So for the last three weeks I've been in A2SV camp. To be honest it was one of the most intense things I have ever went through. I was totally unprepared for it and it all happened so fast, but I can confidently say I learned so much in these three weeks that I won't learn by myself in three years. Not because of the lack of resources, but discipline. I completely underestimated it, I even applied for the sake of the "interview experience" and not actually joining.
It wasn't a great time. It had its ups and downs. specially as a February convert. I felt like I didn't belong there. Everyone's so smart. I still feel like I am an impostor among them. I am way behind. But I guess this feeling never leaves, because there will always be people that's better than you. I started to enjoy the camp when I realized the competition should be internal.
I learned about the basics of linked lists, greedy, recursion, trees, backtracking, binary search, stack, queue, monotonicity and so much more. It's not like I became a wizard at them, but the beginning of mastery is familiarity.
What I really appreciate about them is that they don't only focus on technical skills, but they force you to connect and socialize with almost everyone. They planned sessions like moonwalk, communication sessions, social activities, pair/triad programming, mock interviews and trip (even though I didn't go). That's really helpful for introverts like me, because I would never go out of my comfort zone and meet new people. I can definitely say I became more confident now.
However the best thing about A2SV is, of course, the bananas!
I look forward to spending the next 9 months upgrading myself and getting out of my comfort zone like this.
#A2SV
@the_blogrammer