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Week 84

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 List the 5 most important things that you learned in the course, and why you chose them.     The five most important things I learned in this course were: 1. Agile Development - I learned how Agile development, including BDD and TDD, helps teams develop software in smaller iterations. I chose this because it showed me how software teams can continuously improve and adjust their work throughout a project. 2. Git and GitHub Projects - I learned how to use Git for version control and GitHub Projects to organize tasks, issues, and pull requests. I chose this because these tools made it much easier to collaborate with a team and keep track of everyone's progress 3. REST APIs with Spring and React - I learned how a React frontend can communicate with a Spring backend through REST APIs. I chose this because understanding how the frontend and backend work together is an important part of building complete software applications. 4. Software Testing with JUnit and Selenium - I lea...
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Week 83

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Describe some of the differences between using an Agile process and using a  Plan and Document (or Waterfall) process.           Agile and Plan and Document differ mainly in how software is developed and how changes are handled. The Waterfall approach follows a sequential process where requirements, design, implementation, testing, and deployment are completed one phase at a time, with heavy documentation created before development begins. In contrast, Agile uses an iterative and incremental process that delivers small working versions of the software, allowing developers to gather customer feedback and make changes throughout the project.          Another major difference is the role of the customer and documentation. Waterfall emphasizes detailed planning and documentation up front to guide development, while Agile focuses on collaboration with customers, quick iterations, and producing 0only the documentation that is necessa...
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Week 82

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Write a weekly entry describing important things you learned this week.            This week I learned how Compute as a Service (CaaS) helps automate the deployment and management of applications, making systems more reliable and scalable. I also learned why containers are preferred over virtual machines for many workloads because they start faster and use fewer resources. Another important concept was treating servers as "cattle, not pets," meaning failed instances should be automatically replaced instead of manually repaired. I gained a better understanding of how modern cloud platforms use automation to efficiently manage applications and infrastructure.
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Week 81

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  Summarize in a few sentences what you have learned this week     This week I learned that larger tests are important because they can verify how entire systems work together, while unit tests only verify individual components. I also learned about the tradeoffs of larger tests, such as higher cost and longer execution time, as well as the importance of using realistic test data, maintaining clear test ownership, and choosing the right testing strategy to improve software reliability.
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Week 80

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  What is the most interesting thing you have learned in your reading of "Software Engineering at Google"?     The most interesting thing I learned from Software Engineering at Google is how important code reviews are beyond just finding bugs. I didn't realize that code reviews also aim to improve code readability, encourage knowledge sharing, and create a historical record of why changes were made. Something else I found interesting is that Google aims to keep code reviews small, around 200 lines when possible. This is to make it easier to review and speed up development. I sort of just assumed that code reviews would be exponentially larger because these are seasoned, experienced programmers, and I thought that Google would have such drastic changes at a time. It showed me that code reviews are as much about collaboration and maintainability as they are about catching mistakes.
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Week 79

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Describe what are the good points about using Git for source code management.  What are possible problems that Git merge does not solve when merging code from different developers?      Git is useful for code management because it allows multiple developers to work on the same project without overwriting each other's changes. Developers can create separate branches, track every change made to the code, and easily revert to previous versions if something goes wrong. Git also makes collaboration easier through pull requests and code reviews, helping maintain quality code before changes are merged into the main branch.     Git merge, however, cannot solve every problem. While it can automatically combine changes that don't conflict, it cannot detect logical or design conflicts. For example, two developers may make changes that compile successfully but can cause bugs or break the application's functionality when combined. These issues still require communicatio...
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Week 78

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  Summarize what you learned about React this week.  In your opinion, what the strengths and weaknesses of React.        It has been a while since I've used React, so it was a lot of refreshers on the basics. I learned that React builds websites using reusable components. I also learned about useState for uploading data, React Router for switching pages, and how React can connect to a backend using requests like GET, POST, PUT, and DELETE.     In my opinion, React's strengths are that it keeps code organized and makes interactive pages easier to build. It is helpful because each feature can be separated into its own component. The weakness to me is that React can feel confusing at first because hooks, props, routes, and state are all new concepts to learn; it can be quite overwhelming. Overall, however, React seems very useful, but it certainly takes practice to get comfortable using it.
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