Yesterday I assigned myself a task to implement some backend logic in a microservice.

Having a simple mental that can be used to solve different problems is quintessential to speed and quality in software engineering.

We’re going to talk about a little bit of math and why it’s important for designing and debugging code. y = f(x) is commonly referred to as a “functional notation”. It is a mathematical equation that represents a relationship between two variables, x and y.

Every so often, I come across Merge Request that slowly grow in size. They start out as 100 lines of code change, then 20 commits later it’s 500 lines long! This is a symptom of poor planning and task break down.

As a busy professional, I really appreciate breaking every task down into smaller subtasks. If a ticket has 2 or more things that can be done separately, I prefer to do them separately.

I reminded the team that it’s important to create and use your own Problem Solving Template. This should be based on your strengths and weaknesses as an engineer. I highly recommend reading chapter 1 and 8 in the book Think Like a Programmer.