CS371p Fall 2018: Somi Singh

What did you like the least about the class? I did not like that the material we used on the projects was taught in-class after the projects were due. I suppose this forces us to learn the concepts on our own before learning them “correctly” in class, but the amount of stress induced trying to get things working would be greatly reduced if we were taught these concepts before attempting the projects. [Read More]

What did you do this past week? I spent this past week finishing up the Life project and finishing a Spark project for Big Data Programming. I also enjoyed Thanksgiving with friends and family. On Friday I attended the talk with two of Professor Downing’s former students. What’s in your way? With exactly one week left, I need to study for exams and finish one more project. Given that the semester is just about over, I need to stay motivated to finish this semester on a high note instead of just going through the motions. [Read More]

What did you do this past week? The past week I finished the Darwin project and began enjoying my Thanksgiving break even though it’s not for another few days. I’m a big advocate of a mid-semester break like we have in the Spring semester (Spring Break). Class and other activities can become exhausting so it feels nice to stop studying for awhile and just relax. What’s in your way? Nothing is in my way other than getting ready for the exams at the end of the semester. [Read More]

What did you do this past week? This week I finished up the interviews I was planning on doing. Some of them were in Austin and others required traveling, so I spent that time working on programming assignments and getting caught up on readings. What’s in your way? I am still working on getting caught up on class the past few weeks, while also working on finishing the Darwin project. Other than getting caught up, nothing is in my way for the rest of the year. [Read More]

What did you do this past week? I spent half this week at an interview in California which was both fun and exhausting. I also spent a lot of hours working on the last Hadoop project for Big Data Programming which took a frustratingly long amount of time. It took me a while to realize that running hadoop on my laptop requires more adjustments when trying to utilize multiple cores in order to run things in parallel. [Read More]

What did you do this past week? I spent last week working on projects for this class and Big Data, and talking with companies. This allocator project is taking much longer than I expected although we were warned in class that it was non-trivial. What’s in your way? Not getting enough sleep is a problem for me because once I get started working on a project, I don’t want to stop until it’s done or I’ve reached a significant milestone. [Read More]

What did you do this past week? This past week I was alternating between interviews and preparing for the OOP exam. I went through all of the class notes, did the hackerranks several times, and felt prepared for most of the exam. I also completed a project for Big Data programming in which we used the hadoop framework to produce reduce-side joins. What’s in your way? Nothing is in my way. [Read More]

What did you do this past week? I spent the past week traveling to or from interviews, working on keeping up with the readings and material for this class, and trying to maintain a consistent sleep schedule. I had been doing alot of interview prep but had to take a break because of scheduling. What’s in your way? Once again, I am running short on time given the number of interviews I am trying to manage. [Read More]

What did you do this past week? This past week I finished the Voting project and finished a Big Data project on using AVRO to parse through user web traffic data and collate it into usable chunks of data. By collecting actions from web logs, one can determine which pieces of the website are receiving the most traffic. It was an interesting project. What’s in your way? The only thing in my way is time. [Read More]

What did you do this past week? I spent this last week working on the Australian Voting project for this OOP class, working on the AVRO project in Big Data Programming, and prepping for some upcoming technical interviews. In class we discussed iterators and templating. What’s in your way? The only thing in my way is the willingness to stay motivated in studying and practicing coding problems. The only way to get better and sharper at algorithms questions is to practice. [Read More]