It may come as a surprise to you that one of the key skills for new software developers to learn is how to effectively ask for help. When we’re a beginner, we certainly don’t know how everything works, and every new topic we stumble across uncovers new and sometimes more complex questions. Often times too we aren’t even sure if/what to ask because you don’t know what you don’t know! Independently searching for answers on Google, YouTube, and Stack Overflow and developing good debugging practices is a great start, but that may not solve all the challenges you come across (or certainly not in the most timely manner).
Learning when and how to ask for help is a skill we recommend developing in this course. The amount of time may vary person-to-person, but explore what rule of thumb works for you (e.g., “If I’ve been working at a problem for > 20min and haven’t uncovered any new information or don’t have anything to try next, time to stop and ask!”) Once you’ve made the decision to ask, then it’s important to consider the appropriate level of detail and context to include in the question and who to ask. (Just posting “HELPP!!” in the group Slack channel doesn’t give people much to go on.)
Take a look at this article to get some inspiration for how to ask good technical questions.
Please answer the below prompts in your assignment submission:
- What’s your rule of thumb for when to ask for help?
- When is an instance where you wish you would have asked for help sooner?
- What information have you found crucial to include in your questions so that mentors or peers can help answer your questions quicker?
When you’ve completed your Coding Assignment, and have read and thought about the mindset questions above, submit ALL of your assignments (coding and mindset) using: