Google India Challenge Scholarship Experience : Mobile Web Specialist

How did I get to know about Udacity?
When I got in college I was well familiar with C++ but didn’t have any idea about the software development. Then, there was a buzz in 3rd semester about Applied CS with Android, as name of Google was associated with it and teachers are no other than our great seniors so I filled application for it and got opportunity to attend that course but I wasn’t aware that the course requires basic knowledge of Android because it was mainly focussed on CS part. So, some of my friends suggested Udacity’s free basic Android course. I decided to give that a try and I loved it. The manner in which curriculum was taught was awesome! After that, whenever I wanted to learn something new, the first name come to my mind is of Udacity.

I have taken their “Intro to HTML and CSS”, “How to use Git and Github”, “Android Development for Beginners ” and some more courses. The knowledge I got from each course has really played a crucial part in developing my skills.

How I started the jouney
As this scholarship is designed by Udacity and Google, so magic was expected to be there and guess what it turned out to be another great experience.

I showed a little enthusiasm at the start of the course in forums and slack channels but whenever I got free time for the course, I spend them in fun learning and ensured that I complete curriculum in time, members of slack channel was always there to help, actually the organisation of resources by moderators are so in right place that I never got troubled about any deadline or course direction.

Finally, after my practical exams, I got some holidays and I completed the remaining quizzes, project, etc. I couldn’t believe I completed the course 100% with all deadlines in time. Happy to be the part of such a great course and community.

Technologies I learned

1. Service Workers: I was aware of the service workers before that haven’t practiced it too extensively. I worked on sample project and made it work offline that was amazing.
2. IndexedDB and Caching: The second lesson was aimed at caching though and storing data using IndexedDB. It was new to me but I found the course content was great and instructors delivered it so well — so no doubt at all.
3. Syntax and Functions: These are the third and fourth lesson of the course — aimed at imparting new ES6 specifications and features. Although I don’t develop much using JS(being Rails lover), but the large number of quizzes ensured that I got well trained with ES6 syntax and functions.
4. Built-ins: This is the part of course where I started with enthusiast when I heard terms like Maps, Sets, etc. and I completed the 70% part of this lesson easily but other 30% was a little boring due to less number of code in that part but anyways I completed this lesson too.
5. Professional Developer-fu: This was the last lesson of the course where I learned about using ES6 in my current JS projects. I really loved the last lesson as going through this chapter was giving me ideas about new technologies I can learn and contribute to.

Overall Experience
Awesome !!! Credits for this awesome experience goes to Google, Udacity and most importantly to the moderators and lead Akshit Jain for playing their part so well.

Thank you Udacity India for selecting me for Phase-I of the Google India Mobile web scholarship. Looking forward to the Phase-II selection and to start a new journey soon.