Add blog post about completing 42's Piscine bootcamp

src/blog/posts/2025-05-04-42-piscine-completed.md

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+---
+articleTitle: 42's Piscine Bootcamp Completed
+desc: At last, I finished 42 the computer science school's 26-day bootcamp.
+date: 2025-05-04T11:10:20+0800
+categories: ["42 the school", "c", "life updates"]
+---
+
+2 May 2025 marked the final day of [42 the computer science school](/blog/categories/42-the-school/)'s 26-day bootcamp, named the Piscine, that I was attending. The final day of the Piscine was also when the final exam took place. I am happy to announce that I have completed the Piscine, by taking and passing the final exam!
+
+This intake of bootcamp started on April 7, and the intense and challenging curriculum meant April had been my busiest month since forever. Despite already having learned C before attending the Piscine, I still got to learn things about C that I did not before, such as using the `write()` function instead of `printf()` to print out something in the terminal, creating a Makefile for the first time ever as part of one of the solo projects, and having fun with it.
+
+I had been enjoying the challenge the Piscine brought though. Attending the bootcamp further cemented my decision to pursue web or software development instead of my previous profession of graphic design that I was burned out from. Despite the curriculum of the Piscine being free, you are still encouraged to spend a great deal of time in your study if you hope to succeed. I pushed myself to spend 6 to 8 hours per day in average in the campus in my work for the Piscine, and I did not regret attending the Piscine for even a second.
+
+That said, I would be lying if I said everything in my study in the Piscine went smoothly. My biggest regret of my days in the Piscine was not being able to pass any of the two group projects, which took place in weekends, that I participated in.
+
+In the first group project, my team made promising progress, but due to including an unused C header in one of the files, our evaluated marked us as failed, as unused headers are forbidden.
+
+In the second group project, my team's leader (team leaders of the group projects in the Piscine were chosen at random) could not go to the campus due to urgent work commitment. While said team leader was still able to contribute to the project through Discord and phone communications, his absence still meant our team coordination was not the best. It did not help that the second group project was considerably more challenging, with it being a Skyscraper puzzle solver. Unsurprisingly, we failed the project as well. I learned it the hard way that no matter how hard the rest of the team tried to carry on, an absent team member would hinder the outcome of a group project and teamwork one way or another.
+
+Failing both group projects also motivated me to work hard in solo projects to hopefully make up for it. We cannot retry group projects, but we can retry solo projects even if we failed. When the final week of the Piscine came, I looked forward to having more free time after this week, but I am still going to do my best in my projects and prepare for the final exam.
+
+By the end of the Piscine, I made more progress in the solo projects than most of my peers, by succeeding in more solo projects than most of my peers. As for the weekly exams, I passed all four exams, and except the first exam, where I scored 30%, the minimum score to pass an exam, I succeeded the exams with the same score of 60% out of 100%. It is worth noting that the final exam has more assignments, which was why it lasted for 8 hours instead of the usual 4, which meant I needed to succeed in completing more assignments in the final exam to get the same score.
+
+Despite my intake of the Piscine was finished, it was not completely over for us Pisciners yet, since we still need to wait for another two weeks after the final exam for news and announcements about if we are qualified for 42's core curriculum. I attended 42 because I wanted to continue to learn to become a better developer, and connect with my local tech spaces, so naturally I hope to pass the Piscine and join the school's core program. Meanwhile, I am taking the opportunity of having more free time to enjoy  my personal projects, including my websites, and other hobbies. Fingers crossed!

src/changelogs/logs/2025/2025-05-04.md

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+---
+date: 2025-05-04T11:12:10+0800
+---
+
+* New blog post: ["42's Piscine Bootcamp Completed"](/blog/posts/2025-05-04-42-piscine-completed/).