In recent weeks, Clean Coders silently published a few Code Katas on our YouTube Channel.

• Bowling Kata by Gina Martiny
• Prime Factors by Uncle Bob
• Coin Changer by Gina Martiny

I love Code Katas. They're a wonderful learning tool for new coders and veterans alike. It's a technique I consistently use when mentoring apprentices. Any of us coders who want to improve our skills should practice Coding Katas to benefit from these:

5 Code Kata Consequences

1) Rote Memory

Like watching Bob Ross paint or Jimmy Hendrix play the guitar, you know a master craftsman by the way they move. They know their tools intimately. They achieve their desired effect with minimal effort. Masters make it looks easy. This is also the case with software. Master coders make coding looks easy. They know their language, their editor, all the shortcuts, idioms, etc. Code flows out of their fingers and onto the screen like a magic fountain.

There's only one way to achieve that level of skill: repetitive practice. It's the kind of rote memory or muscle memory that you build from practicing katas over and over.

2) Discipline

We all have disciplines, or at least we should. They're the rules we follow that allow us to consistently produce high quality code. Clean Coders practices Test Driven Development, among other disciplines. Katas are a terrific opportunity to explore new disciplines and fortify the disciplines you've adopted.

• Want to code with immutable state? Practice the Game of Life kata where each evolution generates a new world state.
• Want to use more polymorphism? Try to solve the Langton's Ant kata without any if or switch statements a few times.
• Want to improve your refactoring skills? A few runs through the Movie Rental kata aught to help.
• How many unique solutions to the FizzBuzz kata can you come up with?
• Pair Programming? Play Ping Pong with a friend while practicing any given kata.

3) Depth of Understanding

When you take on a new kata, this is what you should expect from your sessions:

• Session #1: About 1 hour. You fumble through various algorithms until you find a path that works. The resulting code is not terribly clean nor elegant.
• Session #2: About 20 minutes. You know how to do this. You make a beeline for the solution you already know. The code is cleaner, but you've got this voice in your head telling you it could be better.
• Session #3: About 30 minutes. It's been bugging you, that voice, and you realize there is a better way to solve the kata. You code it. The result is even cleaner and, you dare say, more elegant.
• Sessions #4 and on: Less than 10 minutes. Refine, refine, refine. You'll likely get another stroke of genius or two, repeat session #2 and #3, coming up with better and better code over time.

Each repetition of the kata takes you to new depths of understanding the problem, the language, the algorithm, etc... Rarely do you get these learning opportunity while working on production code. And going to these depths helps you see subtle patterns and structures in the code that you'll remember and reuse in your career.

4) Peer Review

If you practice katas alone, great! You should also perform your katas for your peers. In 2013 I wrote a blog about Performing Code Katas.

In martial arts we perform katas (forms) during class, during tests, and for competition. Why? To demonstrate skill and to get peer evaluation.

"You want me to write code, live, in front of my coworkers?" Yes! Absolutely!

That idea probably makes a lot of coders uncomfortable. But I tell you, it'll make you better. Your peers will tell you what they like about your coding and how you can improve. And as a spectator, please be kind and constructive to kata performers.

5) Beauty

One of my favorite kata performances is FizzBuzz by Sandro Padin, previously mentioned above. He was my apprentice at the time and I could not have been a prouder mentor. It still brings a tear to my eye when I watch it. It is a beautiful kata. A work of art!

Rather than tell you why I think it's so great, I urge you to watch it from start to finish. Maybe you'll agree with me, maybe not. It's art!

The point is, there is beauty in our craft. Software can be beautiful. Code Katas allow us to express ourselves and strive to write beautiful code.