Solving programming assignments is not always an easy task. Many students get confused about how to approach the assignment and what steps to follow to create the right programming solution. Different programmers use different steps to create complex codes. However, here are 7 easy and practical tips that can help you solve a complex programming assignment easily.
1. Decode the question
This is the first and the most important step in solving a programming problem. You must read the question a few times until you properly understand it. You may divide the whole question into different parts, underline keywords or write down a few points. You may try and explain the problem to a friend. It will give you some insights about the question and you’ll be able to solve it better.
Many times students just read the question once, understand it a bit and just start writing the code. They often miss some aspects of the question and do not provide the correct solution through their code.
2. Start with an algorithm
As you decode the question, write the solution in the form of an algorithm or simply a pseudocode. This will help you define the structure of your solution and will make it a thousand times easier for you to write the code. Writing an algorithm means focusing on the main steps of the program. It does not involve taking care of the syntax and semantics of a programming language and hence makes it easier for you to form your solution. If you are planning to write the program directly, you might get caught up with maintaining the syntax and technicalities of the language and worry less about the correctness of your solution.
3. Comments are important
A good programmer always writes comments. They remind you of the logic behind using a certain function or creating a certain class. Writing proper comments on important steps of your program makes it easier for other people to read and understand your code. So, your teacher will be able to understand your programming assignment easily if you have mentioned the right comments beside your code. Also, the comments would help you understand the program even if you read it after months.
4. Dry run your code
Before finalising your code and running it on the computer, you must dry run it. It simply means solving the problem manually by using a set of inputs and checking if the program is giving the right output or not. This will help you understand the logical faults in your program. You can use the best and worst cases to find out whether your program can handle all cases. Then, you can easily make changes in the code as required. Many programming assignment help suggest that students should always manually test their programs. It minimises half of the major errors that a compiler might not be able to judge.
5. Simplify steps
Once you have finalised your program and tested it manually, it is time to simplify it. Simplifying not only makes your program more readable and easy to understand but it also optimises it. For instance, you can see whether there are any extra steps that you may remove from the program without affecting the whole logic of the code. You might have created some extra variables but have not used them at all. They must be removed to avoid confusion. If some steps are repeated at several stages of the program, you may combine them into a function.
6. Compile and debug
Now, it is time to remove all the syntactical and semantical errors from your program with the help of your integrated development environment and debugger. It would check your code line by line and highlight the technical errors in the code. Many assignment help experts debug chunks of their program and not the complete code at once. Just comment the code that you do not want to debug right now. This helps in finding and solving the errors from each section of the program in an organised manner. Moreover, it will make it less scary for you to see different errors popping up.
7. Learn how to tackle programming problems
Complex programming assignments involve larger problems that need a specific problem-solving approach. For instance, in some cases, you might want to cut down the problem into several parts, solve each part individually and then combine them and solve the whole problem altogether. This is known as a divide and conquer approach. Similarly, you may use the top-down approach where you may find a generalised solution at first and then break it down to specific cases. To ensure that you can solve complex programming assignments easily, you need to practice these ways of tackling a programming problem.
These were 7 practical tips on solving complex programming assignments. Just follow these simple steps and your assignment will be done in no time. Still, if you get stuck at any step, you can consult a programming expert for guidance and pace up your assignment solving process without any trouble.