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1. Research impostor syndrome. You should describe what it is, what its effects are, and how many people are affected by it. You will need to find at least one source on this. (To cite it, just provide a link and say what the source is)

Imposter syndrome is a distorted belief system (should be a mental disorder) where people do not feel worthy of their accomplishments. People who suffer from it tend doubt the validity of their accomplishments, and fear that they are frauds who could be exposed as incompetent by others. Studies suggest around 80% of people experience imposter syndrome at least once in their lives, however chronic or prolonged imposter syndrome is much less common.

Source: Wikipedia (linked)

2. Next write about whether you have experienced this as a computer science major. If so, describe when, and how it has affected you. If you have not experienced impostor syndrome as computer scientist, but have in other areas of your life, you can write about that instead.

I don’t believe I have imposter syndrome, despite lingering self-confidence issues because I think accidentally tricking everyone into thinking you’re competent is a load of crap and people severely underestimate how difficult it is to actually manipulate people. However, as I have anxiety myself, I understand that people can fall victim to any irrational fears their brain clings to, which is out of their control. Imposter syndrome has not affected me personally, but it has led to friends leaving me because they don’t perceive themselves as worthy of time, care, or happiness despite efforts to prove them otherwise.

3. Read the article What Is Programmer Imposter Syndrome and How Can You Deal With It?. Summarize this article and discuss his tips for dealing with this issue. Talk about the suggestions and whether or not you think they would be effective.

The article explains the prevalence of imposter syndrome among tech fields and things that can be done to combat it, such as focusing on what you are good at and not comparing yourself to others. From what I saw, the tips seem pretty good and pretty close to what a therapist would recommend. Learning to accept uncomfortability is a big one, especially since culture has started shifting towards avoiding anything that makes you uncomfortable, which really isn’t healthy in the long term.

4. Lastly, describe another way that you think one could combat impostor syndrome.

Years of therapy. Dear gosh these people need therapy. I say this as someone who has been receiving help for anxiety since high school, therapy can save your life.

1. Look up the term “coding convention” and briefly define what one is.

Coding conventions are unofficial rules programmers are encouraged to follow for specific programming languages to make code more readable.

2. What is the benefit of everyone in a team adhering to a convention like this?

Programmers will be able to quickly and easily understand code written by another person.

3. Is there any benefit to sticking to a convention even when you’re working alone?

You may make your code open source someday or somebody else might take over work on the code or you might ask for help.

4. Is there any downside to coding conventions?

I think that strict coding conventions can limit what people want to write and also limit what people think is possible or doable.

5. What are the areas addressed in the Google guide that you are most surprised are specified?

I’m surprised by the way they organize methods. There is supposed to be some logic to it, but the exact organization is determined by the programmer.

6. In what areas does your own code not meet these standards?

I sometimes press tab instead of the spacebar for spacing, and in multi block statements (if statements) I will sometimes space the brackets {} “wrong”.

7. How would you feel about being forced to use this style for the programs you write?

If it’s not too far off from what I already do, it won’t be too tedious. I might get upset if some specific rule is time consuming and deemed unnecessary.

1. I first started programming in high school, it was mostly C++ and Java.
2. You can make really cool, helpful, and beautiful things with code. I’ve seen the world change because of it in less than a lifetime.
3. Spoken language has specific grammatical rules that we constantly use and are taught from a young age. The same is not true for syntax. I’ll know what I want to do, but not how to do it.

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