l33ttango

Essay Answers

Why are you interested in programming? What have you done to expose yourself to programming so far?

As a serious do-it-yourselfer, I love learning and creating new things on my own. Learning and teaching myself computer programming has been fun and interesting, especially given my background in mathematics. First, it feeds my desire to create. Also, I am someone who loves to pick things apart and the detail-oriented nature of programming feels like a place where I can be myself. I want a job where I can be creative and use my intellect to the fullest. Until recently I have learned and taught myself the Python programming language as a tool to solve Project Euler problems. Project Euler is a set of difficult math problems that can best be solved using computers. I've taken several online classes in Python, SQL and Python data analysis. Recently, I acquired a Linux computer, so I have started learning more about Linux. It is quite intimidating for a newbie!

**What are your professi

l33ttango

# Essay Answers

**Why are you interested in programming? What have you done to expose yourself to programming so far?**

As a serious do-it-yourselfer, I love learning and creating new things on my own.   Learning and teaching myself computer programming has been fun and interesting, especially given my background in mathematics.  First, it feeds my desire to create.  Also, I am someone who loves to pick things apart and the detail-oriented nature of programming feels like a place where I can be myself. I want a job where I can be creative and use my intellect to the fullest.
Until recently I have learned and taught myself the Python programming language as a tool to solve Project Euler problems. Project Euler is a set of difficult math problems that can best be solved using computers. I've taken several online classes in Python, SQL and Python data analysis. Recently, I acquired a Linux computer, so I have started learning more about Linux. It is quite intimidating for a newbie!   

**What are your professi

l33ttango

1. Why are you interested in programming? What have you done to expose yourself to programming so far?

As a serious do-it-yourselfer, I love learning and creating new things on my own.   Learning and teaching myself computer programming has been fun and interesting, especially given my background in mathematics.  First, it feeds my desire to create.  Also, I am someone who loves to pick things apart and the detail-oriented nature of programming feels like a place where I can be myself. I want a job where I can be creative and use my intellect to the fullest.
Until recently I have learned and taught myself the Python programming language as a tool to solve Project Euler problems. Project Euler is a set of difficult math problems that can best be solved using computers. I've taken several online classes in Python, SQL and Python data analysis. Recently, I acquired a Linux computer, so I have started learning more about Linux. It is quite intimidating for a newbie!   

2. What are your professional goals for th

l33ttango

Question 3: How many US farmers markets are between the Rocky Mountains and the Mississippi river?

Answer: There are approximately 692 U.S. farmers markets between the Rocky Mountains and the Mississippi River.

Explanation of techniques used:

This was a deliciously tricky question! I would love to see the best estimate of this and learn other methods to this solution. I first tried to identify an equation or other method for determining if a point is to the west or east of a major geological feature. I figured that, surely somewhere someone had created a database mapping the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains at their latitudes and longitudes. As I did not have much luck finding such a database via Google, I set off on creating my own method for determining if a city is between a pair of geographical boundaries. I started on the more difficult boundary: the Rocky Mountains. First, I chose cities along the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains (see Figure 1), then used Wikipedia to find the lati

l33ttango

Question 1: How many markets sell vegetables, but not anything sweet?

Answer: There are 179 markets that sell vegetables, but nothing sweet.

Explanation of techniques used: I imported the CSV file into Microsoft Excel and used the following “countifs” command to solve this problem:

=COUNTIFS(Y2:Y8146, "N", AF2:AF8146, "Y", AG2:AG8146, "N", AH2:AH8146, "N", AI2:AI8146, "N", L2:L8146, 1)

Where the Y column refers to Baked Goods, the AF column refers to Vegetables, the AG column refers to Honey, the AH column refers to Jams, the AI column refers to Maple and the L2 column refers to the number of words in the city name.

l33ttango

Technical Reading Assessment

Question 3

1. What does the command “bundle gem foodie” do?

This command creates a "scaffold directory" containing a set of sub-directories and files that are the starting point for a new RubyGem called "foodie." That scaffold directory is organized as follows:

• Gemfile

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Cave Gnome Logic Assessment

Question 5

Read the logic assessment and respond to the questions below.
A group of cave gnomes, while in a dark cave, have their foreheads painted red or blue. They cannot see the color of their own foreheads, or anything else while they are in the cave. The gnomes are asked to exit the cave one by one and automatically sort themselves by color without communicating in any way after they leave the cave (verbal or non-verbal).

1. How did they do this?
2. How did you arrive at that answer? Show your process.
3. What other possible answers are there?

l33ttango

Tarot Reader Logic Assessment

Question 4

Read the logic assessment and respond to the questions below in Markdown via GitHub Gist.

*Bookis had had a splitting headache for days. He had tried everything he could think of to get some relief and nothing was working. He asked his mother for advice. She said, “go visit the tarot card reader on 15th and he’ll know just the cure.” Bookis was skeptical but desperate, so he decided to give it a shot. Upon entering the store, the tarot card reader said, “You’ve got a headache. I’ve got a potion to cure you, but you’ll have to guess the weights of my three prized cats (in whole kilograms).” *
Bookis said he was game, but that he needed a hint. The tarot card reader said, “If you multiply the weight of each, you get 36.”
*Bookis thought for a moment and said, “I need another hint.” The tarot card reader said, “If you add their weights, it's the same as the price of a tarot reading.” The tarot reader pointed at the board behind the counter with the