Odin Discord Helping Guide

helping_guide.md

HOW TO HELP OTHERS SOLVE CODING PROBLEMS

1. Help only with problems you are certain you know how to solve in the correct way.

   • It’s great to want to help other people in their coding journey, but if your advice is bad, you are actually doing more harm than good. Before responding, ask yourself, “Am I 100% sure I know the right way to solve this problem?”
   • If the question seems confusing or ambiguous, ask for more clarity, or kindly link them to /question.

2. Try to not give the answer straight-up.

   • As a learner, it is easy to feel demoralized by problems you don’t know how to solve. When someone asks for help, giving them the answer can be a defeating experience, because they know they didn’t figure it out themselves. Additionally, you are not doing them any favors as a learner by giving them the answer.
   • Instead, try asking good questions to lead them toward figuring the problem out for themselves, such as “What do you expect this function to do?”, or “What do you think that error means?” This teaches good debugging skills and helps the asker feel more confident in their ability to solve problems.
   • If the problem is a simple typo or missed character it's okay to point that out.

3. Be patient.

   • Try not to begin helping someone with a large problem if you don’t have time to spend seeing the problem through for a few minutes.

4. If the asker lacks serious knowledge, point them to the resource they should brush up on, gracefully.

   • It's common to start getting impatient as a student, or think we know more than we actually do - it happens to everyone. If you are helping a student who seems way over their head, kindly encourage them to go back and reread a section of the curriculum they are not understanding.

5. Know when the problem is over your own head, and duck out.

   • Sometimes there are multiple problems, or the issue you are helping with escalated over your head. That’s okay! Just admit when things are above your knowledge level and wait for someone more experienced to come along.