13:31 - This morning I took an aptitude test for UT Austin’s Software Developer Training Program. I think I did well, probably well enough to pass. If you’re in the Austin area looking for dev experience and training, there’s no reason not to at least take this aptitude test. It’s free, the program sounds pretty cool; if you pass you’ve opened a door for yourself and if you don’t you’ve really only lost out on about 2 hours of a Monday morning.

Then I came home and got back into RSpec.

The Odin Project, while commendable in many respects, I feel was lacking in its treatment of this particular tool. Admittedly it seems like there are few comprehensive AND free resources for RSpec, especially v. 3.x, and it’s certainly not the most glamorous side to development, but it seems objectively important, and likely the most valuable skill for a new developer looking to make herself useful within a team or on a project, and while TOP promises a more in-depth treatment within the Rails curriculum, I just can’t stand another minute of developing without tests.

So if you, like me, are scouring the web for a deeper dive into RSpec, and testing in general, here’s what I’ve come up with:

Semaphoreci has a lovely 3-part intro to RSpec that I think gives a pretty good bird’s eye view and can certainly get you far enough to start writing your own tests for smaller projects.

The Engineering SaaS course I’ve been taking through edx.org integrates testing with Cucumber and RSpec right from the start, so if you’re a dive-into-the-deep-end kind of learner, it’s a great place to integrate Ruby, Rails, Agile, SOA, REST, and of course SaaS in one comprehensive course. The current course has already begun, HW1 is due tonight, but the courseware stays active. This is also part 1 of a multi-part course.

Finally, if you’ve never tried Lynda.com, and you’re looking for a deep-dive with follow-along code examples, I really recommend this course. Lynda has been a life-saver for me; their 10-day trial is enough to blast through this course, but definitely consider exploring some of their other courses if you’re looking to expand your skills.