Ordering of community solutions in the listing page and it in the detail page - is the logic different?

Exercism
1

Here is a screenshot of the community solutions for lucky numbers problem, where I see the top 3 solutions are by salouri, SleeplessByte, and DavidOfEarth.

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When I clicked to go to the solution of salouri, then I see a different set of solutions listed to the right - I expected to see the 2nd and 3rd solutions from the listing page which were by SleeplessByte and DavidOfEarth. - why is the order different?

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I am new to Exercism and here is the workflow I use when I write code for Exercism exercises and then to review the Community Solutions - please suggest if there is a better way to use Exercism. I have used checkio for python for a long time and I have settled on a similar workflow there. There the solutions are rates by different categories - the most clear solution, the most creative solution, etc. here is an example from checkio site for some comparison.

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When I solve the problem, I take a very simple approach - I just write the first solution that comes to my mind to make the tests pass, taking the TDD approach of writing the simplest code that works - then after the tests pass for each describe block, I pause for a few moments to reflect whether I could improve the code in anyway to make it more readable.

Then I head over to community solutions - my aim in reviewing others’ solutions are two:

  1. has anyone used a different language feature to solve the same problem?
    here my aim is to broaden my knowledge of the JS features - in many cases, I know a certain feature but have not used it - so, when someone else uses it, I find it quite useful to study the solution to consider whether I should adopt a similar approach.
  2. has anyone used a slightly different way of approaching the problem? the variety of solutions to the freelancer-rates 3rd exercise priceWithMonthlyDiscount is a stellar example of the impressive variety of approaches even for a very simple problem. I like to take note of these different solutions - the next time I try the problem I want to solve it in as many different ways as possible - to increase my flexibility in choosing an approach.

Ideally, I want to review all solutions which are different from mine in spirit. And I want to skip the solutions which are similar - but the interface today does NOT allow me to easily peek into the solution to help me to quickly figure out the ones that are different. Hence I choose the top 3 solutions and review them in detail - if I find them all to be similar, then I go to the next exercise. If I find enough variety in the top 3 solutions and I have time, then I check out a few more solutions.

Thank you so much for the core community members like SleeplessByte for taking the time to post different solutions and explaining them.

2

The “other solutions” section on an individual exercise doesn’t show the “next” solution, so your assessment that the ordering is different is correct.

There is a recent new feature called “Dig Deeper” and “Approaches” (see It's time to Dig Deeper!, and the video in that blog post to hear more) which more or less solves what your asking for.

We’ll be adding this content to the JavaScript track over the next few months.

2 Likes
3

Hi Derk,

Thank you so much for the pointer to the blog post on Dig Deeper. I did come across one such Dig Deeper article on Leap Year and I was very impressed - I was looking for it in other exercises and I did not find it. Now, that you said that it is a WIP, I would like to jump in and contribute in whatever ways I can do to the JS core team. I have already mailed Jonathan.

4

Is there any plan to fix/change this?

5

Not on the current roadmap as it’s not meant to be “next”, but I am certain that when we implement some tooling to tag solutions as an approach (which is an idea we have) that this list can become much more helpful.

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6

That would be wonderful - count me in as a beta tester when you get around to implementing this.