Software developers don’t practice enough. Most of our learning takes place on the job, which means that most of our mistakes get made there as well. Other creative professions practice: artists carry a sketchpad, musicians play technical pieces, poets constantly rewrite works. In karate, where the aim is to learn to spar or fight, most of a student’s time is spent learning and refining basic moves. The more formal of these exercises are called kata.
Dave Thomas took the idea of coding practice and made a series of what he calls Code Kata, which are small, thought-provoking exercises that programmers can do in the language of their choice. Each kata emphasizes a specific technique or thought process, providing a concrete flexing of one’s mental muscles.
All kata are available for free on his weblog (http://codekata.pragprog.com/). On the weblog, you’ll also find links to a mailing list and to others’ solutions to the exercises along with discussion about how the problems were solved.