Asking Questions
Often trainees at Code Your Future find it difficult to get help. This is because we are dealing with complicated questions that people need lots of details about to be able to answer. To debug code, mentors need to be able to see and work with the exact code you are running. To help solve problems, mentors need to understand the exact problem you are working on. So when you ask questions, to get proper help quickly, put as much context into your question as you can.
In order to make it possible for people to answer your questions when asking for help, it’s important that you give, at minimum, the following information:
- The homework that you’re working on
- What isn’t working in your code, or what you don’t understand
- What you expect to happen
- A link to your pull request or Gist or Replit (not a screenshot)
Use this template:
Request for help
Coursework:
Problem:
Expected:
Code:
For example
Request for help
Coursework: HTML-CSS Module Project (Form Controls)
Problem: The headings on my website don’t look right.
Expected: The heading should be much bigger than the other text on the page. I’ve tried to use a H1 tag but it doesn’t seem to do anything.
Code: https://github.com/CodeYourFuture/Module-HTML-CSS/pull/1234
Question Check List
Before asking a question check in with yourself and make sure you have done the following:
I have…
- done some research myself
- explained what I’ve already tried to solve my problem
- specified which language and platform I’m using, including version number where relevant
- written my code as a short but complete program
- formatted my code
- checked my spelling and grammar
- pasted the exact error message, if there is one
- stated what I expected, why I expected it, and the actual results
- read the whole question carefully, to make sure it makes sense and contains enough information for someone coming to it without any of the context that I already know?
After you’ve asked your question you should check:
- Are you monitoring your questions and replying to people giving their time to help you?
- Have you been asked for a Minimum Reproducible Example?
- Have you posted an easy to understand answer to your questions that includes everything you learnt
By completing all of these steps you make it really easy for other students to learn from your question and for you to get help quickly. Together, you and your colleagues will build up a shared knowledge base you can search and share.
You also make yourself a better developer. Describing problems clearly and systematically is an important skill for a developer.