month, thinking about what would I do, what if I failed on a day, what would others think of me, and whatnot. But then, at last, I realized that the key is to get started. The first step is always the hardest thing to take. The other things fall in place after that. And it would be best if you were consistent. Rather than coding 6 hours a day, coding 1 hour or half an hour for a week or two would have more impact. This is called the effect of compounding.