What is a Drill exactly?

A Drill is a collection of coding challenges that relate to a particular aspect of .NET development. Each challenge covers a specific skill that can be learned through practice, with the goal of working towards a well rounded understanding of the subject at hand. Typically, the challenges in a Drill build upon one another to improve your overall programming skills.

What do I get when I buy a Drill?

Each Drill comes bundled with the following features:

  • Immediate access to 3+ hours of coding challenges integrated with Visual Studio.
  • Full code checking and instant feedback on every challenge.
  • Up to 3 reference books from Safari Books Online in your personal bookshelf.
  • Reference links from MSDN, hand-picked to support each coding challenge.
  • Technical support to help you get up and running right away.

Can I buy Drills for my development team?

Glad you asked – yes, it’s possible to buy Drills for up to 15 members of your software team from our website. Simply select the number of developers in your software team from the drop-down list on our shopping cart. After you checkout, each developer listed in your team will receive a setup email from us explaining who purchased their Drills and how to access their learning content right away. It’s that simple!

If your software team has more than 15 .NET developers, we can offer some enterprise discounts that may be more appealing to you. In this case, simply contact sales@innerworkings.com and our sales team will prepare a custom quote for your business. Either way, we’ve got you covered…

Can I work on my Drills offline?

Yes, our smart client application works in both online and offline mode. When you’re working offline, you won’t be able to access our online reference material from Safari or MSDN. But we do store all the user activity on your Drills while you’re working offline. The next time you login with a stable internet connection, we’ll synchronize your Visual Studio solution files, coding progress, and scores.

Am I coding against the clock?

No, we’ve specified 3+ hours as a guideline for completing each Drill in our catalog. This does not include time spent researching a topic with our embedded reference links, or planning your best problem-solving strategy for a given challenge. You’re not working against the clock or trying to complete challenges in a given timeframe. We all learn at our own pace and the outcome is what really matters.

What is Safari?

Safari Books Online is an online library of technical books from noted publishers such as O'Reilly Media, Peachpit Press, Microsoft Press, Que, Sams, and Addison-Wesley.

Is Safari included with my purchase?

Yes, Safari Books Online is bundled with every Drill you purchase from InnerWorkings. You receive a personal Safari bookshelf that contains up to 3 online books from the Safari library. We hand-pick the associated Safari books to match the learning objectives covered in each Drill. You’ll enjoy a liberal sprinkling of Safari links to relevant reference material from renowned authors.

Do I need Visual Studio?

Yes, you will need a working version of Visual Studio installed to complete any InnerWorkings coding challenge. We support all the following versions of Visual Studio, but always check the Drill Descriptions page to confirm that your version of Visual Studio is supported:

  • Visual Studio 2008 (Professional, Standard, Team System, or Express)
  • Visual Studio 2005 (Professional, Standard, Team System, or Express)
  • Visual Studio 2003 (Professional or Standard)

Will I need to install anything else?

You might, depending on the Drills you decide to purchase. For example, if you buy our AJAX Drills, you must have Microsoft ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 installed. Similarly, if you buy our WPF Drills, you need to have Extensions for .NET Framework 3.0 (WCF & WPF) installed. Microsoft offers most additional bits for free and they’re pretty fast to install, so it’s no big deal.

SQL Server is required for some of our Drills that include coding challenges with a database or data access component. We support all the main releases of SQL Server 2005, including the free SQL Server 2005 Express edition where applicable.

What programming languages do you support?

All our coding challenges are available in both Visual Basic and Visual C#. Due to popular demand, we usually release our C# Drills first, followed shortly thereafter by Visual Basic versions.

What technologies do you cover?

Well, the list is long and getter longer – in effect, we cover all the main .NET technologies. Our policy is to stay in lock-step with Microsoft’s endless stream of Visual Studio and .NET Framework releases, so check our catalog early and often to see the latest Drill releases on new technologies.

How do I find your newest Drills?

It’s easy – we keep a dynamic list of new releases on the catalog page of our website. Only the 4 most recent Drills released by InnerWorkings will appear in this list at any given time. If you’re waiting for the latest Visual Studio 2008 or .NET 3.5 challenges, this is the best place to look.

Why learn by doing?

Because it’s a highly effective and enjoyable way to pick up new skills and improve your on-the-job performance. Plus, the benefits are long-lasting. For one, you’ll recall techniques you actively used far longer than those you simply read about. For two, since we’re always with you in Visual Studio, you’ll have all your hard-won knowledge at your fingertips for future reference. Check out our Product Tour for more details on the product and learning methodology.

Do I jump right into a project without any guidance?

No. To put you in the right track, you receive a detailed description of the required solution, all the reference material you need, and, most importantly, a powerful code checking engine that automatically examines your solution.

Am I learning or being tested?

You’re 100% learning. It’s your code that’s being tested. Stringently. This way, you’ll discover how well you’re picking up new techniques, and receive the detailed feedback that everyone needs to improve. With InnerWorkings, you don’t require grades from anybody to measure your progress. You’re in total control of your own learning.

Do you have a difficulty rating for Drills?

We do offer developers a difficulty rating system. Each Drill is allocated a rating that indicates the technical level of the topics covered. Our overall rating scheme has the following 3 levels:

Level 1 Suitable for beginners and above. This level addresses introductory programming concepts.
Level 2 Suitable for programmers with basic (or higher) programming skills. This level develops essential skills and experience in the basic programming framework.
Level 3 Suitable for programmers with intermediate (or higher) programming skills. This level explores more advanced topics, or probes more deeply into level 2 frameworks.

What’s your privacy policy?

InnerWorkings respects your privacy and takes it very seriously. In fact, we view your right to privacy as one of the company’s most important priorities. Our full, legally verified privacy policy is available for review at any time, so we encourage you to take a closer look.

Do you have a money-back guarantee?

Yes, we offer a 30 day money back guarantee if you’re not completely satisfied with your purchase. Simply contact us within 30 days and we will refund your money in full or give you equivalent credit towards our other learning challenges.

I can’t find what I’m looking for…

That’s not a question! You can simply contact us with your query or any request for .NET learning content and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible. Happy coding.