What exactly does a software engineer/software programmer do?

What is a road map someone should follow to become a great software architect and programmer in 2 years?

• There are lot of questions on Quora to become a programmer, data scientist etc. My question is more on the fundamental issue. As an Indian CSE engineer from a 4th tier engineering college, where there was no proper teacher to guide or make you ready for the real world. They always asked to prepare for GATE,CAT for CSE department, and railways for mechanical department student. So coming from such college i have learnt a few things on my own like C programming Data Structure and Algorithms (Only till doubly linked list). So after reading answer to different questions on Quora, I just wanted to make a list of different paths a graduate student or anyone interested in excelling in Computer Science. I will list down what i have understood and will list down some gaps which learned people in this excellent community can help to bridge. As mentioned by Linus Torvalds: Nobody actually creates perfect code the first time around, except me. But there’s only one of me. I believe with practice some one can reach a level near were Linus is today. I am pursuing that. Kindly be patient and do not write answers which will demotivate or single liner giving some life truth. So here is some of the points which i have understood from most the questions in Quora Learn 1 or 2 programming language:, Options are C, C++,Java, Python, there might me many others, but i guess it is safe to assume this is were most of the beginners will be comfortable. Also Learn a IDE or a Text Editor, such that it's all the feature are embedded as muscle memory, Some options are VIM Sublime Text, TextMate etc. Eclipse,InteliJ,NetBeans Understand and learn Data Structures and Algoritms: Now there are a lot of books out there for these, but i guess these 3 will help. http://www.amazon.com/Algorithm-Design-Manual-Steven-Skiena/dp/1849967202/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1403627876&sr=8-1&keywords=Steven+S+Skiena http://www.amazon.com/Algorithms-4th-Robert-Sedgewick/dp/032157351X/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1403627915&sr=1-2&keywords=clrs Last and in no matter the least http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Algorithms-Thomas-H-Cormen/dp/0262033844/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1403627915&sr=1-1&keywords=clrshttp://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Algorithms-Thomas-H-Cormen/dp/0262033844/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1403627915&sr=1-1&keywords=clrs Now, when we studies any one or all the above books, there might be issue or some problems which we will not be able to solve, is there some online group where i can go and discuss about the issue, i might not be interested in a solution because i want to solve it on my own, but some reference points would certainly help, because it is always better to discuss with someone. So once someone is comfortable with Data Structure and Algorithms and Programming language once should try practice matches for Competitive coding, for which these are some of the links http://ahmed-aly.com/Categories.jsp https://www.hackerrank.com/ Kindly add if there are others where one can practice from? Now once trial match is over get ready for some real practice from sites like http://www.topcoder.com/ http://www.codechef.com http://www.spoj.com/ Some others might be there like this list: http://efytimes.com/e1/fullnews.asp?edid=114791 Some other things also one must master few which i can think of is Design Patterns : http://www.amazon.com/Design-Patterns-Elements-Reusable-Object-Oriented/dp/0201633612/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1403630545&sr=1-1&keywords=gang+of+four+design+patterns Object Oriented programming and Design : http://www.amazon.com/Object-Oriented-Analysis-Design-Applications-3rd/dp/020189551X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1403630593&sr=1-1&keywords=grady+booch Maths to understand some of the Algorithms and also it helps while programming too use some of the maths tricks. But not sure about what level and what topics to cover for understanding CLRS Algorithms or something else. UML Diagrams. These are some of my blue print which i can think of, kindly share your view point and road maps which you follow or want to follow.

• Answer:

  In 2 Years ? One new project every quarter AND Lot of mid night oil, my friend..!!! A lot of midnight oil !