I recently had a coding challenge as part of a recruitment drive, and I was asked to write a program to print the number of consonants in a given string. I was confident in my abilities and decided to use my favourite programming language, Java, to solve the problem.
However, when I ran my code, I encountered an error. I was under a lot of pressure during the coding challenge and my confidence took a hit. I couldn't understand what I had done wrong. I felt embarrassed and ashamed of myself for not being able to solve what seemed like a simple problem.
After the coding challenge, I went home and revisited my code.
public class Consonants {
public static void main(String[] args) {
Scanner input = new Scanner(System.in);
System.out.println("Enter a string");
String str = input.nextLine();
int len = str.length();
int count = 0;
for (int i = 0; i < len; i++){
char c = Character.toLowerCase(str.charAt(i));
if( c != 'a' ||
c != 'e' ||
c != 'i' ||
c != 'o' ||
c != 'u' ||
c != ' ' ){
count++;
}
}
System.out.println(count);
}
}
That's when I realized that I had made a logical mistake in my if statement. Instead of using the && operator, I used the || operator, which caused the program to always evaluate to true.
It was a frustrating experience, but I learned a valuable lesson. In high-pressure situations, our thinking can become more focused and narrow, and it can be difficult to see all the possibilities. That's why it's always a good idea to take a break, relax, and come back to the problem with a fresh mind.
I also learned the importance of double-checking my work and paying attention to details, especially in a coding challenge where mistakes can be costly. This experience has motivated me to keep practising and improving my coding skills so that I can perform better in future coding challenges.