Danielle Bagaforo Meer was a 17-year-old programmer when they joined StackLeague 2021. Then a Grade 12 student at iACADEMY Nexys, they chose to challenge themselves to become one of the finest programmers in the Philippines and has taken a giant leap forward towards that goal. Despite being so young and having to compete with the pros, it didn't stop them from joining the league and conquering the challenge!

Get to learn more about them and their experiences in the league!

What is your first programming language? C++

Walk us through your day. What's a typical day like for you? As a 17-year-old teenager, I'm at the stage where I'm exploring and exhausting all my options towards the path of my dream to be the best programmer in the Philippines.

To be the best I must first hone my skills in Data Structures and Algorithms (My favorite Programming Class) that's why I usually solve and collect my solutions at challenge sites like Codewars, Project Euler, Frontendmentor, and Mlpro. I'm focused on Mlpro at the moment. At that website, I learn principles and concepts to solve Machine Learning Problems through Python's Library Numpy and MATLAB's Image Processing Toolbox for Computer Vision problems. Another Good Source of Information about Machine Learning is Kaggle. There I can apply the algorithms I learned at Mlpro to my advantage to analyze datasets given at kaggle competitions.

If I'm not in the mood to solve programming problems. I usually listen to music, play video games, watch cute animals and so much more.

What are the benefits you've gained so far in joining StackLeague? The Benefit of joining StackLeague is that you get to be exposed to difficult and perplexing problems that require a good grasp of certain concepts, principles, and experience to be able to conquer them.

A personal benefit for me as a student is that I get to know where the best of the best programmers in the Philippines studied. This Tournament will make an impact on my decisions in the future.

What was your motivation in joining StackLeague? I was not confident that I would be in the top 50 nor top 10 because I would face competitors who are certified professionals in the tech industry unlike myself. but I still joined because it was an opportunity to experience and witness the 5k other passionate programmers do their best and prove themselves in the tournament.

I was also so into the idea of what StackLeague marketed: to be the largest coding e-sports in the Philippines. So I practiced every single day to improve my skills and hoping that one day I will be an exception among fellow programmers.

Can you share some league strategies you use which your fellow StackLeague contestants can learn from? I don't have any strategies to offer other than the fact to never give up.

What is your advice to young ones out there who want to be a programmer like you? From my perspective, programming is not for the faint of heart. The way I'm learning new languages, principles, and concepts was through algorithm challenges that required me to fail a lot of times. However, we should know the fact that we can choose where and when to fail. That's why I encourage people who are still young like me to go to challenge sites like StackLeague to be exposed to this kind of difficulty and learn how to solve certain types of problems efficiently. After solving a problem I also recommend that you collect your solutions for future references in case you encounter a similar problem.

Another way many people can learn how to program is to watch and follow the programming tutorials online. Therefore the solution to the question "How to be a programmer?" is dependent on your Learning Style.

Connect with Danielle HERE.