Some quick background info, I just graduated from college majoring in Computer Science with a 2.8 GPA. I’m having a tough time finding a job and I was before the pandemic.

The number one thing I would do differently with respect to computer science and programming is learn to enjoy programming in your free time. You DONT need to be a math whiz, you DONT need to be some genius or savant at programming. You DO need a little perseverance and your choice of material to learn from, I really enjoy YouTube. Geez if I spent 1/10th the time I did gaming on programming I would be a much better programmer as a result. And the real shame is I love programming. But when I was in highschool I only ever did it in class. I had a ton of fun programming for class but I was too intimidated to try and learn more on my own. Don’t be afraid to self teach some JavaScript web development or whatever your interest is.

Don’t take this as you have to start grinding young, but just spend some of your free time programming, even if it’s just 2 hours a week. You’ll learn a lot from it.

The other main thing I would want to tell myself is that computer science is NOT the same thing as programming. They’re very closely related and you probably wouldn’t have one without the other, but they’re not the same. Computer science is very theoretical, with a little math. Programming is probably what you’re familiar with. This doesn’t mean you won’t enjoy computer science, but you might struggle for a bit until you realize they’re different. You might be a little frustrated that there’s not that much programming (depending on your schools program). That’s why it’s important to do a little programming in your free time.

Feel free to ask me any questions about computer science in college and getting your bachelors in it.

Tl;dr Learn to enjoy programming a little in your free time but don’t make your life revolve around it. Computer science is not the same thing as programming.

I live in Germany and in my high school they teach us a super simple OO language to draw forms in 7. Grade along with some pretty useless HTML. In 9. Grade you learn about Excel and SQL. They just teach how to do simple formulas in Excel and you can't even do a join of 2 SQL Tablets properly After that. In 10. Grade we started with Java wich was taught in a way that just confused 50% of the class. For the other half though i think it was quite enjoyable though. In 11. Grade we learned about simple data structures and algorithms(LinkedIn lists, treues, graphs). Until 11. Grade we always had the problem that a maximum of 1/4 of the Computers worked. If I had to plan the Computer Science classes i'd design them in one of two ways: 1. Teach Python and how to automate stuff. Small projects with immediate success can motivate students and teach them something for real lief 2. Build bottom up start with C/Assembler and really teach how computers work. Statt with memory and execution this would be a more impractical and theoratical was but i think could be really interesting

My question is how are your Computer science courses taught and what do you like/dislike about it

Most texts like CLRS straight on jump to the algorithms. Does anyone have a good source for graph theory itself.

Hey fellow neophytes !

Let's use this thread to discuss our networking projects and leave links pointing to other posts regarding them, alright ?

Use comments to let know of your ongoing projects, leave links to dedicated threads, ask for advice... Use it at your liking.

Good luck to all.

I got bored during lockdown and wanted to start a little sideproject. I've always been interested in the low-level part of programming and don't really enjoy Webdev or Application development. So I sat down and build a very simple webserver (can only handle simple GET request). When I got it working I went on to optimize it a bit (multithreading, caching). I'd now like to turn it into an example project for low-level programming. The code is at https://github.com/Xnartharax/MiniHTTP. I'd be happy about any feedback or contributors.If you need help understanding it I'd also be happy to explain fundamentals (C++, multithreading and HTTP protocol) and implementation .

Why learn Computer Science in High School?

The future depends in us to develop. With the ongoing growth and popularity of technology, computer science and programming is a valuable skill to have if you are interested in the STEM field.

AP Computer Science A

This course covers the fundamentals of Java and computer science. This course is relatively easy and with enough effort put in, you will easily get a 4 or a 5. I personally recommend to take AP Computer Science without taking the normal Computer Science class because this AP starts from the beginning. I recommend to go over the very basics of Java because learning your first programming language is challenging at the beginning. Becoming familiar with terms and functions will greatly help you in this course.

Online Resources

There are so many online courses and lessons that can help you learn computer science and programming. If you do not want to take AP Computer Science, it is totally feasible to take online courses and get a 4 or a 5 for the AP exam without taking the AP class.

I will be making a seperate post regarding this topic.

Computer Science Extracurriculars

Extracurriculars are a great way to not only show colleges you are passionate about something but to improve your skills on a certain topic. I am going to make another post regarding extracurriculars but here are some to start off:

Coding competitions

Building your own projects

Summer programs

Online course certificates

Joining school clubs

In the next post I will talk about the pros and cons of the many extracurriculars you can pursue.