What are /r/WGU_CompSci's favorite Products & Services?

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Why not just run Windows Subsystem for Linux for a bit using a Ubuntu base to see if it works for you? You can read more about it https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/about.

Sigh. it can just get ass backwards is all... There is no real reason why you cant use Linux for everything. I'm finishing my third term and I've used pop os on a dedicated machine for a while it works fine. for the class that needs visual studio code runs on Linux I think its an electron app but it works when I was using it. I hope this helps.

If you have a strong resume, like a good college, respected job, etc, I'd say you don't need a CS degree. You'll stand out or attract interest. Introduce yourself to recruiters/developers like so, " I’m a web developer, looking for a new role working with JavaScript, with a background in business.” Make friends/connections, so they can refer you to job openings they heard from their friends. Before I got a job, I heard "network, network, network" a lot, and it turned out to be true. You can bypass ats filtering if someone gives you a direct connection, like the email of the hiring manager.

I'd try getting the job first, then get the degree. When you attend WGU, you'll notice that quite a few people have some, or a lot, of programming experience, and that experience is what helped them graduate fast. If you have a business degree, fintech is the one of the most profitable fields. A year or two wasted on WGU, or delaying actually working as a developer and gaining experience, is a year or two missing out on a six-figure salary or working towards a six-figure salary, imo. You will not learn web dev in WGU. IIRC there is a single web course that you can pass in a day by studying 100 flash cards. The material is very outdated. I recommend freeCodeCamp. You may also have heard of reputable coding bootcamps which show a hardcore three months is all you really need to transition to tech.

It's hard getting a job even with a WGU CS degree. I don't know if it was bc of the pandemic, but a lot of my fellow graduates job hunted for almost a year. Quite a few are still unemployed or working in unrelated fields, tbh.

The most important advice I think is not to try to rush into learning a language or feel like you need to be proficient in five languages when you're just beginning. Like most of the other replies have already said, learn Java and keep learning it. Just starting with one language is going to help you by introducing you to basic parts of programming like loops, if/else statements, operators, etc. While the wording of a language won't be 1:1 with another language, understanding what you're typing and why it does what it does will help.

If you start to get bored and feel like you're not making much progress, I suggest looking up Java related projects for your skill-level. Not only will they help you learn to apply what you've learned, but you can also take them and use them as portfolio pieces in the future.

But if you're looking for a good resource outside of Java, I think https://www.freecodecamp.org/ is a really great source for practice and projects. They have a certification called "Javascript Algorithms and Data Structures Certification" which, while it uses a different programming language as its base, has a lot of good stuff in there on Data Structures and Algorithms which is applicable to all programming languages (how they're implemented differs a bit). Their "Coding Interview Prep" section also has a lot of great exercises.

Btw, OP are you in the BSCS program? If you are there are a few beginner programming courses in the degree program that you might find helpful, plus access to Lynda.com/Linkedin Learning and Plurasight.

I'm considering applying to OMSCS after doing some udemy courses, https://www.theodinproject.com/, and the prereqs for OMSCS but NOT completing the WGU degree as I have a BS in IT. However I'd like to have an SWE job within my first year of OMSCS. I plan on taking DM, DSA, Comp architecture, OS, software 1 and 2, databases, and Software engineering.

Out of those prereqs for OMSCS that I listed, were there any projects from there that you felt were worthy of your github?

https://www.amazon.com/Artificial-Intelligence-A-Modern-Approach/dp/0134610997

One of the co-authers, Peter Norvig, also wrote "Paradigms of Artificial Intelligence Programming" which is considered a classic for Common Lisp programmers.

This is the one I use. It's a little expensive but was worth it for me.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01DYUTBL6/

I've used it at WGU no problem. The CAS enabled ones aren't allowed.

To add on to the project+ part, as I just took it.

Going through the Udemy course https://wgu.udemy.com/course/comptiaproject-pk0-004/

and the abridged study guide (250 pages, vs the 450+ for the provided ebook) https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1119280524/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Set me up well to pass it, I didn't do the best but I got like 768.

Watching the videos first on 2x seemed to provided a good basis, I also screen capped some of the graphs and charts when they were covered and took notes, though I didn't read those notes and they were a waste.

Then I worked through the book taking notes as I went along and reviewed them for a few days before the test.

I recommend taking simple hierarchical notes, using bullet points and nesting what things are under what part/topics and what they entail. It was dry, I hated it and spent way too long on it from procrastinating, but when I really went at it at the end it was pretty quick to pick up. The actual test isn't that hard imo. I was getting ~80% on the comptia questions, then only 65-70% on the pluralsight ones that I've read some post saying were more accurate to the test, which had me worried towards the end as studying my notes didn't improve that score. But in the end the comptia questions lined up with the topics covered more.

The Udacity Introduction to Operating Systems course really helped me a lot. The instructor's accent is hard to handle sometimes, but overall it was an excellent resource.

Using this app includes 600 questions and answers. It aligns with Axelos, and all questions are categorised based on the exam syllabus. I was surprised :)

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.app.bilby

There is an app and aside from it being a way to quiz yourself it doesn't necessarily help logic out how to answer the question.

The app is available for free from Android and I think it's also available on Apple.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=uk.co.zindiak.Quiz_ITIL4

I read most of this book https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1680507222/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

and then googled/youtubed the little bit it didn't cover.

I highly recommend doing it that way. It's a great, easy to digest book on the topic and I feel I got a great functional understanding of DSA from it.

thanks! work life balance took some effort and discipline. I pretty much gave up video games, TV, movies, and about 50% of social events, which was a little hard but also made easier since my eye was on the bigger prize of getting this degree. I'm married and we have a 5 year old (she was 3 when I started), so I didn't want to take time from family, hence taking time from hobbies and recreation. I had to find a schedule that worked for me as far as when during the day to work so I could still be present and available to help get the kid ready and dressed in the morning and have family dinners and also family game night and just time together.

don't be afraid to create a schedule of when you do studying. I even got a clock with a big red wedge on it to help me monitor my time. it felt goofy, but it really helped me stay on pace and be disciplined: https://www.amazon.com/Secura-60-Minute-Mechanical-Countdown-Collapsible/dp/B07PKTNYWQ

Honestly during 2020 and 2021 the COVID lockdown also helped quite a bit in terms of having more time available than usual.

Maven and Gradle are two helpers I guess for building your projects, I haven't looked too much into it but it seems like they bring in some configuration details and just help with the development cycle. IntelliJ likes to build on them by default, Eclipse may be the same.

If you're low on space, maybe get a cheap SD card to throw in your laptop (if it fits)?. You can typically install to external drives and that would basically double what you have.

For what it does better, I'm not sure. I read a bunch of comparisons that said go with IntelliJ so I did and it's been good for me so far. The plugins and VCS support at least have been nice as well as some of the extra features like keyboard shortcuts for getters, setters, and constructors or the semi-auto template for Javadocs. Community Edition is free and Ultimate is covered by being a student anyway.

I'm "done" with Software 1 and in progress on 2. I was able to get my mentor to let me add both as open courses at the same time so I can submit when tuition reimbursement is available again in October. 1 is a lot more straightforward than 2 and the webinars cover a lot of it.

A new version of A Tour of C++ will be out soon. It's a good book written by the creator of C++.

You will have to know the basics of C++ for one of the earlier classes. C++ is a daunting language and this book might be a good reference to have for the future.

It's not release until July 15th though.

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https://www.amazon.com/Tour-C-Bjarne-Stroustrup-dp-0136816487/dp/0136816487/ref=dp\_ob\_title\_bk

Will this calculator work or do I need a different one?

https://www.amazon.com/TI-Nspire-Graphing-Calculator-Student-Software/dp/B07SDG5719/ref=mp_s_a_1_8?crid=1RI0F1CMAEUCX&keywords=nspire+cx+ii+cas&qid=1654095394&sprefix=nspire%2Caps%2C78&sr=8-8

Before I dropped out of a brick and motor university I was taking second year calculus and had to pay a tutor $40 an hour to pass the class. I paid that tutor several hundred dollars over the weeks. The school didn't require it, but I needed it to pass.

Brick and motor universities also sometimes have downright bad material to learn from; sometimes downright corrupt, the professor wrote a second rate text book and requires all his students to purchase his text book, stuff like that.

There's a variety of options for you, some will require spending some additional money.

I like https://www.amazon.com/Tour-2nd-Depth-Bjarne-Stroustrup/dp/0134997832 and used this book when I was taking C867. If you learn well from books, consider this suggestion.

I've been overseas for some of my program and haven't run into serious issues. The only problems have been scheduling mentor and instructor meetings at a good time for me, and accessing certain resources for some classes while abroad. A couple classes have had code repositories or documents accessible from a class OneNote folder, and you can't log into your school-linked Microsoft account from outside the US. A VPN should easily circumvent that though; I use NordVPN.

What matters the most is that you did it despite all the ups and downs. And i bet it was quite a journey. With that being said can you share any resources you used for calculus and discreet maths? I am currently stuck at calculus and don't know if i should use khan academy or this book? I bought the straightline membership and don't like the course material and the layout.

So I did the BS in Cybersecurity and Information Assurance degree and currently work in the field. Some of these responses about Cybersecurity are a little much... It is not that bad to work in the field.

Some things to note about it though is that it is a BROAD field. Cybersecurity includes things like audits/compliance, pentesting/offensive security, digital forensics, incident response, threat intelligence, governance risk compliance (GRC), security engineering, threat detection, application security, devsecops etc.

The other thing to note is that entry level roles are really competitive, especially if you have no tech back ground to start off with. It can be done, just super competitive.

With that out of the way, it seems you don't want to be pigeon holed and I say because of that then get the degree in Computer Science. Its the more general of the two degrees. You could always learn the cyber security stuff on your own later. Lots of resources out there.

I know you mentioned not being mathematically inclined but don't let that stop you. You could always do the math portions of the degree at Straighterline and transfer them in. There is also a ton of math resources now a days for people to use such as Khan academy and Wolfram Alpha. I can also recommend this book:
A Mind For Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science (Even If You Flunked Algebra) link: https://www.amazon.com/Mind-Numbers-Science-Flunked-Algebra-ebook/dp/B00G3L19ZU

Another thing to remember is that math and coding are skills. I believe that means when given the right resources, anyone can learn them.

You could give Georgia Tech's free class a shot.

Introduction to Operating Systems

https://www.udacity.com/course/introduction-to-operating-systems--ud923

https://www.udacity.com/course/intro-to-machine-learning--ud120 This will give you an idea of what's possible and the tools you might end up using. Definitely look at the model capstone archive. From there, Kaggle has tons of data sets and ideas that you can either use or adapt into something you can use for capstone.

Yeah, I would recommend reading this book to see if CS is interesting to you. It's high level, no code, just about the concepts. https://www.amazon.com/Computer-Science-Distilled-Computational-Problems-ebook-dp-B0731JG96F/dp/B0731JG96F

That's awesome! I should have done that, but I ended up doing the calendar-view approach for my monthly view, and a day-by-day for my weekly view.

Check it out!

Just submitted last night, hopefully it only needs minor revisions.

As a student you can get one year free access to Substance Painter, Designer, and Alchemist. This is more of interest to those interested in the video game career route, but still great programs either way.

Yah a virtual machine sounds like a good solution, I'll check into this. Additionally have you heard of this technology ? https://shadow.tech/usen

Apparently you can use a powerful computer from your computer. I can't really explain it but I did their free trial and it worked great for video games. The business says that although they are focused on gaming their cloud pc's can be used for other things like running applications that require good specs.

I really enjoyed Discrete Math I. It may just be that I hadn't learned any new math in 15 years, but that class really scratched an itch I didn't know I had.

It also helped me solve this CodeWars problem I'd been stuck on for months.

>The question I have is that if you already have a bachelors in IT, why do an internship over a real job

I'm decent with SQL, HTML, CSS, and very basic at JS. Other than that I have 0 skills in CS related stuff. This is a challenge to myself and maybe one day I'll pursue a masters too. I originally chose IT because I was scared as hell of doing math. I wanted to get myself a formal education in CS. Right now I'm working on The Odin Project and should have a decent grasp of Ruby, rails, SQL and node.js by the time I start.

With my experience in IT, I could afford to just do contract work outside of internships but I don't believe that I would have enough experience to get a full time job. That's not to say I won't try but I'm looking at the reality that I might not be taken seriously without an internship. Even with my own side projects etc.

Thank you for your concern! I appreciate it

If I am remembering the assignment correctly:

I just copied and pasted each table separately into Notepad++ and used regex to format the data into something useable. Then I saved all of it and moved it into queries into a SQL IDE called DataGrip. I did not bother using that garbage sql tool they want you to use, I spun up my own MySQL server locally and did it all with that.

https://www.jetbrains.com/datagrip/

From there the assignment was pretty straightforward.

I would say Windows is better in this case. I use Ubuntu (Linux) on my main computer, for various reasons, and I like it the best. But I do have a second Windows machine for stuff like taking tests at WGU (since Linux is not supported). Mac is overrated. Their systems are okay, but you pay twice what the hardware is worth just for a status symbol, and there really isn't anything you can do on Mac that you can't do on Windows better (at half the cost). In any case, the software you write in the CS program is not super crazy, even an old laptop would suffice. If you are looking at machines,

I would recommend getting one with an AMD Ryzen processor, as those work really well. And if you want to get into machine learning, you probably want an Nvidia GPU, as most of the software runs on CUDA. But honestly, get what you need today. Buying something, and spending a lot more. speculatively on what you might need years from now is not a good strategy. Just get what is affordable and will work well for you current work load, and upgrade in a few years if the situation changes. For example, something like this for $500 would probably be fine (didn't do a lot of research, this was the first one I found, but just to give you an idea).

https://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-IdeaPad-Processor-Graphics-82KT00AMUS/dp/B08YKDYWK5/

You make it sound like you had a choice. Don't the Java courses require you to use JavaFX?

I liked JavaFX personally.

If anyone wants to prepare for the C++ class I would recommend reading "A Tour of C++". It's written by the creator of C++ and is and will reward study in more ways than helping you pass a class. It worked well enough for me as a reference when I was going through the C++ PA.

https://www.amazon.com/Tour-2nd-Depth-Bjarne-Stroustrup/dp/0134997832/

Texas Instruments TI-Nspire CX II CAS Color Graphing Calculator with Student Software (PC/Mac) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07RL7HM5V/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_ENRA1F0V03DM97J1HAJK

That’s the CAS I bought, there are used ones out there I’d recc looking for.

Khan academy is your call. Professor burger does an excellent Job explaining topics. I used khan academy sparingly and would Google topics that I needed more help on.

Highly recc learning how to utilize your CAS calculator well.

A Common-Sense Guide to Data Structures and Algorithms by Jay wengrow:

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https://www.amazon.com/Common-Sense-Guide-Structures-Algorithms-Second-dp-1680507222/dp/1680507222/ref=dp\_ob\_title\_bk

Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software 1st Edition
by Charles Petzold (Author)
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0735611319/

bought a paperback version (Condition: Used - Acceptable) through amazon / Seattlegoodwill
book was $9.90
$3.30 shipping

I'd say it arrived in Very Good condition

great book, definitely recommended for anyone entering the program without any experience

Buy an external camera. I was using a Logitech C920s, but my situation is that I can't get my camera far enough at the angle they want easily, so I found this one that has a wide angle lens (and is really cheap compared to the logitech) and it worked with both zoom and the ucertify software (I'm also on Windows 10 on my testing machine) the last two times I've had to use it.

1) A Mac isn't necessary. If you needed bash, you can install something like git bash for windows. Powershell is probably going to be good enough. I don't think the program involves anything that works a lot easier on a Mac.

2) 8 gigs is probably enough, but if you can spring for 16, that would make the computer last a bit longer hopefully.

3) The SSD depends on if you need to have a bunch of big files on the same drive. If you're really just using it for school, the 256 is enough and if you need more storage space you can get an external HDD for cheap.

For work I was given the choice between a Macbook or a windows alternative of the same/lower price. I settled on an Asus Zenbook like this one which has been great. Super light, holds a good charge, the hardware is decent, and it cost a fair amount less than the Macbook.

https://www.amazon.com/ZenBook-Ultra-Slim-Display-i5-8250U-UX331UA-AS51/dp/B07FW7D635/ref=sr_1_3?crid=1Z04FPO0ZDR18&keywords=zenbook&qid=1550943768&s=gateway&sprefix=zenboo%2Caps%2C281&sr=8-3

The amazon reviews don't make it out to be a great choice, so don't feel like this is my endorsement specifically for this one, more just an example of what you can get for the money when you don't have to go for a Mac.

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there are course on udemy for $10 (if they're not that price now, then just wait a week, they go on sale ALL the time)
https://www.udemy.com/courses/search/?src=ukw&q=1Z0-071

there are lots of books on amazon
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1259585492

Learn the basics of Python and read this book:

https://www.amazon.com/Common-Sense-Guide-Data-Structures-Algorithms/dp/1680502441

I use two LG 27" 4k monitors and it's insane how much screen space I have. The multi-tasking possibilities are endless. There's literally no way that you could ever get me to go back to bloated 1080p again for as long as I live.

After taxes, this will end up being just a bit over $200, but the payoff of switching to a higher resolution than 1080p will be a major game-changer and you'll only want more after that. There were other monitors that were a bit less and 2k, but you should prioritize FBA Amazon products over 3PS.

https://www.amazon.com/Dell-LED-Lit-Monitor-Black-S3219D/dp/B07JVQ8M3Q

I know a lot of comments suggest a 1080p monitor, but while this is great for consumers and watching HD videos and maybe games, as a software developer you're going to want more vertical pixels I really recommend you go for a WUXGA (1920x1200) or QHD/WQHD which is basically 1440p. You'll also definitely want an IPS panel.

I'm using one of these for a second monitor:

https://www.amazon.com/Dell-Computer-Ultrasharp-U2415-24-0-Inch/dp/B00NZTKOQI

IMO this monitor is the best value on the market today.

Software 1-2 (Java):

Official:

• OCA/OCP Oracle Certified Java SE 8 Programmer Study Guides (OCA for Software I, OCP for Software II)