I’ve always love coding challenges even though I don’t come from a computing background. My first encounter with computers was in school at 10, but it took another 5 years before I started dabbling with web development languages back when LAMP was in vogue. In recent years, I also picked up app based languages.

Admittedly, without a foundation in programming, code syntax don’t come to me as easily as trained programmers. Like many self-taught coders, I build applications with a heavy reliance on Google, StackOverflow and lots of trial-and-error. So instead of writing elegant codes, I hack together chunks of code similar to how puzzles are pieced together.

Scalability and code optimisation aren’t the top concerns on my mind most of the time because of highly compressed development timelines. Rather, my focus usually rests on code readability to enable quick bug fixes/feature enhancements and user experience because users should not be made to jump through hoops to accomplish a simple task.

These days, I’m expected to code applications and build dashboards with ever-shortening timelines. Fortunately they aren’t terribly complex tasks, with the wealth of experience and constant exposure to coding projects. Occasionally, I might still get stumped but when you keep trying and finally get around the problem, that euphoria is unparalleled.