programr.com | Website for Programmers | Informative Reviews

http://www.programr.com is a website developed by a Pune, India based start-up. The site is aimed for developers (both the experts and to be). They claim that you can learn, practice and showcase your IT skills online. Let us take a dig at the site.

The interface of the site is comparatively neat and easy to go through. The code details page are a little more resource hungry and loading the same takes a while, but the content there is coming in readable manner and that is what you will love. The only thing you need to take care is having a little faster Internet connection to use it flawlessly.

It is not always necessary that a learner have very tough question to solve. It may be that he/she came to find the basic solution of very basic need. For example you are a PHP programmer and you want to check whether a variable is already defined or not. The site have such basic examples too (http://www.programr.com/PHP/Checking_Variable), which can help novice programmers to go ahead. When testing the code, make sure your pop-up blocker doesn’t prevent it opening.

The programming languages for which learners (and for that matter expert’s too) corner available are:

Sometimes, the side product is also important for example when watching the flash segment, you might find some geometry related stuff in the same, which is interesting and you will stop there to watch it!

The techies might be interested more in the Code Challenge section there (Direct link for quick reference: http://www.programr.com/challenges). Your programming skills can earn you some points on the site in addition to additional $s! There are programming challenges displayed there and you can submit your code by following their guidelines. Based on the coding standard you followed and the logic you have used it is decided so more smarter you can be in terms of code and logic is better for you :). Like KBC (Kaun Banega Crorepati – the famous Indian quiz show), it have the simple (yet tricky) challenges, so don’t think that you cannot try them. Some of the examples are (In languages C++/Java/C#):

• Print Binary Triangle
• String Sort
• Multiplication Table
• Factorial of a given number
• Decimal to Octal Conversion
• Triangular Numbers

Seems achievable right? Just go for it then.

They offer some online courses also, here you can en-cash your points! which is a good thing. Try it this way, if you are expert in PHP, earn points using your skills (and $s too); use them to learn Basic Java development; you got your course for free! Though, there are only a few online courses offered here, so you may not learn something like Android development or iOS development for free, as of now. The catalog of online courses is available at: http://www.programr.com/courses.

Don’t disappoint though, there are coding contests also. It seems that they run contents on monthly bases, as of now, contests for January 2012 are closed and Feb 2012 are still open and of course, the March is approaching, so you may have more contests to participate and win :). A good program must have easy UI and helpful documentation, the secret behind Microsoft’s success! So the contests are also having that included in the Judgement criteria, which includes the following:

• Technical merit (20%)
• Innovation and creativity (20%)
• User Interface/design (20%)
• User Votes (20%)
• Technical write up that details the App’s technical solution (20%)

Also there is no sitemap for easy navigation (though the menu is user friendly). Worth to note that it is a commercial venture so not everything for free is available, but as mentioned above, there are chances to earn and en-cash those earning there too! So you can go for it! Just join there, and share with us your real experiences here via comments, and we will be delighted to share them with our other readers (subjected to moderation).