What it takes to become a Software Architect

I had many conversations with software engineers in various domains and disciplines during the past 20 years of my career as a software engineer and software architect. Some of them were senior engineers having 8 or 10 years of experience. Many of them were early in their career having 3 to 5 years of experience. Some of them were my colleagues.... Read more 19 Jul 2022 by Alan Tai

What makes quantum computing that different

The Why, the How, and the What

As Richard Feynman said, no one really understands quantum mechanics. I have done a lot of research work for writing this article, and I hope it could give you a head start to explore the amazing quantum world. But if you find it hard to understand, well, that is normal. I also found quantum theory weird and hard to believe. What makes quantum ... Read more 08 Jan 2020 by Alan Tai

16 deadly code smells - Part 2

Code smells that are considered fatal during coding interviews

Every programming language has one or more coding style guidelines. All developers know that but some of them don’t care. They practice bad programming habits for years without realizing the importance of the issues they caused. As one of the hiring managers at Zuhlke Hong Kong, I’ve seen a lot of code smells during coding interviews. Here are ... Read more 04 Aug 2019 by Alan Tai

16 deadly code smells - Part 1

Code smells that are considered fatal during coding interviews

Every programming language has one or more coding style guidelines. All developers know that but some of them don’t care. They practice bad programming habits for years without realizing the importance of the issues they caused. As one of the hiring managers at Zuhlke Hong Kong, I’ve seen a lot of code smells during coding interviews. Here are ... Read more 03 Aug 2019 by Alan Tai

Why don’t developers use TDD in practice

How to make TDD great again

Like everything that comes under the name of Agile, Test Driven Development (TDD) is something that sounds great in theory. In practice, it is unclear how to do it right. You are often told that if you don’t like it, you are doing it wrong. It comes as no surprise that most developers I’ve met could explain the benefits of using TDD while none o... Read more 11 Jul 2019 by Alan Tai