I had a first interview today for a software engineering company, and the interviewer said that the only reservation she had about me is that while I've done quite a lot of Matlab and Labview, my lower level languages are somewhat thin on the ground. Now it's a graduate position and they take a lot of non-CS graduates so they expect new starters to need a pretty hefty whack of programming training at the start, but obviously they expect some level of prior knowledge.
If I get a second interview, I will need to demonstrate some programming ability in a programming exercise which apparently I can do in a range of languages.
Now, when I was an undergrad I did a couple of courses in C (one of the languages on offer), which makes that my strongest "proper" language. I was pretty good at it at the time, at least at the level of the courses I did, but that was yonks ago. I reckon my best shot at getting this job is to start doing a bit of revision now (no bad thing in general TBH).
So does anyone have any good sources of example problems, preferably with well explained solutions available? I just need some excercises to work on to get my brain back into the right way of thinking, and expose any bits of the language I've forgotten.
cheers all
http://www.cprogramming.com/tutorial.html#ctutorial (http://www.cprogramming.com/tutorial.html#ctutorial) doesn't look too bad, would also strongly suggest getting the C for Dummies book:
http://eu.dummies.com/store/product/C-For-Dummies-2nd-Edition.productCd-0764570684.html (http://eu.dummies.com/store/product/C-For-Dummies-2nd-Edition.productCd-0764570684.html).
You sure you want to know C, or would C++ be better? Or even C#?
Depends what the job is, usually embedded/low power/kernel stuff = C.
For windows user application development C# is quite popular
ultimately yes, I plan to learn C++, probably C# and/or Java, but to get through this potential interview my best shot is C since I already mostly know it and I'm used to working in a proceedural fasion, if I go in there trying to use C++ they'll expect me to be object oriented which on the timescale I'm likely to have I wont be able to wrap my head around fast enough.
C, and C++ are both listed as core languages for the company, they're big on training as I said so all I have to do is display some level of ability with one of their core languages. Unfortunately Matlab doesn't quite cut it or I'd use that!
cheers for the links, that cprogramming site looks useful
I can't really offer any advice but good luck with this second stage, I'm sure once you've refreshed/brushed up on C you'll be a strong candidate for them.
thanks Clock'd! :D, I felt the first interview went really well and she seemed pretty pleased with everything about me except the shortage of real languages, I'm hoping she liked the rest of me enough to give me the second interview and let me prove whether or not I can program well enough for their training scheme to do the rest.
learn object C & develop Iphone/pad apps. Bedroom programming FTW
Try thinking in C++
http://mindview.net/Books/TICPP/ThinkingInCPP2e.html
Its well regarded and is available free to download from the authors website above.