Learning C++ Programming

Rihana · Jan 23, 2025

Competitive programming that focus only on coding are a great fit for students who are very passionate about it - those who love spending hours learning, exploring, and finding better ways to solve problems. However, it takes a lot of time and effort, and reaching higher levels in any purely coding competition is extremely difficult. The time involved is like 12-15 hours in regular weeks, and longer in school vacations.

With the rise of AI and the uncertain future for traditional coding roles, I would suggest she focuses on competitions that are about more than just coding. Competitions that include a meaningful cause, AI, real-world applications, and a clear structure can be a better choice. These kinds of challenges not only let students solve important problems but also give them room to be creative and use their imagination. Most of these are virtual.

Many of these competitions also provide a guide for parents or mentors. These guides help parents support their child’s learning without needing to know programming themselves, making it easier to be involved.

These are a few such competitions that are about more than just coding:
Imagine Cup - Student Developer Tools, Resources and Experiences | Imagine Cup
Technovation Girls: Technology and Entrepreneurship for Girls

lavani · Jan 23, 2025

I agree with what rihana mentioned.

last 2 cents. Main Question i feel is WHY. please retrospect that.

if you are aiming to get some job or money out of it. that is wrong motivation for a 14 yr. you do not learn Chess or Bharatnatyam or Classical music to get a job out of it. Since it is too early . In that case, she should code for fun. may be make a music player. Game programming. random things but complete projects.

if you are focused on becoming or getting a name for yourself. EGO is not the right word, but i could not find any similar. but it is huge deal in becoming top score in those online compete forums. GO FOR IT. it is a huge deal. I would not worry about AI .

Rihana · Jan 24, 2025

For activities like chess, Bharatanatyam, or classical music, children are enrolled in structured classes, and parents monitor their progress. For chess, they follow a curriculum, learning strategies, practicing openings, and analyzing games. In Bharatanatyam, they learn foundational postures, traditional sequences, and expressive movements step by step. They don't learn these skills by experimenting randomly but through guided instruction. Likewise, for any academic activity, the student needs structure and guidance, and the parent provides this.

If you suggest that a child should code for "fun", work on random projects like a music player, game programming, and do "random but complete projects", then let's apply that "for fun" and "random complete projects" approach to chess, Bharatnatyam and classical music. No need for structured classes, the child should independently explore and experiment with these activities for fun on their own. Can they?

lavani · Jan 24, 2025

Rihana said: ↑

For activities like chess, Bharatanatyam, or classical music, children are enrolled in structured classes, and parents monitor their progress. For chess, they follow a curriculum, learning strategies, practicing openings, and analyzing games. In Bharatanatyam, they learn foundational postures, traditional sequences, and expressive movements step by step. They don't learn these skills by experimenting randomly but through guided instruction. Likewise, for any academic activity, the student needs structure and guidance, and the parent provides this.

If you suggest that a child should code for "fun", work on random projects like a music player, game programming, and do "random but complete projects", then let's apply that "for fun" and "random complete projects" approach to chess, Bharatnatyam and classical music. No need for structured classes, the child should independently explore and experiment with these activities for fun on their own. Can they?
Click to expand...

my point is just focusing on why aspect of it. those were just examples.

this will become very opinionated and might divert the thread . i prefer cs learning by building and breaking. this is how i have learned over and over, till today. in college when i started 1998, where there want no internet in india and just limited time on computer too. my friends and i got 2d game dev book and we did make bricks. it was a really messy but fun affair.

now with the power of chatgpt . i do not have to say anymore. it is literally a tutor sitting next to me.

nayidulhan · Jan 24, 2025

@lavani, @Rihana, thank you very much for your replies.

@lavani , thanks for reminding me about tutorial hell. I think we would have gotten into it, if not for this helpful nudge from you. We are not exactly looking at CP as a career path for my child, at this point. This exercise is solely to support her interest in acquiring higher skills in programming and/or to support her college application process, if possible.

@Rihana, thank you so much for sharing all the info and the links there. I think my child will love to explore them. We will check them out later today when she's back home.

@lavani, @Rihana, Coding/ AI/ Robotics/ IOT et al fascinate my child. We are following on social media a few top voices in these domains- like Allie K. Miller - and our exploration made us think that computational and critical thinking are the prerequisites to understand the working of all these and also to gain proficiency eventually.

Also, at some point, google led us to competitive programming. Since competitive programming leans heavily on algorithmic thinking and also because C++ is the required language there, we thought we should club the 2 for her and so this thread on learning C++. I see this line of thinking may seem sloppy now on hindsight but then I am mostly winging it all!

However, thanks to your explanation here @Rihana , I think she should continue with Python and Java and take up C++ some time later, if she really wants to. For now, I think my child could confine her learning of algorithmic thinking, if she's really interested then, to algorithms, data structures, etc. And for that a structured course syllabus used by students preparing for the Indian Zonal Informatics Olympiad- ZIO (https://www.iarcs.org.in/inoi/online-study-material/topics/) should be good enough. She can jump off if or whenever she thinks she's had enough!

Please keep her other interests (AI, IOT, Robotics, et al) in mind and please let me know if you stumble upon any resources for her. Thanks in anticipation, dear @Rihana.

hrastro · Jan 31, 2025

nayidulhan said: ↑

Hi @hrastro! How have you been?
Do you have any idea about competitive programming? And C++ programming? I request you to kindly take time out of your schedule to write to me about what you know/ think.
Click to expand...

Hi @nayidulhan
I was trying to ask details from my son, so I took some time !

He suggested the following books
C++ Programming Language by Bjarne Stroustrup (For language)
(He stressed on this book as it is written by the creator of C++)
The Art of Computer Programming by Donald E Knuth (For algorithms)
Competitive Programming Handbook by Antti Laaksonen (Competitive programming obviously)

When I started learning C, C++ etc, there was no internet ! I loved solving Jumbled words and crosswords as Sudoku had not entered the scene. So one of first programs I really wanted to create and felt a sense of accomplishment was a simple jumble solver program - If I could input a string of alphabets, it would throw out all possible combinations of all sizes of words!

Coding is more interesting to students if it can be used to solve problems - so if you give her some specific problems to solve, she will learn so much more! Otherwise it is easy to find a 'ready' program for every requirement and they would just copy paste it and not learn enough!

Hope this helps
HR

nayidulhan · Feb 3, 2025

Thanks a lot for your reply, dear @hrastro! My sincere thanks to your son too for his suggestions.

hrastro said: ↑

So one of first programs I really wanted to create and felt a sense of accomplishment was a simple jumble solver program - If I could input a string of alphabets, it would throw out all possible combinations of all sizes of words!
Click to expand...

Thank you for this specific example. I will let my daughter know about this. It is a timeless problem statement and every rookie coder will love to work on it. And the fact that she's hooked to Wordle will def help.

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Learning C++ Programming

Rihana Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

lavani Platinum IL'ite

Rihana Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

lavani Platinum IL'ite

nayidulhan Silver IL'ite

hrastro Platinum IL'ite

nayidulhan Silver IL'ite

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