How to ask for help with your code

A big part of learning to be a programmer of any kind is knowing how to get help. This means knowing how to ask questions. Your questions should be short and clear. Your question should include all the information that is needed to answer the question. Practice asking good questions. It’s like a superpower. If you are easy to help then people will help you.

Where to ask good questions

  • Stackoverflow - How to ask for help == TRUELY AMAZING
  • Google
  • RocketChat - All RocketChat questions should be addressed on the RocketChat #tech-assist channel. If your issues are not addressed on the #tech-assist Channel, then run your issue with your specific department channel, then if it doesn’t help then run to your cohort mentors.

Characteristics of a good question:

As a general rule of thumb: If you really want help then make it as easy as possible for people to help you. Empathise with the person who will help you. If they are left guessing or they have to ask a million follow up questions then that means you asked a bad-quality question.

  • Ask on a bigger audience platform. (e.g Asking on the #tech-assist channel helps you get to a much bigger audience and possibly quick responses from your fellow Recruits, Managers and Alumni.)
  • Be clear and not ambiguous. Your “helpers” should be able to understand the problem while reading an error message.
  • Please don’t send screenshots, what you can do is use backtick symbols to represent in code form.
  • Write full error messages.
  • Be short and meaningful. Error messages should contain necessary information. Most of the time your helper is not willing to read a long story.

NB. IT IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO HELP OTHERS WHEN AND IF YOU HAVE THE ANSWERS (Basically help and be helped).

Things to note

  • In general, if your question text contains code or error message those things need to be formatted properly. It needs to not look like a jumbled mess of words and symbols. Different platforms have different ways of pulling this off. RocketChat uses the backtick symbol. And Stackoverflow does it it’s own way. Be aware of the tools and conventions of the platform you are using, then follow those conventions.
  • A similar good way to use Google is when searching for something specific, try using quotes to minimize the guesswork for Google search. When you put your search parameters in quotes, it tells the search engine to search for the whole phrase.
RAW CONTENT URL