The self-efficacy intervention was designed to be comprehensive, targeting all the different ways in which self-efficacy is thought to be influenced:
1) Previous experiences: If you think about times that you have been successful in the past, you are more likely to believe you can be successful in the future. For the intervention, students were provided lots of opportunities to be successful, with tasks that were a little challenging, but that were at the skill level of the students and students were given lots of encouraging feedback to show them their individual progress.
2) Messages from others: If other people tell you that you can succeed, you are more likely to believe that you can! For the intervention, teachers were asked to praise student efforts and improvements and to have individual conversations with each student to talk about their strategies and how much progress they were making.
3) Vicarious experiences: If we see other people like us who succeed in a task, we feel like we can do it too. For the intervention, students were encouraged to notice when their peers were successful and to share that with the group. Group progress was also highlighted in addition to individual progress.
4) Emotional/physiological state: If you are cranky or tired, you are less likely to feel confident in your ability to succeed. Arguably, this is the most difficult for a lot of educators to manipulate directly. For the intervention, though, they taught children about how emotions can influence behavior and learning through stories and discussions.
The Results
The researchers measured students’ math self-efficacy before, immediately after, and 5 months after the intervention. Students who received skill training only showed a small increase in self-efficacy, but those in the self-efficacy group showed a big change. When looking at just those who started with low self-efficacy before the intervention, there was a substantial increase in their self-efficacy by the end, with a large effect size.
Then they looked at just what part of the intervention had the biggest impact on those gains. Students reported that previous and vicarious experiences were the biggest factors that led to their increased confidence. That is, seeing their own success and celebrating their friends’ successes gave the biggest boost to their confidence.
But what about performance?
The researchers didn’t report the change in math skills for students in the skills group. Instead, they looked at how math skills changed for students within the self-efficacy condition. The intervention worked better for some students than others. For students who ended the intervention with high self-efficacy, their math skills went up considerably. Students who ended the intervention with about the same low self-efficacy as when they started did not show those same improvements.
API testing is an essential part of software development that involves testing an API’s functionality, reliability, performance, and security. And since so many web applications that are in use today depend on at least one API, API testers are in high demand.
If you have an API testing interview coming up, one of the best ways you can prepare is to review questions that you might be asked during your interview. You can practice answering these questions on your own or consider doing a mock interview with a friend. If you can set up a mock interview, try to recreate a similar environment to the one you’ll be in during your real interview. For example, if you’ll be interviewing over Zoom, do the mock interview over Zoom so that your practice is as close to the real thing as possible.
To help you prepare for API testing interview questions, here are some of the most common questions you’re likely to face and tips on how to answer them.
1. What does API mean?
During your technical interview, the interviewer may start things off with questions that seem easy. An ice-breaker question can be an opportunity for you to shake off some nerves while also answering the question with details that may catch the interviewer’s attention. This might be a recent milestone you hit or a fun project you’re working on.
For this question, you should answer by first defining the acronym API, which is Application Programming Interface, and then you can outline what this means. Specifically, you should mention that an API is a set of functions and procedures that allows a program to access features or data from another piece of software or service. As a result, it enables multiple applications to interact with each other.
2. What is API testing?
This is another ice-breaker question, and it gives you a chance to show that you know some of the “why” behind API testing. You should discuss how an API test checks to see if the function being called is behaving as expected. During an API test, a function is tested against a wide range of inputs to see if it returns the expected value from each test. Edge cases and corner cases are included in the test to ensure that the function can handle extreme cases. API testing is generally done at the end of development to check and see if the software is performing as expected.
3. What are some of the most common protocols used during API testing?
This is a straightforward question, and getting it right shows you understand the API testing environment on a higher level. In your answer, you should mention REST, SOAP, HTTP, UDDI, and JMS.
4. What are the most common kinds of API testing?
While there are many different ways of using API testing, the typical methods are:
Function testing, a test used to test the API’s functionality against functional requirements.
Load testing, a test to emulate expected load, such as traffic, in a steady stream that can determine issues that may arise from running an API for a prolonged period of time.
Unit testing, which verifies whether individual parts of the source code behave and work as expected.
User interface testing, which tests the aspects of an API that a user will interact with.
Security testing, a series of tests that test the security of the API. Entry points, flow of data, and shadow APIs are all areas that should be tested during security testing.
Penetration testing (or pen test or ethical hacking), a type of security testing that simulates a cyber attack against your API to uncover vulnerabilities.
Fuzz testing, a test that sends random data to all the endpoints of the APIs. During fuzz testing, servers shouldn’t crash or display any odd behavior.
Runtime and error detection is used during all of these tests and enables APIs to report any issues that occur while it’s on.
When answering this question, you could focus on the tests that are used by the company to show your specific knowledge in that area.
5. Describe a typical API testing environment
This is your chance to show you know the difference between API and other kinds of software testing. When testing an API, you first have to configure the database and server to ensure the API can be installed. After installing it, you can then start verifying its correct function. As the test continues, you evaluate the environment using API calls and analyze the results to see if it’s working as it should.
Here’s an example of a testing environment that you can give when answering this question: You can use Postman to test APIs. Postman allows you to make HTTP requests to an API and view the responses you get formatted in JSON.
6. Which architectural styles are used to create web APIs?
You may be asked this question because the type of architectural style used to create an API can inform the API testing protocol. The more common architectural styles are:
REST API Style
GraphQL API Style
RPC API Style
SOAP API Style
gRPC API Style
Falcor API Style
7. What does SOAP mean?
This is almost guaranteed to come up during your interview. SOAP is an acronym for Simple Object Access Protocol. This is a messaging protocol based on XML, and it makes it easier for computers to communicate with each other.
8. What is a REST API?
This is another question that’s likely to be asked. In fact, it’s hard to imagine an API testing interview without it.
A REST API (also known as RESTful API) is an API that meets the constraints of REST architectural style, which is a set of architectural constraints for providing standards between computer systems on the web. These constraints make it easier for systems to communicate with each other. REST is an acronym for REpresentational State Transfer.
9. What are some differences between REST and SOAP?
Because SOAP and REST can accomplish the same objectives, there’s a high probability that this question will pop up. Here’s a basic breakdown of the differences between REST and SOAP:
SOAP is a protocol computers use to share XML documents, while REST is a design and service architecture used to set up software environments on a network.
SOAP strictly supports XML, while REST supports several data formats.
SOAP doesn’t support caching, while REST does.
SOAP is slower.
SOAP is like a normal computer app, while a REST client is more like a browser that allows apps to run inside it.
SOAP envelops a message while running on HTTP, while REST makes use of HTTP headers to hold its metadata.
10. What are some of the most common API tests performed?
This question has several good answers, and your answer will likely depend on the tests you have the most experience with.
For example, you can discuss how an API is tested to see how it handles an HTTP (GET, POST, or other) request. With this test, you’re evaluating if the variables sent with the HTTP request were processed properly. This test also looks to see if there is a request error (40X error), and if so, what is it and why is it happening? Then, if the request is successful, did the API respond with the expected values properly formatted? An API test will also see if it’s communicating with the proper endpoint.
11. What are some of the benefits of API testing?
This is another chance to dig into the “why” of API testing. In your answer, you can highlight how API testing can save time because it may require less code than graphical user interface (GUI) testing. You can test APIs without a user interface, meaning you don’t have to wait for an application to be available. Another benefit is that API testing isn’t limited to a specific coding language. And API testing is a good way to reduce risk cost-effectively, especially if you’re searching for minor bugs.
Practice makes perfect
If you need a refresher or you’re looking for more exposure to APIs, we offer several skill paths and courses that focus on APIs and the architectures that use them.
You can brush up on your foundational knowledge of the API development lifecycle in our API Development with Swagger and OpenAPI course, or you can learn how to build a web API with the Spring framework in the Create REST APIs with Spring and Java skill path. You could also take your skills to the next level with our Learn Testing for Web Development course, where you’ll dive into how to test applications at the model and server levels, including tests for dynamic HTML content and other API responses.
What can you give the developer who not only has everything, but can code everything too? You can’t go wrong with a good old-fashioned book. Most developers will be grateful for the chance to step away from the keyboard, pick up a book, and learn something new this holiday season.
With that in mind, we asked Codecademy engineers to recommend their favorite tech-related books that also make great gifts. Whether you’re shopping for a teammate, relative, or partner who codes, here are the novels, memoirs, and non-fiction books to gift developers.
Writer and veteran software engineer Ellen Ullman is known for her popular memoir called Close to the Machine. In Life in Code, Ullman shares more stories about what it was like being a programmer in the ‘70s, and grapples with big questions about the culture of tech and its future.
For the data scientist who treats charts like works of art…
Not only are there 250 illustrations of elegantly-designed statistical graphs for you to pore over in this book, but you’ll also find valuable tips about how to get better at presenting and talking about data.
Tony Fadell is considered the “father of the iPod,” because he led the team at Apple that developed the iPod in the early aughts, and then later co-created the iPhone. (He also co-founded the smart home device company Nest.) This self-help business book is packed with Fadell’s insights and advice gleaned from his career in Silicon Valley.
For the programmer who just landed their first tech job…
The crux of this book is all about how to make sense of complex software systems and solve problems effectively. Beginners who are just starting their careers in software development will find the principles of writing readable, simple code invaluable when it comes time for code reviews.
For your friend who just got a Codecademy Pro account…
A couple folks on Codecademy’s engineering team recommend this pragmatic guide to programming. It’s a great read for anyone who touches software development, from beginners who are just dabbling in coding to experienced programmers who appreciate thoughtful problem-solving techniques.
If they love the HBO show Severance and devoured Dave Egger’s novel The Circle, they’ll dig its companion book, The Every. This novel is an allegory for “big tech” today, and it follows an entry-level employee at a company that’s supposed to be the biggest search engine, social network, and online retailer combined.
This book is a manifesto that explores the intersection of tech, gender, and art. Written by art curator Legacy Russell, Glitch Feminism will challenge your assumptions about your place in the digital world, and prompt you to think about cyberfeminism and the internet.
Whether they’re all-in on web3 or are skeptical about the future of the metaverse, this collection of essays by venture capitalist and metaverse expert Matthew Ball is a provocative look into decentralized technology. (BTW, if you’re still confused about what the metaverse even is, Codecademy has a free Introduction to Blockchain and Crypto course that you might want to check out.)
Written by MIT-trained computer scientist John Maeda, this is an approachable read about technology and product design. You don’t need to know how to code to read How to Speak Machine; it’s a solid choice for people who have an interest in tech and want to understand the power of software development.
Want more coding-related gifts? Check out this list of the best Python books for beginners, or this roundup of holiday gift ideas for developers. Don’t forget to explore the rest of the Codecademy blog to read more inspiring and entertaining blogs about learning to code, career advice, and more. And if you’re shopping for a gift for yourself, we’d recommend a Codecademy Pro membership, the real gift that keeps on giving.
Around half of middle school science teachers teach the subject minimally or not at all. How important do you think it is for young people to learn about climate change?
The Gun Violence Archive has counted at least 609 mass shootings so far this year, through mid-November. Of those shootings, 21 involved five or more fatalities, including an attack at a Walmart in Chesapeake, Va., on Nov. 22, and a shooting at a L.G.B.T.Q. nightclub in on Nov. 19 that left five people dead.
If you use Spotify to stream your music, you’re likely familiar with Spotify Wrapped, the personalized end-of-the-year data recap of everything you listened to — from the ska music you secretly love to the binaural beats playlist that gets you in the zone for coding. Even non-Spotify users have probably seen the splashy (and often self-deprecating) Wrapped summaries shared on your social media feeds.
Last year, Mindy Seto got to work as a Data Engineer on the team that put together Spotify Wrapped 2021. Mindy typically is a Senior Back-End Engineer at Spotify, but she jumped at the opportunity to temporarily sit on the data team to work on Wrapped, which is Spotify’s single biggest campaign of the year.
“Working in data, it was very fun to see the story and translate that into something where other users can understand,” says Mindy, who’s worked at Spotify since 2018. “Usually Java and back-end people don’t get to interact with the user-facing, UI, web kind of thing. But with data, I could say to my friends and family, Oh yeah, I know exactly how Wrapped came about.”
Mindy’s role as a Data Engineer on Wrapped was to build the data pipelines that then analyze listeners’ data using SQL and Scala. With 456 million Spotify users and terabytes worth of listening data to work through, Wrapped is a massive effort that takes from summer to the end of the year to complete. (You can watch Mindy and other Data Engineers on the Spotify Wrapped team talk in-depth about the whole process here.)
Here’s how Mindy got started in tech and learned the data skills necessary to work on the data team for Wrapped, plus her advice for folks who are interested in exploring different areas of tech.
What got me interested in the job
“Growing up, I played a lot of video games and was interested in online games and other things, like MySpace and Tumblr. That was how I got a little bit of an intro into computer science, by using HTML and CSS to make my profile look nice. While I was trying to understand the web design thing, I took HTML/CSS and JavaScript courses with Codecademy. That, combined with video games, made me think that this is something I could have a career in.
I did a traditional computer science background, and got a degree from Johns Hopkins University. After graduation, I had another software engineering job at a government defense contractor in Virginia.
I always wanted to work for a company whose product I know and interact with. I really use Spotify a ton and I love music. I also wanted to work for a company that has a really cool app. So when I was applying to companies during the job search, that’s what I thought about.”
How I got in the door
“It was very traditional: I went to the Spotify job listing page. The only listings that I saw were for Senior Engineers, and I only had 2 years of experience at the time. My background fit most of the criteria, other than the years of experience, so I just went ahead and applied anyway. By doing that, I still got reached out to by the recruiter [for the Senior Engineer position] and everything, and went through that whole interview process.
At Spotify, we have something called ‘embed opportunities,’ where someone will post a listing of what they need for a short period of time — usually the scope or a project is a few months. Any engineer can go and pick it up, and it’s kind of a way to do different Spotify projects in different parts of the company. What happened last year was, I saw a listing for Wrapped engineers to join, and I reached out. I was like, This is a great project I want to work on.
For Wrapped, I worked as a Data Engineer for about 6 months, because all of the back-end positions were filled up. I thought, I can try data engineering. At Spotify, it’s pretty cool because we have a bunch of different internal tech learning courses. I really wanted to learn more about data, so I took a course. A lot of it was learning on the job, but it was nice because I had a lot of resources and engineers helping me out, so it wasn’t too bad. Also, with my background in back-end engineering, it’s not too hard to pick up new languages.”
What I actually do every day
“So the Data Engineers took a Wrapped concept from SQL code, and had to translate it into the Scala pipeline. We were the ones that took the lead and actually made it into these giant datasets that power the back end.
Other people I worked with get together and come up with cool ideas for what they want to see in Wrapped, like the data story. For instance, last year we had a movie soundtrack thing, where it was like your music as if it were a movie. From that, the Data Engineers validate whether the data stories are something we can actually do, then produce the end-points as usual, and then mobile goes from there and works with design.
The biggest thing I learned was seeing how many other parts go into Wrapped — not just engineering. There’s a huge team, and we all kind of go together. This was the first time I was working with Data Scientists, Product, and all these other parts that I don’t usually do in my home team. It’s also a global project, so I was working with engineers in Stockholm.
My current role on my home team is Back-End Engineer, and I’m working on the Spotify for Artists part of Spotify. So this is a site and analytics tool where artists go to help manage their career. Right now, my team is focused on creating new APIs for other teams at Spotify. A lot of my days are like the usual Kanban, Agile kind of approach. We try to discuss and figure out things before we build it.”
Here’s what you need to get started
Mindy’s experience working on Wrapped is a great example of how you can always keep learning and growing your skillset as a developer. “Even though I wasn’t a Data Engineer and didn’t have that title, I took the risk to see if I could grow into another opportunity,” she says. “I’m always trying to learn.”
If your company or organization doesn’t have a formal system like Spotify’s embed program, see if there are ways you can get involved in cross-functional projects. It could be a matter of taking someone on another team to coffee and asking questions about their career trajectory or what they’re working on right now. Or you could explore Codecademy projects to get hands-on practice applying your new skills or programming languages.
Feel inspired to learn some of the data skills that are used to code a viral sensation like Spotify Wrapped? A great place to start if you’re new to coding is with the Codecademy path Analyze Data with SQL. You’ll learn how to take large amounts of data and translate it into tables, plus get practice preparing for technical interviews. Another beginner-friendly option that will teach you to use SQL and Python to clean, analyze, and visualize data is the skill path Foundations of Data Science. Be sure to check out the full Codecademy catalog of data science courses and career paths to find something that sparks your interest.
