What Makes Good C++ Programmers: A Continuous Search For C++ Teaching Recipes
summary
Twenty years of course tweaks yield concrete choices: mandatory C++ because industry demand, a two‑course sequence split into practical labs and an advanced elective, live coding with deliberate bugs to teach debugging and compiler‑message reading, homework projects (a Thunderbirds puzzle game) graded with code reviews and point deductions, paired submissions checked by TAs, and a shift from coding exams that produced 40 failures to a reading‑code exam that raises averages. Curriculum ties to ISO SG20 and slides live on the linked GitHub.
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chapters (7)
- 0:00Introduction to teaching C++
- 7:21Why teach C++ today
- 21:59Challenges in teaching C++
- 34:20Class lab exercises approach
- 41:47Homework exercises and feedback
- 48:10Exam structure and insights
- 55:42Conclusions and teaching tips
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