This post is not going to be very long -oops, so let’s get straight into the point. Shall we?
Easy way how to find this is by using a PowerShell:
Get-InstalledModule AzureRM
Nice and easy … and I promise my next post will be longer!
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Every Developer/DevOps was looking for this command at least once a year (including myself). The truth is that we all like PowerShell and sometimes tend to forget put a running engine pre-conditional check inside a batch script (as whatever script you’re producing, always make sure that it’s transferable onto another environment) and reference some function that is not in (default) installed version.
Anyway…take this post as a reminder reference guide.
1. $PSVersionTable.PSVersion
This is my preferred way over the others. Why? Because it works on local as well as on remote stations.
2. (Get-Host).Version
3. $host.Version
That’s it. Hope you like this short reminder and let me know your preferred way of doing this.
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This Azure service has been here for a while now, but lately got a few improvements that make the integration and use of it even easier and more seamless than before.
Just before going any further, if you haven’t read anything about it, I recommend you to start with this article first https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/search/search-what-is-azure-search as I am not going to dive too much into the details today. This reading is going to be about my personal experience of getting a Cognitive Search service provisioned with a bunch of data (of one source) connected to it.
Personally, I like to look at the problems to solve with my business lens. What that means is focusing on building content (business value) rather than building the search engine (feature). I am not saying that compromising (non-business related) system features that are helping users to enhance their User system Experience is a good thing to do. All I am saying is stop re-inventing the wheel!
Hey Devs, don’t give me this wiggle face saying things like: “c’mon, it’s not that hard to do it by yourself!”. Yes, but actually it is hard from the time complexity point of view … To build a great search engine with features your audience is going to like would take many weeks of man/hours to do so. These features include Auto-completion, geospatial search, filtering, and faceting capabilities for a rich UX, OCR (ideally backed by AI), key phrase extraction, image text found results highlighting, and all of that with the ability to scale this service as needed and add as many multiple (and different) data sources as needed.
Can you see my point, now? Did one of your eyebrows just lift up? :)) Anyway .. let’s jump into it and see how long this is going to take me to build in the Azure portal.
1) Go to the Azure portal, search for Cognitive Services and add a new one called “Azure Cognitive Search“
2) As for all services in Azure space, you need to fill up what Subscription and Resource Group this service will belong to. And as the next step, preferred URL, Geographic location of the data center, and pricing Tier. I am choosing the free Tier (which should be enough for this exercise) and the location close to NZ. The next step is to click on Validate, and on Create button afterward.
3) The first step in the wizard is the “Connect to your data” tab. That means that on this page you can connect to multiple data sources. As you can see from the picture below, quite a few options are available to choose from (and most likely going to cover all of the use case scenarios). For this exercise, I am going to take “Samples” and SQL database. You can add as many data sources as you want (with the respect to limitations of the selected service Tier type).
4) At the “Add cognitive skills” tab I decided to add a bunch of additional Text Cognitive Skills, even though this step is optional. My reasons are purely investigative and I would like to see how the @search.score field in returning data result sets is going to look like when trying to search my documents by any of these fields from the Enriched data set.
5) In the next step “Customize target index” (sometimes referred to as a “pull model“) I am going to leave all pre-populated settings as they are as I am happy with it for now. In this step, you can configure things like the level of data exposure, data field types, filtering, sorting, etc.
Just to give you a better understanding of what the search index is in this context – think about it as in a relational database a search index equates to a table. And also we have documents, which are the items of the index. Think about them as documents that are roughly equivalent to rows in a table.
Also, remember to keep a Key field in Edm.String data type. This is a mandatory prerequisite.
6) In the “Create an Indexer” tab (the way how to index data in a scheduled manner) I am not allowed to configure how often should be mapping table (index) build. The reason for it is that the Sample SQL database I am using in this exercise does not use any Change tracking policies (for example  SQL Integrated Change Tracking Policy). Why is needed? Well, basically Cognitive search needs to know when the data delete change happened to address that. You can read more about it here.
For now, I am going to submit this form and move on.
The service starts provisioning itself (this should not take long to finish) and after a couple of minutes, I should have everything ready for testing.
Now, let’s have a look at “Search explorer” from the service level main top menu and craft some data queries. My first query was the “Bachelor-Wohnung” word, which nicely got populated into the URL query as the value of &search element by itself…
From now on it is all about knowing how to use a query syntax (and you can really go hard on this). For more search query examples visit this MS documentation https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/search/search-explorer?WT.mc_id=Portal-Microsoft_Azure_Search
I have to say that building this service did take me about 20 minutes (for someone who has some experience already) from having nothing to an easy-to-configure and scale search engine. Anyone should be able to build the first Cognitive search service by a similar time after reading this post now.
If there are any questions or want to know more about this service, visit this site built by Microsoft at https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/search/. These people did a really great job in documenting all of it. This material should help you to elevate your skills to a more advanced level.
| _ | FREE | BASIC | STANDARD S1 | STANDARD S2 | STANDARD S3 | STORAGE OPTIMIZED L1 | STORAGE OPTIMIZED L2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Storage | 50 MB | 2 GB | 25 GB (max 300 GB per service) | 100 GB (max 1 TB per service) | 200 GB (max 2 TB per service) | 1 TB (max 12 TB per service) | 2 TB (max 24 TB per service) |
| Max indexes per service | 3 | 15 | 50 | 200 | 200 or 1000/partition in high density1 mode | 10 | 10 |
| Scale out limits | N/A | Up to 3 units per service (max 1 partition; max 3 replicas) | Up to 36 units per service (max 12 partition; max 12 replicas) | Up to 36 units per service (max 12 partition; max 12 replicas) | Up to 36 units per service (max 12 partition; max 12 replicas) up to 12 replicas in high density1 mode | Up to 36 units per service (max 12 partition; max 12 replicas) | Up to 36 units per service (max 12 partition; max 12 replicas) up to 12 replicas in high density1 mode |
| Document Cracking: Image Extraction | N/A (only 20 documents supported) | (price per 1,000 images) 0-1M images – $1.512 1M-5M images – $1.210 5M+ images – $0.983 | (price per 1,000 images) 0-1M images – $1.512 1M-5M images – $1.210 5M+ images – $0.983 | (price per 1,000 images) 0-1M images – $1.512 1M-5M images – $1.210 5M+ images – $0.983 | (price per 1,000 images) 0-1M images – $1.512 1M-5M images – $1.210 5M+ images – $0.983 | (price per 1,000 images) 0-1M images – $1.512 1M-5M images – $1.210 5M+ images – $0.983 | (price per 1,000 images) 0-1M images – $1.512 1M-5M images – $1.210 5M+ images – $0.983 |
| Private Endpoints Related Charges | N/A | Additional charges may apply2 | Additional charges may apply2 | Additional charges may apply2 | Additional charges may apply2 | Additional charges may apply2 | Additional charges may apply2 |
| Price per unit | Free | $0.153/hour | $0.509/hour | $2.033/hour | $4.065/hour | $5.805/hour | N/A |
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It has been a while since being interviewed by Google and got to answer a lot of technical questions. The essence of being successful is to be prepared! Especially now, in these Covid-19 difficult times, when getting a job is even harder than before for young developers with no professional network or working experience (hey, YOU are not alone in this!)
And so, I am writing this post for you, the NEXT DEV GENERATION! But just to be clear, this post is not about to leak the hiring questions to the public. It is about to give YOU an idea of what sort of coding challenges you may get along the way.
The most given questions (and tricky ones) are how to efficiently solve the problems with the algorithm. You as a Dev must show understanding of what a time complexity is, how to work with data structures and how to write (and write less) readable code, and all of that while people on another side of the conference meeting are WATCHING! (feel the stress but stay CALM, stay COOL)
Remember that this task assignment was given to me a couple of years ago and don’t rely on getting exactly the same coding Task on your D-Day. The assignment will be different but the level of (solution) the complexity of the task is more likely going to be the same.
You have a collection of numeric item values among which are numbers ‘0’. Build the algorithm which shifts all zeros to the end of the array with the best time complexity possible. You are not allowed to use any additional data structures in the solution. Also, keep the items at the same order as they are.
Always do design first!
Normally, it is a good practice to ask as many questions as possible to clarify all the requirements at the beginning (these are all positive points). Some of them can be (not explicitly written ones in task description):
The solution I have used was based on swapping the items within the array:
using System;
namespace TestApp
{
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
var array = new int[] { 1, 0, 4, 5, 0, 4, 5, 3, 0 };
var iterations = 0;
int j = 0;
for (int i = 0; i < array.Length; i++)
{
++iterations;
if (array[i] != 0)
{
array[j++] = array[i];
}
}
while (j < array.Length)
{
++iterations1;
array[j++] = 0;
}
Console.WriteLine($"Array: '{string.Join(",", array)}'");
Console.WriteLine($"Time complexity: O({iterations})");
Console.ReadLine();
}
}
}
Let’s examine the code.
As you can see, I have two loops. For the first one (for), I am trying to find a non-zero value in each iteration, copy the value from the current index to the Pivot index, and increment Pivot at the end of the cycle. If zero is found, the Pivot index value remains and the loop goes on to the next item. If a non-zero value is found again, the value at the current index gets copied over to the Pivot index (zero value) and the Pivot index value gets incremented by 1.
The second loop (while) is going to add zero values at all indexes between the Pivot index value and the last array index (that many zeros have to be placed back to an array).
What is the time complexity of this solution? Let’s do an analysis of it.
First loop (for) goes over 9 items within an array. The array has 3 zero values (while loop). Total number of iterations is: 9 + 3 = 12 => O(12) => O(n)
Linear time complexity? THIS IS PRETTY GOOD TO ME! But do I want to gain an extra point (and I WANTED to) by building a slightly different approach with fewer loop iterations?
So, I asked Google Hiring Technical Manager whether I can compromise the last requirement and reorder the non-zero values in the array a little bit. He has agreed…
Why am I doing this?! The answer is optimization … As you can see, the while loop might not be a part of the solution (now) if going thru an array in a reverse way and swapping the zero-value items with the one sitting at the last (examined) array index:
using System;
namespace TestApp
{
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
var array = new int[] { 1, 0, 4, 5, 0, 4, 5, 3, 0 };
var iterations = 0;
var end = array.Length - 1;
var index = end;
for (int i = end; i >= 0; i--)
{
++iterations;
if (array[i] == 0)
{
var left = array[index];
var right = array[i];
array[i] = left;
array[index--] = right;
}
}
Console.WriteLine($"Array: '{string.Join(",", array)}'");
Console.WriteLine($"Time complexity: O({iterations})");
Console.ReadLine();
}
}
}
What is the time complexity now?
Algorithm is using one loop (for) and goes over 9 items within an array => O(9) => O(n)
Not a bad approach and another plus point going towards my credit bank (Yep, Yep!).
The second approach might not sound like a huge performance achievement (and it is NOT for such a small dataset) but it shows the Technical Recruiter Manager your way of thinking! Remember, it can be only a good impression of what stands between choosing you over other tens/hundreds of candidates applying for the same role as you do.
Wishing you good luck and let me know in the comments below how the technical interview did go along!
You can download the code from my GitHub repo here: https://github.com/stenly311/Moving-Zero-Value-Items-To-The-End-Of-Array
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We are living in a very fast and dynamic world now. The days when software developers could have just a narrow set of skillset are gone and in order to “do good” on the market, everyone must adopt them.
It does not have to be a radial adaptation process (phew!) but having reasonably good knowledge about certain development languages, patterns, frameworks, and “way of doing stuff” ala trends is the must.
That is why YOU as a software developer should know these languages at least an intermediate level to be able to code some basics without googling.
Alright, enough of the initial sauce of words, let’s get into these three languages according to the 2020 Dev survey.
1. Believe it or not, the best option for you is Python. I am not going to write what this language is in detail but in brief, this interpreted and high-level and generic-purpose language has become integrated into almost any type of solution you can think of (cross-platform). Well, that is not surprising to me as been with us for almost 3 decades now (1991). What is more interesting in it is the actual philosophy which stands on these points:
You can read more about the language here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Python_(programming_language)
You can get yourself quickly into it by looking at this repo (my recommendation) https://github.com/microsoft/c9-python-getting-started
2. Honestly, I am surprised that JavaScript made it to second place (and not to the top). I personally think that this multiparadigm language has a lot of potential for the future and so every developer should learn it.
Read more about JavaScript here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JavaScript
My recommendation for how to get started is to follow these sites:
* https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn/Getting_started_with_the_web/JavaScript_basics
* https://www.w3schools.com/js/
3. And probably my favorite one over these two is Go (Golang). Not because of my experience (just started to learn this) but because of what am capable of in a very short time (hey I am C# dev, I know what I am talking about!). This would not be my surprise if Go makes its way to the top of the ladder in the next 3 years.
Read more about it here https://golang.org/
And after that go and install Go on your desktop, and hit this page on how to get started https://golang.org/doc/tutorial/getting-started
For more information have a look at this page https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2020#technology-most-loved-dreaded-and-wanted-languages-wanted
Just remember, that data has been collected from an active society contributing to Stackoverflow. That means that these results do not EXACTLY reflect the market situation globally nor in your region. Always do your homework and look at the different data sources, related to the place you live (and going to be for the next 5 years).
New Zealanders this does not apply to you. You cannot go wrong with these three ones. Just for reference, NZ-based company Rocket Lab is constantly hiring Software Engineers with Golang experience https://www.rocketlabusa.com/careers/positions/.
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Well, believe it or not, this Azure service has no free subscription. The ‘cheapest’ one is about $0.252/day with a total of 10 GiB of storage and 2 Webhooks. Unfortunately, with no support for Geo-replication.
As pricing can change over the time, this site should give you the most up-to-date details: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/container-registry/
| _ | BASIC | STANDARD | PREMIUM |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price per day | $0.252 | $1.008 | $2.520 |
| Included storage (GiB) | 10 | 100 | 500 Premium offers enhanced throughput for docker pulls across multiple, concurrent nodes |
| Total webhooks | 2 | 10 | 500 |
| Geo-Replication | Not Supported | Not Supported | Supported $2.520 per replicated region |
Yes and no …
For big projects in size, where the biggest proportion of the solution services is getting provisioned in Azure – Yes, definitely. The level of convenience of having ‘everything’ (source code, tool-set, hosting environment, …) in one place plays a big role here. The assumption is that if Devs/DevOps are happy with the tool-set within the same platform, the overall progress on the project should be faster as there is no need for extra work for system integration and shaping diametrically different skills sets (theory but works in many cases).
And for the projects hungry for disk space and tight to budget – No. There are cheaper alternatives on the market, for example, Docker.com (with one private repository in the Free plan – whoop, whoop!). Pricing starts as low as USD $5/month (with an annual plan) which is insanely CHEAP! So if Azure is not your dime in solution, Docker.com would be my choice to pick.
More details about Docker pricing (and most updated) can be found here: https://www.docker.com/pricing
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Martin Stanik.com 