M220P feedback, from a Linux/Security person

MongoDB University M220P: MongoDB for Python Developers
#1

Hi guys, @Kanika, @mattjavaly and the rest of the crew,

I am sorry to say that M220P is the first MongoU course that I’m honestly not enjoying. M001 was a nice intro, M103 was right up my alley as sysadmin, M301 is awesome for me a security person and M201 taught me a lot more about the inner workings of MongoDB.

I was hoping that M220P would teach me the basics, the nitty gritty, of performing MongoDB operations through Python. Start from the ground on up, churn some data into an empty database, building application code as we go.

Instead, M220P is a ready-made application and we neither write new Python code, nor do we write real Mongo code. It feels mostly like a fill-in-the-blanks exercise, combined with troubleshooting somebody else’s code. We’re left trying to figure out what the original author meant, without being intimate with the code itself.

Of course, this is just my own opinion, but I did feel I needed to share it. “Different folks, different strokes” is of course something that applies heavily! Me, I’m a sysadmin, a command line and scripting person, used to hacking things together from zero. Figuring out other people’s code isn’t my cup of tea :slight_smile:

I really do appreciate all the hard work you people at MongoU put in! And I’m looking forward to taking another class, perhaps slowly moving towards that DBA exam.

2 Likes
#2

Hi @Tess_Sluijter,

Thanks for your feedback. This is in fact a slightly different course from the ones that you mentioned, perhaps more targeted to a different user/persona.

The idea behind the M220 courses (there will be more of these) is to focus on typical developer experience, that just found that she needs to get up to speed into a new project and work in a new team and tech stack.
We’ve tried to setup an environment that is closer has possible to what someone might experience once they onboard into a new team and project, without starting from scratch.
We’ve also tried to introduced and expand on a TDD experience to get people used to run tests more often and use tests to experiment with features that and products that might be new to them.

You do raise some interesting points like the expectation to dig deeper in the inner workings of MongoDB and hacking your way out of challenges.
We are cooking up something that you might appreciate.

Stay tuned!

Once again, thanks for your help and feedback!

N.

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Final exam M220
#3

In that case you perfectly succeeded :slight_smile: Of course, it doesn’t help that I only know the barest basics of Python :wink:

We’ve also tried to introduced and expand on a TDD experience to get people used to run tests more often and use tests to experiment with features that and products that might be new to them.

Very important and something that I can only endorse!

We are cooking up something that you might appreciate.

Looking forward to it!

Thank you for your extensive reply.