Reviewing Ruby and Rails

Preparing for job interviews

I’m looking for my first Rails job. The dreaded technical interview seems to be rare in the Ruby world, but even for saner interviews it helps to be prepared. So here’s what I’m reading (in some cases, re-reading) to shore up my Ruby knowledge this month. (If you’re just starting out, see my study plan for a full guide to the Ruby and Rails resources that have helped me most, including lots of free books and courses.)

• Testing: Jason Swett - The Complete Guide to Rails Testing
• Code smells and design patterns:
  • Thoughtbot - Ruby Science (free)
  • Refactoring.Guru (free)
  • Head First Design Patterns
• OOP: Sandi Metz - Practical Object-Oriented Design: An Agile Primer Using Ruby
• Ruby and Rails:
  • The Well-Grounded Rubyist
  • Ruby Interview Questions and Rails Interview Questions (free Android apps)
  • Full Stack Ruby on Rails at The Odin Project (free) — this is a long one, so I don’t expect to finish it this month.

If you’re wondering why I’ve omitted LeetCode and HackerRank, it’s because I prefer building real apps. That way, not only do I grapple with more realistic problems, but also I have an app to show off in the end. Plus, as this is my first focused effort to improve my Rails testing, it’s a good opportunity to spin up a new app using good testing pratices from the start. More on that in the next post!