Ask HN: How to know when you're intermediate level?

19 points·curiousgal··5 comments

Let's take Python for example. What skills, concepts, libraries, and knowledge do Python programmers who consider themselves intermediate/advanced have? How do you know when you are no longer a beginner?

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The Programmer Competency Matrix is a reasonable [and general] way of looking at the issue: http://sijinjoseph.com/programmer-competency-matrix/

On the other hand, one of the most influential essays I've read on Hacker News: https://sivers.org/below-average raises the question of why would anyone not want to be a beginner.

Norvig puts it perhaps more palatably: http://norvig.com/21-days.html

Good luck.

Those were among the best articles I've ever read online! Thank you so so much!!

If you're talking about applying for a job, let the interviewer/employer decide if you're the right fit. Labels like "intermediate" are subjective, nebulous, and not widely agreed-upon.

For your own purposes, apply for jobs (or try out projects) that seem out of your depth. Break them up into chunks and Google your way through them.

On a related note, startups, especially early-stage ones, often inflate job titles.

One thing you could is step through the more advanced O'Reilly books for Python, or whatever topic, and see how much you already know. They happen to have quite a large collection of good Python books.

beside skill level I found there exist also domains of application. Given that programming is applied to many fields, it would be challenging to work with everything, like biochemistry or launching rockets etc.

I had the same questions as you, and I confirm those labels are subjective, so I stopped feeling not experienced enough.

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