Perception

Another fortnight has flown by and since my last post, I’ve gone through another two tests, namely my CS1102 Data Structures and Algorithms Practical Exam and the second mid-term test for CS2100 Computer Organisation. I received the results for the latter just a day after I took it, and this is the mentioned not-so-good news of this post. I didn’t really do badly by any means, but my marks significantly deproved from that of the previous test, so I’m quite disappointed with what I got. Thankfully, half of the final grade for this module is still up for grabs in the final exam, so I definitely still stand a chance of redeeming myself.

Moving on to better things and the Practical Exam, I’m glad that I managed to finish solving both questions well before time was up, but whether my solutions will be able to pass all the test cases of both questions is another matter. The first question was a Minesweeper problem involving a 2D array, and the function of my program was to simply count the number of mines around any given square for all squares and display the results in a 2D array. It was straightforward to do, as I included a buffer of empty spaces around the minefield which eliminated all special cases.

The second wasn’t so easy, but I managed to come up with the algorithm (and I hope it is the correct algorithm) to reconstruct a tree from given pre-order and post-order traversal sequences. I ran my program through a few test cases, which worked fine, but I’m worried that my implementation might be marked down. I used the ArrayList class to solve this problem, and completely avoided using OOP, linked lists, nodes and whatnot. 15% of the final grade is at stake, and I think I’ll manage to score a fair portion of that.

More good news, as my brothers’ project is finally in Alpha. It’s always pleasing to see one’s labour come to fruition. The upcoming period will be a crucial testing phase for us as it’ll determine if we are be able to proceed on to Beta, and I’ll be responsible for tweaking and improving the design aspects of the project. I’m quite satisfied with how the site looks, although designing the logo has been a pain (and I’m still not happy with the current one). I’m glad I managed to see this project through, as the last few weeks I was pretty discouraged and unmotivated. I hope that more exciting times will be ahead for this project.

The holidays will be starting soon, and what this means is that I need to start looking for a job or an internship. After what happened last December, I’ll most likely be picking my internship a bit more carefully. An alternative to an internship would be to look for a temporary job. I recently went for an interview about a week back for a Web Research Intern position at Healy Consultants, only to be rejected a long ten days later (and I even had to email them to ask if I was granted the internship). It’s too bad, yes, as now I have to spend even more time looking for another one.