I always told my students that programming is simple and fun. Now you can see this too. The goal of the course is to get a lot of fun, a good mood and practical programming skills to easily get a job as a programmer. There are small practical tasks for this. But there are many of them. So many.
Game device
The game consists of 40 levels . Each level contains 10-12 lessons and 20-30 practice problems . For each solved problem you receive a reward - several units of black matter. You need materia to move to the next level. You can always track the amount of black matter on your profile page and in the upper right corner in lectures. Each level consists of lessons - lectures, a block of practical tasks or videos. In order to go to the next lesson, you need to press the big button. If you don't have enough black materia, you need to solve several problems and earn materia. To do this, there is a yellow button to the left of the lectures, opposite the practical tasks:
Lectures
The course lectures are structured in the form of dialogues with clear practical examples and are divided into Java lessons , which are grouped into levels. Visualization will improve your perception of the theory and give you more understanding of the topic being studied. Some lessons are a block of tasks. Some tasks can be solved directly in the browser. Such problems are given to consolidate the theory just covered. Do them right away, then your brain will better understand the topic being studied. At the end of each level, you are invited to watch a video on IT topics, and also provide a link to additional materials. They are required reading. This is part of the course. Problems are given based on additional materials, so you cannot skip them.
Watch video
For productive learning, the brain needs to switch to other activities. The ideal solution is to alternate between studying and watching videos. JavaRush has an interesting and useful video after each level that will relax your brain and immerse you in the world of IT. By the way, for watching it you also get black matter.
Non-standard approach to learning
The JavaRush course uses a non-standard approach to learning.
The theory is given both in the lecture and in additional material for the level. This approach will give you the skill of self-learning, which is critical for a programmer. The programmer must know popular Java resources, forums and blogs.
The practice is implemented in the form of a large number of tasks:
Some problems are given based on theoretical material immediately after the lesson.
The other part is given to repeat the theory of previous levels.
The third part is based on materials from the future two or three levels. If you can't solve a problem, skip it. You will return to it after a couple of levels, when a theory is given on that topic. Believe me, this is a natural approach to teaching all people: first comes practice, then justification - theory. This way knowledge is absorbed better.
And another part of the tasks are bonus tasks. These tasks are for self-study and for the development of algorithmic thinking.
A separate category of tasks are large tasks. The tasks from the previous paragraphs are the basis for larger tasks. It is the big problems that will give you a basic understanding of programming, and the puzzle pieces will come together into a single picture.
Alternating training (theory + practice) and relaxation (video) will bring you maximum effect in your training.
Practical tasks
On JavaRush, tasks are divided by difficulty level. The simplest ones are tasks for entering code using a sample. To complete this task, you must enter Java code at the bottom of the window that is identical to the sample located at the top of the window. The next most difficult task is consolidation of theoretical material. Such problems come immediately after theory: they can be solved directly on the site. To complete such a task, you need to write a program in Java: you need to come up with a solution, and then enter the solution code into the main window. For convenience, buttons have been added to maximize and close the form. If you have problems solving a problem, you can ask for help. To check the task, you need to click on the button. The task will be tested and the result will appear at the top of the screen:
Plugin
Every programmer must write programs in a specialized development environment ( IDE ). This is a special program for writing your own programs. The best IDE according to JavaRush is IntelliJ IDEA . That is why a special plugin for IntelliJ IDEA has been created in JavaRush, using which you can solve tasks of low, medium and high complexity directly from the IDE. The process of setting up a working project and a plugin for it is described at level 3 of JavaRush. You can download the working project, in which all the tasks will be solved, along with the plugin on your page, in the “My Downloads” tab. To get a list of tasks in your working project in IntelliJ IDEA, you need to click the get tasks button ( striped ). To submit a task for review, you must press the right button ( check mark) . When you click on the receive tasks button, a form opens with a list of all available unsolved problems. If all tasks have been solved or there are no tasks available that can be solved in a working project in IDEA , the plugin informs about this with a special message. After submitting a task for review, it will be tested on the server. The test result will be displayed in IDEA : Medium difficulty tasks - these tasks are only available in IDEA through the plugin. They often consist of several classes and cover additional theoretical material. Advanced tasks - these tasks are only available in IDEA via a plugin. These are complex bonus tasks, often based on algorithms. No theoretical material is given on them. Large tasks - these tasks are only available in IDEA through a plugin starting from level 21 . A large task is a sequence of 15-25 dependent subtasks. Access to the next subtask is given only after solving the current one. All code for a specific large task is developed in one package with subpackages and represents a small application. For example, an archiver or job aggregator. By solving large problems, you will learn to decompose one large problem into subtasks, refactor, develop architecture, study design patterns and some useful frameworks (technologies, libraries). The experience gained in solving large problems will help when writing a test assignment during employment. For each problem that is solved in IDEA, you can ask for help in solving the problem (you will search for questions on help.javarush.ru for this problem) and discuss this problem in the community (you will search for ahalogical topics on info.javarush.ru for this tasks). To do this, you need to open the task selection form and right-click on a specific task to call up the context menu. When solving a large problem in Intellij IDEA, you can reset its progress until you solve the last sub-problem. This can be useful if you realize that earlier in the solution you made a mistake in one of the subtasks. In this case, you will have to solve the problem from the very first point.
Unsolved problems
You may not solve problems during the lecture, but postpone them to the end of the level, for example. On the Tasks page, you can find all your unsolved tasks that are available to be solved in the browser.
Help in solving problems
The JavaRush service will notify you of all changes and promotions via messages. You can read the message in the “Messages” section.
Messages
In our course, the student is never left alone with the problem of solving problems. You can always ask your question and get an answer in the “Help” section. And perhaps you yourself will help someone solve the problem. The best way to understand a topic is to explain it to another person.
Social network linking
For your convenience, we offer the opportunity to register through a social network. An easy login procedure in a couple of clicks allows you to quickly move on to learning java . When you automatically link to a social network, your profile is filled in with your last name, first name and avatar. In addition, your friends from the social network who study JavaRush are added to your friends list. It’s more interesting to go through JavaRush together, because you can share your successes with friends, ask them for help, or, conversely, help them learn Java. The competitive component always gives a good result! Upon completion of each level, you are invited to share this news with your friends via social networks. Share your successes! This will add additional motivation to you during difficult periods of training.
Ratings
On the ratings page you can track course statistics and ratings. For example, look at a user’s rating for a certain period by the number of solved problems, by level, by the average number of attempts to solve problems. You will be ranked when you reach level ten. View task statistics. For example, what percentage of users solved a certain problem and the number of attempts. This will add to your understanding of the complexity of the problem being solved. You can also view information about users and tasks in the form of graphs.
Full course plan
Familiarize yourself with the outline of the entire course: this will give you an idea of what you will understand after a few months of study.
Community
To keep abreast of all the events in the project, you need to visit our community at info.javarush.ru. There you can learn about what is happening in the project, read success stories of other users, useful articles related to the world of IT, study in detail the IntelliJ IDEA tutorial, or simply chat with other users and discuss a programming topic that interests you. You will receive an invitation to register for the community after you reach level 5.
Share in a JavaRush project
The era of boring learning is over! JavaRush - for using social networks in the learning process! Complete levels and share your success with friends on social networks. JavaRush will make sure that you are aware of new and interesting events in the IT world: we will select good news and post them in our groups on VK and FB. Subscribe, read and share articles.
Why so much practice?
I made this discovery while teaching programming to my friends. Everything I told them, they forgot after two or three weeks, if they did not reinforce this knowledge with practice. I call this a discovery because I found an effective solution to this problem. When you solve a problem like the one we're solving in the future, your brain will turn to your experience rather than to the pictures and/or text you once read. Even if you study the entire lecture course, you will not become a programmer. I can also learn notes, will I become a pianist after that? Our goal is not knowledge. Our goal is real practical skills. In general, my learning experience matches the picture below: Simulating real experience. Without understanding what we are doing, it is all a waste of time. But coupled with knowledge and awareness of actions, this is an explosive mixture. Knowledge is a projection of experience onto paper. But no one has yet learned to drive by learning the rules of the road. Practice is everything. Programming is easy.
Simulating real experience. Without understanding what we are doing, it is all a waste of time. But coupled with knowledge and awareness of actions, this is an explosive mixture. Knowledge is a projection of experience onto paper. But no one has yet learned to drive by learning the rules of the road. Practice is everything. Programming is easy.
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