• Practice starting a code challenge.

Towards the end of each phase of this course, you'll receive an assessment in the form of a code challenge. This code challenge is a chance for you to show off how much you've learned, see where you are in terms of grasping the material, and get feedback from us on ways to improve or areas to work on further.

The workflow for starting and completing a code challenge is different from what you're used to, and this lesson will walk you through the steps. This ensures that when the time for code challenges arrives, you can be confident your machine is properly set up to complete one and just focus on the challenge at hand.

Instead of forking and cloning a GitHub repository like you do for all your labs, you will download a .zip file and use what is called a GitHub bundle. A code challenge bundle will hold all the instructions and any starter code you need for the challenge. We will learn how to use a bundle in this section.

To practice these steps, download this mock code challenge zip file:

Note: This is not an actual code challenge, we are just practicing the process you will use later on.

Once you've downloaded the .zip file, follow along with the steps below to open the bundle:

1. Unzip the file on your computer.
2. In your terminal, change directory (cd) into the unzipped challenge directory.
3. Run ls; you should see a bin/ directory and a code-challenge-practice.bundle file.
4. Run ./bin/start.py <your-name> from the directory; this will create a new directory called code-challenge-practice/.
   • If you receive permission errors during this step, run chmod +x ./bin/start.py to give the file executable permissions, then try again.
5. Change directory into the new code-challenge-practice/ directory and open it in your code editor.

The steps above give you access to all the content of the bundle. In a normal code challenge, you would then read through the README.md to find and follow the instructions for the challenge. As you work, you would use some familiar git commands to save your work. Let's practice that as well:

1. In your code editor and the terminal, ensure that you're in the code-challenge-practice/ directory.
2. Follow the instructions in the README.md file.
3. Once you're done, git add . and git commit with a message. This will save all your work.

Instead of pushing your work up to a GitHub repository like you're used to, you will bundle up your work to be uploaded onto Canvas. Again, you will use a provided script to do so.

1. In the terminal, navigate back up to the parent directory of code-challenge-practice/, which should be mock for this lesson.
2. Run ./bin/end.py, which will create a new file, <your-name>.bundle in that directory (for example, alicia.bundle).
   • If you receive permission errors during this step, run chmod +x ./bin/end.py to give the file executable permissions, then try again.
3. Navigate back to this assignment in Canvas.
4. Upload <your-name>.bundle to the assignment and submit.

With that, you've successfully gone through the process of starting and completing a code challenge!

If you were unable to complete any part of this process, please reach out to your instructors immediately. Be sure you are able to complete this mock challenge well before your first official challenge day.