The exercism.io site provides small exercise problems to be solved using a computer programming language. The problems include a testing framework to verify results.
I periodically do a few of these on language tracks that interest me. Whitling for the mind.
I have a few problems with the exercises and testing methodology.
- Exercises are often poorly chosen or presented for a particular langue. A few on the go track even got some comments from one of the mentors.
- The tests are written to validate your answers, not to support learning.
- The test frameworks are opaque to learners.
While flawed, and the site appears to have financial issues, there is value here. As all the exercises are currently on Github, they can be accessed without using the download/submit tools and worked independently from exercism.io.
My solutions to various problems aren’t particularly good or bad. Sometimes I go for a “best idiomatic” approach, and sometimes I experiment with deliberately questionable code to see what I learn from the experience.
My code is public domain if anyone wants it. The parts from exercism maintain their license rights and restrictions.
Troy Brumley, February 2023.