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What is Selenium?

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What is Selenium?

Automation is quickly transforming tasks of all sizes, from setting up your calendar to generating marketing leads and driving cars. With Selenium, testing software in web browsers can be automated too.

“Browser automation” refers to using automated solutions to test software in web browsers. Tools like Selenium streamline testing efforts by automating the actions websites would perform during testing, so you can get results faster and ensure consistent user experiences across platforms.

Selenium is an open-source suite of tools and coding libraries that you can use to automate nearly anything that can be done within a web browser. Selenium also provides you with an interface to write scripts to test web-based programs. Ahead, we’ll go over what Selenium is used for and the different kinds of Selenium tools that are available.

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What is Selenium used for?

Selenium is used to test web applications to see how they behave in different browsers. Here are a few capabilities that make Selenium special:

  • It works with many different coding languages, such as Java, Ruby, C#, Perl, Python, and PHP
  • It’s free
  • It’s open-source, so anyone can contribute to the project
  • It works on Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems

A developer would use Selenium to test out how an application they’re working on functions in different web browsers and on different operating systems.

For example, suppose you’ve developed a web app that allows users within a company to chat with each other. These users tend to use either Chrome or Firefox when they access the internet. Your web application has the following attributes that need to be tested:

  • A word processor that people use to input ideas
  • A messaging feature that allows people to send both messages and documents to each other
  • An image editor that lets users adjust pictures and various image files without leaving the application

You could use Selenium to automatically test each of these functions — and more — to see how your app performs in different browsers.

Now let’s say that while testing the app’s image editor, you noticed that it wasn’t able to resize images beyond a certain range. You need that functionality, but you’re not sure exactly how big you want users to be able to make images before the expansion feature no longer works.

Without an automated testing platform like Selenium, you might have to re-write the code, then open the app on several different browsers, manually upload images of different resolutions, try to resize each one by hand, and then repeat the process every time you alter your code. With Selenium, you can simply change your code, hit a button, and see how the app performs on all the browsers you want to test it on.

Selenium tools

Here’s an overview of some of the tools in Selenium’s suite and what you can do with them.

Selenium WebDriver

Selenium WebDriver allows you to make regression automation tests and suites that work within your browser. You can also use it to automate web scraping and distribute and scale scripts in a variety of environments.

Selenium IDE

Selenium IDE enables you to make quick scripts that reproduce bugs and make exploratory testing, when you test your software on the fly instead of creating your tests in advance, easier. You can use Selenium IDE within Edge, Chrome, and Firefox as an add-on while you test how applications behave in those browsers.

Selenium Grid

Selenium Grid allows you to scale your testing environment and system by running multiple tests on several different computers at the same time. You control your testing environments from a central location. In this way, you can run a variety of tests on different kinds of computers using different browsers — all at the same time.

Selenium client API

This is a tool that allows users to perform tests in different programming languages, so users who are comfortable with certain languages can run tests without stepping out of their comfort zone.

The benefits of Selenium

Selenium makes it easier to:

  • Test code changes
  • Find bugs
  • Envision the end-user’s experience with your application
  • Try new iterations of certain elements of your app before committing to them

Selenium can also be a big help if you’re trying to implement an Agile development environment. Since testing can be automated, you can do it as you go along, and make adjustments to different elements of the application. All of this happens in less time, which means it’s also budget friendly.

Learn more about web development

Selenium is a powerful tool that makes it easier to ensure your web apps run properly on different devices. If you want to learn more about how web apps are created and tested, check out our web development courses.

What is a Checksum?

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What is a Checksum?

If you download an app from the internet, how do you know it’s what it claims to be? Say you find a copy of an e-book or game in an online marketplace and you want to download it. How do you know your download is the intended media, and not a corrupted program stuffed with malware?

This is where checksums often come into play. The term “checksum” refers to a sequence of letters and numbers that you can use to safeguard against data errors (also known as a “hash”). Checksums are often used in scenarios where data integrity is crucial because they allow you to verify a file’s hash against the original.

Checksums help you ensure that files you’ve downloaded are legitimate, complete, and uncorrupted. As a developer, you should know when and how to implement checksum algorithms in the applications you build. Ahead, we’ll take a closer look at checksums, their use, and ways to calculate them.

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How checksum programs work

A checksum is a sequence of letters and numbers that you use to check a file’s validity and integrity. Checksum programs work by running a file through an algorithm that uses aspects of the file to produce the checksum value.

The algorithms used to produce checksums include:

Each algorithm has its pros and cons, but the best one to use depends on your specific use case.

How algorithms render checksums

Algorithms use cryptographic hash functions, which are formulas that take an input and output a bunch of letters and numbers. Because the algorithm is relatively complicated, very miniscule differences in two files that are otherwise essentially the same can produce vastly different checksums.

The algorithm analyzes the contents of a file, and each element of the file becomes an input. Because each file contains so many different elements, it’s highly unlikely for two different files to produce the same checksum.

Checksums are standardized, so each file’s checksum contains the same number of digits, and it’s impossible to derive the original file using just the checksum.

For instance, using an online checksum tool, we can upload a file with this blog post, and it’ll produce the following checksum:

4f404820274682dcd6f66290c78b239b

And a document with only the word “the” in it produces this checksum:

fef6e7bcb47ab0764178d7f30e5f5bec

Now, let’s add a period to this article and see how that changes the checksum. The original checksum for this article was this:

4f404820274682dcd6f66290c78b239b

With only a period added, the checksum for “the” becomes this:

5ee798757e220c1a5b9702b37cd4d611

These were produced using the MD5 checksum algorithm. But different algorithms would produce different checksums for the same file.

How checksums are used

Because checksums can pick up even very minor variations in a file, they have many uses. While the average person might not encounter checksums in their day-to-day activities, they come up a lot in instances like:

  • Checking whether an internet connection was interrupted while transmitting an important file.
  • Analyzing data to identify hard drive problems that could have corrupted it.
  • Checking a hard disk, thumb drive, or another external disk to see if it has been corrupted.
  • Analyzing data being delivered to a recipient to see if a third-party had intercepted, corrupted, or manipulated it.
  • Checking for malware installed within a presumably trustworthy file.

Example of how to use a checksum algorithm

Say you have to download a new version of a game from a site claiming to be the original provider. The site also gives you the checksum of the file. You download the file, and it takes several minutes because it’s huge. Your internet connection seems a little slower than usual, so you walk away for a few minutes while the file finishes downloading.

When you come back, it looks like the download was successful. You then open the file and install the new version of your game. Right away, something doesn’t seem right. Even though the game opens, the user interface lags, and some visual elements seem corrupted.

In this case, you could use a checksum algorithm to check whether there’s a problem with the file. The algorithm used to generate the checksum on the provider’s site will most likely be specified, so all you have to do is copy the checksum and find a checksum generator that uses the same algorithm.

You load the original file you downloaded from the provider’s site, find the algorithm the provider used, and enter the file into the checksum generator. At this point, one of two things will happen:

  • The checksums match. This could mean one of the following:
    • The provider has been making a corrupted file available to customers, which is unlikely.
    • The problem is on your end; your computer isn’t executing the file properly.
    • Your computer made a mistake while installing the game.
  • The checksums do not match. This means:
    • You had a poor internet connection, and something got lost during the download.
    • Your connection wasn’t secure, and a hacker interrupted your transmission and altered the contents of the file using a man-in-the-middle attack.
    • You made a mistake when choosing which file to input into the checksum algorithm, perhaps putting in one that you had already altered in some way.

Where are checksums used?

Checksums are useful when ensuring the quality of downloads and analyzing data for evidence of a cyber-attack. If you want to learn more about algorithms and how they’re generated and used, check out our free course Java: Algorithms. You can also gain a solid understanding of algorithms with Learn Data Structures and Algorithms with Python.

What’s Going On in This Graph? | May 1, 2024

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What’s Going On in This Graph? | May 1, 2024

On Wednesday, May 1, teachers from our collaborator, the American Statistical Association, will facilitate this discussion from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Eastern time.

5. By Friday morning, May 3, we will reveal more information about the graph, including a free link to the article that includes this graph, at the bottom of this post. We encourage you to post additional comments based on the article, possibly using statistical terms defined in the Stat Nuggets.

We’ll post more information here on the afternoon of Thursday, May 2. Stay tuned!

More?

• See all graphs in this series or collections of 75 of our favorite graphs, 28 graphs that teach about inequality and 24 graphs about climate change.

• View our archives that link to all past releases, organized by topic, graph type and Stat Nugget.

• Learn more about the notice and wonder teaching strategy from this 5-minute video and how and why other teachers are using this strategy from our on-demand webinar.

• Sign up for our free weekly Learning Network newsletter so you never miss a graph. Graphs are always released by the Friday before the Wednesday live moderation to give teachers time to plan ahead.

• Go to the American Statistical Association K-12 website, which includes teacher statistics resources, Census in the Schools student-generated data, professional development opportunities, and more.

Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.

What is Network Address Translation (NAT)? 

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What is Network Address Translation (NAT)? 

Many of the networks we access daily use network address translation (NAT) to preserve your privacy and help conserve the limited amount of IP addresses available. Understanding how NAT works comes in handy when you’re working in data science, cybersecurity, and systems or network administration. Ahead, we’ll go over how NAT works, the different types of NAT, and why they’re used.

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How does NAT work? 

Before we get into the inner workings of NAT, it’s helpful to review that IP (short for internet protocol) addresses are strings of identifying numbers that are associated with a specific device or computer network. IP addresses are used to identify the host or network interface and provide the location, so that data packets can be routed between devices. 

NAT involves transferring local private addresses to a public one, which then passes them on to a router and ultimately to the sites you visit on the ​internet​. NAT takes the local IP addresses assigned to each device and combines them under one​ IP address​. This creates the public-facing IP address associated with your home or organization. 

Local IP addresses only exist on the local access network (LAN) and don’t allow outside resources to access them. With NAT in place, the router acts as a middleman for all devices used when navigating the internet and returns answers to queries you submit.​     ​ 

Other uses for NAT: Multi-homing and router-based filtering 

NAT can also be used for multi-homing, a process that allows the network to connect to multiple ​internet​ service providers. This reduces the chances of being impacted by an outage or network downtime. Multi-homing can also make load balancing through the router equipment much easier. 

Load balancing ensures that a uniform number of computers are connecting through the same connection. This decreases load times and leads to better overall performance for the end-user. Load balancing can be automated through the router using border gateway protocol, a set of protocols that helps the router understand where to route traffic. 

Businesses can use NAT to operate router-based filtering and tracking of web traffic. This kind of filtering can prevent team members from visiting inappropriate or unproductive websites, and tracking can help detect potential security issues. For example, if someone visited a known phishing website or exposed company information to an outside organization. 

Understanding the different types of NAT 

There are at least four types of NAT, including: 

  • Static​:​ A static NAT uses the same IP address repeatedly, each time you connect to the ​internet​, in a one-to-one connection. 
  • Dynamic​:​ A dynamic NAT changes, cycling through a selection of available IP addresses each time you connect. 
  • Port​:​ A port address translation (PAT) is a specific type of dynamic NAT. In this setup, internal IP addresses are routed to one registered IP address through ports. Thanks to its more complex nature, a PAT may need to be set-up and supervised by a network administrator. 
  • Overlapping​:​ Overlapping NAT is done through a lookup table, which replaces the IP addresses from your internal network that are already registered on another network with unregistered ones. 

Why NAT is important 

By using NAT to manage the IP addresses at your home or business, your private information, user data, and browsing history are protected against hackers and other bad actors who can use this information to target you while you conduct business online.  But the required information about your public router address is shared so you can access the ​internet​.  

In the early days of the ​internet​, it seemed unlikely that IP addresses would ever run out. Most homes didn’t even have one computer, and businesses only had a handful in the office. Over time, as an ​internet​ connection became vital to more devices, the limited nature of the IP addresses available became more of an issue. 

The average home today has multiple devices connected to the ​internet​ at any time, from computers to smart TVs to wearable devices. Rather than assign five or seven different IP addresses to the devices all within the home, NAT takes them all and consolidates them into one. 

The same concept applies on a larger scale within large office environments, where teams’ computers and smart devices used for work get assigned the same IP address. In factories that operate a large-scale manufacturing environment with internet-connected equipment, NAT is vital to help balance the number of connections made and decrease latency. 

The future of NAT 

Though NAT offers a short-term solution to the limited ​number​ of IP addresses, a long-term fix is needed. New 128 bit length IP addresses, available under a protocol known as IP version 6, will increase the number of IP addresses available to ​​340 undecillion IP addresses. While​​ IP address conservation likely won’t be an issue after this point, NAT’s benefits make it a valuable tool many companies will want to continue using even when new IP addresses abound. 

Learn more about cybersecurity 

If you want to increase your knowledge about how to protect sensitive information online, check out our network security basics cheat sheet. You might also consider taking Codecademy’s Introduction to Cybersecurity course. In this course, you’ll learn the fundamentals of using the available tools and technology to keep yourself and others secure on the web.

How Much Do You Know About Tonga?

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How Much Do You Know About Tonga?


How Much Do You Know About Tonga? – The New York Times




https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/04/24/learning/TongaGeographyQuiz.html

How Should Colleges Handle Student Protests?

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How Should Colleges Handle Student Protests?

After years of often loose enforcement of their own rules, some of the country’s most high-profile academic institutions are getting bolder, suspending and in some cases expelling students. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, New York University and Brown University have recently taken swift and decisive action against student protesters, including making arrests.

And on Thursday, Columbia University hit its limit with student protesters who had set up dozens of tents on campus, sending in the New York Police Department to make arrests. The arrests followed congressional testimony on Wednesday, in which the president of Columbia, Nemat Shafik, said the school had delivered an unambiguous message to students that misconduct would not be tolerated.

College officials are driven by criticism from alumni, donors and Republican lawmakers, but in interviews they also described a gnawing sense that civility on campus has broken down.

They say that lately, some student protests have become so disruptive that they not only are interfering with their ability to provide an education, but they also have left many students, particularly Jewish ones, fearing for their safety.

Recalibrating isn’t necessarily easy, as many universities are learning. Efforts by administrators to claw back some of their authority over campus demonstrations are being met with pushback from students, faculty and civil liberties groups who say a university’s role is to foster debate — even if it’s messy, rude and disruptive — not attempt to smother it.

Campus activists said the aggressive enforcement of the student disciplinary process by universities is a new and concerning development. “This is an escalation,” said Rosy Fitzgerald of the Institute for Middle East Understanding, a nonprofit that is tracking how schools are responding to student demonstrators.

Suspensions and expulsions “didn’t used to be a tactic,” she said. “But now we’re seeing that as an immediate response.”

In her congressional testimony, Dr. Shafik revealed that 15 Columbia students have been suspended in recent weeks. She also said the school had for the first time in 50 years made the decision to ask the N.Y.P.D. to assist with protests.

Vanderbilt University issued what are believed to be the first student expulsions over protests related to the Israel-Hamas conflict. More than two dozen demonstrators stormed the university president’s office — injuring a security guard and shattering a window — and occupied it for more than 20 hours. Vanderbilt suspended every student involved in the demonstration. Three were expelled.

Student protests have a history of being disruptive and occasionally violent, from the Vietnam War era to today. Since Donald J. Trump’s election in 2016, many campuses have become especially volatile places, seeing an increase in angry demonstrations over conservative speakers, some of whom have been disinvited out of fear for their safety.

The Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel has sparked another wave of protests, which university administrators and free speech advocates say poses new challenges. In interviews, they described encountering students who were unwilling to engage with administrators when invited to do so, quick to use aggressive and sometimes physical forms of expression, and often wore masks to conceal their identities.

  • Now that you’ve looked at images and read more about these protests, what are your reactions to the student demonstrations and schools’ attempts to clamp down on them?

  • Have there been protests or demonstrations at your school about the Israel-Hamas war or any other issues? If so, how did your administration respond? Do you think it handled the situation well? What, if anything, do you think your school should have done differently?

  • According to the article, some students, faculty and civil liberties groups say that “a university’s role is to foster debate — even if it’s messy, rude and disruptive — not attempt to smother it.” To what extent do you agree with that point of view? Why?

  • When, if ever, do you think a school or university should step in to manage or stop student protests, demonstrations or debates? For example, according to the article, college officials have said that some of the protests have left many students, particularly Jewish ones, fearing for their safety. And the federal government has opened discrimination investigations into half a dozen universities following complaints about antisemitic and anti-Muslim harassment. Where is the line between protecting students’ right to freedom of expression and ensuring their safety and ability to get an education?

  • Do you think suspensions, expulsions and arrests are an appropriate response from schools given the tenor of some of these protests? If you were a decision maker at one of these universities, what would you be weighing to decide how to respond?

  • Colleges, universities and schools have long been sites of protest and activism, over causes including the Vietnam War and, in recent years, gun violence and the Black Lives Matter movement. Why do you think that is? What role do young people have to play in political issues like these?

  • What would you want your teachers, school administrators, parents or other adults to know about what it’s like to be a student during this conflict and navigating the fraught emotions and passionate protests it has brought on?

    • Tech in the Classroom

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    Tech in the Classroom

    A recent Times Opinion piece argues that we should “get tech out of the classroom before it’s too late.”

    How much of the school day are you on screens of one kind or another? How distracted are you by those screens?

    In your opinion, is there too much tech in your school day? Would you prefer more screen-free time while you are learning, or even during lunch or free periods? Why or why not?

    Tell us in the comments, then read the related Opinion piece to learn more.

    Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public and may appear in print.

    Find more Picture Prompts here.

    Word of the Day: hardscrabble

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    Word of the Day: hardscrabble

    The word hardscrabble has appeared in 31 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on Oct. 13 in “How Jesmyn Ward Is Reimagining Southern Literature” by Imani Perry:

    Her next novel, “Salvage the Bones” (2011), returned readers to Bois Sauvage, introducing them to Esch, a pregnant and motherless teenage girl living with her father and three brothers when Hurricane Katrina upends their world. Esch and her family face the storm the way they face everything else in their lives: trying to make do after losing so much of what little they had. Ward brings the traumatic displacement of natural disaster into focus, describing hardscrabble living with a sensitive terseness. Her prose brings readers inside Esch’s perspective, protecting her against the voyeurism that stories of Black teenage mothers usually encourage, and granting her a vulnerable nobility.

    Can you correctly use the word hardscrabble in a sentence?

    Based on the definition and example provided, write a sentence using today’s Word of the Day and share it as a comment on this article. It is most important that your sentence makes sense and demonstrates that you understand the word’s definition, but we also encourage you to be creative and have fun.

    If you want a better idea of how hardscrabble can be used in a sentence, read these usage examples on Vocabulary.com. You can also visit this guide to learn how to use IPA symbols to show how different words are pronounced.

    If you enjoy this daily challenge, try our vocabulary quizzes.

    Students ages 13 and older in the United States and the United Kingdom, and 16 and older elsewhere, can comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff.

    The Word of the Day is provided by Vocabulary.com. Learn more and see usage examples across a range of subjects in the Vocabulary.com Dictionary. See every Word of the Day in this column.

    How I Went from Graphic Designer to Front-End Engineer in 10 Months

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    How I Went from Graphic Designer to Front-End Engineer in 10 Months

    Learning to code so that you can land a job in tech can feel daunting. That’s why we’re sharing inspiring stories from Codecademy’s community — to show how people like you (yes, you!) can embark on a learning journey and end up with a totally new career. We hope these stories serve as a reminder that there’s no single path to a more fulfilling work life. 

    Today’s story is from Franklin Méndez, a 28-year-old Front-End Engineer at the customer engagement platform Reply Pro, living in Honduras. Read more stories from Codecademy learners here — and be sure to share your story here. 

    Why I chose to learn to code 

    “My first full-time job was at a startup that trained AI datasets for speech recognition. I had many different tasks, including design, and I also worked on the operations team. Eventually, I became the Head of Operations at that company. I learned MySQL [an open-source relational database manager] and Google Analytics, because it was part of the operations, ensuring the follow-up on the features that we designed and built.  

    I ended up learning a bunch of stuff related to web development, like HTML and CSS. I couldn’t build from scratch, but I could modify the color of the buttons on landing pages. It was pretty basic, and I feared JavaScript at that point. I grew a lot working at that startup, but I felt like I was getting stuck in a loop. I liked designing, but I want to build and deliver projects, too. 

    Learn something new for free

    I discovered Codecademy searching on the web. I saw the free JavaScript course and I took it. I felt weird not having a teacher or someone teaching in front of a webcam, but I ended up being used to it. I also loved how you can interact with the web and incur instant feedback on what I’m doing wrong and how it should be done. So that’s how I decided to go with the Front-End Engineer career path.”  

    How I made time to learn 

    “I think I learned 40 hours per week, like a full-time job. I started at 8 a.m. and would go until I finish it. I set up weekly milestones, so I would decide, I need to finish this lesson or chapter this week. It wasn’t enough to only finish it, but I had to understand it. Sometimes the milestones got pushed a week.”  

    How I saved up money to switch careers 

    “I left my job in February 2022 and started Codecademy in March 2022. I had some savings at that point. Since that startup had some clients in the United States, I made some connections and also worked as a freelancer while learning to code. So, I was full-time during the week, learning to code. On the weekends, I fulfilled graphic design requests from some clients.” 

    How long it took me to land a job 

    “By November, I started applying to UI/UX jobs, just to just to ensure I had a job in case I didn’t get a front-end position. I had design experience from my previous roles, but some companies were like: ‘You weren’t a full-time UI/UX Designer.’ I started this new job in January 2023.”  

    How I got in the door 

    “A previous coworker moved to another company, and I had a close relationship with them, even when I left the company. He told me they had an open position for UI/UX Designer, but also, they needed some help with coding. So, I said, ‘This is great. I can continue working on what I know, but also start professionally.’  

    I applied to that position. They sent me the take-home exercise for the UI/UX Designer role. I built it in React the same afternoon and I sent them a demo of the design I made. I made it the application so they can test it — it was a small application, just two pages dynamically working — but they liked that I coded it.  

    The same day that I was finishing my last Codecademy project [for the career path], I got rejected from that position. But the email came with another offer to join as a Front-End Engineer. I said, ‘Okay! Let’s take that test.’”  

    Want to learn the skills you need to break into UI/UX design?   

    Read this blog with tips from UX Designers about the design tools and soft skills you need for the role. 

    How I nailed the interview 

    “I had to do a full-stack test to see my back-end and front-end coding skills. At that time, I managed Amazon Web Services and other stuff on the startup, but I was still struggling a little bit with JavaScript at that point. I was scared of that test; I wasn’t sure if I would get it. 

    I ended up getting the role as a Front-End Engineer. It was a perfect match, because we use React, Redux, and all the tools that I learned on Codecademy. The only language that I didn’t know was TypeScript, but in the 10 days before I joined the company, I took the Codecademy course and learned it. 

    For me, I have two examples of times when I gave a little extra to make a good impression in a job interview. When I got my job at the previous startup, I made small, three-minute videos summarizing 30-minute livestream demos that they had. Nobody requested it, I just did it. If you give that extra, your profile will stand out. Show all the skills that that you have from other jobs. Even having good time management can be a deciding item or your profile.” 

    How I evaluated the offer 

    “I only applied for working from home jobs. I started my first job remote, and I said, ‘I’m not touching any office.’ My first job was remote, so I have never gone to an office to work in my life. I’ve been three years now remote.”  

    Are you committed to the WFH lifestyle?

    Check out these high-paying and remote-friendly tech jobs. 

    How day one and beyond went 

    “I started with two other Junior Front-End Engineers on the same date, and they didn’t know Redux! They learned to code on other boot camps and platforms where they didn’t get Redux. So, I got that advantage; I could explain to them and grow as a team. It was nice.”  

    What I wish I knew before I started learning 

    “It’s not as hard as you think — it’s not impossible. Knowing how to manage that fear in the beginning can be crucial. Mark milestones, because if you don’t keep consistent, you won’t get it. If you don’t keep practicing, you’ll forget what you learned. I would take a week off and come back like, ‘Oh, what is this?’  

    Also, you can make good connections with the Discord community. When I was learning Redux, I was working on the Codecademy portfolio project where you have to make a Reddit clone. It’s a collaborative project, so I met some cool people that had a better understanding of full-stack development. We were a good match, because I made the design prototype, and they were handling the most difficult parts and explaining how to manage with Redux.”  

    Not sure where to start? Check out our personality quiz! We’ll help you find the best programming language to learn based on your strengths and interests. 

    Want to share your Codecademy learner story? Drop us a line here. And don’t forget to join the discussions in our community. 

    How to answer interview questions with the STAR method

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    How to answer interview questions with the STAR method

    Last week in our job interview series, we talked about behavioral interview questions, which ask about your past experiences in the workplace. This week, we’re discussing situational interview questions, which are questions about hypothetical future situations.

    These types of questions help an interviewer better understand what you might do or how you might react under specific circumstances or to certain events. Rather than “tell me about a time when…”, these questions are structured as “what would you do if…”

    Some examples of situational interview questions are:

    • You’re assigned an important project but have to work on it with a difficult team member. What do you do?
    • How would you deal with an upset or angry customer?
    • You’ve been assigned a task that you haven’t done before. How would you approach your task?

    These questions present an opportunity for you to speak about both your technical and workplace skills side-by-side in your answer.

    How might you do that? Luckily, there’s a pretty straightforward formula you can use to craft your response: the STAR method.

    How to use the STAR method

    You can use the STAR method to respond to behavioral or situational interview questions, but it can work particularly well for situational interview questions because it offers a comprehensive structure that may be lacking when you’re dealing with hypotheticals.

    STAR stands for:

    • Situation: The scenario
    • Task: Your role in the scenario
    • Action: How you’d respond
    • Result: The impact that response would make

    Say you’re in an interview and someone asks you, “What would you do if you realized you’d made a mistake that will impact a project’s deadline?” First, take a breath. Next, begin working through the STAR method.

    If I were working on a project and realized that I’d made a crucial mistake that would impact the deadline [situation], I’d need to work toward fixing my mistake and figure out what can be done to either still meet or adjust my deadline [task]. My first step would be to tell my manager, as well as any other teammates or stakeholders who may be impacted by my mistake [action]. Then, I’d assess the damage of my mistake. If it can be easily and quickly fixed, I’d make the necessary adjustments to avoid further damage. If it requires more work to fix, I’d develop a plan of action to fix the mistake [more action]. Next, I’d revisit our project timeline to figure out a way to still meet our overall project deadline and compile my proposed adjustments [more action]. Finally, I’d reconnect with my manager, teammates, and stakeholders with an update on my solution and timeline [more action]. This way, I can take responsibility for my mistake, make the necessary corrections, incorporate those corrections into our project timeframe, and control any further damage my mistake may have caused to my teammates’ workflow [result].

    Keep practicing

    Although you can’t be certain which questions an interviewer will ask you, practicing how you’ll respond to common interview questions can help you think deeply about your skills and how you’d like to present them.

    For an interview crash course, try Big Interview’s The Art of the Job Interview. In about 19 hours, you’ll explore interview fundamentals and practice forming answers to common questions.

    For career-specific practice, check out IBM’s Career Guide and Interview Preparation courses for Tech Support, Software Developer, Data Analyst, Data Scientist, and Data Engineering. Each of these courses takes about 10 hours to complete and will offer role-specific tips.

    If you have any more questions about interview preparation, ask us in the comments. Next week, we’ll close out this interview series with an issue on questions to ask at the end of an interview. See you then!

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