Reflecting on Growth: My Journey in CST 338 from HW1 to Now

Looking back at HW1, I’m really proud of how much my skills have grown over the semester. At the beginning, I was mainly focused on just getting my code to work and pass the tests, but now I approach assignments with more planning and structure. I’ve learned to break problems into smaller, manageable pieces and write modular, clean code that’s easier to debug and maintain. One big victory for me was gaining confidence with inheritance and polymorphism—I now understand how to design base classes and child classes that share logic without unnecessary repetition, which made later assignments much smoother.

Another important area of growth has been my understanding and use of unit tests. Early on, unit testing felt unfamiliar and sometimes frustrating, but now I see it as a powerful tool that improves both the quality of my code and my ability to catch edge cases before they become problems. I also feel more comfortable applying access modifiers properly to encapsulate data and protect class integrity. Finally, becoming more proficient with version control—integrating GitHub with IntelliJ and managing branches—has been a practical skill that will help me work collaboratively in real-world projects. Overall, I’m proud of my progress and excited to build on this foundation moving forward.

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