Rafael Rosa hosts a coding dojo event to help developers improve their coding skills through deliberate practice. The event involves pairing programmers to solve coding puzzles in short cycles using test-driven development. The goal is to learn through collaboratively solving challenges, not competition. Resources on coding dojos emphasize creating a safe learning environment where mistakes are accepted and feedback is constructive.

1. Coding Dojo
Ruby Hacknight
December 10th 2013

2. Who am I?
● Rafael Rosa - Cloud evangelist at iWeb
○ rrosa@iweb.com / @rafaelrosafu
● Hosting provider based in Montreal
● Operating since 1996
● 10.000+ clients from around the world
● 4 data centers spread around the island
○ tens of thousands of servers in Montreal
● Infrastructure focus
○ Cloud servers
○ Dedicated servers
○ Smart servers
○ Managed servers
○ Colocation
● Acquired by Internap in October 2013

3. What a heck is a coding dojo?
Why is it useful?

4. How often do we train our coding skills?

5. Are we ready for a real combat?

6. Deliberate Practice
Source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aikido_training_02.jpg

7. Deliberate Practice
● Introduced to the programming
community by Andrew Hunt and Dave
Thomas on "The Pragmatic Programmer" in
2009
● Being aware of what your coding
○ Don't "program by coincidence"
○ Understand why things work or don't
● Practice makes it easier

8. How do we do it?

9. Using the heart of XP
Source: http://epf.eclipse.org/wikis/xp/xp/guidances/concepts/xp_practices_36E149F4.html

10. Baby steps
Source: http://holycuteness.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Kitten-takes-her-first-steps-Imgur.jpg

11. Quick randori guide
● Gather a bunch of nice coders
○ Free pizza and beverages help a lot
● Pick a challenge / puzzle
○ Ruby Quiz has 150+ options
○ Explain the puzzle (this part is tricky)
● Prepare the environment
○ rspec + autotest for automated tests
○ Pick a simple text editor, like Sublime
● Pair random people
○ Coding cycles of 5 to 7 minutes
○ Replace driver, pick a new co-pilot from audience
● Make a quick retrospective
○ What can we improve next time?

12. TDD cycle - Red, Green, Refactor
Source: http://blog.spec-india.com/spec-india-implemented-test-driven-developmenttdd

13. Pre-conditions
● Safe environment
○ Respect everybody
○ There are no dumb questions
○ Making mistakes is part of the process
○ Constructive criticism is welcome
○ Everybody helps each other
● Desire to improve your craft

14. Goals
●
●
●
●
●
The main goal is to learn
Finishing the challenge is a detail
It should be fun!
It isn't a competition
It isn't an exhibition

15. Resources
● http://codingdojo.org/
● http://rubyquiz.com/
● http://pragprog.com/book/ebdojo - The
Coding Dojo Handbook

16. We're hiring!
http://carrieres.iweb.com/en

17. Questions

18. Merci à tous
rrosa@iweb.com / @rafaelrosafu
www.iweb.com
@iweb