Above is an image related to one of the news stories we followed over the past week. Do you know what it shows? You’ll find the answer at the bottom of this quiz.
But first, here are 10 questions about current events. How many can you answer correctly?
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 Pradeep Sukhwani, a 30-year-old Software Engineer II at Airbase, living in Ahmedabad, India. Read more stories from Codecademy learners here — and be sure to share your story here.
“I had an issue with my business back in 2014. It actually went down, and I had nothing in my career. I followed my interest at the time; I wanted to be a game developer because I play games a lot. In my childhood days, I started my gaming journey playing Sega games, and then I jumped on PlayStation — I still have a console with me. That’s why I started this journey through Codecademy.
Codecademy was the first step for me to build a career and to get familiar with the computer science world. I had no knowledge about what computer science was or how I could build a career without a degree. But I just followed my passion.
I took courses from Codecademy, such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and I slowly moved to Python Django. For Codecademy, the first thing was taking the course and doing it in real time. Whenever I needed any language, I could do it on Codecademy. Taking the courses, it’s like a user-friendly thing. It’s not a steep learning curve; it’s more like slowly increasing, and you can use the forums if you have any doubts.”
“At the time, I was financially dependent on my family members, so I didn’t have the luxury to buy a nice laptop or anything. Codecademy provided me with a platform where I could do code practice. I used the Basic plan, so everything was free. I had a job as a Technical Service Associate, which was a customer service role. It was just to ensure that I could keep up with my living expenses and, again, learn new things. I wanted to make sure that maybe I could get a chance to jump to a different career if this current one didn’t work out.”
“It took me a year to land a job. I started my journey back in 2015, and by the next year, I had this internship, and then 2017 was the year I started my professional career. I began my first full-time job as a Software Engineer, and I worked on Python Django as a primary tech stack. Slowly, I moved towards React because I had a good understanding of how JavaScript worked and what jQuery was.
Gradually, I built my career in the computer science world, and today I am working as a Software Engineer II at Airbase, which is an SES company based out of San Francisco.”
“It involved a lot of preparation and, of course, patience. Whenever I learned anything, it was entirely new for me — things like pointers, lists, and arrays. To maintain patience, I would go back to Google repeatedly, asking questions and trying to understand concepts, like, ‘What is this?’ and ‘What is that?’ I utilized Codecademy’s forums, where people helped me out. Forums was actually like my stepping [stone], where many questions were solved. That’s basically how I cleared my interview rounds.”
“I faced a lot of issues during the coding round because, I can see that I am a software engineer, but in the end, I still didn’t know how to solve the problem. I used to spend hours on Codecademy and other forums just to solve it.
It’s important to have a clear gist of how you can approach the problem in a different way. You have to think about why you are doing it and what is the reason behind it. A problem can be solved in multiple ways. That actually helped me a lot and changed my entire mindset when approaching problems.”
“It’s important to have a clear gist of how you can approach the problem in a different way. You have to think about why you are doing it and what is the reason behind it.”
Pradeep Sukhwani
Software Engineer II at Airbase
“My first day as a software engineer was in a challenging environment because it was something I had never experienced before. There were so many people around me, many of whom were way more senior and from a computer science background. No one was like me, coming from a non-tech background and asking questions about things that others might assume you should already know.
Basically, it’s okay to ask ‘stupid’ questions; having questions means you are growing. It shows a willingness to learn new things, so it’s okay to ask any questions.
I was still at a stage where I was learning new things, but it was more about the mindset I faced. Even now, it’s still a quite challenging environment because you have to keep up with the knowledge and the new things coming in. You have to question why you’re doing things in a certain way, because engineers ask questions like, ‘Why are you doing it this way? Why not that way? Do you have any specific reasons?’ You have to make sure that you ask these questions to yourself. Is there any better way to do it or not?”
“The first thing is to have an open mindset, as if you don’t know anything. It really helps to grasp things as fast as possible. Once you have a mindset of already knowing, it can slow you down. For instance, thinking, ‘I know this because I’ve done a similar thing in some other code, website, or place.’
The second thing is to learn how Google works. Google primarily operates on keywords, so you don’t really need to type the entire sentence with a question mark or perfect grammar.”
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 did you get your last name? Was it passed down to you from your father’s side of the family? That is how last names are usually given to babies in the United States, but some families are taking different approaches. They may draw from the mother’s side instead, use both parents’ last names (sometimes placing a hyphen between them), choose a name that has family history or other significance — or come up with something wholly original.
What does your last name mean to you? If you have children someday, how will you decide on their last names?
When Judy Pellarin had her daughters three decades ago, she and her husband gave them her last name instead of his. A generation later, her daughters also broke tradition — one gave her daughter her surname, and the other created a new name, a blending of her and her husband’s middle names.
Though some families have deviated from the patrilineal tradition for decades, they remain part of a small minority. Even as many gender norms have changed over the generation since Ms. Pellarin named her children, the tradition of giving babies their fathers’ surnames remains so strong as to be almost unquestioned.
Yet in other ways, the American family looks very different. Fifty years ago, most adults under 50 were married and raising children as a couple; that is no longer the norm for U.S. adults. Parents are increasingly likely to be never married or divorced, or same-sex or interethnic couples.
These changes complicate the patrilineal tradition, say parents who have taken a different approach. Many hyphenate their last names. Some make less common choices, like giving children the mother’s surname or coming up with new names altogether. For some, it is a rejection of patriarchal norms. Others say it’s about maintaining ties to their heritage or ethnicity, or because fathers weren’t involved in raising the children.
There is no nationwide data on how many parents give children a surname other than the father’s. But data on the names couples take at marriage suggests it’s uncommon. Of men in opposite-sex marriages, a Pew survey found this year, 5 percent took their wife’s last name, and less than 1 percent hyphenated their names.
Four in five women take their husband’s last name at marriage. Those who keep their names are likelier to be liberal, highly educated or Hispanic — and this minority is more likely to make unconventional choices with their children’s names, research shows.
The patrilineal tradition arose, said Charlotte J. Patterson, a psychology professor at the University of Virginia, as an acknowledgment that “fathers were the head of the household, and when they named their child this way, it was expressing that it was a legitimate birth and the child could inherit from them.”
Even as those reasons have become less relevant, she said, “because we have this longstanding custom, I think many people do this without really considering any alternatives.”
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.
Have you heard about people camping out for and fighting over a special Valentine’s Day cup at Target stores? Yes, a cup!
The Times writes:
The next time you go to Target, you might need to wear a helmet. The store sells them, come to think of it.
The reason is that last week, Stanley, the company known for trendy tumblers, released special-edition cups — a collaboration with Starbucks — for Valentine’s Day. It caused tumult at multiple Target stores across the country. There has been a steady stream of social-media videos showing customers nearly coming to blows or otherwise overrunning the store to obtain their own 40-ounce pink or red water tumbler. Some are even camping — camping! — outside Target to make sure they can get their hands on one.
What’s your reaction to the story?
What would you be willing to camp out for a chance to get your hands on it? Could you imagine arguing — or even coming to blows over it?
How far have you gone to buy something in the past? Was it worth it?
Tell us in the comments, then read the related article 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.
The word portentous has appeared in 25 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on Nov. 3 in “Is Fluminense the Team of the Future?” by Rory Smith:
… Fluminense had just fired its coach. Diniz had both played for and managed the team already, and he had fond memories of his time working with Bittencourt, a 45-year-old lawyer. In his heart, he said, he felt that “the time was right to return.”
His message — one full of “shyness, reflection and a very pure feeling,” as Diniz put it, which is the vibe of most of my WhatsApps, too — found a receptive audience. “He was the one I wanted, but we hadn’t spoken yet,” Bittencourt told the Brazilian news outlet Globo. He put the coincidence down to an “exchange of energy,” one that was too portentous to ignore. Diniz got the job.
Can you correctly use the word portentous 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 portentous 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.
Sometimes an inspirational quote really hits. We’re not talking about the corny trite ones (“Live, Laugh, Love” or “But first, coffee”), but the poignant and beautiful sayings that articulate our complex thoughts and emotions.
It’s often difficult to translate the zeros and ones of coding into words. But there are lots of quotes from notable technologists throughout history that reflect the developer’s experience and will renew your appreciation for your craft.
If you’re getting started learning to code or just need some New Year’s momentum, we’ve got some quotes for you that’ll feel like a pep talk. We gathered the most relatable and inspirational quotes about coding and technology from books, posts on X (formerly known as Twitter), interviews, and more. Some of these are about the frustration and payoff of learning a new skill, while others are about the essence of programming and problem solving. Read on, share your favorites on social media, hang them by your desk, or simply file them away for a rainy day.
You can find coding motivation in lots of places. Check out this list of books written by women technologists, or read about the non-coding hobbies that inform developers’ work. Connecting with our community and meeting other people who are on a similar path is another great way to get a boost and feel reinvigorated to reach your coding goals.
Cramming for technical interviews is a rite of passage for every new developer. Everyone wants to be prepared for whatever the hiring manager can throw at you. But in this post, we’re preparing for the worst: what do you do when you’re stumped by a question?
To help you prepare for being unprepared, we spoke to Chris Pine, Engineering Manager at Buf and author of Learn to Program. Chris has managed engineering teams for nine years and conducted upwards of 50 technical interviews. In other words, Chris has seen it all.
From a hiring manager’s perspective, it’s not a major red flag if you don’t know the answer to a specific question, Chris says. Technical interviews are rarely about checking if you know all there is to know about React or Kubernetes, especially if you’re interviewing for a junior position. As a junior engineer, “you’re at a point in your career where you’re rapidly learning,” Chris says. “I just expect that [learning is] going to be part of the onboarding process after we’ve decided this is a good fit.”
That “good fit” is key: Interviewers will be assessing your answers to learn how you respond to challenges and whether you’ll work well in the environment and with the other team members — not just whether you know how to implement a tree in Python.
You can showcase your inquisitiveness and curiosity about the role by asking tactical questions during the interview, Chris says. “I would love it if early-career engineers approached interviews more like they’re interviewing me and the team and the company to see if this is a good fit for them,” Chris says. “This isn’t about if you’re good enough — the goal is to find a good match.” (Got an interview coming up? Check out this list of thoughtful questions you can ask the interviewer.)
According to Chris, you will look more senior and mature as an engineer if you approach the interview as an opportunity to gauge if the company is right for you versus focusing on impressing the interviewer. It can be hard to remember this if you’re a new developer or find yourself on the job market unexpectedly, because every interview feels high stakes. Treat the interview more like a conversation — it’ll take some of the pressure off and to help you learn more about the company and the role.
Here are some ways you can respond and keep the interview conversation moving if you’re caught off guard by a technical question.
Don’t be afraid to pause to reflect on your answer. You might have more to say than you realized. “I have no problem with the person on the other side taking their time to reply,” says Chris. “I can spend 30 seconds just sitting there quietly while they’re thinking. Some people think out loud — that’s fine too.” (In fact, being able to explain your approach to a problem is an important skill.)
It’s far better to gather your thoughts into a coherent answer than try to speak off the cuff if you don’t have an answer ready to go.
If you still don’t have a response that feels right for the question, don’t try to fool your interviewer. “It’s a huge red flag if someone doesn’t know the answer but acts like they do, or tries to make something up on the spot,” says Chris. “I’m not looking to hire people who are good at interviewing because that’s not the job. I’m looking for people who are good at the job.”
It can be scary to admit you don’t know something, but being vulnerable (as long as it’s authentic) can help you build rapport with the interviewer. “I don’t expect you to know everything,” says Chris. “I trust someone much more who is quick to say, ‘Look, I don’t know but I will figure it out’ or ‘Here’s what I would do to figure it out.’” Senior developers tend to be much more comfortable admitting when they aren’t familiar with something, and that shows confidence. It’s more important that you can speak to how you approach problem solving.
A lot of being a developer is just figuring things out as you go. The running jokes about Stack Overflow and GPT exist because it’s true — when faced with an unknown, all developers use other people’s input and code. Treat the technical question as if you already have the job and have been given an unfamiliar task.
Where would you start? Who would you go to for help? Is there documentation you can consult, or do you have a mentor you can approach? Sharing how you’d approach this problem if you were on the team shows that you have a growth mindset and problem-solving attitude.
If you’re drawing a blank when asked to give an example of something you’ve never done, don’t panic. This is actually a great opportunity to show how you think about the bigger picture.
“If I say, ‘Give me an example of a user interface that you’ve designed’ and you haven’t done one, you could say, ‘I haven’t actually done that, but are you looking for a situation where I spent a lot of time thinking about the customer experience? Because I can talk about that,’” Chris says.
You’re asking the interviewer to explain what they’re really looking for behind the question. Chances are that you have another transferrable example from your experience that will serve just as well, and it doesn’t even have to be a technical one. Some of the developers that Chris has seen grow the fastest didn’t come from an engineering background: “I once hired someone who had a PhD in biology before going into programming and she was one of the finest engineers I have ever worked with,” Chris says. “She always considered the big picture from day one and she just skyrocketed.”
If you can show that you’re able to zoom out and consider the reason behind the question, that’s a great sign you’ll be able to do so when you receive requests from other teams and stakeholders.
Lastly, it’s natural to want to share anecdotes where everything went right and you come out looking good. But success stories don’t always tell the interviewer that much about how you respond to challenges and adversity. Some of your biggest mistakes make the best interview material because they demonstrate your character. Do you take accountability for your mistakes? Do you learn from them? It’s much harder to show these qualities when you’re recounting a big win, so don’t be afraid to own your mistakes.
Visit our Career Center for more resources to help you prepare, like interview questions and code challenges. The better prepared you are, the more relaxed you’ll feel.
So far in this series, we’ve explored ways you can encourage career growth through clear professional development goals, a structured career development plan, guidance from your mentors, and with help from your network. To close this series, we’re going to explore the role work-life balance can play in your growth.
Although it’s tempting to believe that the best way to get work done is to simply do your work, taking breaks and nourishing the non-work areas of your life can enable greater success during your work hours.
Studies have shown that working long hours can lead to burnout and health conditions like poor sleep, impaired memory, and even heart disease. Meanwhile, workers who find a healthful balance between work and the rest of their lives tend to experience lower levels of stress, higher productivity, and generally more happiness at work.
So, by working too much, you risk hindering your ability and potential to grow. Maintaining a healthy work-life balance is key to achieving your professional goals.
Keep in mind, however, that work-life balance means different things to different people. Your priorities and values are yours alone, so only you can determine what balance looks and feels like in your life. And, perhaps more importantly, your balancing act may vary day by day. Some late nights—either at work or in your broader life—are inevitable, and that’s okay. Just remember to reclaim your balance when you’re able to find your footing again.
Some jobs are more conducive to creating work-life balance than others. Learn more about jobs for better work-life balance and how you can start pursuing them today.
As you create greater work-life harmony, you’ll likely be more energized in all areas of your life. Sometimes, something as simple as enjoying time with friends is exactly what you need to come up with that promotion-worthy idea.
To practice feeling more present, try Rice University’s Mindfulness and Well-being Specialization. Mindfulness is one popular technique that people use to help them find grounding and focus on the current moment. If you are unsure about mindfulness, it may help to start with Leiden University’s (free) De-Mystifying Mindfulness course, which explores what mindfulness is and why it works.
To explore your guiding values, consider University of Michigan’s Finding Purpose and Meaning In Life: Living for What Matters Most. Once you understand your values, you can use them to guide what balance looks like in your life.
To invite balance by exploring new hobbies, check out new courses on Coursera, like one on edible insects, beer quality, or ChatGPT prompt engineering.
Lastly, if you enjoyed this series and want to help others achieve their potential, take a look at Goodwill’s Career Coach and Navigator Professional Certificate. Here, you’ll learn about the techniques and tools professional career coaches use to guide others toward professional success.
With that, our career growth and development series comes to an end. But don’t worry—we’ll be back next week with a special issue. Stay tuned to find out what it is. Until then, share what work-life balance means to you in the comments. We’d love to learn from you too!
Have you ever loved a TV show or movie so much that you wanted to walk through — or even exist within — its fictional world?
Well, there are more chances, as streamers and networks create live experiences to promote series like “Stranger Things” and “Only Murders in the Building.”
But do these immersive experiences amount to anything more than just marketing? Can they ever truly capture what it’s like to really live inside a show’s universe? What do you think?
On a sun-nuzzled morning in Los Angeles, 25 people filed into a narrow, windowless room. They were about to participate in “Squid Game: The Trials,” an interactive experience based on the popular, dystopian Netflix franchise.
A South Korean series about an indebted man who enters a deadly tournament, “Squid Game” was a surprise hit for Netflix two years ago. In November, Netflix released a companion reality series in which 456 players competed, less lethally, for a $4.56 million prize. Now anyone with $39 — or $99 for a V.I.P. pass that includes parking and coat check — can play along in real-time. A ticket is an entree to a 70-minute roundelay of dire versions of children’s playground games, with Korean snacks, claw games and shopping to follow.
The original “Squid Game, ” a savage anticapitalist satire, delights in blood sport. The reality version, though gentler, takes a dim view of human nature. But in the rooms of the interactive experience, housed on the former soundstage of “The Price Is Right,” the mood was cheerful, even giddy. “Squid Game” fans — dads and sons, friend groups, couples, a grandmother celebrating her birthday — thrilled to each callback and Easter egg. Many of them had come in tracksuit costume. Once the trials were complete (the grandmother had won, via light cheating), they happily browsed the snack stalls.
“Squid Game: The Trials” is the latest in a trend of immersive experiences designed to lever an imaginary world into our real one. Referred to as brand activations or brand experiences, these events transform television shows (and films and sometimes consumer products) into multidimensional happenings.
“It’s moving and it’s organized and it’s becoming a lot more expected,” Fri Forjindam, whose company Mycotoo specializes in immersive design, said of the trend.
This past year, in New York City alone, fans could snuggle on the couch during a “Friends” experience, wander through an opulent theater during an “Only Murders in the Building” experience, solve a murder at “Welcome to the Continental: The Hotel Bar Experience,” dance the night away at a ball out of “Bridgerton” or sip cocktails while ogling Carrie Bradshaw’s shoe closet. Really, the options are legion. (In 2017, the FX series “Legion” rated an experience, too.)
“We are bringing a theme park to people,” Marian Lee, Netflix’s chief marketing officer, said. “We are going to where the fans are.”
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.
The word nondenominational has appeared in 24 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on June 21 in “At U.N., Narendra Modi Celebrates Yoga, and Joins In on a Pose” by Sarah Maslin Nir:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India, on a three-day visit to the United States, kicked off a group yoga session for international diplomats on the lawn of the United Nations in Manhattan on Wednesday morning, stressing the nondenominational aspect of the practice that has roots in Hindu spirituality.
… On Wednesday, before the yoga session, Mr. Modi bowed to a statue of Mahatma Gandhi, according to reports, a leader whose credos of religious tolerance and secularism were foundational to the country Mr. Modi now runs.
Can you correctly use the word nondenominational 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 nondenominational 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.
