Const youKnowThatThing = Everything

A bad habit of mine, inside and outside of work or school, is forgetting what things are called. When speaking I tend to forget what something is called and I label it as “that thing”, or something similar. It’s like forgetting someone’s name. Or, forgetting the title of a song, even though you know all of the lyrics. This is particularly troubling when you’re trying to learn a new set of skills and trying to start a career in that field. In my case that field is software engineering.

As I explained in my last blog I am brand new to software engineering and only a few weeks into a coding bootcamp. A big component in bootcamps is interview preparation. The process of getting prepared starts a few weeks before graduation, but I’m already stressing about everything that I will have to do. This is especially true when it comes to learning how to “talk the talk”.

Terminology and syntax in software engineering is very important. One letter or comma out of place could mean a hold site breaking down. Not only that, being able to speak the language and explain your work to others is just as important. It is vital in the interview process and something I want to work on. During some extensive research (googling “Top Interview Questions”) one topic came up often: Inheritance. This term is often brought up in the interview process, specifically being able to explain the difference between Class Inheritance and Prototypal Inheritance.

So what is Inheritance? Basically it is the properties of one thing (object or class) being passed to another. Think of it like inheriting money or a house from a relative. It has been passed to you, and now you are able to do with as you please. Like put the money in a CD so it can gain interest, or add a third bathroom to the home. To understand it further you would really need to dig into what Classes are and what Prototypes are. So let’s try to define those now. (More to come…)