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📘 Week 5 Learning Journal Markov Assignment This week’s focus was the Markov assignment, and it pushed me to think more deeply about how to structure code based strictly on specifications and UML diagrams. At first, the project felt a little overwhelming, but breaking it down step-by-step helped me understand how the logic was supposed to work. 👥 Who I Worked With This week I collaborated with Lee and Brian. We all had slightly different approaches, so talking through our strategies really helped me see where my design was solid and where it needed more clarity. 🧭 My Strategy for Solving the Assignment My approach started with translating the specifications and UML diagrams directly into code. I began by: Declaring all the required variables and method signatures first Leaving each method blank at the beginning Using Android Studio’s shortcut tools to automatically generate getters and setters Then filling in each method by following the logic described in the specs Once the structure was in place, I continued method-by-method. This helped me understand why each function existed and how everything connected to form the Markov model. I also mapped out parts of the logic on a board before coding, to visualize how the methods would interact. 🧪 Did I Start Coding Right Away? Not completely I planned out the classes and methods first using the UML and wrote the skeleton structure. After that, I started coding and troubleshooting step-by-step. 👥 My Classmates’ Strategy Lee’s strategy focused more on coding first and adjusting as needed. He referenced the UML, but he jumped into the implementation faster than I did. Brian took a hybrid approach some planning, some coding. Compared to them, I might have spent more time planning than necessary. They helped me realize I could speed up the early steps and get to testing sooner. 🔄 How I Would Change My Strategy If I could redo this assignment, I’d spend less time planning and start implementing earlier. That way I could catch mistakes sooner and iterate on the logic more efficiently. 🧠 According to My Classmates, How Did My Code Look? They mentioned that at first, my code looked a little hectic and wasn’t fully running yet. After revisiting it and cleaning things up, the logic became much clearer and the code worked better. The specs pushed me toward more organized and readable design. 📏 Google Java Style Guide How Well Did I Follow It? My classmates and I talked about this, and overall the structure followed the Google Java Style Guide fairly well. There were a few spots I needed to clean up: Bracket placement Consistent naming conventions Proper spacing Comments where needed I also learned you can automate a lot of the formatting through Android Studio’s Code → Reformat tool and by turning on auto-formatting. 💡 Most Challenging Part The most challenging part was making sure the logic matched the UML exactly especially tracking how each method interacted with the chain of states. Making sure each method behaved according to the Markov model took a lot of attention to detail. ✨ Most Interesting Part The most interesting part was seeing how a Markov model works under the hood. Once the code started coming together, I realized how powerful the pattern is for generating sequences and predictions based on probabilities. 🏆 What I’m Most Proud Of I’m proud that I stuck with the specs and learned how to build the entire class architecture before writing the actual logic. That approach helped me understand the project far better than if I had just jumped directly into coding. 🎉 How I Celebrated Completing the Assignment I didn’t really celebrate yet — but I probably should. Dr. C always says to celebrate the victories. When this week calms down, I’ll take a moment (or a good snack) to acknowledge the win