You are struggling with your secondary-school mathematics and you want to take up Informatics Practices in Grade 11? Really. For a large population of students and even parents, the subjects of Science, Maths & Computers are synonymous to professional careers in technology.
A common misconception is that if you aren’t a ‘Math nerd’, then programming isn’t a field you should chose.
A key point to remember is that like English, French or any foreign language, Computer programming is also a mode of communication( in this case a language through which you communicate with technology). Your natural cognitive skill of learning any new language to communicate has an equally stronger correlation with your ability to learn to code like basic math knowledge.
During this process of giving instructions in the language the computer understands, your other cognitive functions such as problem-solving, logical and critical reasoning also play a critical role. Several studies have shown that students with a good mix of problem solving and language abilities tend to learn faster.
So although a large population of good programmers do enjoy working with numbers and equations, the ones without a specialized math background can also make a great career in the field of programming. “Learning how much of maths is needed in the field you chose can very well help you decide if you have chosen the right tech-job”, says Mr. Nitin Gambhir, co-Founder, STEM Center ACE, a leading Ed-tech company that imparts STEM based courses for the K-12 students. Programming is a vast field and is full of people from different educational and skill background including those who don’t like to warm-up to Maths.
So does Coding need me to excel at Maths, can you give me a straight answer?
The answer is yes it does need Maths – but not as much as you think. For being a good software developer you don’t need to know advanced mathematics for most of the tech-jobs.
Some programming fields like Game-development, Machine Learning do require students to have an in-depth knowledge of the subject but a majority of the web interface development and generic software applications just need basic math skills combined with problem-solving and logical reasoning abilities.
When you understand the approach to solving any problem, breaking it down into smaller set of problems and solving them one by one, what you get is a sum total of all solutions that provides the desired output. All through this process you need only the understanding of Maths to the extent of basic knowledge of operations, algebra, variables and the working knowledge of how to use the in-built Math methods found in majority of programming languages.
Coding is a field that comes across as very logical and process oriented. Creating replicable models to solve problems is critical to tech jobs.
It doesn’t mean that Maths isn’t important at all, rather there is enough head-start in Maths already available built-in and you should know how to use it.
Let’s now look at some of the basic Math skills required in Coding.
Machine Language or Binary language is all about zeroes and ones and computers speak numbers. Any good programmer needs basic understating of the below concepts at the start of the Coding journey.
1. The basic knowledge of algebra as defined in middle and high school with understanding of operators, variables, functions are part of most the instruction statements that your write.
2. Boolean algebra- The language of machines is made up of 0’s and 1’s and having a working operational logic of Boolean data type is required to understand how computers function, how images, pixels are established in graphic designing.
So where exactly do we need higher order Mathematics?
Apart from the basic math skills as listed above, if you do venture into specialized fields such as Data Science and Machine Learning, you do need advanced Maths.
How about Game Development?
Even if you are part of a larger team of developers working on let’s say Game Development and you aren’t directly involved in fields that require coding games or advanced graphic designing, having a surface level knowledge of advanced concepts in Maths does add value to towards your future career advancements.
Some of these concepts include a deeper understanding of Mathematical Geometry and Calculus, both of which are integral to animations and game development.
Apart from this Statistics is one field of study that does provide a big scope with data analytics and visualization.
Linear Algebra is another major field of study deployed with photo editing software and games.
Which fields then should i focus on with limited Mathematics?
Some of the fields in programming that are well suited for people with less inclination towards day-to-day mathematics are as mentioned below:
Web development which primarily works as a team activity requires more team building and problem solving skills instead of advanced mathematics.
Some of the other career options include DevOps engineers and Quality Assurance Engineering both of which focus more on your management skills and a good eye for detail and manage teams, making them more productive and efficient.
Organizations today look towards a more inclusive, diverse and neutral balanced workforce that can provide a 360 degree holistic process of development with a variety of skills and educational background. So the time is right for you to embark on your learning to Code journey.
Happy Coding!
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