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Well I am newly graduated and placed in a small scale project based company. When I joined , the boss (project head) gave me project code for understanding what work I will be doing hence forth. I got stunned by looking at the code because it's hefty more than 10 thousands lines divided in between multiple functions , subcodes etc.with different protocols. The code is in embedded c with keil complier.

Now the boss asks me to start doing small changes in the codes so that I could get familiar with it. But giving me very small time limit i.e. 2-3 days. Although his intentions are good , I find it very difficult to understand the code like where should I start, what to read in code and how to read the code within such a short piece of time.

I have done simple assignment programs in my academics. If I ask my colleagues about code queries, they give small time . But they have their limitations to entertain me as they also have deadlines of their work. They ask me to search codes for references on internet but I am not familiar with it. I don't want to make my early impression down in front of my boss but also don't understand what to do now. I am getting frustrated now. Should I leave my job?

sagar
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    see also [What is the norm for introducing new hires to a code base?](https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/q/225860/31260) – gnat Mar 15 '18 at 07:31
  • Could Stackoverflow open up a "juniordev" sister site? – rwong Mar 15 '18 at 07:55
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    @rwong: Stackoverflow is *already* a junior dev site, indeed many of the questions seem to come from infant programmers. Sigh .... – High Performance Mark Mar 15 '18 at 08:13
  • My advice is, read, read, read, search. By "search" I don't mean "search on the internet" - I mean search within the company's code base. By "read", I mean reading it for the first time, don't worry if you don't understand or make sense of it. Just go through it anyway. Think about how you studied at college, and do the same. Then, read it again, and try to recall if you have seen something similar. As for the reading speed, I would say 100 lines of code per minute. If the code is ugly, reading 10 lines of code is still a decent speed. – rwong Mar 15 '18 at 08:26
  • Your code editor or IDE should have text search capability, and it should search the entire project, or entire folders. Short of that, grepping is also useful. If you need to tailor your search, perhaps writing a small Python or Perl script using more complicated regex (e.g. performing multiple regex matches) would be useful. – rwong Mar 15 '18 at 08:28
  • Keep a notebook. It is best if you keep both a written notebook and a digital notebook (i.e. a text file, or a document editor, which may run locally or on the cloud). Company security policies vary; some may require you to keep any notes within company premises. – rwong Mar 15 '18 at 08:29
  • How to invite user sagar to an existing chatroom, namely The Whiteboard? – rwong Mar 15 '18 at 08:32
  • Your work assignment is typical of the work assigned to newly graduated developers. We typically expect new college hires (or summer interns) to work on similar assignments. I'm afraid your academic institution did a poor job of preparing you for work as a professional developer by only expecting you to work on "simple assignment programs." – kevin cline Mar 15 '18 at 09:02
  • Skill mismatch. Both you and your boss should understand this. Ask for initial time to read up and get up-to date on the technology. – S.D. Mar 15 '18 at 09:06
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    Forget trying to understand the whole code base. You haven't a chance. Look only at the bit you're being asked to fix. Understand that, then make the minimum change required to fix it. Repeat. In a few years, you will understand the whole lot. – Simon B Mar 15 '18 at 15:44
  • Your boss is nuts. – Frank Hileman Mar 16 '18 at 03:58

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