Reflections on the 100 Days of Code Challenge

Earlier this year, I completed the 100 days of code challenge, where I coded for (almost) 100 consecutive days. 

What is 100 days of code?

I’m sure that most people in the tech space are already familiar with the 100 days of code challenge. In short, it’s a challenge created by Alexander Kallaway to spend at least an hour coding for 100 days in a row, and to post about your progress on platforms like Twitter and GitHub. More details can be found at 100daysofcode.com or the official repo.

The 100 days of code challenge has garnered a lot of attention in the tech community, and different variations such as Angela Yu’s 100 days of python course have emerged. 

My Approach to 100 Days of Code

For my 100 days of code, I didn’t specialize in a specific language or topic. I did a mix of theory (tutorial videos, podcasts, etc.) and hands-on practice, on a wide range of topics. 

I work full-time, have a decent social life, and recently got married. Besides normal things like being in a bad mood, there were circumstances like slow wi-fi on the plane while traveling and preparing for my wedding. So I skipped a few days here and there when I needed to, but I made sure never to skip simply because I wasn’t motivated.

Motivation

I struggled with a lack of motivation, especially around the 40-60 days mark. For me, coding is a fun hobby and also useful for my job, where I’m often tasked with developing automation solutions or analyzing large datasets. However, I’m not a software engineer or game developer, so it’s not necessarily essential for my job. I probably would‘ve been more motivated if I actually wrote code for a living, but since I don’t, there were definitely days where I felt unmotivated. 

On day 47, I attended Pycon HK 2024, and that really helped to motivate me again. A former colleague of mine was presenting a lightning talk, so I decided to go and check it out for a few hours. Although I could have just watched the talks online, physically going to the venue was a nice change of pace, and being in the same environment as other developers with similar interests was inspiring to me.

After attending Pycon and regaining my motivation, I did then watch more python videos online as well as listened to some interesting data science podcasts like Learning Bayesian Statistics and Not So Standard Deviations.

What I Learned from 100 Days of Code

Going into the challenge, my goals were to work on long-term projects that I normally didn’t have enough time for, and publish technical blog posts. 

Here is a list of things that I achieved from 100 Days of Code:

• gohan_dousuru: an automation project using html/css, JavaScript, python, and R to generate meal plans and grocery lists for daily cooking.

• Improved my web development skills (tailwind css, WordPress theme customizations, cross-browser compatibility)

• Improved my technical skills on Salesforce Marketing Cloud (CloudPages, SSJS, API requests in Postman, pixel tracking) 

• Aside from this post, I published 2 technical blog posts: How to Improve the Accuracy of Facebook Prophet Forecasts and How to Develop Good Coding Habits.

Will I do the challenge again? Probably not soon, because I’m working on some other things these days. Will I continue coding? Hell yeah! I'm

“Don’t wait until everything is just right. It will never be perfect. There will always be challenges, obstacles and less than perfect conditions. So what. Get started now. With each step you take, you will grow stronger and stronger, more and more skilled, more and more self-confident and more and more successful.” — Mark Victor Hansen