This "skills-centric" course is about 50% hands-on lab and 50% lecture, designed to train attendees in basic coding with C++, coupling the most current, effective techniques with the soundest industry practices. Our engaging instructors and mentors are highly experienced practitioners who bring years of current "on-the-job" experience into every classroom.  

Working in a hands-on learning environment, guided by our expert team, attendees will learn: 

• Learn about basic computer architecture (memory, CPU, IO) 
• Gain basic knowledge of the C++ programming language, features and functions in today's development initiatives 
• Gain hands-on practice using C++ basic syntax and functions to build basic software applications 
• Learn about Object Oriented development and best practices 
• Learn and apply core development functions such as dynamic memory, inheritance, value type / reference types, exceptions and more 
• Get a light introduction to the C++ Standard Library 
• Gain skills required to exit the course with a foundation in basic programming skills and C++ knowledge to carry forward to additional study and practice. 

Although this course is geared for non-developers, it is helpful for attendees to have a somewhat technical background and to be comfortable working with computers, having the ultimate goal of becoming a C++ software developer.   

Attendees might include: 

• Technically-oriented attendees who want or who want to begin the process of becoming an OO application developer 
• Technical team members from non-development roles, re-skilling to move into software and application development roles within an organization 
• Recent college graduates looking to apply their college experience to programming skills in a professional environment, or perhaps needing to learn the best practices and standards for programming within their new organization 

Please note that this list of topics is based on our standard course offering, evolved from typical industry uses and trends. We will work with you to tune this course and level of coverage to target the skills you need most. Course agenda, topics and labs are subject to adjust during live delivery in response to student skill level, interests and participation.  

Getting Started with Computer Programming Basics 

Getting Started 

• Overview of computing 
• Understanding data types 

Programming Tools 

• Overview of tools used in C++ programming 
• Explain why we use various tools when programing 

Programming Basics 

• C++ Syntax fundamentals 
• Basic program elements 
• Primitive data types in C++ 
• Literal types and variables 
• Auto variables 
• C++ Source files - headers, compile units 
• Program flow 
• If/else 
• Loops 
• Intro Functions 

Data Structures  

• Structures  
• Arrays 

Functions 

• Return types 
• Parameters 
• Calling functions 
• Overloaded functions 

Pointers & Memory 

• Understanding pointers 
• Taking an address 
• Dereferencing pointers 
• Pointer operations 
• Pass by Value/Passing pointers 
• Default argument values 
• Inline functions 

Namespaces 

• Overview 
• The problem 
• Defining a namespace 
• Using a namespace 
• Aliases 
• Nested Namespaces in C++ 20 

Strings 

• Overview 
• Using strings 
• String methods 
• String operators 
• Strings and char* 

Input and Output 

• Overview 
• ostream and istream 
• Reading and writing to the console 
• Reading and writing files 
• Manipulators 

Getting Started with OO / Object-Orientation 

Intro Object-Oriented Features  

• Overview of O-O concepts 
• Defining a class in C++ 
• Encapsulation 
• Class members 
• Member functions 
• Class organization 
• Inline 
• Friends 
• this 
• Class vs type 

Dynamic Memory 

• Memory concepts 
• References 
• Passing by value or reference 
• new 
• delete 
• Construction/Destruction 
• Initializer lists 
• Copy constructor 
• const & constexpr 

A Practical Example 

• Planning an application 
• Defining an algorithm 
• Implementing a solution 

Templates 

• Overview 
• Using function templates 
• Using class templates 

Inheritance 

• Base Classes 
• Derived Classes 
• Overriding members 
• Abstract members and classes 

Exceptions 

• Throwing 
• Catching 
• Defining custom exceptions 

Survey of C++ library components 

Intro C++ Standard Library 

• I/O classes 
• Collections 
• Utility