My Journey of Crio Winter of Doing

Crio.do

Hey guys, This is my first ever blog! Here, I would like to share my experience of the Crio Winter of Doing (CWoD) Program conducted by Crio.do.

The program is divided into 3 stages. In the first stage, I was given an introduction or refresher to various topics such as HTTP, REST API, HTML, CSS, JS, Linux, AWS and Git.

“For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them.” — Aristotle

Learn by Doing has always been the motto of my learning, but the experience provided by the Crio’s program modules seemed a bit unique to me, and it seemed to have redefined it for me, and I am happy for that. Each topic/module is divided into several milestones. The best part of it is that in each milestone very crisp and understandable guidelines are given. The questions given at the end of each milestone helped me remember the concepts, and made sure I cannot jump ahead without having a good understanding.😉

In the HTTP module, I learnt about the various request methods, meaning of the HTTP status codes. I also got to know how to use the cURL command line tool to view and get information from any website or resource(eg. web API) all from the terminal, and Postman, an application that can be used to make HTTP requests and analyze their response. Here I also learnt about the basic parts of an HTTP request, and also got to create one using the telnet tool from Crio’s workspace. The key learning for me from this module were the different request methods, followed by HTTP status codes, and the parts of an HTTP request.

The REST API module taught me the conventions and the architecture used in a REST API, how an API request differs from an HTTP request, and most importantly to use the developer tools of the browser.😇 Well for those who are wondering about the full form, REST stands for REpresentational State Transfer, and API for Application and Programming Interface. Here, I came across GraphQL, which is an alternative to REST API. I would take this opportunity to describe my understanding of the differences between the two:

On the Server side, a REST API sets up different end points over HTTP, that map functions to the endpoints to handle the data and response, whereas GraphQL, which is a query language sets up a schema to define input and output types; it can set up different queries that map functions to the queries that handle the data and response. On the Client side, a REST API make calls to the endpoints; the requested data is passed to the call which is then handled by the client, whereas a GraphQL make queries to an endpoint; data is passed to the query, which is then handled.

I being a Linux user was quite familiar with the terminal, however going through the module added to my existing knowledge. For example, I became more familiar with the file system, the parts of the system, which we generally do not encounter during our daily work, and what role they have. I learnt quite a bit about the awk command, and used it to analyze sample log files from the command line. Also a very useful learning was about task automation using the in-built utility on Linux called cron.

The next module was about **Amazon AWS and Cloud.** This is where I deployed the backend server of an Android application. The backend server code was dockerized and QEats, the Android application which was like a food ordering app was given as an APK file. I had to deploy the backend server on an Amazon EC2 instance, and the application worked as a charm. Then I had to analyze the logs produced by the application, such as to find out how many users had logged in, or the location of the users who logged in. This was to get us familiar with the working of the AWS Platform and let us explore the various options available. This module was quite fun as well as challenging.

Then there was the Git Module. Here I got to know about the basic commands in Git, and how things are managed in a Version Control System. I was required to use GitLab as a part of the instructions given. I learnt how to fork and clone existing projects, get them on my local machine, commit my changes and push them back to the remote repository. The most important learning for me from this module was about merge conflicts.

We were also given a refresher of HTML, CSS and JavaScript. I had a working knowledge of them. Going through the modules strengthened it. From learning about the various HTML tags, to getting fancy with the styles in CSS (especially playing with the CSS Flexbox), and getting familiar with some previously unknown concepts in JavaScript, this module was quite enjoying and informative.

Finally as a bonus activity we had the QProfile. This is to get us familiar with full stack web development, how things are done in the real world, and what are the best practices that should be followed. I integrated my GitHub projects with my profile page. The front-end was deployed on Netlify. The backend of the application was deployed on Heroku, and is used to stored all the visitor information obtained from the profile page. The database used for storing information is *lowdb*. lowdb is a lightweight alternative to heavy databases, and stores data in JSON files.

Check my publicly deployed profile page at https://soumik-samanta.netlify.app/

I received 3 badges for completing stage 1 of CWoD.

I would like to thank Crio team for providing me with this opportunity. Apart from the learning, the stage 1 of the program was filled with several fun activities, which include meeting new people and finding new friends on the community, meme wars and also some fun activities. As a part of the program, we also got to attend great sessions with esteemed dignitaries such as Bimmy Bansal(Co-founder of Flipkart.com), Vivek Ravisankar(Co-founder of HackerRank.com) and Karan MV(Developer Relations Manager at GitHub).

Now that I have completed stage 1, I look forward to the stage 2 of the program, wherein we would have a coding test, followed by a mini-project for the selected candidates from the test and then those who graduate from stage 2 will be summoned for participating in the development of a project in stage 3 of the program. You may have a look at them at https://www.crio.do/crio-winter-of-doing/

Thank You for reading till the end. Hope you liked it!!😀