My Code vs AI(Co-Pilot): I Spent About 75 Minutes Solving a Pyramid Problem on CodeSignal — Here's What I Learned

Today I went on CodeSignal looking for a fun coding challenge to sharpen my JavaScript skills. I came across an ASCII art problem that looked deceptively simple:

Can you generate a pyramid of asterisks with N rows?
Each level adds two more stars than the level above, centered with proper spacing.

Here's what it looks like for N = 5:

    *    
   ***   
  *****  
 ******* 
*********

And for N = 10? That’s what I set out to build.

⏳ Time Spent: 1 Hour 15 Minutes

I took this challenge seriously—no AI help. I wanted to test my problem-solving process.

Here’s my final code after 75 minutes:

const printChar = "*";

function buildPyramid(rows){
    var asteriskCount = rows * 2;
    var pyramid = [];
    var spaceCount = 0;
    for(i = 0; i < rows; i++){
        var asterisks = "";
        for(c = 0; c < (asteriskCount - 1); c++){
            asterisks += printChar;
        }
        pyramid.push(addSpace(asterisks, spaceCount));
        asteriskCount -= 2;
        spaceCount += 2;
    }
    
    return pyramid.reverse();
}

function addSpace(item, spaceCount){
    var before = "", after = "";
    const space = " ";
    for(i = 0; i < (spaceCount / 2); i++){
        before += space;
        after += space;
    }
    return before + item + after;
}

console.log(buildPyramid(10));

🤖 AI's Solution (Much Simpler)

Out of curiosity, I later asked Copilot/AI to solve it, and this was its version:

(Q)Can you write a program that generates this pyramid with a N value of 10 in JavaScript? 

function generatePyramid(N) {
  for (let i = 1; i <= N; i++) {
    const spaces = ' '.repeat(N - i);
    const stars = '*'.repeat(2 * i - 1);
    console.log(spaces + stars);
  }
}

generatePyramid(10);

💡 Takeaways

• Don't overthink simple problems: I went deep with logic and arrays, while the AI focused on core string operations.
• Learning happens in the process: Writing my own solution helped me practice nested loops, string manipulation, and thinking in reverse order.
• AI is a powerful reference, but it's also satisfying to struggle and arrive at your own solution.

If you’re learning JavaScript or just want to keep your brain sharp, try solving small visual problems like this. You’d be surprised how much you can learn from 10 rows of asterisks.

👨🏽‍💻 Have you solved something cool lately? Drop a link or comment below!

From Go Tour to Go by Example: My Real Journey Into Golang

Go Programming Update: From Go Tour to Go by Example

Hello again! How’s it going out there?

Here’s another update just for you.

✅ What’s Next After “A Tour of Go”?

After completing the Go Tour, I moved on to the next learning resource — Go by Example. It’s a practical, snippet-based guide that teaches Go through annotated code examples.

But before diving deep, I had to set up an IDE for actual development.

💻 Choosing an IDE: LiteIDE vs VSCode

There are many editors out there, but I narrowed it down to two major options:

• Go LiteIDE
• VS Code with Go extensions

I decided to start with Go LiteIDE to get a more native experience.

⚙️ Installing Go LiteIDE Wasn't So Easy

Installing LiteIDE wasn’t as straightforward as I expected. It took me several minutes and a few web searches to get it right.

I had to follow multiple setup steps, but eventually, it worked.
📌 Spoiler alert: I’ll be writing a separate post on how to install and set up LiteIDE for Go.

🧠 My Observations So Far

1. Go Strings Use Double Quotes Only

Unlike languages like JavaScript and Python, where both ' and " work, in Go, strings must be in double quotes (").
Single quotes (') are for runes, not strings.

2. if/else Syntax Must Be Properly Aligned

Go is strict about how you write if/else.
This will not work:

if 1 == 1 {
    // do something
}
else {
    // error: unexpected else
}

This is the correct way:

if 1 == 1 {
    // do something
} else {
    // now it's valid
}

3. Still No Section About Comments or String Concatenation

So far, I haven’t seen an example of how to:

• Add comments
• Concatenate strings

This suggests that Go expects some prior programming experience from its users. It’s not hand-holding like beginner-friendly languages.

4. Arrays vs Slices in Go

Here’s a simple example to show the difference:

array := [3]string{"j", "d", "d"}     // Array
slice := []string{"j", "d", "d"}      // Slice

An array has a fixed size specified inside the square brackets.
A slice doesn’t specify the size and is more flexible.
They look similar but behave differently.

🧵 Final Thoughts (For Today)

Go continues to be an outstanding language — clean, powerful, and strict.
It forces you to think like a low-level systems developer, even while giving you modern conveniences.

I’m still getting used to the syntax and structure, but every day I learn something new that surprises me.

Until the next update — keep learning, and stay curious. 👋🏽

Learning Go: My Honest Thoughts After Completing the Go Tour in 2 Days

Go Programming Update: Day 2 – The Weird, the Wonderful, and the “Why Though?”

Hello again, and thank you for taking a moment to read through.

I understand your time is valuable, so I’ll keep this brief going forward.

🧠 Yesterday Was... Interesting.

Yesterday was another opportunity to experience something brilliantly human: a programming language created by man — Go.

Now, here are a few things I’ve learned that made me pause and go, “Wait, what?”

"In Go, it's common to write methods that gracefully handle being called with a nil receiver."

But… look at this code:

package main

import "fmt"

type I interface {
    M()
}

type T struct {
    S string
}

func (t *T) M() {
    if t == nil {
        fmt.Println("<nil>")
        return
    }
    fmt.Println(t.S)
}

func main() {
    var i I

    var t *T
    t.S = ""
    i = t
    describe(i)
    i.M()

    i = &T{"hello"}
    describe(i)
    i.M()
}

func describe(i I) {
    fmt.Printf("(%v, %T)\n", i, i)
}

Output:

panic: runtime error: invalid memory address or nil pointer dereference

There's nothing “graceful” about that! 😅

But honestly, if I had seen this code a week ago, I could only understand maybe 30% of it. Go code feels more like advanced programming—almost in the league of low-level languages.

🧱 Constructors and NewSomething

Then I stumbled on this: image.NewRGBA.

That threw me off completely at first. Coming from PHP or JavaScript, I assumed New was part of the method name.

Turns out, New is a convention, not a keyword. The actual type is image.RGBA. Go uses NewTypeName() to return an initialized instance — like a constructor function.

🟰 nil Instead of null

Go doesn’t use null — it uses nil.

🚫 The Underscore _ Is Not Just a Placeholder

for _, v := range arr {
    // Do something with v only
}

_, ok := someFunc()

The underscore isn’t decorative — it literally means: “Ignore this.”

💡 Keep an Open Mind

If this is your first time learning Go, please… don’t get your hopes too high in the first few days.

You're going to say “Hmm, this is weird” more than once.

• No shorthand if statements — braces {} are required.
• No class keyword — methods are tied to types via receivers.
• No inheritance — Go favors composition.
• Go forces unused imports and variables to be removed — and that's a good thing.

🧬 Go Method Syntax

func (receiver Type) MethodName(arg ArgType) ReturnType {
    // ...
}

If you don’t have a receiver, it's just a function. With a receiver, it becomes a method.

🔠 Naming Conventions

Go uses PascalCase like this: ErrNegativeSqrt.

I’m used to camelCase and snake_case, so this is another learning curve.

🧠 Old Habits Die Hard

I still find myself:

• Using () in if statements
• Ending lines with ;
• Trying to destructure like it’s JavaScript 😅

But that’s okay — it’s part of the learning curve.

🎉 I Completed the Tour of Go!

In just 2 days, I finished the official Go Tour tutorials! 🎉

I’m proud of this progress. It’s a strong start, and I’m beginning to appreciate the beauty and simplicity Go aims for — even if it’s not always obvious at first.

💙 Onward and Deeper

Next, I’ll dive into more advanced Go concepts: goroutines, channels, error handling, map, struct, slice and possibly building an API.

Until my next update, stay safe and stay healthy.

Learning Go Programming as a Web Developer: My First Impressions and 4-Week Plan

So I Started Learning Go

I recently began learning the Go programming language after putting it off for years, considering it unimportant on my to-do list.

My First Look: A Tour of Go

Go is a simple and clean programming language that experienced web developers can pick up fairly quickly.

My goal is to learn Go in under 4 weeks with an aggressive approach.

As developers, many of us get bored when we spend too long learning a new language. We often abandon it and move on to something more exciting. That’s exactly why I’ve set a strict deadline—to stay focused and committed.

The Go syntax reminds me of TypeScript, Python, and maybe even Java—they share some similarities.

Go doesn't care about semicolons (;), and I see now why it's better suited for developers with some programming experience.

Go may not be the best choice for absolute beginners. It has a few advanced concepts that take time to grasp. But honestly, with discipline and determination, anyone can learn it.

One thing I find impressive is how Go handles imports. You can import packages that aren’t even on your server—pretty neat!

Oh yes, if you've used Java before, you’ll recognize the use of main. In Go, everything starts with:

package main

import "fmt"

func main() {
    fmt.Println("Hello, world!")
}

The way Go defines variables is also cool. You can use the var keyword, or a shorthand := for quick declarations.

Constants are declared using the const keyword, and you can define typed or untyped constants.

Go also has something called slices, which are like advanced arrays. To be honest, I initially found them a bit confusing. Why not just improve arrays? Why introduce slices? Maybe it’s just the tutorial that didn’t explain it well.

One thing I do appreciate is how Go handles loops. It's clean—no unnecessary complications. Just a simple for loop. I wish arrays were that straightforward too.

Unlike other languages like PHP, JavaScript, Node.js, Java, Kotlin, or TypeScript, Go keeps looping simple. There’s no for-in, foreach, while, do-while, or any of that mess. Just for. 😁

Final Thoughts

So far, Go isn’t as fast as I expected—but maybe I haven’t dug deep enough yet. I’m still exploring and plan to share more updates soon.

Stay tuned...